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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – Challenging, But It Ain’t Dark Souls
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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – Challenging, But It Ain’t Dark Souls

by December 3, 2019
Overview
Highlights

A galaxy-spanning adventure awaits in STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order, a 3rd person action-adventure title from Respawn Entertainment. An abandoned Padawan must complete his training, develop new powerful Force abilities, and master the art of the lightsaber - all while staying one step ahead of the Empire.

Price

PC: SGD $69.90 for Standard Edition, SGD $89.90 for Deluxe Edition (Origin)
PS4: RM249 for Digital Standard Edition, RM299 for Digital Deluxe Edition (PS Store), RM219 Physical Standard Edition (Retail Store)

Positives

+ Simple yet entertaining combat system
+ All-new, original Star Wars story
+ Offers a good amount of challenge
+ The game requires you to think rather than play mindlessly
+ Can be enjoyed even if you’re not a Star Wars fan

Negatives

- Lack of side quests make the game feel hollow
- Minor glitches especially during cutscenes
- Blocked areas can be frustrating for completionists

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Value
7.5
Gameplay
8.0
Visuals
8.0
Replayability
5.0
Storyline
7.5
Bottom Line

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the best Star Wars games in recent times, but it could definitely do with more content.

7.2
Pokde Rating
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What’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order About?

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls

Taking place 5 years after the Great Jedi Purge, former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis is hiding from the Empire on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper. During an accident, Cal taps into the Force and uses his powers to save his friend Prauf. Unfortunately, the incident is recorded by an Imperial Probe Droid who relays the information to the Empire.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls

As part of Order 66 to purge the Jedi, the Empire sends two deadly Inquisitors known as the Second Sister and the Ninth Sister to pursue Cal. After they kill Prauf, Cal attempts to escape and is subsequently cornered by the Second Sister, only to be rescued by former Jedi Knight Cere Junda and pilot Greez Dritus in the latter’s ship, the Stinger Mantis.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls

With no choice in the matter, Cal goes on a quest to rebuild the fallen Order. To do so, he must uncover the secrets of his shattered past and complete his Jedi training while evading the Empire. His journey begins in Planet Bogano, where a mysterious vault holds a secret that can only be passed down to a true Jedi.

Gameplay Seems Oddly Familiar

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls

At its core, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an action-adventure game. You have free reign to move around and strike with your lightsaber. You will start to find similarities with other games in the genre like Sekiro and Assassin’s Creed rather quick. It also has role-playing game elements as you will need to level up to gain certain skills and parameter boosts.

For the most part, you will be progressing through the game by completing the main quests. The game doesn’t have any side quests to offer you. However, that doesn’t mean that you have no choice but to follow the main story. In fact, there are a bunch of secret areas and collectibles that can be found if you just take the time to explore. Just keep in mind that there may be puzzles that need to be solved first.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls
Wall-running is an ability you will unlock early in the game.

However, there are points in the map where you simply cannot proceed further, denoted by a red colour. It doesn’t mean that it’s out of your reach forever. It just means that you lack the ability needed to proceed. By proceeding through the main quests, Cal will regain memories of his past training, which will result in you unlocking the ability. This can be frustrating in early parts of the game as it can make you feel like you may have missed out on something important.

Like side quests, the collectibles will benefit you depending on what you find. It can result in an increase in force gauge, cosmetic items, or experience points. It can be worth the time to explore as the upgrades alone will make the game easier to deal with and far more interesting to play. Had they included side quests, this would have been a full-blown action RPG, but the lack of it makes the game feel a little hollow.

Awaken the Force

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Combat in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the most entertaining, yet challenging ones you can find around. The key here is to know when to dodge, defend, and attack. At first, it would be wiser to dodge rather than blindly defend to learn of enemy attack patterns but when you start to become familiar, it’s best to defend. If you time your defense well, you will get an opening to attack.

Blindly attacking isn’t the best option as you will find yourself open to attacks, especially when fighting multiple enemies. While force-based attacks are generally safer, it will use up your force gauge, so you have limited use there. As you progress through the game, you will learn of more ways to attack, so be sure to make full use of it as it can be a huge difference maker in winning.

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Some have claimed that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is basically Dark Souls Star Wars edition. While the game can be challenging and the style of combat may feel similar, I personally disagree. It’s much easier to parry and counter attacks in this game than in Dark Souls or Sekiro. Moreover, you have the choice of four difficulty options so you can play at your comfort level. It’s not easy, even at Jedi Knight (Normal) difficulty, but it’s not frustratingly hard unless you play the hardest difficulty.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls 26

You can unlock the double-bladed lightsaber ala Darth Maul early in the game. Click right here if you want to learn how to do just that.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - Challenging, But It Ain't Dark Souls 27

With every enemy subdued, you will gain experience points. After a certain amount of points, you will then level up and earn a skill point, which will be used for the skill tree to learn new skills and boost your parameters. The skill tree is divided into three sections; Force, Lightsaber, and Survival. Early in the game, you will be improving all three sections due to a growth limit. When you’ve unlocked more parts of the tree, you should focus on the ones that complement your playstyle.

It’s worth noting that if you were to die at any point in the game, you will lose your experience points that have not been converted to a skill point. You can recover it by attacking the same enemy that kills you at least once. However, if you were to die again without attacking that same enemy, it will be lost forever. This may seem a little unforgiving for some gamers but I personally feel that it adds another layer of challenge while giving gamers a chance to recover what is lost.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Verdict

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the best Star Wars games in recent times. There’s a good amount of challenge, you have an all-new storyline to enjoy, and combat is simple yet entertaining. My only real complaint is the lack of side quests, which would easily double the game’s playtime of 20 hours or so. There were minor glitches, such as audio and video not syncing at times but that can be easily fixed in a future update.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, it’s definitely worth getting but if you’re not, it still offers enough to be worth playing through unless you don’t like action-adventure games. With that, I award Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order with our Silver Pokdeward.

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About The Author
Aiman Maulana
Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. YouTuber, video editor, tech head, and a wizard of gaming. What's up? :)

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