@RogerRoger I want to drop a miniature post about Fallen Order before it gets too foggy in my memory, and perhaps do a more fleshed out review later on if I get an urge.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I thought it worked incredibly well as a Star Wars property. The characters, the settings, the look and feel of the world, and the overall story all seemed to fit within the SW Universe. I really liked Cal, actually , and of course adored BD-1. Greez was great, Cere was pretty good, and the major antagonists were all appropriately interesting in their own right. The locales were beautiful, and the routine enemies — animal, robotic, and human — were mostly enjoyable to see and fight and varied enough to keep from being mundane.
The combat was really, really good. I am not a Soulsborne fanatic, and in fact am pretty novice at the genre, but I loved Bloodborne and I found Fallen Order’s style of combat and difficulty right on the nose. I played on normal (“Jedi” difficulty I think they call it) and didn’t have to change the difficulty even once. I struggled mostly with Malicos, where I did come close to dialing it down to easy mode, but I persevered and after about 10 tries, I bested him.
The final boss wasn’t actually as hard I thought and I only died there like 3 times. I nearly squealed with delight and simultaneously pooped my pants when I heard the mechanical breathing at the end of the Trilla fight and Darth Vader emerged. What a rush! I actually died once at his hands when he surprise attacks later and you have to mash the button to escape him. I was just smiling ear to ear and didn’t concentrate hard enough to complete the QTE.
The ending I felt was really good. I like the closing scene and the way Cal destroyed the holocron because he didn’t trust either side to use the information appropriately. I felt the ending had a lot of weight to it and it was a powerful conclusion.
Overall, the story was really solid, the gameplay was fun and the only complaints I have revolve around the well documented lack of polish at some points (graphical glitches and for example things like the laziness of having the animation of opening an underwater chest the same as on land — BD-1 doesn’t even jump into the chest, but the chest jumbles around in the same animation), technical shortcomings (man, those loading times), and the backtracking and labyrinthine maps. But I will say, that this game shows that a Souls-like combat system can be done and work with difficulty settings and more frequent checkpoints. Really appreciated that.
@Th3solution Thanks for writing this up! Had been curious about your conclusions for a long while, and I'm really pleased to see you land in mostly positive, if not glowing, territory.
During my first playthrough, it was the duel with Malicos when things stopped being fun, and the Jedi Knight difficulty became a real headache for me. I beat him on it, though, like you after about ten attempts, maybe even a dozen. With that memory fresh, it was my third or fourth death against Trilla when I just growled "the hell with this" and lowered the setting. With such similar experiences, therefore, I can only congratulate you on your perseverance, and for keeping your cool at the eleventh hour.
And I'm very pleased to hear that you managed to remain spoiler-free with regards Darth Vader's surprise cameo, as EA started dropping trailers which included him a couple weeks after the game's launch (including one which played in cinemas, right before The Rise of Skywalker). I'm not really a fan of reaction videos on YouTube, but I did watch a compilation of streamers and fans going bananas over that reveal when it popped up as a recommended video one time, and it made me smile. Given how Vader was humiliated as a disposable boss in both The Force Unleashed games, returning him to übermensch status was a thrilling touch. Along with Rogue One, this made him terrifying again; one thing Disney's gotten right.
Fully agreed on the ending, too. Some called it a tad cheesy, but I think it's the perfect way of concluding the established tale, whilst leaving the door open for sequels (which we now know to be in the pipeline). I agreed with it, agreed with Cal, and now I can't wait to see what'll happen next.
But yes, with any luck, Respawn will be given a bit more time, and be trusted a bit more, to deliver said sequel because there's no escaping the fact that Jedi: Fallen Order is a rushed product. The underwater chest thing is something I'd kinda gone "hmm, okay" at when I saw it, but we're approaching the dawn of a new console age, so hopefully all those teraflops (whatever they are) will be able to support some swimming animations for BD-1 at the very least.
In fact, the only aspect I think we ever-so-slightly disagree on is the backtracking, which you didn't seem to enjoy as much as I did. Were I a betting man, I'd reckon that oft-mentioned "signal the Mantis for pick-up" idea being included in the next game would be worth a tenner. There if you want it as an option, perhaps, as a prompt at the conclusion of certain story beats or something. Best of both worlds.
Excellent stuff, thanks again. Did you try the Photo Mode at all, I wonder?
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Thanks and yes, I utilized photo mode in much the same way that I have used it in other games, that is - I took a lot of pictures at first and then got so immersed in the game I mostly forgot to take photos until a few toward the end.
But I will make a public confession, may the gaming society and our gods forgive me —
I actually used photo mode quite a bit as a cheat. 😔 It’s an awesome way to pause the action and rotate the camera, pull the camera far away, survey the land far ahead and around the corner, take a peek down a path and see if a trooper is there waiting, or more commonly — manipulate the camera to see where some of the hidden or secondary paths are to get to a secret force echo or chest. It was quite handy at surveying the land when I was stuck at where to go, or how far a drop was, etc.
But yes, I did occasionally use it for what it was intended to do, capture a screenshot at the perfect angle. Maybe I’ll look over my PS4 folder and see if anything looks worthy to share.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Lemme guess, there was a chest in that lake on Bogano that you couldn’t see without photo mode. I may have used it myself trying to get the platinum 😂😂
@Th3solution Um... doesn't everybody use Photo Mode to take a sneaky peek?
I first did it during The Order: 1886 to locate guards I was supposed to stealth between. Granted, I won't really lean on it unless I feel the need, but Jedi: Fallen Order boasts a surprisingly free Photo Mode which has no issue clipping through walls, something most others won't do. With such a tool at your disposal, I don't think anybody could blame you, not least for navigation purposes in places like those twisting, claustrophobic tunnels on Dathomir.
Regardless of your unnecessary guilt, I hope you're happy with the shots you took. No pressure, but I'd love to see them if you're able to share them!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Arugula@nessisonett Are you guys playing this on pro? IIRC nessi has a pro and arugula has a slim... Will probably wait until PS5 to play it, hopefully the extra POWAH will help sort out these technical issues.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder Yep, with my Pro it was marginally better than what I’ve seen from the OG PS4 but there were loads of dropped frames, a couple of hard crashes and general jank.
@Th3solution I haven't played this much, but am considering going back to it. You say the gameplay reminds you of Soulsborne on Normal difficulty and is right on the nose. Is the AI quite intelligent then? It compares favorably to Bloodborne in terms of tense encounters and risk/reward strategy?
"Man is the pie that bakes and eats himself, and the recipe is separation." - Alasdair Gray
@Draco_V_Ecliptic It certainly seems like the combat is Souls inspired. But on normal difficulty I didn’t struggle nearly as much as I did in Bloodborne. The AI is fair, some enemies are more predictable than others. The bosses are where the difficulty seems to spike, but the most difficult Fallen Order boss was probably just an average Bloodborne boss. The tension wasn’t as high as Bloodborne because the story has some lighthearted parts and it’s just not a horror game so I wasn’t feeling as much tension. But yes, the risk/reward strategy is all there — “Shall I push forward in hopes of getting to the next bonfire/lamp/meditation point even though I have no health items left, or should I backtrack to the nearest one and bank my souls/echoes/XP, knowing I’ll have to fight all these enemies again because they’ll respawn...” as well as: “Shall I take an aggressive strategy in the fight to try to get it over quicker even though I expose my myself for attacks, or should I be defensive and try to parry attacks and wait for an opening ...”
If you enjoy the core Soulsborne gameplay loop, try Fallen Order again. The setting is very different of course, but the mechanics are similar.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I had some clipping and frame rate issues, lip sync issues, and some muddy looking textures, but it was just rare enough to not ruin the game for me. Only one of the worlds was a bad offender. I don’t remember having a full on crash. I’m on a base launch PS4.
Yeah, aside from texture pop-in on a particular planet and one four-second freeze whilst the game loaded in the next area, I never had any problems at launch, and haven't since. I am playing on PS4 Pro, though. With any luck, it'll run like a dream on next-gen consoles; seems like it's pot luck for folks at the moment.
I'm a bit jealous, if I'm honest. I love a good comedy glitch!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@nessisonett I just started it today for a second time, I've got the deluxe edition and hope to complete it this time around - all technical bugs have been promised to have been fixed. Is it a hard platinum to get? Can you do it in one playthrough?
@Draco_V_Ecliptic The platinum can be done in one playthrough as you basically just need to get every collectible and do a few things like grow every plant in your terrarium. It’s not difficult but a wee bit annoying when there are just a few collectibles left to get. It’s a solid game.
@JohnnyShoulder Just completed it last month on a pro. I didn't really notice any technical issues at all. Just the crappy lock on system. And the infuriating maps. Oh boy, those drove me nuts.
Forums
Topic: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Posts 141 to 160 of 242
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.