Topic: Games you've recently beat

I know Ubisoft cookie-cutters get a lot of hate… but when I’m in the mood for a bit of open-world tick-boxery I actually enjoy them. It’s funny, I just played my first Lego game (Lego Lord of the Rings) and I found the 100% check-listing of that far more egregious… but Travellers Tales seem to receive a decent critical and gamer reaction regardless. It takes all-sorts… and wouldn’t be the first time my tastes are in the firm minority on a subject.

@colonelkilgore It’s possible to enjoy those sorts of games as comfort food while recognising their flaws though. I’ve played a hell of a lot of Lego games and I get why they’re offputting to some but I find them therapeutic. Same with Ubisoft checklist games, which I can slowly slog through like a big bar of chocolate. You can turn your brain off. Where I stumble is when a game tries to act like it’s high brow but the gameplay is deeply rooted in familiar schlock. Really wish games like Horizon would focus on the individual fights with the big robots, like the opening hour of Forbidden West, which is by and large the pinnacle of that series. They go too wide, focusing on a massive world with loads of random crap to find instead of having a smaller map with more interesting landmarks.

@nessisonett That's a really good point about "Horizon FW". It peaked about 39 hours too soon.

@nessisonett yeah I agree with a lot of that in fairness.

Which is one of the reasons why Elden Ring felt so refreshing to play, it kind of went against that. And it was all the better for it!

So I just beat Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. My very first piece of Star Wars media!

The game has its flaws. Exploration is really hit or miss. The ‘echoes’ were great, but whenever I saw a chest I would just groan audibly as it’s always just cosmetics. In a sense I do respect that, as given it’s an EA game I would’ve expected it to be a mtx, but it’s kind of pointless. Anything other than changing the colour of your lightsaber or Cal’s top is not noticeable.
The difficulty was just fine. The final boss took me a few goes & I ever only lost exp once for being careless.
My biggest issue was performance. Coming of GOW:R & it running flawlessly on my PS4Pro I was surprised by the amount of ‘shimmy through the wall sections’, load times & the game actually freezing for a few seconds when transitioning between certain areas.

Despite all that I really liked it. I’d probably give it a 7/10, but I can see lots of improvements that can be made pretty easily. Played this through EA play, but I reckon I might be in in for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Day 1.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Woah, how have you managed to avoid any Star Wars content for this long!

@nessisonett Just completely missed it. I was born in ‘92 & had no adults around me that would’ve introduced me to it.
Same with Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit. My only reference point for that is Shadow of Mordor, which I played because the Nemesis system. I just ended up falling into the Harry Potter camp.

I would like to read the LoR books one day, but think that at this point Star Wars has passed me (unless there’s a remake of the original trilogy).

It’s actually a good testament to the storytelling in Fallen Order. I knew bits of course, but it’s a good entry point for a total Star Wars noob lol.

@nessisonett I think The Yakuza games do a good job making a small world interesting to explore. There’s lots of fun diversions and side content, but the game world itself is pretty tiny compared to most other games. You can cross the map in a couple of minutes.

@Fight_Teza_Fight I’m similar in that I was born while the prequels were being released and my mum hates Star Wars. Still, with the originals being shown on ITV every so often, I must have caught them at some point and then I was hooked!

@Fight_Teza_Fight In terms of an introduction to Star Wars, you could've done far worse than Jedi: Fallen Order, trust me! Am glad you found it a good entry point, and that you enjoyed it enough to be excited about the sequel (which looks brilliant). Nicely done!

@RogerRoger Is Fallen Order as difficult as some have made it out to be? I was always interested in playing it, even buying it when it was really cheap for my Xbox at one point, but never played it because some said it was almost like playing a Souls game at times and I am in the minority that hates those kind of games (I get too frustrated).

Random, I know, but it popped in my head while reading this discussion.

@KilloWertz It can be if you want it to be, and it handed me my butt during my first playthrough when I foolishly attempted to play it on its default difficulty setting. Mercifully, it has an easier mode, which is just challenging enough to keep you awake; you can't button-mash your way to victory, but you'll always have the upper hand in combat. The platinum trophy isn't difficulty-dependent, either, which is nice.

@KilloWertz Like Rog says, Fallen Order has difficulty options, so it’s a decent Souls-like for beginners. It has the labyrinthine 3D Metroidvania layout like the Souls games but it actually has a map to reference, even though reading the map is one of the more frustrating parts of the game for a lot of players. But the style of combat and resting and leveling up at respawn points is Souls-inspired. It has a more traditional storytelling aspect than the FromSoft games as well, which also make it more approachable for the casual crowd. It’s similar to Kena Bridge of Spirits in the sense that you should feel no shame to just lower the difficulty and it will probably be a nice balance with low frustration for you. If my memory serves, the easy mode is maybe a tad harder than Kena’s easy mode. But I think you’ll enjoy it if you have any interest whatsoever in the Star Wars Universe

@RogerRoger @Th3solution Thanks for the input from both of you. I will likely check it out at some point then like I had originally planned before I read about the Souls comparisons, and just play it on Easy for enjoyment purposes. I'll never be a part of the "git gud" club.

As for my interest in Star Wars, it was pretty high up until Disney got their hands on it (even if I did enjoy the new trilogy for the most part along with Mando). So, I'd obviously not object to a good and fun Star Wars game.

@KilloWertz I'm also one of the people who doesn't enjoy Souls games because of the frustration. I can guarantee you Jedi Fallen Order isn't that hard on easy. So i'll think you might enjoy it too/

If it gets the @Lavalera guarantee, it must be good. Seriously though, thanks for being another recommendation. It'll probably be a while before I ever actually play it given how crowded the release schedule is, but I'll definitely play it.

@KilloWertz Just to reiterate what others have said compared to other Soulsborne games, "Fallen Order" pretty much plays itself on easy mode. Also, check out "Andor" - it's the best Disney "Star Wars" by a country mile and some of the best full stop.

@LN78 Coincidently, I just started Andor recently. I've only watched one episode so far, as I'm taking it slow and only watching one a week. I usually do that with streaming shows since their seasons are shorter.

@KilloWertz If you look over in the dedicated "Star Wars" topic you'll see a discussion about the release strategy of "Andor" and how it definitely benefits from being watched in 3 episode "arcs" - but proceed at your own pace, of course. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.