Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

[ricky1981]

Picked this up not expecting too much but it's surprisingly good with some serious Dark Souls influence (bonfire, respawning enemies, exploration). The first section feels very Uncharted-esque but with lightsabers (you get one very early so not really a spoiler).

Odd that the review embargo was in place as it ought to review pretty well if the rest of the game is as good as the first couple of hours.

 

[ricky1981]

If you're not enjoying it at that point then I'd sell it on, I'm 10-12 hours in and the gameplay doesn't change much (you get new force abilities but the essential loop is the same).

Can recommend Death Stranding, it's weird, pretentious, repetitive but something I think everyone should try despite those things!

 

[ricky1981]

The best bits of combat are taking out low-mid level stormtroopers, deflecting laser bolts, force pushing them off ledges, etc.

Sadly, the more powerful enemies are less fun, the combat tries to be like Dark Souls but it's not really close to that level as you get further in. Fighting groups of melee enemies becomes a slightly frustrating mess, fighting the camera and dealing with multiple unblockable attacks.

The puzzle elements are fairly well done, the Star Wars atmosphere is great despite the graphics varying from great (opening section) to rough (the wookie models are pretty bad) and performance is surprisingly jerky on my XB1X.

I think it's worth picking up still if you like/love Star Wars but probably feel now that most reviews might be a bit on the generous side.

 

[ricky1981]

I've turned the difficulty down from jedi master and started to enjoy it a lot more now.

I'd second that, the combat mechanics just aren't good enough in my view for the harder difficulty to feel fun or rewarding (I say that as someone who has completed all of the DS/BB games).

 

[ricky1981]

I'm 15 or so hours in and the game could really use fast travel between the meditation points, you get shortcuts in this game but there is still an inordinate amount of back-tracking because you can only ever start a level from the landing pad.

At the moment, my fix is to put the difficulty to easiest and enjoy being an OP jedi until I get to the place I need to be.

 

[ricky1981]

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or Shadow of the Tomb Raider?

Probably Shadow of the Tomb Raider but it's the worst of the trilogy sadly.

 

[ricky1981]

I gave up, watched the cutscenes to see how the story played out as the actual gameplay just got too dull by the end.

 

[ricky1981]

Haha yep I got sick of that too, one-way slides followed by a tedious backtrack because the only thing at the end was a chest with a poncho skin.

 

[ricky1981]

It's a pretty poorly optimised game though, even on XB1X it can feel uneven and it's not really a looker much of the time.