Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Previews

GotGame wrote some of the things they have learned about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Meanwhile The Punished Backlog wrote that the game looks a bit bland.

This is Definitely a Respawn Entertainment Game



While the platforming elements take cues from Uncharted and Star Wars: 1313, there is still one distinctive difference. Respawn Entertainment being the developers, it comes as no surprise, but the wall running mechanic from their Titanfall series is used in full force in Fallen Order. From time to time, deep chasms will need to be traversed by having Cal run along a wall quickly. Sometimes, puzzles will even require the player to create a wall to run on. Even when Cal pilots an AT-AT early on, it shares a lot of similarities to piloting a Titan in Titanfall. Of course, there's nothing wrong with this, and it's good to see Respawn's own staples stick to this licensed title.

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A Dynamic World… or is it?

As Cal made his way further into the facility, I began to key in on another thing that constantly bugged me throughout the demo: the scripted feel of the the world. At 3:48, right before the stormtroopers start their leisurely jog, they are slow to react to Cal's presence. Later, at 7:15, a stormtrooper stays perfectly still atop a perched piece of terrain; the second Cal enters the environment, a pair of spider-like enemies "suddenly" appear, causing the guard and his fellow troopers to start moving into action.

We've come so far in the realm of believable scenarios in games. Uncharted, despite its linearity, makes the player feel like they are part of a perfectly paced movie. Tomb Raider, likewise, gives a sense of life to its semi-open environments, with wildlife that act on its own and guards that patrol areas of their own accord. Fallen Order, in contrast, feels like we've taken a time machine back to the PlayStation 2 era, when a lack of dynamism was a result of limited hardware resources -- and certainly not a lack of creativity. It's disappointing to see, especially from the people that brought us such wonderfully fresh feeling worlds in Titanfall and Apex: Legends.

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Thanks Farflame!

More information.

That preview at ‘Punished Backlog’ caused me significant eye-strain from all the eye-rolling as he over-analyzed the video looking for minutia to critique.

Then he lost all credibility when he said:
“as if they were pacing themselves for a 5K marathon.”

Look - if you are going to use an analogy, take a half second of research to ensure you don’t wind up sounding like a complete f-ing idiot.

The phrase "gaming journalism" is a gross exaggeration.

While I don't play these types of games, I did notice something that stood out. The Storm Troopers were like the bad guy actors in cheap Kung Fu movies. They just impotently milled around the Hero waiting their turn to get their ass kicked. Boring.

The Hero is merely funneled down a fancy corridor, led by the nose to every device or item, and stupid opponents fed to him for easy execution. I can see they attraction for 14-year-olds or dateless, beer-swilling frat boys.

I think that's to be expected. The Jedi are meant to be elite warriors, whereas the Storm Troopers are generic cannon fodder. The Troopers are used to fighting in line of battle, so a lone Jedi infiltrator in tight quarters who can deflect their blaster bolts and use force powers should be beyond their experience. It's a surprise factor, like facing special forces in an ambush situation. They should act a bit stunned and disorganized.

Originally Posted by Zephyr
While I don't play these types of games, I did notice something that stood out. The Storm Troopers were like the bad guy actors in cheap Kung Fu movies. They just impotently milled around the Hero waiting their turn to get their ass kicked. Boring.

The Hero is merely funneled down a fancy corridor, led by the nose to every device or item, and stupid opponents fed to him for easy execution. I can see they attraction for 14-year-olds or dateless, beer-swilling frat boys.

In the original Star Wars movie the Stormtroopers were not incompetent marksmen. They were under orders to let the rebels escape the Death Star so that they could be tracked back to their home base. Subsequent media has not picked up on this at all. In Empire Strikes Back the Stormtroopers were still a credible threat imo when you look at the battle of Hoth and Cloud City, but Return of the Jedi with the bloody Ewoks was where the Stormtrooper reputation went down the gurgler.

It looks fun, but it also looks like the sort of game that rushes you through detailed environments and set pieces, with no time to linger or breathe, and so will probably be over in about 10 hours. Unless the story is very memorable (something I doubt), it's not worth $60 for me.

Originally Posted by Silver
In the original Star Wars movie the Stormtroopers were not incompetent marksmen. They were under orders to let the rebels escape the Death Star so that they could be tracked back to their home base. Subsequent media has not picked up on this at all. In Empire Strikes Back the Stormtroopers were still a credible threat imo when you look at the battle of Hoth and Cloud City, but Return of the Jedi with the bloody Ewoks was where the Stormtrooper reputation went down the gurgler.

"Okay guys, let them shoot you, but make sure you miss them while you stand right in their line of fire." No soldiery in the history of ever has been that loyal/brainwashed.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
"Okay guys, let them shoot you, but make sure you miss them while you stand right in their line of fire." No soldiery in the history of ever has been that loyal/brainwashed.

You would think so but the soldiers of WW1 were instructed to march forward out of the trenches against machine gun fire. That was often the strategy and disserters were shot. Getting back to Star Wars I'm sure the Empire employed brutal tactics to keep the Stormtroopers in line.

One thing I noticed is that the stormtroopers were really oblivious - the "Hero" was standing in essentially plain sight, and they saw nothing until he leaped into their midst. This happend in almost every scene where they were subsequently chopped to bits - it just seemed a little too contrived. From what I recall of Jedi Knight, enemies spotted you quite quickly - sometime unfairly so, from 100s of meters! - unless you hid and would lay down a lot of fire as you tracked towards them (although it has been awhile since I played it). Hopefully they will make their enemies more …alert?

the second Cal enters the environment, a pair of spider-like enemies “suddenly” appear, causing the guard and his fellow troopers to start moving into action.

Which makes the game essential being a killing game.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Which makes the game essential being a killing game.

You should try Eastshade, Alrik. It's a game about painting landscapes, etc. Not being a smartass. I like the game, though maybe pick it up on sale..

Elsewhere I've said the trailer was disappointing (fastrun and Tomb Raider ripoff), but now this:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/star-wars-j…meplay-preview

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s lightsaber combat is as punishing as Dark Souls

And mention of dark souls means only one thing in my case. I'm not buying.

Tomorrow its released. Kinda looking forward, its so long since I played good SW game. I paid 15eur for Origin Premiere Access for month and pre-loaded already. Reasonable way to find out if its any good on release day, I would say.

My prediction:

65-75 Metacritic score.

A shorter and less challenging Souls clone with Star Wars flavor - and potentially a decent story.

I'm not a Souls fan, but if the game is Star Wars and it actually understands how to tell a story - then I might make an exception here.

I'm under the impression that it's a Metroidvania style action-adventure game.

I'm not sure what to expect beyond that, but I think it looks significantly better than the Force Unleashed or Battlefront games. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

What I've missed to do with Greedfall and Microsoft Game Pass, I'm now doing with Origin Access: Subscribe for a few bucks, play the game for 1-2 months, then cancel the pass.
Also I was able to try Vampyr "for free" which was in my backlog and I found out that it isn't a game for me.

Could it be that for guys like me who play each game for a limited time only the games-as-a-service-thing is quite an exploitable business model?

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Could it be that for guys like me who play each game for a limited time only the games-as-a-service-thing is quite an exploitable business model?

I think I am in the same boat as you. The only reason why I am playing Fallen Order is that its £15 via origin! I don't play single player games for long period of times or I rarely replay them, so this is excellent value for money, same as a movie ticket.

It is streamed.

Footage provided on this site showed issues of a player swinging in the air. It was thought to be a request made to the showcaser to paint the product in a certain way.

After watching streams, it is not the case. Swinging in the air is common, something up to three blows without hitting anything. Either it is an issue of perspective, hit boxes, controller vs K&M or whatever, as a result, combat is imprecise, inaccurate and thus inconsistent.

While this product has nothing in common with DS, comparisons are wildly expected.