Jedi: Fallen Order

[Mourne]

Wasn't sure where to post this, so my apologies if it's misplaced, but I wanted to provide some info on this game for anyone who hasn't played it yet.

I'll preface this by saying that I am NOT a fan of EA. I'm therefore very judicious about how I choose to support them (i.e. give them money). After reading and watching a lot of positive reviews, I decided to give this game a try. I did not regret that decision.

Bottom line: It was VERY good. It's the first time since KOTOR that I felt like a game studio has successfully recaptured the essence of Star Wars in a video game. It had some great acting, a compelling story, and some epic (cut) scenes and battles. There were very few bugs (I think I only encountered two the entire game, and they were graphical in nature toward the end of the game). The combat flowed well, and I really enjoyed some of the platforming challenges and puzzles. The entire game was designed in collaboration with LucasArts (Disney), so it doesn't retcon anything or conflict with any canon and offers a great introspective look at the aftermath of the Jedi purge following episode VI.

In summary, I highly recommend this game to anyone who loved KOTOR and is interested in experiencing a more modern and improved version of that. And even for a lover of the Empire such as myself, the Jedi really shined in this one.

[blingdenston]

I liked this game too! It doesn't have the character-defining choices of your KOTOR, but the Dark Souls/Metroid design does evoke, to a certain extent, Jedi Academy's mission-choice structure and power-accumulation. Feels kinda like the canceled 1313 game mixed with Bloodborne/Sekiro-type dodge-and-parry combat.

[Orell]

While the game is a bit... well, it ain't exactly hiding the influences, between the Metroidvania exploration, Dark Souls combat, Uncharted adventure setpieces... yeah, it really does feel a lot like a mash-up of everything popular modern games...

...but the story really is what got me. It's honestly a bit shocking that (unless it gets a lot of focus in Rebels) it's taken us this long to really get a Star Wars story dealing with the whole "holy shit, yeah, the Jedi Purges would've been traumatic as all fuck for the Jedi that managed to survive it.

Spoiler: show

Basically every major character aside from the comic relief pilot, including a pair of villains, are utterly traumatized by what happened to them during the Jedi Purge (or a eerily similar other event). The flashbacks in particular really hit hard.

If you do play it, don't be afraid to play it on an easier difficulty, though. Playing it on harder difficulties can get really frustrating on harder difficulties, and the game doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of "super hard but in an entirely fair way" difficulty that Dark Souls managed...

[Toasty McGrath]

My one criticism of Fallen Order is that thematically it really wasn't Jedi-centered, which is really what all of us wanted. Instead, we follow the trail of the ancient Zeffo civilization, which just seemed unnecessary. We wanted to delve deep into the history of the Jedi, not some new alien species.