this war is not over
Jan. 15th, 2021 11:50 pmSo only uh... more than a year after it came out, I've written up my thoughts on Jedi Fallen Order! Including basically writing up its entire story so you don't have to play it or uh, try to navigate through YouTube videos.
Jedi Fallen Order is my favorite Star Wars story to come out since... 2017? packed into a Tomb Raider video game, lol. I really didn't go into it expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did, I wasn't feeling the need for a Jedi-focused story in particular and yeah okay white dude protagonist Cal didn't spark my interest (especially with some of the behind the scenes talk about wanting the protagonist to be "relatable" which plays even worse when you know the previous protagonist of a major SW game was a woman of color). But – the story, once you hit it, is great. The characters are great – yes, by the end I do even have a tender spot for Cal. The environments are beautiful and enjoyable to explore just on their own. And this game just does some things I'd never seen before in a game. I'm not a big gamer, I can't say what I experienced in here will strike everyone as so interesting, but I ultimately had a great experience.
Probably one indicator of how much I love the story of this game is that I've written it out in the cut below and that retelling is … 15 pages long. By contrast here is my retelling of the story of Battlefront II - the main character is an Imperial commando serving under her Imperial admiral father but then the post-Endor the Empire attacks her homeworld in Operation Cinder and she gets mad about it so she joins the Rebels and does a bunch of things with them leading to the final battle over Jakku where she confronts her father and before dying he tells her that he wants her to live and so she escapes a crashing Star Destroyer and reaches her love interest and they make out. And then also the bonus content happens. That's it, there's really not much more I can say about it because it needs no more explanation. It's very straightforward. Jedi Fallen Order is a much more complex story built around its video game sinew, and like – I wanted to tell it! I wanted to tell it as I experienced it!
In any case, this is a first-person combat/adventure game where the player is playing the story's protagonist, Cal Kestis, a former Jedi apprentice who has been living in hiding since Order 66. The gameplay itself combines combat with, again, Tomb Raider - a lot of is effectively navigating very beautiful obstacle courses. And then with combat, since you're a Jedi, you're fighting with the Force and a lightsaber, and I'll admit there were points when I would miss Battlefront II and just being able to shoot people, but. There's a scale of difficulty settings if you're like us and you know not amazing at combat games and just want to experience the story (I've been replaying the game on the setting one notch above Story Mode and have been mostly doing okay except some of the 'boss' fights are still kicking my ass.) The fights are generally with animals/big monstery creatures and a large array of Imperial troopers, with the occasional Inquisitor or bounty hunter also in the mix. And while you're playing a set character, you can go around collecting all the loot you can find in crates in every location to change up Cal's outfights, lightsaber, and how his droid friend and ship look.
I generally found that the gameplay worked smoothly and integrated fairly well into the Star Wars world. The game uses save points that are indicated as these symbols on the ground where Cal can 'meditate' during which you can restore health/health boosters (though this also means respawning opponents), and as you fight and also discover new information about the various places you explore, you earn "Force points" that you can use to learn new abilities, which are rendered in a really visually pleasing skill tree. The combat itself has an interesting reliance on blocking that I hadn't seen before, and sort of limits you by limiting how much "Force HP" you have in combat (there's no such limit outside combat) before you have to earn it back by attacking opponents. Which if there's one thing that's weird it's that you "earn" Force knowledge in part by killing things, that's kind of strange, but also it's a game mechanic, I get it.
The settings are also again – beautiful! You travel to seven different planets over the course of the story, and strictly completing the story I'd say requires only exploring maybe 70% of the maps themselves. There's a whole lot you can do just for fun, and...I had a lot of fun just exploring! Even relatively simple things – in one map you find a crashed Republic capital ship, and there's one point where you can jump down into this darkened room with a hologram projector in the center, and activate a holo of a Clone Trooper giving a report, and you don't need to do it but... it's nice?
And generally I've thought the animation is well done (though my new computer is capable of running the game at the highest graphic setting and I've... been taking advantage of that). In gameplay the moving elements are always going to look less well rendered than the static ones, though I thought this game largely avoided the plastic Barbie doll look that Battlefront could have sometimes; the most awkward appearance happens when the player can have Cal talk to the other characters outside of cut scenes, which can look weird just because it's that typical video game thing of stilted posture and poses and characters not looking directly at each other when they speak. But the cut scenes look great, there's great expression from the characters and the actors really do a nice job.
Oh and also the game makers commissioned a song for this game from the Mongolian band The Hu and it's so great.
Anyway, I think that's it for my non-spoilery comments, so I'm going to put my description of the story under a cut, and then after that put my more spoilery feelings.
( Jedi Fallen Order For People Who Don't Want To Have To Play A Video Game )
And now for more spoilery discussion!
( Spoilery comments here )
Also because I can't go into the world and take photos, I've been having too much fun with photo mode in this game, so here are some instagrammable screenshots
( Pretty! )
and now that that forever review is done, other upcoming sw reviews maybe:
- Shadowfall - yesss murder me alexander freed
- Star Wars: Squadrons - I can now officially give the rankings for the current Star Wars EA AAA games and they are (1) Jedi Fallen Order; (2) Battlefront II; and (3) Squadrons. Sorry, Squadrons.
- Queen's Peril - I read this entire book in a single day just so I wouldn't have to be reading it anymore
- The Mandalorian - you know that comic about executive dysfunction that's like an alligator writhing on the floor yelling "DO! SOMETHING!" that is me at this show
- And I'm also reading Last Shot which is one I feel bad about because I generally like the ideas in it I just... have some kind of issue with Daniel José Older's writing style. And I guess the perpetual "I am once again asking you to understand that women can come in categories beyond: (1) your mother (2) your girlfriend (3) large teddy bear that can't be your mother or your girlfriend"
Jedi Fallen Order is my favorite Star Wars story to come out since... 2017? packed into a Tomb Raider video game, lol. I really didn't go into it expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did, I wasn't feeling the need for a Jedi-focused story in particular and yeah okay white dude protagonist Cal didn't spark my interest (especially with some of the behind the scenes talk about wanting the protagonist to be "relatable" which plays even worse when you know the previous protagonist of a major SW game was a woman of color). But – the story, once you hit it, is great. The characters are great – yes, by the end I do even have a tender spot for Cal. The environments are beautiful and enjoyable to explore just on their own. And this game just does some things I'd never seen before in a game. I'm not a big gamer, I can't say what I experienced in here will strike everyone as so interesting, but I ultimately had a great experience.
Probably one indicator of how much I love the story of this game is that I've written it out in the cut below and that retelling is … 15 pages long. By contrast here is my retelling of the story of Battlefront II - the main character is an Imperial commando serving under her Imperial admiral father but then the post-Endor the Empire attacks her homeworld in Operation Cinder and she gets mad about it so she joins the Rebels and does a bunch of things with them leading to the final battle over Jakku where she confronts her father and before dying he tells her that he wants her to live and so she escapes a crashing Star Destroyer and reaches her love interest and they make out. And then also the bonus content happens. That's it, there's really not much more I can say about it because it needs no more explanation. It's very straightforward. Jedi Fallen Order is a much more complex story built around its video game sinew, and like – I wanted to tell it! I wanted to tell it as I experienced it!
In any case, this is a first-person combat/adventure game where the player is playing the story's protagonist, Cal Kestis, a former Jedi apprentice who has been living in hiding since Order 66. The gameplay itself combines combat with, again, Tomb Raider - a lot of is effectively navigating very beautiful obstacle courses. And then with combat, since you're a Jedi, you're fighting with the Force and a lightsaber, and I'll admit there were points when I would miss Battlefront II and just being able to shoot people, but. There's a scale of difficulty settings if you're like us and you know not amazing at combat games and just want to experience the story (I've been replaying the game on the setting one notch above Story Mode and have been mostly doing okay except some of the 'boss' fights are still kicking my ass.) The fights are generally with animals/big monstery creatures and a large array of Imperial troopers, with the occasional Inquisitor or bounty hunter also in the mix. And while you're playing a set character, you can go around collecting all the loot you can find in crates in every location to change up Cal's outfights, lightsaber, and how his droid friend and ship look.
I generally found that the gameplay worked smoothly and integrated fairly well into the Star Wars world. The game uses save points that are indicated as these symbols on the ground where Cal can 'meditate' during which you can restore health/health boosters (though this also means respawning opponents), and as you fight and also discover new information about the various places you explore, you earn "Force points" that you can use to learn new abilities, which are rendered in a really visually pleasing skill tree. The combat itself has an interesting reliance on blocking that I hadn't seen before, and sort of limits you by limiting how much "Force HP" you have in combat (there's no such limit outside combat) before you have to earn it back by attacking opponents. Which if there's one thing that's weird it's that you "earn" Force knowledge in part by killing things, that's kind of strange, but also it's a game mechanic, I get it.
The settings are also again – beautiful! You travel to seven different planets over the course of the story, and strictly completing the story I'd say requires only exploring maybe 70% of the maps themselves. There's a whole lot you can do just for fun, and...I had a lot of fun just exploring! Even relatively simple things – in one map you find a crashed Republic capital ship, and there's one point where you can jump down into this darkened room with a hologram projector in the center, and activate a holo of a Clone Trooper giving a report, and you don't need to do it but... it's nice?
And generally I've thought the animation is well done (though my new computer is capable of running the game at the highest graphic setting and I've... been taking advantage of that). In gameplay the moving elements are always going to look less well rendered than the static ones, though I thought this game largely avoided the plastic Barbie doll look that Battlefront could have sometimes; the most awkward appearance happens when the player can have Cal talk to the other characters outside of cut scenes, which can look weird just because it's that typical video game thing of stilted posture and poses and characters not looking directly at each other when they speak. But the cut scenes look great, there's great expression from the characters and the actors really do a nice job.
Oh and also the game makers commissioned a song for this game from the Mongolian band The Hu and it's so great.
Anyway, I think that's it for my non-spoilery comments, so I'm going to put my description of the story under a cut, and then after that put my more spoilery feelings.
( Jedi Fallen Order For People Who Don't Want To Have To Play A Video Game )
And now for more spoilery discussion!
( Spoilery comments here )
Also because I can't go into the world and take photos, I've been having too much fun with photo mode in this game, so here are some instagrammable screenshots
( Pretty! )
and now that that forever review is done, other upcoming sw reviews maybe:
- Shadowfall - yesss murder me alexander freed
- Star Wars: Squadrons - I can now officially give the rankings for the current Star Wars EA AAA games and they are (1) Jedi Fallen Order; (2) Battlefront II; and (3) Squadrons. Sorry, Squadrons.
- Queen's Peril - I read this entire book in a single day just so I wouldn't have to be reading it anymore
- The Mandalorian - you know that comic about executive dysfunction that's like an alligator writhing on the floor yelling "DO! SOMETHING!" that is me at this show
- And I'm also reading Last Shot which is one I feel bad about because I generally like the ideas in it I just... have some kind of issue with Daniel José Older's writing style. And I guess the perpetual "I am once again asking you to understand that women can come in categories beyond: (1) your mother (2) your girlfriend (3) large teddy bear that can't be your mother or your girlfriend"
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