LTTP Review of Jedi Fallen Order - Such a disappointment (minor location related spoilers).

[hydruxo]

I liked the game a fair amount, but it needed another 4-6 months of polish. It had a ton of framerate and texture issues. Bogano was a slideshow. Full areas of textures in Kashyyk would take 5-10 seconds to load in sometimes. Hell, I couldn't get the last trophy I needed for the platinum for over a month because the bounty hunters that spawn in the game just never spawned at all. I feel like if they took the time to squash the bugs and performance issues then I'd have liked the game a lot more. They probably had an ultimatum from EA to get the game out before Rise of Skywalker and I really wonder what the game could've been like if they were able to spend a bit more time polishing it up.

Combat also was also never particularly satisfying or fluid. Parrying never felt good in this game at all and after a while I just stopped trying to parry and dodged/rolled. Also gotta say if they ditched Cal for the sequel I wouldn't mind. I had absolutely no attachment to him whatsoever. I don't know if it was the character or the performance but I wasn't feeling it. I liked BD-1, Greez, and Merrin though. Exploration wasn't really rewarding considering you just get different lightsaber parts that you can barely see in combat. Ponchos were mostly boring too. Would've liked to see more creative outfits.

I have a lot of problems with the game but it is enjoyable despite the flaws. It's definitely a solid foundation for a sequel. If they take their time with it and don't rush it out then it has a lot of potential.

 

[Davilmar]

The story had issues and lack of polish, but I definitely enjoyed the game. Far more enjoyable than Sekiro or Death Stranding.

 

[Hogger]

For a game that's "such a disappointment" you sure had a lot of things you liked about the game. Jeez, combine hardcore video game fans and hardcore Star Wars fans and you have a perfect recipe for a hard to please fan.

I agree with the thought that it provides a great base for a sequel. Incorporating a larger ship, more squad mates and having them be more active, maybe more RPG aspects like side-quests and stat-based gear... actually just KOTOR 3 please.

 

[Ehoavash]

The game really is the definition of Jack of all trades but a master of none

But it's getting so much pass cause it's made by Respawn and that its a single player star wars game

 

[leng jai]

Most derivative game I've seen in a while and to make matters worse the level of polish is poor. It's fine to make something derisive but at least execute it competently on a technical level.

 

[Gogo_ZvC]

Currently playing through it on my base PS4, and I'm sitting at a 6/10 so far. I'm loving the planets and exploring them, even with all the texture loading issues and load screens, and will get the platinum at the rate I'm going through it. However, I don't think my score will change.

The story is good enough for me, I understand most things with only having watched 5/9 movies and reading the in-game lore.

A lot of the combat issues you mentioned just make it frustrating. I'm getting through the combat feeling annoyed, but then immediately happy the moment I start exploring post-fight. They really need to improve targeting in the next one, it's by far the worst thing in the game for me. Targeting something above or below usually fails and makes Cal face forward. Trying to target something with multiple enemies is a chore. The targeting range needs to be increased as well.

One other gripe is the heal being up on the d-pad, I don't like having to sacrifice movement to heal, especially in this game where enemies fly at you, so I always use my right hand to heal :'^) (if this can be re-mapped on PS4, let me know, I haven't checked lol)

Also the wall jumping needs polish.

 

[Blue Skies]

Playing this now

too bad they didn't finish making the game!
definitely needs more polish.
also, sometimes it's CONFUSING where to go.
shoudlnt be liek that.

 

[Ponchito]

I agree with most of your points OP. While overall I had fun with the game and would recommend it, boy, what a disappointment.

- Combat is really messy.
- Story is just OK. Didn't like Cal.
- All the technical issues. Clipping, bad animations, AI, bugs, frame drops, loading times.

Ending was good though and hope Respawn will have more time to work on the sequel.

 

[FunMouse]

I liked the game, until I didn't. I stopped playing after the 4th world i think. Right after I learned the last force move. It just did not click with me anymore. It is there on my desktop waiting for me to open it up again.. I don't think I will anytime soon. Shame, since I think its a very pretty game. Most of the stuff you didn't like. I agree with, like the skyboxes and stiff talking outside of cutscenes. Oh and wookies. MY GOD THEY LOOK HORRIBLE.

 

[luffie]

To preface, here are all the relevant technical data:

Platform: Fully stock Xbox One X with 66% HDD space usage and stock wireless controller

Graphics Mode: Default – 30fps cap and in HDR

Audio: Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones

Difficulty mode: Jedi Master

Hours played: 40+

Percentage explored per planet on average: >90

Percentage of powers unlocked: 100

Percentage of loot discovered overall: >80


What I liked:

​

Visual Presentation-

• The artistic direction for each planet ranged from good to fantastic:
  • Bracca – Felt deeply utilitarian and industrial with a jaw dropping vista
  • Bogano – Had a great sense of solitude and atmosphere courtesy of its topology mixed with fog.
  • Dathomir – Drenched in red, the hamlet carved into the cliffside with its precarious transportation mechanics, were in stark contrast to technological advancements of other worlds. From the jagged cliffs to the endless spanning vista of red cracked ground, it looked like a force to be reckoned with.
  • Zeffo – I think Respawn likes high places and gorgeous vistas. It reminded me of the Nepal level in Uncharted 2, small and peaceful settlement by the cliff-side beset by Imperial and other utilitarian structures.
  • Kashyyk – It blended the natural habitat of the Wookies with the effects of Imperial incursion. It also delved deeper into areas yet untouched by said Imperials.
  • Illum – The interior level itself was functional but that lighting and the way it lit up the vista, once Cal completed his objective on the planet, were perhaps two of the most breathtaking sights to behold. The HDR really punched through here. At times, it transcended into the realm of photorealism.
  • Nur – Hosting the fortress of the Inquisitorius, the brief glimpses of the skybox felt appropriately, "epic" and latter parts of the interior level featured Imperial structures and lighting that conveyed a sense of power, danger and isolation. .
• The lighting, for most part, was incredibly appropriate to the vibe of Star Wars- bathing the world in natural starlight/s through a neutral density or warm or cold filter and general sense of darkness pierced by points of artificial light.
• The material rendering, sans Dathomir and Kashyyk, was exceptionally well done.
• The real time cutscenes (on X) looked phenomenal (when they were not suffering from streaming issues) with top notch motion (body and face) capture work. Outside cutscenes, lip synching was done rather well.
• The lightsaber looked beautiful, regardless of the colour of choice and followed the laws of physics when it comes to illuminating the surroundings. Plus, the way it lit up Cal's perimeter has been done stunningly well.
• Foe designs, especially new ones, were more than decent. The ranks of the old faithful opposition were also rendered faithfully.

Audio Presentation-

• Soundtracks were typically orchestral with some isolated wind instruments, all of which was in-keeping with the identity of SW music.
• The VA was great across the board. The director nailed inflections for certain characters, and especially sarcasm for Merrin.
• The rest of sound effects were on-par with what can be expected from a game like this.

Story-

• It's pretty KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid, story. It was predictably Star Wars with an inevitable twist along the way. In no way can this be made to compare with KoTOR 2 and even 1. But that is the burden of being part of the SW canon whilst, timeline wise, being stuck in the only conflict everyone knows. So, a simple story that relied on the following two aspects.

Characters-

• Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of the game. Each and every character was made believable with their own pasts, flaws and present impetus for being part of the rebellion or being against it. Cal, and by extension, the player, was an empath and the character interactions, both in and out of cutscenes, did a decent (more on this later) job in creating bonds.
  
  
• BD-1 was absolutely adorable.

Exposition-

• Yet another highlight on how it was delivered to the player. I am fan of games that tend to emphasize environmental storytelling and out of cutscene dialogues to make progress in the storyline. FromSoftware are the industry standard in this regard. JFO delivers via "scan", "Force Echo" and flashbacks. In addition, there was a single chain of events in this game whose exposition quality transcended absolutely anything I have ever played. If you have finished the game, you know what I am on about.
  
  This pinnacle was afforded courtesy of the nature of this expository event and current generation of technology. I highly doubt the same effect could have been done during the days of KoTOR 1 and 2 without notable changes/compromises.
  
  To that end, it is all the more reason to celebrate the fact that next gen HW will come packed with and games will be designed around NVMe storage.

Level design-

• Shortcut mechanics reminded me of FromSoftware's creations. Some of them are labyrinthian and vast and so these do help.
• Functionally, layouts are generally designed around combat encounters.
• Holographic mini-map highlighted inaccessible and "now accessible" pathways.

Combat-

• Base mechanics were workable throughout the entire game.
• Fairer combat scenarios/encounters required more than button mashing.
• For a Padawan, a decent amount of character upgrades became available in service of enhancing overall combat satisfaction.
• The leveling up could be fully completed without grinding ad nauseum.
• Dual bladed lightsaber was balanced against single bladed one with trade offs.
• Anyone could be parried when they were not using unblockables.
• Different enemies often engaged in combat with each other.

What I disliked:

​

Visual Presentation-

• Dialogue segments outside cutscenes featured stiff animations (more on this under Story & Characters).

Audio Presentation-

• Only one memorable theme.

Story & Characters-

• The problem lied neither with story nor with characters per se but rather how the game handled these characters and how the pacing seemed awfully quick for Cal and the rest to bond so quickly. The lack of day/night cycle (technically, nothing in the sky, save clouds, ever moves- static skyboxes) on every world robbed the game's narrative from having a sense of passage of time.
  
  It was compounded by the fact that all of Cal's companions, for all their capabilities, ever did, sans the rare critical path exceptions, was either stay in the Mantis (ship) or they stood outside engaging in short, out of cutscene dialogues with Cal with stiff animations (sans lip synching). It attributed to the game feeling much smaller and isolated than it should have been, especially, after Merrin came onboard. This companion, who like Cere promised to help Cal, comes LTTP, which they might as well, because as aforementioned, they did jack shit save take one action in the critical path.
  
  Having the team in the field would have uplifted the whole experience by orders of magnitude and alleviated some of the combat design related frustrations. As it was, it's more, "Come for the promise of teamwork; there is an "U" in team. You are the team".
  
  Overall, between the pacing and short (and at times, lackluster) interactions between the team members, the characters, despite the talents propelling them, felt undercooked.

World Design-

• Coming off of Death Stranding, an essentially non-lethal expedition across America, it irked me. Much like most AAA-games out there, in the world of JFO, almost everything was trying to kill Cal without restraint or the notion of self preservation (like Grunts from Halo).
  
  This is the problem with creating games that are service to combat and levelling up- only lethal violence will suffice. Of course, aping FromSoftware means Cal could technically run away from combat even from Imperial troopers and other humanoid adversaries. While this made absolutely zero narrative sense, it was helpful when trying to reach a boss encounter upon respawning at a checkpoint.
  
  I wish Respawn did not ape FromSoftware this diligently to the point where meditation would respawn enemies or have enemies that frequently feel are more short sighted than the undead of Lordran. Horizon Zero Dawn's and Dragon's Dogma's system of more organically respawning foes over 'days' comes to mind. Again, the lack of a day/night cycle really did hurt the perceived sense of time and its diagetic passage.
  
  
• The mini-map for all its visual splendour lacked Waypoint marking feature. Given some of the levels are vast and circuitous, going back to specific areas to check for loot became quite tedious especially when I forgot where the unopened boxes within already accessed spaces were. To that end, it would have gone a very long way had the minimap noted the locations of unopened boxes once the player encountered them as well as differently colour shortcuts once Cal had opened them.

What frustrated me:

Visuals Presentation-

• On Dathomir, the texture quality for almost all assets, sans certain human/humanoid characters, ranged from passable to atrocious (think Rage on PS3/360). The skybox that featured two dim red giants and another apparently giant planet (partially visible), showed jagged artifacting around their circumferences that were telltale signs of them being enlarged.
• Texture quality issue also reared its head in Kashyyk in the more vegetation heavy zones.
• Distractingly notable pop-ins for full objects, object shadows and LoD transitions. Kashyyk suffered the worst due to vegetation.
• Clipping fest and other collision detection abnormalities abound. More often than not, Cal, and at other foes were either floating slightly above or sunk slightly into ground geometry. During the worst moments, coincidentally on Dathomir, I had seen Cal sink all the way to groins in solid ground.
• Clipping was prevalent to the point that it affected cutscenes as well with Cal's legs in sitting position poking out of out his non-deforming cloth poncho.
• Talking of cutscenes- I had witnessed streaming related object, LoD pop in and sudden cloth deformation as the camera transitioned between cuts. It was blatantly more egregious on Kashyyk.
  
  
• Animation (shoutout to Fallout 3):
  • Sheer jank fest on Dathomir across all types of foes, save one specific encounter. Foes generally floated around in their places with canned idle animations and pop into combat animations after dropping to ground (remember they shift and float) when they became aware of Cal's presence.
  • Foes could turn towards Cal during their "unblockables" whilst being fixed in their place like a turn-table model. This is true for almost all foes and became obvious while under the influence of "Slow".
  • There was an enemy type that came in hordes and rushed the Cal on Dathomir at one point- Their animations were something to behold. Not because they were good. Their locomotion animations and their actual speed of locomotion scarcely ever matched.
  • Overall, I think only the troopers and bosses received decent care and attention.
• Performance:
  • The game could not hold 30fps from time to time for extended periods of time which, when occurs during combat, had been detrimental to the player's chances of success.
    Some of it seemed to be caused by the streaming system as many parts of Bogano bereft of combat suffered from this issue.
  • It had serious streaming issues whereby low resolution assets adorn the screen for extended periods of time after a load was complete before being replaced by higher resolution/quality assets.
  • Said streaming issue was at its worst when sprinting to a new location which caused the game to freeze for a few seconds at specific points and the player was made to bear witness to large objects constituting to the overall scenery, pop into existence in their respective places.
  • Loading period- The crème de la crème of performance related issues. It was the worst I had experienced in any modern game this generation with variability between two loads from the same destination to the same respawn point be as large as 40+ seconds. In general, load times ranged between 15 to 60+ seconds depending on location.

Artificial Intelligence (or lack thereof)-

• As aforementioned, humanoid enemies tended to have poorer eye sights than Dark Souls' Undead.
• They were strictly zoned. This meant that even if Cal was standing right in front them on the other side of the zone, the enemies would not attack him (exceptions being ranged combatants). However, on the off chance they did come out of their zone (as a byproduct of their attack animations), often they simply stopped fighting Cal and walked back to their zone oblivious and non-responsive to Cal's relentless attacks.
• Due to said zoning restrictions, foes simply stopped chasing Cal after a notably short distance. While this behavior made sense for certain non-bipedal foes defending their territories, it made absolutely zero narrative sense for troopers and other humanoid enemies to let a Jedi slip past them.

Combat & Encounter Design-

• The game relied on mixed class of combatants against Cal, and this did NOT on many occasions, work for a game that:
  • Had a sticky target selection which quickly became an issue when facing off more than 2 to 3 enemies simultaneously.
  • Lacked any distinct onscreen visual marker of for an incoming off-screen attack. After playing games like God of War and Death Stranding, it baffled me that a game featuring a Force user lacked such an essential tool. Unlike other games, implementing it in JFO would have made the most narrative sense.
• Certain force powers such as Dodging to slow down time should have been part of the earliest upgrades instead of near end ones. In addition, the mechanic of said move itself would been much better had its functions been usable during directional dodges.
• Certain heavy attacks from some enemies had the slimmest of margins of error for dodging which was compounded by their floaty locomotion animations. And I was essentially SoL if Cal ran out Force mana to use one of his powers and/or when I got jumped by said enemies alongside other foes simultaneously.
• Enemies did not follow the laws of momentum- When Cal was hit by an enemy that was still under the influence of "Slow", Cal received the same damage as if it was a regular/heavy attack. This was extremely frustrating in CQC with multiple foes as Cal Slowed one foe to engage another in close vicinity only to receive damage from the Slowed enemy moments later.
• While Force push was a great way to circumvent some of the combat related frustrations, Cal's pool of Force "mana" felt much too small for this to be a viable strategy at all times.
• The Plunging attack's prompt was unreliable. I could never tell which drops would prompt me and which ones would not.
• The lack of any visual information pertaining radius of influence for Cal's force powers meant I had no idea whether some of the more advanced force powers would have had the desired effect or not in an area filled with foes. More often than not, I only ended up wasting more of the mana.
• The lack of any reticle and instead solely relying game's internal auto aiming system led to certain frustrations during puzzle events and certain combat encounters.
• Hit detection for certain non-bipedal enemies was abysmal. For example:
  
  • I saw lightsabers cut right through the legs of spiders on Kashyyk without them taking an iota of damage
  • On Bogano it was the same story with the tongues of the reptilian Oggdo. I slowed the creature when it extended its tongue and then attack it along the length of said organ to no avail. Apparently, only the front lump of the tongue registered hit.
  [*]
• Parrying had two issues:
  • Upon successful execution it would slow down time just slightly before the parrying contact actually occurs which screwed with my rhythm but more importantly (and I don't whether it is a glitch)
  • In the short span immediately thereafter, Cal often just stood there, as bedazzled as the foe he had just parried (occurred frequently with bipedal humanoid foes) for a good second despite my pressing of 'X' to launch the next attack. It was bizarre and downright dangerous when faced with multiple foes and especially bosses that have different parrying rule than regular enemies.

World design/Narrative inconsistencies-

• As previously mentioned, party members did not aid Cal in any meaningful way for most of the game. However, it looked ludicrous when ground troopers did not attack them or the ship (which, if one were to logically think, would have been flagged and it was) even when they were less than around 200m away. The landing area at Zeffo was a prime example of this.
  
  
• And, as much as I love collecting, "Loot", it made absolutely 0 narrative sense to find Ponchos, Outfits, Lightsaber parts and materials and Mantis paint schemes in boxes strewn across the different world. It was essentially, a "WTF!?" moment due to how nonsensical and contrived it all was. It would have been far more logical if Cal collected some abstract materials and/or credits (from same boxes) that could be traded for schematics for lightsaber parts as well as items of clothing and paint schemes from a marketplace.
  
  
• Too many sliding segments in the game which didn't pair well with how clumsily Cal controlled on them compounded by the inconsistencies in platforming. There was a specific segment in Zeffo's underground caverns where jumping off of a slowed down gear on to a wall run segment did not register for around 5 or 6 times. It was a similar situation on Dathomir where Cal could not jump onto a platform well within his range; literally moved less than meter to the right along the same platform (same height) and suddenly up and in he went.
  
  
• Finally, why did the undead night sisters and night brothers still keep on attacking me after I had defeated Malicos, their supposed leader in a Matriarchy, and securing alliance with Merrin who summoned them in the first place?

Gameplay oriented glitches-

• Button presses did not register at times. It became a critical issue when trying to heal within a small window of opportunity in the middle of intense battles and consequently a source of massive frustration.
  
  
• To add, it did not just affect stim/healing action but rather other compound actions like dodging after parrying/blocking or attacking after parrying (as aforementioned).
  
  
• As mentioned before, different kinds of enemies tended to engage with each other. However, it had trigger points/thresholds to Cal to cross before the scripted events played out. On a few occasions, I witnessed them simply standing around in the distance, awaiting my arrival.

Here are some other folks who have reported these issues from the game's OT:






Closing comments-

I have been a fan of SW since OG trilogy and played KoTOR 1 and 2 with utmost enthusiasm. For a while after KoTOR, I lived and breathed SW, hoping that there would be a KoTOR 3. Well, in time, EA mangled SW with BF2 and yet many did not lose hope, yearning for a better, a more story drive SP SW game. They were overjoyed when they learned of Respawn, the creators of Titanfall, developing one such title. Having never played their games before, I was assured that the title was in good hands (given the metacritic rating of their previous works, I could see why). At least, I knew Stig Asmussen's involvement could only mean good things given I enjoyed GoW 3.

Well, I was wrong. I was wrong to have any expectations at all. It was essentially a less disastrous Anthem situation whereby folks thought that Bioware Edmonton could do no wrong. I was reminded that past successes are no guarantee of future ones.

Underneath the glitches, performance, visual presentation, narrative and thematic inconsistency issues, there is a passable derivative game with underutilized characters that are legitimately very well written and voiced/performed for.

The game feels like a hodgepodge of undercooked ideas from other games that are applied without much forethought on why it should be in a SW game and if so then what changes does the new world necessitates in order to be thematically consistent.

And worse still is how unrefined and buggy the game is on consoles. It comes off as if EA knew that people would still pay for this mess because it is skinned as Star Wars. Given the sequel was greenlit even before JFO shipped, it only makes more sense.

I don't know what the next game would bring but Respawn can only improve from here.

​

PS: As it pertains to performance issues, PC players be like:

​

Click to shrink...

Agree with all of the above. The game has potential, but it's so severely undercooked.
It would have been called a terrible Souls clone if it doesn't have the SW license.

But you forgot to mention the absolutely terrible loot. Absolutely terrible, a waste of effort and time.

 

[thenexus6]

I was pretty disappointed with this game, technical issues aside (which I had plenty of) its a very basic, by the numbers game, and really doesn't do much to differentiate itself from another games of the genre. It felt so "video gamey" which for me is horrible when you're play. Wall run here, vine swing here, squeeze through this gap here. Whatever story they are trying to tell no matter how simple or grand is lost when you keep reminding me i'm playing a video game.

I am genuinely surprised to see this game on so many peoples GOTY picks. If you remove Star Wars and add any other generic sci-fi setting no one would bat an eye lid at this game.

 

[Morrigan]

If you remove Star Wars and add any other generic sci-fi setting no one would bat an eye lid at this game.

Click to shrink...

"If you remove Kojima's name from Death Stranding, no one would give a shit about that game"

 

[thenexus6]

"If you remove Kojima's name from Death Stranding, no one would give a shit about that game"

Click to shrink...

I don't agree with that, Death Stranding is doing something different. You either love or hate it, but still. It's got some new interesting ideas.

 

[cowbanana]

It really is a mediocre game on all fronts. I played it on PC and it looks and performs better than the console versions. I didn't have any of the bugs I've seen from the console versions, like enemies spawning out of thin air in t-pose, floating protagonist etc. etc., but even though performance was mostly fine I had lots of weird pausing/stuttering whenever the game loaded level transitions (loading from Samsung EVO SSD). It felt like baby's first UE4 game in terms of technical prowess. So much lack of polish throughout and Kashyyyk looks like dogshit, clearly the planet that received the least amount of polish.

When the game looked good, it looked really good though. I enjoyed a lot of the visual design throughout the game! A shame all that great art went into such a shambling foundation with such bland gameplay.

The game is a Franken-game, stitched together from parts and ideas from games that did them much, much better. This game does nothing that countless games didn't already do better.

Without the Star Wars skin blinding people it would just be received as a bland, undercooked Souls clone. I know I fell for the Star Wars skin to begin with, but the more I played and really thought about it... it's just not a very good game.

 

[nelsonroyale]

I agree. This is a pretty mediocre game overall, that suffers from being very buggy and unpolished. It suffers from some of the same issues as GoW3 did, in terms of having an incredible intro and quite a lot of rough areas in between. But it never reaches anywhere near that games highs. Well, the intro looks stunning, but the rest of the game is mostly a big drop down visually speaking.

 

[Maximo]

Game would get the award for *game I swear I have played before?* it just feels like multiple games I have played before with no one high quality to help elevate it above others.

 

[nelsonroyale]

Are you saying that the game wouldn't have been well received if it didn't have the Star Wars name? If so, that's pretty laughable.

Click to shrink...

Possibly in the current climate...most of the Star Wars products released in recent times, get mixed critical and public acclaim at best. This received a better critical reception than most, despite being fairly middling underneath the jank. It reminds me of the Order somewhat, although there is much more content here. There is good potential there, but this game doesn't deliver on that. It doesn't excel in any particular way, aside from the audio visual element on the intro. That set high expectations for me, in terms of the audio visual element, but also the polish of the experience. That aspect at least dropped pretty precipitously after that. The actual gameplay aspect is fairly solid, although I found the level design hampered by the horrendous mini map.

 

[Deleted member 15227]

Loved the game but the Op's review is largely on point.

 

[Deleted member 543]

I loved the game until Dathomir when the level design took a nosedive and the combat began to show its limitations. It's a shame because I really dug the story. Another six month's development would have helped but gotta rush it out for the film, I guess.

 

[sirap]

It wasn't quite as big of a disappointment as Outer Worlds was but both shared similar traits.

A sequel should (hopefully) fix all the issues I had with the games.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Thanks for the detailed writeup OP! Always nice when someone puts effort into their opinions on here.

I think a lot of people were just happy EA decided to ship a singleplayer game again, and a Star Wars one to boot.
Personally, my expectations were lowered to a point where this was a welcome surprise, even if it's an underwhelming one compared to the other stuff I played this year.

 

[Qwerty Keyboard]

The lack of a fast travel system killed getting the platinum for me.
I understand it's a design decision, but there's no logical reason once the game is completed from a story point of view it couldn't just be unlocked to fast travel from meditation point to meditation point.
Overall this games my biggest missed opportunity of the year with all the other issues I have with it.

 

[taepoppuri]

It's very mediocre (and janky) game. FO borrows a lot of things from other games, which isn't wrong or bad, but I found the game doesn't excel in anyway.

I had high hope for it from the review and word of mouth. Early parts of the game are not good but I played it through the end because my friend said the latter parts are great..finished it 2 days ago and I'm disappointed, what a waste of time.

 

[golem]

Honestly the game was exactly what i expected, a mishmash of popular game mechanics into a star wars shell that doesn't necessarily make sense all of the time, so it wasn't necessarily a disappointment for me. Imo the final product is more than the sum of its parts, it just tickles my Star Wars bones in the right way-- more so than both TROS and The Mando. Overall it's a fun game (played it on PC) and i think if you like Star Wars its worth picking up.

 

[Gold Arsene]

The game really is the definition of Jack of all trades but a master of none

But it's getting so much pass cause it's made by Respawn and that its a single player star wars game

Click to shrink...

Or maybe people like the game despite it's flaws.

Crazy I know.

 

[Linus815]

Overall it was a pretty underwhelming game. I didn't care for the level design at all. The problem is that exploration is not rewarding. Most of the stuff you find is just a minor cosmetic change or collectible that feels pointless. Like just how many different handles for a lightsaber can you possibly put in a game? A lot, apparently. Problem is....you can basically not even see the difference between them anyway because it's a third person game. I can't say I was ever "lost" but navigating felt like a chore. The climbing is far too slow until you get the story-related upgraded for it, and there's way too many squeeze through the wall/slide down somewhere sections. Sure, they mask loading but they don't at all feel well integrated into the levels. They really make the levels feel "gamey" and artificial, rather than a belivable place. Not to mention how many clunky, buggy moments I experienced tied to navigating. Awkward animations aside, a lot of falling through places, getting stuck on edges, etc. Another issue I have is the wallrunning. It's a shame you can't do it freely and instead only on certain surfaces. It feels so limiting. Really wish the game went with the Titanfall approach instead.

Then there's the forced "backtracking." I put that in quotations because there isn't really straight up backtracking in the game - you do unlock shortcuts, get slightly different encounters etc pretty much every time you need to return to your ship after you complete your objective but it still feels like a cheap way to pad play time. The middle portion of the game suffers really heavy from this. Just constant walking, climbing with very little story to really keep me engaged. I simply did not enjoy moving around in the world of this game.

Combat was better but.... it wears its influences on its sleeve, so its hard not to immediately think of FROM's games. And if you play a Souls game before playing this, well... JFO feels quite loose and maybe not as responsive as it should be. Fighting 1v1 is probably where this game shines the most, some of the boss battles are actually really good and fun. But when the game spams big crowds, it's really not that fun. Also the game desperately needed more animations for executions.

The best part of the game is probably its final few hours, but in terms of story, it feels consistently poor. The end has a brief moment of an unexpected surprise but somehow even that gets botched.

 

[Gero]

Agree, it was mediocre at best. Such an unpolished, half baked game from an AAA studio and publisher

 

[Zonnes]

Honestly, no one should make a Star Wars property because Star Wars fanboys are the worst and most toxic fans I have ever seen and this review literally says that.

 

[taepoppuri]

Honestly, no one should make a Star Wars property because Star Wars fanboys are the worst and most toxic fans I have ever seen and this review literally says that.

Click to shrink...

What's toxic about OP? He/She gave his/her reasons in a good civil way.

 

[Dr. Ludwig]

Honestly, no one should make a Star Wars property because Star Wars fanboys are the worst and most toxic fans I have ever seen and this review literally says that.

Click to shrink...

Your embarrassing post is the toxic one.

OP's critique is perfectly fine.

 

[eXistor]

Wow, you gave that game way more attention than it deserved.

 

[melodiousmowl]

Combat was awful. Everything else is fine.

Bring cancelled and left super prone after trying to use a force power. Slow reaction to button presses. That huge gap in time to heal. Combat situations that no amount of skill keeps you from taking damage.

Maybe I was paying wrong, bit partying felt almost useless in melee except for things like insta killing spiders etc. Otherwise on humanoids it's almost always meh or worse, especially with multiple combatants.

And those times when you knock something out of a red attack but it just keeps going with the next red attacks.

I have hope for more refinement thought in a sequel

 

[monmagman]

I thought Death Stranding was supposed to be divisive.....but good lord,I cannot work out if this game is great or a bug ridden mess.....I want to play it but I feel I've got to wait to see if it gets patched up.

 

[Deleted member 4976]

Fallen Order was the worst game I've played in 2019.

Competent at best, aggressively boring at worst. And with jank and bugs filled throughout. The story was a bore, and all but a couple of the characters were uninteresting.

 

[Ravelle]

Absolutely loved it despite its flaws. Can't wait for more Jedi games from Respawn.

 

[Hey Please]

I want to thank everyone who pitched in their experiences in this thread. Thank you for taking the time to share them.

I also thought it was pretty mediocre and was a bit surprised at how well it reviewed. I went on a larger rant in the main thread, but I thought it drew from numerous positive sources and influences and but excelled and basically none of them. Doing almost anything in the game, either navigating Cal to explore or engaging in combat, has an odd and unsatisfying stiffness to it, like there's nothing organic about using the force or wall running and instead just hitting a command and letting the game play out its long animated rigid function that either works or doesn't depending on very specific context. The slower, more methodical combat is good in theory but, I dunno....it's like there's this enormous animation priority and animation wind up every time you do anything? I don't know how to explain it. Using the force and swinging the lightsaber just felt so stiff to me, and the feedback on hits lacking some kind of oomf or weight to make it satisfying. I rarely enjoyed fighting anything, and not because it was super hard or anything (I played on Jedi Master), but instead due to the sterility.

And yeah. Exploring is less about learning a new skill then mastering that skill to navigate the environment, but just using the skill when you're in the right spot and the game will just continue as norm. Actually exploring and navigating stages, either passively or for missions, has the illusion of depth but it's all pretty vapid. You'll only go where the game wants you to go, you don't really have to apply a lot of skill to traverse the locations, it's never risky, never particularly mechanically stimulating, etc. You can get from A to B to C with your eyes closed if it weren't for the encounters themselves.

I liked the story in the opening and last chapters, but everything in the middle is pretty lukewarm and uninteresting. Kashyyyk is super boring. I did like the Clone Wars callbacks though, like the derelict cruiser. I wish the game had more of that stuff, drawing from this post prequel pre OG trilogy period of the Empire.

So yeah. I'm glad it exists because I don't think it's a bad game, but I really had to push myself to finish it as I just found it boring by the end. I think Respawn have a lot of work to do to make the combat and exploration a lot more satisfying and rewarding.

EDIT: Funny that people are talking about The Witcher 3 haha. I said it on Twitter a couple of days ago; Fallen Order's combat is, at best, no better than The Witcher 3. And given I've long defended the latter as better than people give it credit for, I'd probably rate Fallen Order's as worse.

Click to shrink...

I always appreciate your comprehensive threads and responses and would like to read your other post on the game in OT if you have the link.

Pertaining to comment, I do agree that the world building due to quite a few design decisions does not feel organically bound. Pertaining specifically to combat, I do feel animation is given priority above all else but pacing of it feels off due to issues being compounded by non-responsiveness and the lack of "move-cancelling". This was a massive sore spot because of how long some of the wind up animation for Cal was for moves like LB/L1 + X/Square after a regular attack animation- a window where heavies or bosses could start their shorter Red tinted unblockables.

My take with regards to how well it was received:

The games in a franchise or their direct competitors never exist in vacuum. Under EA's production, SWBF 1 was very content light good game and SWBF2 lit up microtransaction related controversy because of how naked it was in its gambling mechanics to the point where mainstream politicians got involved.

So, when it was announced by a veteran and thoroughly respected dev, Respawn that they were making a SP SW game with "no microtransactions" they were seen as the deliverer of the long held hope of a worthy story driven SW title.

Now, despite the blatant issues that plague the game today, they did deliver a product that is technically more content right rich than SWBF1 and far more ethical than SWBF2 during their launches.

As far as I know only GiantBomb's review did a thorough job by highlighting how unrefined the game was on consoles and scored the game accordingly.

In the greater scheme of things, much like you, I am glad the title exists because provides a base for the SP franchise. It has been a long time since KoTOR 2 (The Force Unleashed 1 was apparently good from what I had heard).

I liked the game a fair amount, but it needed another 4-6 months of polish. It had a ton of framerate and texture issues. Bogano was a slideshow. Full areas of textures in Kashyyk would take 5-10 seconds to load in sometimes. Hell, I couldn't get the last trophy I needed for the platinum for over a month because the bounty hunters that spawn in the game just never spawned at all. I feel like if they took the time to squash the bugs and performance issues then I'd have liked the game a lot more. They probably had an ultimatum from EA to get the game out before Rise of Skywalker and I really wonder what the game could've been like if they were able to spend a bit more time polishing it up.

Combat also was also never particularly satisfying or fluid. Parrying never felt good in this game at all and after a while I just stopped trying to parry and dodged/rolled. Also gotta say if they ditched Cal for the sequel I wouldn't mind. I had absolutely no attachment to him whatsoever. I don't know if it was the character or the performance but I wasn't feeling it. I liked BD-1, Greez, and Merrin though. Exploration wasn't really rewarding considering you just get different lightsaber parts that you can barely see in combat. Ponchos were mostly boring too. Would've liked to see more creative outfits.

I have a lot of problems with the game but it is enjoyable despite the flaws. It's definitely a solid foundation for a sequel. If they take their time with it and don't rush it out then it has a lot of potential.

Click to shrink...

From what I have heard, it is even worse on PS4.

Insofar as ditching Cal, that's an interesting take. I did feel a connection with him but the story was not long enough to flesh his character (or anyone for that matter) out. Because none of them are established characters, the whole "A day in the lives of..." approach does not work particularly well.

As far as Merrin is concerned, she was undoubtedly my favourite. Her attitude reminded of HK-47 with reduced bloodlust and sarcasm turned up.

The lack of a fast travel system killed getting the platinum for me.
I understand it's a design decision, but there's no logical reason once the game is completed from a story point of view it couldn't just be unlocked to fast travel from meditation point to meditation point.
Overall this games my biggest missed opportunity of the year with all the other issues I have with it.

Click to shrink...

Overall it was a pretty underwhelming game. I didn't care for the level design at all. The problem is that exploration is not rewarding. Most of the stuff you find is just a minor cosmetic change or collectible that feels pointless. Like just how many different handles for a lightsaber can you possibly put in a game? A lot, apparently. Problem is....you can basically not even see the difference between them anyway because it's a third person game. I can't say I was ever "lost" but navigating felt like a chore. The climbing is far too slow until you get the story-related upgraded for it, and there's way too many squeeze through the wall/slide down somewhere sections. Sure, they mask loading but they don't at all feel well integrated into the levels. They really make the levels feel "gamey" and artificial, rather than a belivable place. Not to mention how many clunky, buggy moments I experienced tied to navigating. Awkward animations aside, a lot of falling through places, getting stuck on edges, etc. Another issue I have is the wallrunning. It's a shame you can't do it freely and instead only on certain surfaces. It feels so limiting. Really wish the game went with the Titanfall approach instead.

Then there's the forced "backtracking." I put that in quotations because there isn't really straight up backtracking in the game - you do unlock shortcuts, get slightly different encounters etc pretty much every time you need to return to your ship after you complete your objective but it still feels like a cheap way to pad play time. The middle portion of the game suffers really heavy from this. Just constant walking, climbing with very little story to really keep me engaged. I simply did not enjoy moving around in the world of this game.

Combat was better but.... it wears its influences on its sleeve, so its hard not to immediately think of FROM's games. And if you play a Souls game before playing this, well... JFO feels quite loose and maybe not as responsive as it should be. Fighting 1v1 is probably where this game shines the most, some of the boss battles are actually really good and fun. But when the game spams big crowds, it's really not that fun. Also the game desperately needed more animations for executions.

The best part of the game is probably its final few hours, but in terms of story, it feels consistently poor. The end has a brief moment of an unexpected surprise but somehow even that gets botched.

Click to shrink...

Yea, fast travel to checkpoints like Bonfires would have alleviated some of the issues when it came to the tedium of traversing locations, especially, after completing the SP campaign at least. And as aforementioned, the mini-map left me wanting.

Given insta-respawning never made sense, adding fast-travel would not have made things any worse.

Hell of an in-depth review and mega props to you for it, OP.

I came away with it quite pleased, but I did play it on a pretty good PC. I then ended up buying the holiday Xbox One X bundle at its sale price and got to dabble in the console version, and it became immediately apparent that the technical performance on console made it a noticeably worse experience. It absolutely does not fix a lot of your complaints just by playing on PC, but there was a definite disparity in input lag, obviously owing to the lower framerate, but I have noticed on console that sometimes my inputs can just drop completely — a problem I didn't encounter on PC at all. When I was playing on PC, I was seeing a lot of videos of console players complaining about the platforming being unresponsive and janky, and that wasn't my experience at all... Now that I've actually played the console version, I can see why it was a problem. There was also some Unreal 4-related loading stutters on PC but I feel like they hit the console way harder and just overall those hiccups can really drive home a sluggish feel when combined with the generally sluggish controls.

That said, I had a great time with the game overall, though I wouldn't say it was one of the best games I played this year.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. And yes, a good PC, like others, including yourself, can attest to here, can solve quite a few performance related issues to abate some of the frustrations console players have had to go through.

Thanks for the detailed writeup OP! Always nice when someone puts effort into their opinions on here.

I think a lot of people were just happy EA decided to ship a singleplayer game again, and a Star Wars one to boot.
Personally, my expectations were lowered to a point where this was a welcome surprise, even if it's an underwhelming one compared to the other stuff I played this year.

Click to shrink...

Thank you.

For a game that's "such a disappointment" you sure had a lot of things you liked about the game. Jeez, combine hardcore video game fans and hardcore Star Wars fans and you have a perfect recipe for a hard to please fan.

I agree with the thought that it provides a great base for a sequel. Incorporating a larger ship, more squad mates and having them be more active, maybe more RPG aspects like side-quests and stat-based gear... actually just KOTOR 3 please.

Click to shrink...

Thank you.

I have previously done these long format write ups on Tacoma and HZD. My criticisms are not intended to trash a game rather try to constructively highlight issues (both objective and subjective) so that not only others can share their their thoughts on the games but also what can be done better. Like many folks, I love SW and from what I have heard as well as seen on MC pertaining to the pedigree at Respawn, JFO should have been a far better game than what it is.

A while back I saw a Behind The Scene video of a game (the name of which I can't recall atm) and in it one of the devs said that they tend to look at both what folks liked as especially disliked about their game, out and about in the world. And so, when I can and feel passionate about writing up a review, I do my best to make it as constructive and detailed as possible.

 

[seroun]

It is a not really polished games, and I had 2 crashes on PC and clearly the texture loading needed some work, but god damn it.. I'm not even a Star Wars fan and I had so much fun, wtf. I had a 2-week stop because of life thingies but came back, kept playing it and then there's a moment where everything suddenly picks up at 100km/h and hell,.. loved it, loved it.

I really loved the characters. My gripes are the combat camera, the loading of textures/crashes.

In the other side, The Outer Worlds for me was super polished, everything gameplay related and tech-related was well-done and.. when I finished I didn't really feel anything about the game. For me both games have been two cases of showing me what I actually appreciate in a game (story and characters over gameplay).

 

[PintSizedSlasher]

Biggest disappointment of the year for me. I'm really trying hard to like it, but it's just so mediocre on so many levels...

Still think that both modern Battlefront games are way more enjoyable Star Wars games....

 

[Moist_Owlet]

Poncho collector 2019 got really boring really quick. It borrows a bunch of ideas from better games, but doesn't do them as well or interesting as any of them. The last few hours are ok because the story decides to happen then.

 

[trikster40]

Definitely unpolished with some bad dialogue and stiff animations here and there, but overall I loved it despite its issues.

Agree on some of the points about combat, especially the "mana" pool, it really discouraged me from using force.



I got fucked over as some enemies that should appear randomly don't respawn in my game at all, thus I'm missing 2 trophies because of it. Of course Respawn is too busy patching less important shit.

Click to shrink...

Which trophies are you missing and which enemies are you referrring to? I've got the plat, maybe I can help.

 

[Nooblet]

You've basically written down everything I liked and disliked about the game. And yea the material quality in Dathomir and Kashyyk were incredibly poor. The rocks in Dathomir and the foliage in Kashyyk looked like plastic.

The loot was absolutely terrible, just some ponchos and modifications to lightsabre hilt...a tiny object in the game space that's blurred most of the time due to the motion blur and covered by Cal's hands. What was the point of having 4-5 different parts that you rarely if ever see as loot? The combat is wonky and the animation is inconsistent, the time it takes to heal from a button press can vary due to the wonky animation. Infact I've even had situations where Cal wouldn't even heal despite pressing the button cause the animation system was struggling to figure out wtf was up.

 

[MaitreWakou]

Now I believe even more in the infamous 'ERA bubble'. In all my social & gaming groups, this game is EXTREMELY well received.

Click to shrink...

Jeez, for once we have a big ass long post detailling what he likes and dislikes, no hyperbole or stuff, no "this is shit" but "this frustrates me" or stuff like that, but here we go, era bubble because this guy doesn't have the same opinion.
Like, I wish all posts on this forum weren't "this shit is overrated" "this is so bad I don't get the love", but instead were more like OP.

 

[Raiden]

I got bored with it on the third planet or so. The combat felt off as well, did not care for the platforming and puzzles either.

Maybe I'll pick it up later but Eh..

 

[Bansai]

Which trophies are you missing and which enemies are you referrring to? I've got the plat, maybe I can help.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Trophy for scanning all enemies and trophy for killing all bounty hunters, problem is that the bounty hunters are not spawning in my game at all and it's a glitch, unfortunately.

 

[Blue Skies]

This game is like if Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank had a baby that was conceived during a Star Wars marathon.

 

[Deleted member 32822]

Just finished. The ending escape would have been better if it was a little longer.

 

[Asbsand]

Visual Presentation-

• Dialogue segments outside cutscenes featured stiff animations (more on this under Story & Characters).

Click to shrink...

Dear AAA publishers: If your developer starts going down the path of "Hey maybe we should do AMBIENT DIALOGUE CONTENT!" jump on a plane, fly over to wherever the studio is located, deploy Andrew Wilson or other Exec and make them step forward as they bend slightly over, point their finger in a rubber-bouncy fashion and Jim Carrey face and yell "Stop right there, people!"

We need to stop ambient dialogues from exceeding the amount of actual work that can be done on dialogue content in all video games. Why? Because it's bad content and yet so many developers don't restrain their VA/Writing budget to accomodate this.

 

[trikster40]

Spoiler

Trophy for scanning all enemies and trophy for killing all bounty hunters, problem is that the bounty hunters are not spawning in my game at all and it's a glitch, unfortunately.

Click to shrink...

Yikes. Yeah that came pretty naturally. That sucks, especially since it's not affecting everyone. Hopefully they'll patch it soon.

 

[nickfrancis86]

I went in expecting to be disappointed and came out very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Yeah it's really quite buggy on PC and the level streaming on console is nigh on unacceptable IMO. But I still really enjoyed it, craved more even. Actually ended up installing Battlefront 2 again and have been having a lot of fun with that.

I feel the game was vastly undersold by Respawn.

 

[Hey Please]

Spoiler

Trophy for scanning all enemies and trophy for killing all bounty hunters, problem is that the bounty hunters are not spawning in my game at all and it's a glitch, unfortunately.

Click to shrink...

Crazy idea:

Try starting a new game and then loading the old game's save. AFAIK, the save system should not overwrite the old playthrough's data.

I went in expecting to be disappointed and came out very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Yeah it's really quite buggy on PC and the level streaming on console is nigh on unacceptable IMO. But I still really enjoyed it, craved more even. Actually ended up installing Battlefront 2 again and have been having a lot of fun with that.

I feel the game was vastly undersold by Respawn.

Click to shrink...

If you are referring to DICE's BF2 then given the string of significant improvements, which was in fact covered on this forum recently, then yes it is worth its salt now.