Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order:
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Return of the Cliche
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Exploring Six Planets in the Galaxy
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Murdering Wildlife with A Wifflesaber
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Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Even the Force Can't Hold the Plot Together
Cal is every Jedi cliched combined, exploration feels like an in-game cinematic, and combat is as overwrought as a poorly acted Shakespearean production. Obviously the plot is no better.
Fallen Order occurs after the purge, but with flashbacks to Cal's traumatic witness of the events. Episodes I-VI provide a general knowledge sufficient for the setting. But Fallen Order draws slightly from comics and the Star Wars Rebels tv show. Specifically these sources introduce the Inquisitorius, an Imperial organization dedicated to hunting Jedi. The Inquisitorius employs Force warriors called Sisters. While no additional material is needed to get the general gist, Fallen Order leaves them skeletal in detail.
After completing a planet the player is given the choice of the next to explore. I always chose the one recommended level. The story probably maintains its dull, disjointed plodding regardless of how one goes about exploring Cal's corner of the galaxy. If played in the preferred order one almost never returns to previously explored areas.
The first boss intercepts Cal as he races to escape the introductory planet of Bracca. Because this boss appears to be a “serious” antagonist the player isn't allowed to defeat the Second Sister. Instead, the player is forced to lose; rescued in a cinematic by new allies. The second time the player encounters the same boss the player is allowed to reduce her health to half …. before the boss wins in a cinematic, and Cal is again saved by an ally (in a cinematic). Sister #2 isn't done with Cal yet.
Other bosses offer similar levels of unrelenting story schlock.
After completing the main objective on Zeffo, Cal encounters a bounty hunter, a mini-boss. After the game graciously allows the player to reduce the foe's health to ten percent the enemy uses a one shot kill to win. Cal is transported to a space prison, which contributes nothing to the story with its merge puzzles. In summary, Cal is capture out of nowhere, by a nobody, who automatically defeats the player, forcing Cal to escape a grimy prison, which the player can't revisit (because it isn't a planet), that barely advances a minor villain, before being rescued (again) by his allies on the spaceship Mantis. Those same bounty hunters barely interrupt for five more minutes later in the game before Cal permanently puts them in the ground.
Another boss, the Ninth Sister, is introduced for a minute on the introductory planet, and isn't seen until she ambushes Cal in a boss battle. After he defeats her, she never reappears. And of course, the writer has to insert their finger into the fight. After reducing the Ninth Sister's health to close to zero, a cinematic allows the Sister to turn the tables and defeat Cal, before a second cinematic hands the victory back to the character.
On a later planet Cal encounters another force user, a former Jedi. This “friend's” behavior screams corrupted to the Dark side of the force, but the writer believes their characterization is super subtle. After talking for a minute, Cal doesn't see him again until, you guessed it, Cal fights him in a boss battle. There is no continuous thread, no threat of danger, but a patchwork quilt of villains who share only a tangential connection to each other or the story. Too many boss battles began with the thought, “Who is this?” Cal makes mortal enemies instantly, with a single misinterpreted word.
And that corrupted force user? Again the writer insists on humiliating the player. After reducing the boss to half health, the boss nearly wins in a cinematic. A newly introduced ally rescues Cal and resets the battle. The player finishes the duel uninterrupted.
Another mini-boss, a foe who literately raises her undead sisters to murder Cal, switches sides in seconds to aid the player. After her rage subsides she is portrayed as calm and reasonable. But her zombie brethren still attack Cal. Yet they allow her on the Mantis. This additional crew member doesn't contribute, but makes minor cameos for the next few hours.
Though Cal is only seeking his MacGuffin, the Second Sister follows him to the objective for a final confrontation. Fallen Order, with its rotating cast of disposable villains fails to build up this foe. At least this final battle, while mechanically exhausted, is uninterrupted by the writer, sort of. A final, final enemy crashes the conclusion with a dramatic entrance for their absurd cameo. Cal doesn't defeat the foe, but it's still embarrassing, for them, because Cal escapes.
Approaching the ending of Fallen Order, it's obvious the developers want a sequel. Cal and his allies spent the entire game searching for an item that would help them find something they wanted. A tired, convoluted plot but at least it would set up a sequel. Cal would have his compass and use it to find his treasure. But in the resolution cinematic after Cal acquires his device, he tosses it aside like a candy wrapper. This wasn't a twist ending, where the hero learns something and discovers a new path forward. It's an abandonment of the quest of the entire game. Fallen Order ends with nothing achieved, and nothing planned. The character didn't learn, because they never let a single thought pass through his brain. All the developer can do at the end is place platitudes in Cal's mouth.
The greatest waste of Fallen Order is the Echo System. Mechanically it is a simple tool to allow the player to learn about their environment and absorb power. But it is neglected in the story. It is only used for the very beginning, so Cal can learn (Secret #1), and at the end so Cal can learn (Secret #2), allowing the writer to finish their contrived ending.
In conclusion, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is a mess from start to finish. The protagonist lacks the characteristics necessary to engage the player. He lacks character development because he is repeatedly deprived of agency by the writers. The events of Fallen Order happen to him. While each planet is well designed, and includes a helpful map, the climbing elements are thematic action sequences too simple to be called gameplay. The few puzzles and the repetitive combat contribute to a vague listlessness. The overabundance of collectible cosmetics is tiresome; what is the point? The visual vistas are a treat, but most are relegated to background flavor, and can't be explored. If this was the first Star Wars game ever Force Powers would be adequate, but we've all seen them implemented ten times better in half a dozen games by now. The boss battles are a horrible mishmash of bad combat, irritating cinematic, and bland dialogue. The bosses represent no threat, and are disconnected from the plot. In the end, Cal and his allies abandon everything they spent an entire game achieving, leaving nothing done.
I hope readers humor me for a tangent. I do not hate Star Wars. Quite the opposite. In the first year of Awkward Mixture I published a series of articles criticizing J.J. Abraham's Episode VII. Though I never commented on Episodes VIII and IX, I found them equally without merit as Star Wars stories. Yet I love the original series. I recently introduced my sons to the universe. We watched Episodes I-VI. I can confirm that Episodes I-III are as bad as VII–IX, but for a different reason. But I enjoy some of the spin-off material, especially The Mandalorian. For my son's birthday I purchased the Star Wars Imperial Assault board game, which we play as a family. One of my critiques of the later episodes carries into Fallen Order; the behavior of stormtroopers.
The stormtroopers of the original trilogy aren't human. The masks dehumanize them for the viewer. No one is upset when Han Solo shoots them. We can't see their skin, faces, or even eyes. There is no blood. Their actions show they are emotionless monsters who murder innocent people without hesitation. Episodes I-III reinforces this theme by making them clones, further dehumanizing them (and Episodes I-III also use droids and aliens). Stormtroopers are like the orcs of The Lord of the Rings, inherently inhuman, incapable of goodness, pure evil. For good or ill it was an essential element of Star Wars. But Episode VII humanized a stormtrooper, which humanized all stormtroopers. If one murderer could be redeemed, then they all could. Stormtroopers became people.
Fallen Order reinforces this flaw, in the most disgusting method possible. As Cal approaches various stormtroopers they can be heard yelling, “Is he going to kill us all?” and “I don't want to die!” They scream in terror as Cal slices them apart. Fallen Order glorifies Cal as murders his enemies, even as it reminds the player that they are human; they suffer fear and have a shared sense of empathy (with the other stormtroopers).
Maybe it was naive, and potentially dangerous, to pretend stormtroopers weren't human, to remove their humanity, but it was essential for viewing for classic Star Wars. The continuing alteration should be viewed with caution, because it creates a different sort of danger.
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