Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Revealed yesterday is an upcoming action game by Respawn Entertainment (known for previously for Call of Duty and in their current studio for Titanfall and Apex). Some information on the title - I specifically left story bits out and just focessed on gameplay:

• Melee action game
  
• Force powers and lightsaber
  
• Combat is key, thoughtful, size up enemies and exploit weaknesses with powers
  
• The rumors of it being similar to Dark Souls might have some merit (please no...)
  
• November 15th release date (yet still no gameplay trailer...)
  
• Appears to be open world (why...)
  
• Some cosmetic customization, based on pre-order bonuses (here we go...)
  
• Stormtroopers will apparently die in one hit, tougher enemies will be strategically difficult, wont just have higher health/damage
  
• Inquisitors will be a common enemy
  
• Metroidvania-esque aspect of returning to older levels with new abilities to access new areas
  
• Some puzzle solving elements
  
• Droid partner can use abilities
  

So far I'd have to see some gameplay first, especially considering how tainted the IP is getting in terms of media-outings. That said it would seem to be something along the lines of what God of War 2018 offered from what I'm reading. So it would probably end up being a sub-par action title built around one playthrough with lots of walky-talky segments, automatic platforming and little replay value or in depth mechanics. Here's hoping I'm really wrong! Because The Force Unleashed was pretty freak'n cool for its time, would be great if they'd top this! Thoughts?

It’s being directed by the director of GoW3, for what it’s worth. Also I thought I saw an interview where he said it wouldn’t be open world, maybe I’m wrong. Either way, I’ll keep an eye on it but I won’t say I’m optimistic. No interest at all in SW so that doesn’t help.

I had fun with both of The Force Unleashed games! I might be wrong but I am pretty sure EA will ruin this somehow. This reminds me of the time I predicted Disney buying Star Wars when they bought Marvel. I think it is supposed to be semi-open world the last time I heard of this.

Even though I am almost positive this will be AAA trash. I have a sliver of hope. Stig directed my favorite GOW game. 3 has some of the weakest combat and challenge, but it was just non stop action to the end. Need to get through a door? Just jam a poor woman under the handle so you can get through, fuck everything you are the GOD OF WAR. I think Stig was a part of all 3 games, and I have a theory that he was secretly keeping that ship afloat. Just look at the trash post-GOW Jaffe tried to shovel out, it made him leave games. I also really didn't like 2 after playing it recently. Too much walking and platforming through set pieces. Compared to the first game, I felt like I could count the fights on 1 hand in each level. But let's be real, this will probably be a walk and talk souls like with "MUH DEEP COMBAT" like God of Bore 2018.

God of War 3 had a lot of other great things though that often get it overlooked. Guy added the battering-ram move to the grabs, wall pins, more emphasis on enviromental kills while also adding a dash and airdodge. Fantastic title.

But that just doesn't sell. Especially with a brand that is getting slowly damaged like Star Wars. But we'll see. Right now it's being noted by Stig as "Wind Waker meets Metroid". Here's hoping!

Loved the battering ram move, but it was kind of op. It makes the Hercules fight a joke for instance. It became my go to grab, where as in 1 and 2, I was always thinking situationally which grab was best.

Nothing is sacred...

First gameplay trailer is here. Some notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8939aURV9Dc


Game looks typical standard fare, lots of contextual stuff like wallruns en climbing, interrupting cutscenes. Lots of walking. Can use vines as transportation. Platforming looks pretty 'uncharted' level, in that it plays itself.
No light/dark options, just straight story.

You can use the lightsabre as a torch. Force push doors open like in Force Awakens. Droid follows you around.


You can reflect shots, which drains "sabre" meter which seems to regenerate pretty fast. You can Force Pull, Push and slow down time. They can be combined in fun ways. Saw footage of a guy being frozen in time, pulled and thrown into his own blaster shot. Or slown down and a lightsaber thrown at them. There is a Perfect parr, which leads to an instant kill. Minor Enviromental kills are possible, but it all feels much more 'scripted' than freeform. There are no ragdolls, no enviroments to destroy etc.


Combat looks very contextualized, and really slow. Enemies walk so slow, it's nuts. Strangely enough there is no gore or decapitations. But I did hear a guard say "fuck you", really weird.
As a whole the sword combat seems very slow and methodical, mostly focused on one on one duels. Doesn't seem to be the main appeal.

Framerate looks excellent though I fear the main game will be slower. probablyu running on a high end pc or something.

Enemies can be at war with other factions. There was a segment where storm troopers were fighting against bugs and you could choose to intervene or just let them kill each other.

Conventional healthbar, force meter that recharges automatically.

There's the typical dodge and roll. And you have healthpacks that can be used on command ala estus (seems like a limited amount). You skill points gained from killing.

Xbox one enchanced apparently.

Interview at the end sees Stig note enemy arrangements being very important to them. He notes that it 'thoughtful combat, not just mash X for fancy animations. Everything is freeform.
You can really see that the director knows his gameplay stuff. Not pandering about story. Gameplay. Stig is really holding down the fort it seems. That said, it does feel like a more 'modern' and thus 'basic' version of the first Force Unleashed i.e. the production seems of higher quality but it all looks, in terms of gameplay, a step back.

More to be shown tomorrow at xbox e3.

I'll be watching the press conference before work, but man this looks bad.

Some new gameplay, still on the fence about this one.

I too am convinced that this will end up being crap, but I have to say, it's looking better than I expected. I haven't played either of the Force Unleashed games, but when I think about it, Star Wars would be a fantastic franchise to develop an action game for. The variety of force powers looks decent so far, but two things stood out to me:

- The player tries to use the force pull to bring the trooper with the staff towards him. I liked how the trooper resists the pull at first, but then tries to turn it in to his own attack by lunging at the player. It's good that they bothered to come up with something like this instead of making the force push simply not work against stronger enemy types. Once you know you can manipulate the enemy like this, you can create predictable opportunities to parry moves.

- It seems you can cause the backpacks of the flamethrower stormtroopers to explode, although i'm not sure how this was done. I think maybe the slowdown power causes the weapon to overheat as the flames build up inside it. Always nice to have more options in combat. I assume there will be opportunities to use these enemies as makeshift explosives when fighting groups, which should be fun.

I think you will like the Force Unleashed to be honest. I'm actually working on an article about it, it is the next in line, but I always held it in high regard. The first one at the very least, the second was 'okay'. If you have it, it is backwards compatible on the Xbox One X with upped resolution. Still caps at 30fps though.

But yeah, the enviromental stuff looks fun, but if you played Unleashed it feels quite hollow by comparison. A problem most modern games have it seems. It still looks fun though and I think - gameplay wise - this might be the best non-Japanese AAA game we'll get in a while.

Need that article asap my boy Roy, been eyeing that steam sale! Only played casually at release.

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Article is going to take a while, but the raw one is finished (so the pure data), I can PM it to you if you wish! Note that the PC version is absolutely horrible and bugged. Better to get a console release.

Definietly pm it I would love to read.

Ehh, for $6.99 and steam's 2 hour return window i would take the plunge and try pc first. I just can't enjoy console framerates knowing a pc version exists anymore.

Sent you a PM! I can imagine though. The game will no doubt be a lot better at 60fps for sure!

A lot of people that have demoed are saying that it's better than expected. It's apparently quite interconnected, and has a fairly in-depth skill tree. Any thoughts?

Also, my dream Star Wars game would use a Ninja Gaiden-esque dismemberment system, which absolutely none of the games ever released for Star Wars have. Nor will it ever happen.

I'm still - very - skeptical. The interconnected world and skill trees are fine, but if the combat is still this slow and such a step back compared to The Force Unleashed, I'm going to stay on the fence about it. I've seen people analyze the video of the ATST fight and ... come on, we were doing this nearly 10 years ago. I'd have hoped that with the current technological improvements, we'd see an upgrade, not a downgrade.

> delimbs
Ironically, didn't the Lego games feature this?

I loved SWFU back then and I agree with Raeng about this one. This generation is unfortunately full of downgrades.

Saw an IGN preview video and it looked so boring man. They also confirmed bonfires and estus equivalents. Hearing that, seeing that lockon and slow circle strafe combat, I think we are just going to get an average souls clone. Which will be praised because, muh cinematic and muh "depth".
I am actually planning on watching all of the movies when the new one comes out, and playing through kotor and force unleashed. Probably won't touch this.

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It's scary how easily a simple term like "bonfires" and "estus" can immediately turn one off from a game. Not because they're bad mechanics, not at all, but because it shows that it's not going for its own thing. At least that's how I feel about it.

Note about the final film, the leaks are real and I've seen the whole final act haha. I wasn't that excited for it anyway, so I thought I'd spoil it for myself. If people want spoilers, PM me.

> This generation is unfortunately full of downgrades.
This is key point in my upcoming article, but it really does seem that way. It's weird how teams are growing (Devil May Cry V had nearly 5 times the staff as the first game), but gameplay isn't. Is it really all just for those fancy graphics?

>simple term like "bonfires" and "estus" can immediately turn one off from a game

I find the same issue with 'hide & seek' games, as they call them. For me, it was Clock Tower, Haunting Ground, Siren, you know, the quality shit. Then the market got overrun with indie games and Youtube screamers to the point that no one wants to know. As soon as they see the original masterpieces they instantly disregard them. Looks like the same thing has happened with all these bonfire strafers.

>Is it really all just for those fancy graphics?

Yes.

Well. I recently watched the OT for the first time, currently making my way through the prequels(the only bad thing about Phantom Menace is Jar Jar), and I'm just in a super Star Wars mood. With EA premier for $15 you can get this on pc so I will be playing tomorrow when it launches. I was surprised to see a lot of difficulty settings. It actually tells you how each difficulty effects parry windows, aggression, and damage taken. Crazy to see that in a big budget game, that's what sold me.
I'll post impressions asap. Apparently it unlocks in like 5 hours or something, but I'm not staying up for that.
Hoping Stig doesn't disappoint..

The difficulty differences actually sounds promising, I'm a little tempted by this game myself. Do share your thoughts after you've had a chance to play!

Ok I was a little off, the game actually unlocks in two hours. I'm not sleeping haha

Sorry, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually kind of excited for this game. I get the feeling that it's not gonna be Souls, or Nioh tier, but I do think it's gonna be around the same level as The Surge 2 or so, which is a game that I really enjoyed. The Surge 2 was definitely a surprise hit for me this year. My brain is practically hardwired to enjoy some solid Soulsy combat and interconnected level design.

Respawn are also good developers. Titanfall 2 was fucking great.

Looking forward to the thoughts and impressions. I'm still on the fence about getting this game, but I'd be interested in seeing it develop. I might lurk on the Gamefaqs side of things as well.

Ok quick thoughts after playing the opening hours, beating the tutorial planet. After that you get the option to go to two different planets, one that seems much harder than what they intend, cool you can though.

Structure-
At the end of the day, this is a souls clone. You have bonfires, estus, open levels with many shortcuts, and very similar combat. Enemies have a stamina bar like Nioh/Sekiro as well. That's not to say it's bad, it's hard to describe, but this game feels really good. You can tell the director of GOW3 made this. The movement feels really good, not too weighty. You do a lot of kratos style platforming to get around, this is also a metroidvania. The first ability you get is wall run, which lets you explore and uncover more of the map. It reminds me of a certain pair of boots, from a ps3 action game....
I still don't have much tech, just the slow down time you start with, which just lets you get a few extra hits in, so hard to say how much tech there is. It seems like it has the potential for some cool force combos.

I am enjoying the story as well. It has just enough to keep you interested, and it knows when you want it to get the fuck out of the way so you can play an action game. Seems like the opposite of GOW2018.
Voice acting is pretty good, I like the little alien pilot a lot.

Why do devs keep using real actors? It just looks so fucking creepy man, we aren't there with tech yet, I wish they would stop.

I am playing on the hardest difficulty and it isn't that hard, and the timing windows aren't that strict. Though I have played a lot of Onimusha, I guess they can't expect most western players to be able to hit proper tight timings these days.

Deflecting blaster shots is very satisfying.

Game looks very good maxed out on pc, and apparently has a 60fps mode on Pro consoles.

The metroidvania level design is done really well, everything just loops back perfectly, and leads to a lot of aha moments.

One of the skills in the skill tree is a quick kick after dodging which does stamina damage, but no health damage. That's great for storm troopers, but when fighting big monsters with just a health bar, it is basically a wasted attack. You have to delay your strike slightly to get the saber. It's just super annoying, I wish I didn't buy it, and I hope it is optional on the tree, but it looks like you have to buy all the starter skills to get the full tree.

0 dismemberment when fighting stormtroopers is a real bummer, it makes no sense when you jam a light saber through their chest and nothing. I get it though, they are disney now.

An interesting change to the kratos wall climbing is you actually have to press a button to attach to the wall, it's a small change but I have fallen down a lot of bottomless pits just expecting him to grab on. You lose a little health like Zelda if you fall off ledges.

Edit: there is like a 90 minute making of Doc that comes with the game, featuring the Stig himself! I watched a bit and it was great. The devs asked Stig how mad he would be if your lock on changed to the guy you just parried, Stig's response, "I wouldn't like that". It's awesome to see a director discussing small but profound gameplay details like that, it shows gameplay is a priority for him

So it's actually not bad then?

Even if it doesn't have any tech, it still seems like something I'll really enjoy.

Also, can you use wallrunning in combat?

You can do a drop attack on enemies. The only thing I have seen was wall running and dropping on an enemy, seems to mostly be for traversal.

Edit: Bonfires are VERY close, they are as close as normal action game checkpoints. Other than refilling your estus, they feel more like save points, because traditional checkpoints wouldn't make since in a non linear game like this.

Game honestly sounds really interesting. I just saw a part of the game's difficulty select and that really brings a smile to my face. Probably the best difficulty select I have ever seen. At least the most clear one.

Hedfone, do you think the game will be annoying to replay with constant cutscenes and or walking sections? Or is it not that bad?

Just took a look at the difficulty select screen from TheRadBrad's video on it.

Yeah, that's something that ought to be standard in difficulty screens. Would be very nice to give people a good idea of what they're getting into. Among other things, like customizable HUDs, graphical options that show you the difference between each setting, (Ubisoft's very good at these two, and the RE2Make did the graphics thing as well), adjustable text sizes, and a separate slider for each type of sound effect. Stuff like this is just basic accessibility.

>Replays
0 walking sections so far, I don't think cutscenes are skippable, a lot of them hide console loads, because there are no load screens in the game.

>Accessibility
Also fully remappable controls which is fantastic.
Playstation and Xbox should require this for every game, what is the excuse?

I went back to an old planet to look for some hidden health or MP upgrades and found the craziest fucking thing that opened up my combat options by a ton. I cannot believe that something that badass is optional and the game never points you to it with a "cool unlock waypoint ahead". Blew me the fuck away. Go into this blind if you can asap. I reached the first big GOW3 level spectacle and holy shit it was so badass. It rivaled some of the best moments in GOW3, this game oozes Stig at every corner. I am having a blast, also starting to get my ass whooped on the hardest skill. They love putting crazy empire guys you have never seen before off the beaten path like, you want this chest?... Beat this dude. Going after the optional stuff is the only time I have noticed a runback, the story missions are checkpointed to hell. It reminds me of the new super mario games where the gold coins are the real challenge, the goal is piss easy.

I just landed on a planet that won't let me leave until I make progress, I get it, there are stakes in the story, but the last planet I was on was missing 13 secrets lol(a little annoying). Secrets seem to be things like health/MP upgrades or abilities. That's the good shit. The treasure chests just have skins. But your droid is so cute so I enjoy finding new skins for him. I wonder how much they needed to fight mickey mouse to keep skins in the game, and not MTX.

Damn, your impressions seem to be really positive! Back in June, on this very page, you said "man, this looks bad". Sounds like it blew your expectations away.

I WANT THIS FUCKING GAME NOW BUT I'M A BROKE HIGH SCHOOLER i might even just pirate it as soon as it's cracked so i can get a taste, but i'll definitely buy it later on steam during winter break or something

I also had never seen the OT before so seeing that recently has me hyped for sure. I also have a fresh KOTOR game going too, so I am deep in the Star Wars. It is much better than it looked initially.
Little things like, when an enemy kills you they get your souls until you damage them, then you get full life, force, and your souls. If a different enemy kills you before you retrieve, it just transfers your souls, you cannot lose them permanently as far as I can tell. Makes the game much less annoying. Above all though, the feel. I can't describe it, but it feels good. It feels good like it feels good to move Kratos around. It's different, but it feels good. It doesn't FEEL like souls, which is the issue with every souls clone. Take the ideas, but don't take Souls' feel, they never come close. Fallen Order does it's own thing.

Also it is $15 on Pc for a month of EA premier, that is pretty rad.

I was planning to pirate, but seeing some games take months to crack denuvo, I decided to just drop the $15.

So from what you're making it sound like, this game, along with God of War 3 cements Stig Asmussen as a guy that can hold up to some of the greats of action game directors, like Hideki Kamiya, Shinji Mikami, Tomonobu Itagaki, etc. Looks like the guy really was able to compensate for the lack of dismemberment by polishing up everything else.

Also, I fucking love God of War 3.

I'm going to end up buying this, arent I?

I've been waiting for a good Star Wars game since the catastrophe that was the EA Battlefront games, so it's great to hear good impressions here.

The combat designer on this and GOW3 were the same which is cool to find out. He posted some twitter tips that have exact parry fame times.

https://twitter.com/jasondeheras/status/1196267455418515456

I've watched TheSeraphim17 playing it and it doesn't seem interesting enough. Bonfires and bloodstains are bad choices but animations too are worrying. There are a lot of input delays and some input drops, lock-on seems unreliable in several cases and the lightsaber isn't satisfying to use.

Granted, I haven't played it, but it seems a very 'you get what you put in' type of game. Seraphim went in hating it as I recall, he's pretty tired of souls-likes iirc, so I wouldn't be surprised if he quickly rushed 'till the end to get maximum views asap to move away from it.

It's moments like this I'd really like a bloody demo.

Yeah, SWFU had a demo and I loved it. I decided to buy it thanks to that.

About this game, I understand that Seraphim is tired of these souls-likes but "bonfires" like these ruin the experience. If they were better placed maybe they could work, but it can be pretty frustrating to redo platforming sections and filler fights in order to retry the battle in which you died.
I don't like the metroidvania structure, long puzzles and platforming sections but some people like them. However some problems should be criticized by everyone if true.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really tired of the pointless trope of "difficulty is running back to the boss", it is a pointless waste of our time. Again, haven't played the game so I'm honestly not allowed to talk about it haha! But you know what I mean!

I want to try this game but I’ve been burned by new games so many times recently. I think I’m just going to wait for a sale.

0 boss runbacks so far.

Also you cannot actually lose your souls, no matter how many times you die, they are always there.
If an enemy kills the enemy that had them, you get them back.
I have no idea why the system is in the game lol.
(Side note there is a ton of in fighting between enemies in this game, it is a lot of fun to see, reminds me of doom)

I got the ability to refill my entire force power bar with each heal. This has allowed me to really start laying on the force powers because I currently have 6 heals and bonfires are everywhere.
You can pull people to you for an insta kill, throw them of ledges, or hold them in front of blasters. If you are good at this game, you can wreck it, Cal becomes very powerful.
Playing on the hardest difficulty.

Okay, so it got cracked (I'm sorry Respawn, I swear I'll buy it when I have money), and I just booted it up. Goddamn, this really feels like an Old God of War game, thanks to the platforming.

Also a big fan of how much more to-the-point the animations are than God of War 2018. Take notes,
Sony Santa Monica.

Here are my only complaints so far, I think I a m getting close to the end.

* Bad hit boxes abound, mostly grabs. But every From game since DS2 has had iffy hitboxes so this doesn't bother me too much. It's almost to be expected from the genre. The surge was the same way.

* The platforming breaks often, things just don't line up perfect and you fall, no wiggle room. In GOW, especially 3 I enjoyed the platforming, not so much here. In GOW if you jump along the side of the wall to go faster you wouldn't fall off, here he might just let go for some reason. A jump might be slightly off after a wall run, he might not grab on to a vine, etc.

* This game clearly got rushed out in time for the holiday, and the new movie. A perfect example, when you open a chest your droid goes in, rattles the chest, the pops out with an item. However when you are under water, the chest opens, wiggles, Cal askes if BD-1 found anything good?, but the whole time the droid is just sitting on your back. It is literally like they ran out of time and I don't know how that made it through.
A few patches could make this game perfect.

Yeah, I noticed that the game's kinda buggy. I just fell through a floor, and lost a chunk of health.

It's a shame that the traversal options that gate you through the game are your force powers. The combat becomes a lot of fun once you unlock them all. Before that it is just parrying mostly.
Slow plus overhead is absolutely broken, I can wreck every boss or tough enemy first go by using that, on that hardest difficulty. Don't even need to learn patterns lol.
That being said combat is still a blast nearing the end and I wish you had this many options from the get go.
I am glad I played some surge 1 before this. The first robot boss in that game is harder than anything in this game bar none.
I think this is a great return for Stig, I mean it's EA for christs sake. Can't wait to see more from the team, star wars or not.

If anyone has played it, is the titanfall2 campaign good? I can't stand the endless horde style of COD games, I prefer linear well put together levels. I have heard the story is good, and the movement looks great.

Yep, the campaign for TF2 is one of my favourites in an FPS game. Insanely good movement.

Unfortunately, this game seems to suffer the same problem as the Souls games.

Really fucking annoying level geometry.

You know how games like to pack little details in their levels to make them seem more believable, atmospheric, and realistic? Small things like broken down carriages in Bloodborne, crumbled walls, boulder piles, and all that? They're generally not too big. Very small details that most people wouldn't really think about.

But sometimes, those little details end up obstructing the gameplay, like in Fallen Order. Just got to

Spoiler:

, and I ended up falling off a ledge several times, even though I hit the jump button before reaching it, because there's a tiny ledge near the end of the path that you might not notice, and even though it's small, the game registers you as falling when you run over it, triggering the fall animation for a split second, and then not allowing you to jump. Kind of like how you lock on to a boss in Souls, and then the camera gets fucked, because it got stuck in some pile of rocks in the arena.

It's times like these where I wish the paths were just totally flat, and the arenas were just big empty rooms without these little details.