Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 LordofHats wrote:
The trailer basically looks like Force Unleashed, which is a rather dated kind of game for the current market imo.

That suggests that you're chucking AT-STs around, as you did in that game. So I wouldn't go *quite* that far. Or at least there's no evidence yet that your powers will get that strong.

Having finally seen the video...

1.) The earlier trailer suggested a situation in which you'd be on your own, constantly looking over your soldier for Imperial pursuers. This gameplay video has you joining a Rebel team for an attack on an Imperial facility. That doesn't quite fit with the earlier trailer. Whether that's a bad thing is up to the viewer. But it does leave me wondering.
2.) The swinging and wall-running earlier in the video seemed straight out of Titanfall. But those elements didn't get used later on, even in situations in which wall running would have been useful. I'm not sure what to make of that.
3.) The powers by and large seem to be roughly the same strength as the powers from the old Jedi Knight games. The implementation of some of them is slightly different, though, probably owing to the fact that this is a single player game. When you have multiple players running around, a Speed ability needs to make you go faster. When you don't have multiple players running around, the developers can have the ability slow everyone else down, instead.

This video is interesting, but doesn't leave me particularly interested in the game. We'll see how it develops over time.

Visceral Games had a pretty epic idea for a game in the universe. I think it says everything that needs to be said that EA looked at "Oceans Eleven Star Wars Edition" and said "where are the Jedi characters?"

 LordofHats wrote:
The trailer basically looks like Force Unleashed, which is a rather dated kind of game for the current market imo. Still, the gameplay seemed solid enough. Maybe the story will impress but I didn't feel like we got a good sense of the story other than what has already been known.

Yeah, it does. Not overpowered in the way FU was, but the same kind of fiddly 'lock on before pressing button' play.
Which also makes the gameplay seem kind of dated, while most games in this genre have moved on to fairly smooth transitions between actions.

The story isn't impressing much either, both from whats already out there and what is shown in this trailer.

The guy the generic protagonist is trying to impress and feel like part of the group with is the crazy mass murdering terrorist from Rogue One. That isn't a good sign for where the story goes.

 Gael Knight wrote:
Wow I can't wait to get the chance to play *checks notes* a white dude Jedi. Not seen that before.

A galaxy filled with aliens.

The game is made in america. Whites make up a majority of the people living in the country. They also make up a majority of game company CEOs, COOs, managers, department heads, artists, musicians, voice actors and actresses, story board writers and marketing execs.

With that said, I doubt there is some cabal dictating that all characters must be them glorious whities. It's almost as if skin-color isn't relevant...well at least that's what they told us when we were kids, to go out and explore the world and not let differences dictate our thoughts and feelings.

They could have chosen any species or race they wanted to, any gender. I for one agree with the poster who said they wanted someone a bit less juvenile. This character in particular reminded me of one of those final fantasy pretty boys.

I just want another Republic Commando game where I can play as somebody with a blaster. Why do I have to be a space wizard with a glow sticks in every Star Wars game?

Because EA is convinced that's the only thing people want out of Star Wars (in large enough numbers to conjure the sales goals they want).

To the point of being pathological on this subject and cancelling projects for not being light sabery enough.

 LordofHats wrote:
I could swear Visceral Games got shut down for not making a multiplier Star Wars game compatible with Micro-Transactions.

My my my.

The irony.

considering the design of the map overlay when you pick it up is in game and not a seperate slide, a strength of the former viscreal, i wonder how much of it was just recycled after the shitshow that was the canceling off it and the grwoing anger at EA.

Voss wrote:
Because EA is convinced that's the only thing people want out of Star Wars (in large enough numbers to conjure the sales goals they want).

To the point of being pathological on this subject and cancelling projects for not being light sabery enough.

The electronic games industry really needs a good crash. Too many of these companies are out there constantly doing everything they can to squeeze every dime out of your pocket for little to no reward. There are huge cultures of harassment and employees as well as customers are treated horribly by the companies. This is the reason why I started to move into the Table top and pen and paper RPG communities about two years ago. I got tired of using my money to support a culture of feth wads.

The last game I purchased was Stellaris, on PC, during the winter sale for about 30% the MSRP. Other than that, the last game I payed a full 60$ for was the remake of Doom and that was over four years ago.

For some reason, star wars has really gotten the bad treatment. To be fair, I think even Disney hasn't handled the IP well. The new movies have been pure garbage. Bad writing, and I often feel as though they won't really let their actors act. Rouge One was the only new film that was worth anything in my opinion. To this end, I never even bothered with the Battlefront games. I watched the gak show unfurl for each game and laughed at how ridiculous this all was. It amazed me how surprised people where, too.

Voss wrote:
Because EA is convinced that's the only thing people want out of Star Wars (in large enough numbers to conjure the sales goals they want).

To the point of being pathological on this subject and cancelling projects for not being light sabery enough.

To be fair, under EA this is the first Jedi-centric game they've come out with (and the first period since The Force Unleashed 2, which was what, 2012?). For everyone wanting something in the vein of Republic Commando (an idea I could definitely get behind, and thinking about it now, Respawn would have been ideal for that given the masterpiece that is Titanfall 2's campaign), there's just as many that have been waiting for something other than a shooter.

The saber heroes in Battlefront feel so clunky and a little tacked on, so I am fully on board with something in the vein of Jedi Academy/The Force Unleashed. Have EA completely mishandled the license? Yes, certainly, but I don't think you can really bash them for not focusing on non-Jedi games when all they've released thus far is two shooters...

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. It's not a story that can really offer much in the way of new takes and angles. I'll reserve judgement for now, as it could well be just the one mission with the Saw Gerrerra cameo then we never see the fledgling Alliance again, but I'm really hoping they lean more into the idea of a lone Jedi on the run, rudderless and focused mainly on keeping himself alive.

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. I

At least it's better then Battlefront 2's "Oh hey you might get to play on the Empire.. Wait no, you are just going Rebel" sort.

That's honestly what's got me concerned; they had a chance to show an interesting new perspective and within a handful of missions it was the same old same old.

There's a lot you can do with the narrative of the lone Jedi, no Master, no war to fight, and to his knowledge one of the very last of them. Does he try to fight back? Does he keep his head down at the expense of the Jedi's duty to do good? Does he come closer to the Dark Side given the destruction of everything he knew and no one to steer him away from it? Does he consider just walking away from it all completely and hanging up the saber? The first trailer hinted at a fair bit of this, so hopefully it'll still come through in between bouts of being the 756th young Jedi to fall in with the up-and-coming Rebellion...

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. I

At least it's better then Battlefront 2's "Oh hey you might get to play on the Empire.. Wait no, you are just going Rebel" sort.

You did play on the Empire.

And once the First Order came into being, things changed. Cannot stress this bit enough with regards to the "From Ashes" DLC that was made available for free when The Last Jedi dropped.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. I

At least it's better then Battlefront 2's "Oh hey you might get to play on the Empire.. Wait no, you are just going Rebel" sort.

You did play on the Empire.

And once the First Order came into being, things changed. Cannot stress this bit enough with regards to the "From Ashes" DLC that was made available for free when The Last Jedi dropped.

This is true though you mostly did end up doing neutral and rebellion missions comparatively. Never really did the DLC though.

The game looks fine, nothing I would pick up at full price but something I would get some enjoyment out of at a later date.

It does look a little slow and clunky at the moment but I will blame that on the fact that it is still in alpha phase!

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. I

At least it's better then Battlefront 2's "Oh hey you might get to play on the Empire.. Wait no, you are just going Rebel" sort.

You did play on the Empire.

And once the First Order came into being, things changed. Cannot stress this bit enough with regards to the "From Ashes" DLC that was made available for free when The Last Jedi dropped.

This is true though you mostly did end up doing neutral and rebellion missions comparatively. Never really did the DLC though.

Well yeah, you ended up doing more Rebel missions--because the game started with the flipping Battle of Endor.

Heres a good bit of gameplay. Looks fairly decent I think

 Kanluwen wrote:

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

My only reservation about Fallen Order is that he's falling in with the Rebels yet again... which is exactly what Starkiller in TFU and then Ezra in Rebels did. I

At least it's better then Battlefront 2's "Oh hey you might get to play on the Empire.. Wait no, you are just going Rebel" sort.

You did play on the Empire.

And once the First Order came into being, things changed. Cannot stress this bit enough with regards to the "From Ashes" DLC that was made available for free when The Last Jedi dropped.

This is true though you mostly did end up doing neutral and rebellion missions comparatively. Never really did the DLC though.

Well yeah, you ended up doing more Rebel missions--because the game started with the flipping Battle of Endor.

Which is factually correct but not relevant to the core charge of "they advertised an Imperial storyline, and we got the standard Imperial Gets Woke And Goes Rebs one instead", because nothing demanded they write the story as they did, or advertise it as they did. They could have advertised the story they made as what it was, or they could have chosen to make the plot about the elite Imperial Special Forces team and set it prior to Endor(or, really, any time up to Jakku over a year after Endor). That would also have had the benefit of making any eventual turn in the DLC seem earned rather than out of nowhere nonsense(I mean, seriously, two out of the three ISB-approved elite special forces commandos get the wobblies from a five minute chat with Luke and one slightly more atrocious than normal atrocity? Bleugh).

 Kanluwen wrote:


And once the First Order came into being, things changed. Cannot stress this bit enough with regards to the "From Ashes" DLC that was made available for free when The Last Jedi dropped.

This is true though you mostly did end up doing neutral and rebellion missions comparatively. Never really did the DLC though.

Bringing this back, because this is out.

Decided to watch some gameplay rather than jump into it day 1 (for loads of reasons).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itYVap2d9fE

Initial reaction: the music is surprisingly excellent, especially the surprise intro music.

Graphics are... fairly standard. They're nice, but by today's standards don't look like anything beyond 'normal'


Apparently despite being available on Steam, it kicks you over to sign in with EA/Origin anyway.

Most initial reactions on steam are positive (currently around 90%), despite everything. What complaints I have seen are mostly about how its linear and the Tomb Raider wall-running.

Anyone pick it up, thoughts?

I'm enjoying it so far.

The wall running is standard fare if you played Titanfall 2.

Also, it's made Republic Commando canon! There's a lot of spoilers I could drop by accident going beyond that. Just know that the bit with Saw Guerrera that we saw in the trailer? It's got a reason for happening, and it wasn't because Cal's with the Rebellion from the outset.

I will say the protagonist's snappy lines...aren't
An exchange was:
'How did you get here?' ,
'How'd _you_ get here?'

And the alien buddy sounds like he came out of a bar down on 34th street.


---
Yesh. And after about 40 minutes of watching, I've got serious vertigo.
And the number of convenient panels and walkways is already too silly to take seriously, especially when they immediately break off after use.

There also seems to be no consequence for failing or falling, even on the very hardest difficulty.

Definitely not my kind of game.

Watched a few hours of it.

So far Uncharted: A Star Wars Story seems wildly linear.

It's not bad, but it's not great either. It seems so video game-y. That's a weird criticism I know, but take the movement controls. You slowly unlock abilities just from progressing the story (not talking about the skill point section), and the first one you get is wall run. But you can't wall run whenever you like. You can only wall run on special wall run walls. So now the obstacles aren't natural, as the only way to progress them is to have those specific abilities at that specific time. It all seems so contrived.

Plus you often run into locked doors or non-functioning stone doors and your character has no choice but to find another way around, ignoring the fact that he has a mother fething Lightsabre!!!

Having played through the first few hours yesterday, it's certainly a game of two halves. There are times, like the opening 40 minutes or so, that are absolutely fantastic. The first big action sequences, while by-and-large being your standard Uncharted/Nu-Tomb Raider stuff in terms of setup and execution, just oozes Star Wars. Killer Williams-esque score, vistas with a wonderful sense of scale (called to mind the Corellia chase through the Star Destroyer yards in Solo), a tutorial that manages not to feel too tutorial-y and culminating in a promising, if very brief, introductory saber duel which felt great. Similar-ish to the Valkyrie fights in the last God of War, one or two wrong moves and you're taking major damage.

And then, after that brief period of being some of the best Star Wars gameplay I've ever played, it just sort of... stops being that to start cosplaying Dark Souls and Tomb Raider. Sure, it still looks and sounds like Star Wars, and there are moments where it still feels great (pinging blaster bolts back will never not be satisfying, and fighting the Imperials in general is really fun), but there are just a few things that cause it to lose some of its charm.

Perhaps my main grive is that the 'Bonfire' system of enemies respawning just feels off. Why, when I've cleared out a village of Stormtroopers, do the Empire send the exact same contingent of Stormtroopers to go and stand in the same place as their recently-deceased brethren? I get that that's part of the Soulsborne thing, so you can 'learn' areas and then get better at those encounters over time, but it's still quite odd and some variety or randomness wouldn't go amiss. On a similar note, I really don't like how about half the enemies are creatures. Works in Dark Souls or God of War or whatever, but there's something very Not The Jedi Way about endlessly slicing up the local fauna. What was that about 'Luminous Beings'?

H.B.M.C.'s point about it feeling like a video game is bang on. In an era where games have got increasingly good at more subtly hiding these sort of mechanical bits in more seamless level design, this does kind of feel like a throwback with the sheer amount of 'you cannot go this way yet, please come back later' obstacles thrown around (and especially those that could probably be easily fised with a liberal application of Lightsaber To Control Panel). The whole gameplay loop can't help but feel gamey, because it makes such a big deal out of accruing and losing XP progress.

And then there are the puzzle sections, which are competently put together and certainly more intuitive than a few of the more obtuse ones in the last Tomb Raider game, but just not really what I'm here for. The platforming areas are rather fun, but once you get into pushing big spheres around with the Force to activate a wind tunnel to push another sphere into a hole to open a door stuff, it just doesn't really appeal to me.

The AT-AT set piece from the demos earlier in the year was great fun, if somewhat simple, and it's bits like that where the game really hits its stride. The big, fast-paced action sequences it pulls off really nicely, feeling very modern but also very true to Star Wars. I think the key to it is that in those bits, things are actually interactive, whereas in the core gameplay, at least so far, the same areas have the same enemies (and basically no non-hostile NPCs), don't change but for the opening of shortcuts back and forth and you're constantly made to pass through the same bits... it's a game that could really use a Fast Travel system, even if that was somehow limited like the Homeward Bone of Dark Souls. When you've trudged to the end of an area fighting Stormtroopers and alien goats, then bashed your head against a wind puzzle for half an hour, it's a little frustrating to have to trudge all the way back through those same Stormtroopers/goats to get back to your ship and onto the next planet, even with the shortcuts.

On the plus side, the writing seems solid if not amazing, the voice acting likewise, and the attention to detail in the asset design is top notch as you'd expect. Environments look good, especially those where you really get a sense of scale, and there's some decent environmental storytelling going on via the Force Echoes and such, it does let you piece together the stories of these places if you look hard enough. Sound is great too, the score is absolutely top notch at times.

It's definitely a good game, but if you're expecting something like Force Unleashed, it's not nearly as forgiving or as much of a power fantasy. Likewise, while it has a similar deadliness to the Jedi Knight games, it's a lot deeper and requires more focus and patience than those. Perhaps the most interesting comparison is the last two Battlefronts, which put offering an authentic Star Wars experience in terms of look and feel front and centre and behind that you had some very basic, almost arcadey gameplay mechanics. Fallen Order, on the other hand, is much more mechanically detailed and deep, and if you're a fan of the Soulsborne sort of thing there's easily enough to recommend it based on that alone, but it achieves that at the cost of (or perhaps even because of) feeling authentically Star Wars.

Finished up the story just now, and ultimately, I've come away from it with a far more positive opinion than the very mixed feelings I had in the first few hours. A lot of the reviews suggest that it's great at first but drags later, and while that might be true if you're chasing all the collectables or playing on the harder difficulties, for me it was the other way around. Until the end of the first Zeffo quest, I was really struggling to really get into it. The combat seemed shallow, the environments repetitive and the story came across as basically a shopping list of tombs to raid.

After that though, I've pretty much done a complete 180; past those first few hours, I think things improve dramatically. Unlocking more of the Force abilities and thus more of the skill tree makes the combat much more enjoyable and varied, as do certain lightsaber changes (which come up late in the story, but there's an earlier shortcut to them), the characters got a lot more interesting (if not too nuanced for the most part) and the plot does build up a pretty great sense of tension for a story that can't really go anywhere particularly new (unless there was, in fact, a whole other Jedi order just off screen in the OT... ). Kashyyyk and the later portion of Zeffo were more fun that the initial areas, and the handful of interludes you get to other, smaller locations feel tightly put together and just substantial enough to offer a change of pace from the larger, more open areas. Almost wish there was more of those bits, linear as they are they're really nicely done and never feel like a distraction.

The boss fights are for the most part the highlight, and I say that as someone who generally doesn't get on with that sort of thing (especially in Soulsborne-adjacent stuff). Lightsaber duels have never looked so dynamic and realistic in a game, the enemies are all varied enough that it never feels like there's any repetition going on (even with the individuals you face more than once). Honestly, the biggest drawback here is that there's not enough of them. The story fits in all the saber duels it reasonable can without throwing in a random Darth Maul subplot, but I can only imagine what a game like this but set in something like the Old Republic era could do with a wider array of saber-wielders to draw from. The non-saber bosses and minibosses are maybe not as satisfying, but there's still a lot of fun and spectacle to be had with them.

The power curve is nice because it's not like you're suddenly in god-mode by the end of the game, but you get stronger mainly by having more options for dealing with stuff, rather than by arbitrary increases in damage or anything (though there's one perk at the top of the skill tree that does boost lightsaber damage, and I'd say it is a must-have for the late game). At the start you're mainly whacking away with the saber with the odd force push, by the end you've got variations on push, pull and slow as well as a handful of different ways to use the lightsaber. It never gets easy, but it gets easier to make passing back through areas less of a slog. I'd also say that this is definitely a game that could benefit a lot from the addition of a New Game Plus mode, to have all of that stuff from the start would be a very different experience, but a very satisfying one, I think.

Narratively, there's nothing too crazy or revalatory, nothing that's going to change the course of the galaxy from the path we expect, but it's got a good pace to it and builds to a very satisfying, if somewhat abrupt climax. No 'the game is on' sequel-bait, but very much a sense of 'tune in soon for more adventures'; the story is concluded, but there's still plenty of journey left if they want to do more. The most potentially interesting character comes in only a few hours from the end, so if we do get a sequel then I definitely want to see more of them, and there's still plenty of unresolved baggage for the core cast to keep digging through. It also feels very connected to the wider setting. Plenty of Clone Wars era nostalgia mixed in with authentic OT looks, the odd tie-in to other media (Maul is never mentioned on Dathomir, but some of the events there in Clone Wars are very important to this story) and nothing looks or feels out of place.

I really warmed to Cal as a protagonist as well. It's nice to have a Jedi who actually believes in the Jedi, and isn't some tortured soul or Sith apprentice or Chosen One; he's just a kid who was raised to have faith in something good, and is doing what he can to keep that faith in a world that wants to destroy it. He's not simple, but he's not got any more of a Tragic Past than you might expect from a survivor of the Jedi Purge, and aside from a single weird Force ability that's mainly there as a gameplay mechanic, there's not really anything special about him, which is actually quite refreshing. Cere makes a nice counterpoint to his uncomplicated view of the Jedi way, and while we don't see that much of them, the Inquisitors are interesting antagonists in what screen time they have. Greeze does comic relief well, and Respawn continue their Titanfall 2 form of making robots very likeable.

If anything, it's a game that I could happily take another chunk of, which is why I do think it's a shame there's no DLC planned. Give us another big planet, maybe a different playable character (I wouldn't say no to something that pits you as an Inquisitor against a Rebel-held world, for instance) and another 4-6 hours of story, that'd be a really nice desert for this slightly light Star Wars meal while we wait for any news of a sequel which, from the ending and the fact that this has been very mostly received, I imagine will be coming at some point in the next few years. There's definitely some replayability here, especially if you didn't explore everything the first time round, but I do feel there was room for a little more content before it outstayed its welcome.

Either way though, I'd definitely recommend it, if not now then certainly when it's discounted slightly which I imagine it will be around Christmas. If you're on a base XBone or PS4, maybe wait for another patch or two as well, there is a non-zero amount of stuttering and pop-in on the former and I can assume the latter is similar, but that's really just the way things are as we move towards the end of the generation.

So far the two bits (Rogue One and Jedi: Fallen Order) set between the prequels and the OT have done a great job of making Darth Vader seem like a true badass villain with very little time devoted to him.

So I'm still only on my second trip to Zeffo, but it's enjoyable enough so far. It's been a long-ass time since I played this style of game though - or used a controller at all come to that - so it's been a bit of an experience trying to get back into the swing of it; I'm used to playing RTS, RPG, and FPS all with mouse & keyboard these days.

I'm still kind of amazed this is an EA game. Imagine getting cosmetic unlocks as secrets earned through gameplay in Current Year, eh?

Picked it up today, completed the first trip to Zeffo.

This game is good! I’m not normally one for computer games. I often find them more frustrating than fun, especially with stuff like wall running. I just don’t have the reactions necessary for stuff like Assassins Creed.

But this? Nice mix of challenge and a gentle learning curve. Every time I fluffed something, I came a little closer to success, which is nice. Yes I’m playing story mode (see earlier comment about frustration and fun) so perhaps that’s helping. But even so, I’m glad it is!

Thanks for the indepth review Para.
Likely give this a miss.

Also completed the main story mode, and starting to whizz back round to back those secrets and collectibles.

For me, this is quite the rewarding game. And seriously reminds me of Zelda games in terms of the exploration and the pay off for doing so.

Combat isn’t too taxing on Story Mode, and I’m not interested in a harder challenge, so can’t comment. But it is fun as you notice not only have the character’s skills improved, but yours as a player do too. And yes, Force Pushing mooks to their doom remains funny!

Would not be at all surprised if we get a sequel or two down the line. Just so long as it’s not a case of conveniently forgetting all the skills I learned in this one.