Systems: Windows, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/X/S
Release Date: November 15, 2019
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
I am going to attempt to keep this short because there has already been a lot said and written about this game. Even though I already had this game which I received free during one of Epic's semi-recent free-game-a-day-during-the-Holiday-Season-period giveaways, I decided that spending less than $5 for the deluxe edition of the game to have on Steam and work through the Steam client on the Steam Deck would be the easiest and most hassle-free experience I could get; especially since I had read about integration issues with getting the game to work with/through EA's Origin client and/or EA's separate login app/client. But after a couple of touch-screen-centric pop-ups, while starting the game on the Steam Deck, I was able to jump into the game without any additional issues (more on that in a moment); although the game does take a bit longer than other games on the Steam Deck to load because it has to go through EA's separate login that it at least thankfully does automatically now.
The game is rated "Playable" on the Steam Deck, which means that it runs well enough, but there might be an issue or two that does not allow it to reach "Verified" status. From what I can tell, about 16 hours in, is that there is some descriptor/flavor text for items and events that becomes a little difficult to read since the font used is pretty thin. Apart from that, the game runs at all of the highest settings on the Steam Deck and there have only been a few times when there was a visual stutter that lasted less than half-a-second and while I know that it has happened, I cannot pinpoint when exactly it was so it was not impactful enough to be detrimental to being able to play the game. I have had the game crash on me twice (so far), once after I selected a new skill and the game brought up the tutorial on how to perform that new skill, and the game just froze. The second time was while squaring off against two KX droids and just performed a hot-button QTE-kill and the game froze just as the lightsaber was bisecting the enemy in dramatic slow-mo. Luckily I usually save whenever given the chance so I did not have to backtrack (forward-track?) too much to get back to where I was.
Anyway, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (or just Fallen Order from here on out), plays a lot like a more forgiving "Dark Souls," and I make that comparison because this is one of the newer video games I have played in recent years (with some exceptions) and I have nothing else to compare it to (like Horizon Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, Elden Ring), but there is a slight case to be made. First, there are meditation circles that function identically to bonfires and when you "rest" at them, you regain full health, regain all of your health stims (healing potions), and all non-boss enemies that you previously killed will respawn (with no knowledge that they were killed, and I am not sure if there is an in-game explanation for this mechanic). There are boss fights that develop over the course of the fight and only take a minuscule amount of damage per your attack. You also lose any experience upon dying and you can only gain it back if you successfully land an attack on the enemy that killed you, otherwise, you lose that experience permanently. I am sure there are additional similarities and equally-made arguments for why they are not all similar and how much of a n00b do I have to be to have someone point them out for me.
One key way that Fallen Order is not like Dark Souls is the combat mechanics. Every enemy you fight in the game has several types of attacks they can perform based on what you are doing and where they are located in relation to Cal. A lot of these attacks you can parry, which might open them up to a counterattack if their stamina bar is depleted, often leading to an insta-kill. Most of the enemies also have a strong unparryable attack that is telegraphed visually in two ways. The first is that there is the wind-up, which sometimes can be interrupted, but they also start glowing red/pink to let you, the player, know that you need to move out of the way since if you try parrying you are going to end up all kinds of hurt.
Giving that kind of visual cue to the player is not at all Dark Souls-esque, but having it in a Star Wars game feels very appropriate. Playing a Jedi, or former Jedi previously in hiding who is now rekindling their abilities, you want to feel powerful both in your knowledge during combat encounters, and also in how you interact with the world. It just means that jumping down 80 feet to a platform while performing an attack that as the game tells you to press X to one-shot an Imperial Stormtrooper while using a Force Push to knock another Stormtrooper off a ledge while a Purge Trooper launches himself at you while flashing red, all feels really cool and appropriate for the Star Wars universe.
As I said, I am about 16 hours into the game, which HowLongToBeat says I am within an hour of beating the game, but I tend to play games significantly slower because I like to experience the world, find lore collectibles, and I honestly tend to get lost semi-frequently. I will likely beat the game around the completionist 31-hour mark, that is my guess. I do not plan on attempting to 100% the game, but there is definitely an element of returning to previously explored areas as you learn new skills and abilities that open up access to previously closed-off areas, so we will see how much more of the game I go through and how long that takes me*.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
*P.S. I appreciate that the game highlights areas on the map that are not currently accessible in red, and as you unlock new abilities, those red doors/bridges/walls will change to green, so it makes looking over maps for new areas to explore easier than trying to remember and potentially spending 30 minutes combing over an area again and again.
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