"Your focus determines your reality"

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order is a third-person action/adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment, the same producer of great games like Titanfall and Apex Legends, and published by Electronic Arts (EA Games). The game tells the story of Cal Kestis, a young padawan in training who seeks the restoration of the Jedi order. 

The game was initially released on November 15, 2019, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but on June 11, 2021, received a performance and compatibility update for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The beginning of a saga

The game's story takes place 5 years after the events of the movie "Revenge of the Sith", whose context was the extermination of the Jedi knights, after the execution of the bloody order 66. After losing his master, Cal began to live a discrete life as a scrap dealer, away from the eyes of the empire, along with his friend Prauf. At a certain moment, to save his friend's life, our young protagonist is forced to use force, which ends up revealing his disguise and attracting the attention of an inquisitor sent by Darth Vader himself, the Second Sister.

From there, an escape attempt begins that only ends in success because of the help of the former Jedi Cere Junda and the alien pilot Greez Dritus, who rescue him and escape in Mantis, the team ship. 



Distant from the threat of the Empire, Cal realizes that he must continue his training and search for other Jedi and padawans so that they can form a fighting front and face their enemies. Thus, our apprentice goes after answers in ruins and sacred sites, and all those who can use the force. To this end, he begins his mission on Bogano, a planet unknown to the empire and the hiding place of an important Jedi master.

There he meets the little exploration droid named BD-1, his new travel companion, who will help him with hints, hacking abilities, healing, and with a super charismatic personality, which contributes to turning the nearly 20 hours of gameplay into a fun and quite enjoyable experience. 




During our journey, we are introduced to several elements that enrich the game's lore, such as small descriptions of the fauna and flora of the planets we visit, records of the local inhabitants, and through a feature of obtaining "echo", an ability that allows us to experience the memories of people, objects or specific places.

Without a doubt, STAR WARS Jedi: The Fallen Order knew how to execute well the construction of its narrative, which despite being predominantly linear, presents elements that contribute, and a lot, to the expansion of the story told in the game.

Moreover, although the story as a whole is not so innovative, the game gives us characters who have deep backgrounds, such as Cere Junda, who cut his connection with the force because of the traumas caused by order 66, Greez, a betting-addicted pilot with problems with the crime syndicate Haxion Brood and Merrin, a Sister of the Night victim of a grand conspiracy.

The Jedi Path

The narrative pace of STAR WARS Jedi: The Fallen Order is complemented by gameplay that is fun and lean, but manages to be complex in just the right measure. The feeling of personal progress is constant, as we are rewarded in various ways. For example, we gain skill points through combat, exploration, and narrative features that are presented gradually and coherently with the story.

However, what is most impressive is that with each new skill received, we feel more powerful in combat, whether with the use of the lightsaber and the force, or with defensive features, since all the choices available are meaningful and, in fact, improve our combat style. 



Speaking of combat, the game has as a reference the style of play presented by games like Dark Souls and Uncharted. It is a bit more challenging and paced than other games in the STAR WARS franchise, rewarding the more technical and attentive player. The variety of skills complements the combat with techniques that diversify it, making it very enjoyable. It is very enjoyable to return the shots of stormtroopers and destroy enemies with combat animations generated because of well-applied blocks. 

In addition to combat, the game presents a variety of platforming elements that also remind us a little of Tomb Raider. We will climb walls, slide down ice ramps, walk on metal beams, and cut cables to release passages, in short ... There are several features that enrich the scenarios and contribute to a more diverse gameplay.

Besides them, we have several interesting puzzles that can be solved using the Force. They evolve in complexity as we grow in the use of the Force, which makes us feel, in fact, that we evolve as Jedi. 

With each new evolution, we are presented with memories of our training with our master. This brings back not only the student-mentor relationship but also the depth of acquiring new techniques. We learn them not only as a gameplay feature but also as a narrative element that adds layers to the game. 



The game also has some customization features, but I confess that despite the variety, I expected more impact in the customizations, since they are basically changes in the colors of our clothes, the saber, Mantis, and the BD-1. They can be unlocked in boxes scattered around the world, which are opened by our droid companion, or as rewards after certain events in progression.

"Your eyes can betray you, don't trust them"

The graphics in STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order are very beautiful and deliver a very positive aesthetic experience. The worlds are very well executed, with stunning landscapes, vivid colors, and an overall ambiance that provides great immersion in the scenarios. The visual effects are also well executed and deliver an almost cinematic experience. However, the presence of minor stutterings and problems with the textures/lighting caught my attention during my gameplay. In addition, I experienced graphical crashes that forced me to restart the game and consequently made me lose part of my progress since the game did not synchronize my save.

Despite these problems, I do not consider them barriers to prevent the player from trying the game, after all, it delivers a true experience in the STAR WARS universe. 



The audio resources are also very rich, with typical soundtracks that transport us to the universe of George Lucas, with classic effects such as the sound of blasters and ships, and the fact that the game is completely localized in PT-BR. I have no criticism to make of the work developed by the audio team of the game, since they do their job very well, contributing a lot to the immersion in another great story of STAR WARS. 

For this review, STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order was played on PC, via the Steam platform.