Finally, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has officially debuted!
Rumors had been circulating about Respawn Entertainment’s (Apex Legends, Titanfall) secretive project set within that galaxy far, far away, but hardly any concrete information had been presented to the public until today. After a cancelled bounty hunter game and open world title at other companies, people were clamoring for any sort of Star Wars game and now, they’ve finally got one.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will definitely satisfy those looking for a story-driven, single player game without any sort of microtransations. The plot’s been revealed to be taking place after Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and before Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope, exploring the consequences of the Emperor’s decision to execute Order 66 and basically wipe the Jedi from the face of the galaxy.
From what we understand, the player will be thrust into the role of Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan forced into hiding from the Empire, and here’s how Respawn narrative lead Eric Contreras describes it:
“This is an action-melee game. You play as a Jedi on the run, in training with a lightsaber and Force powers. We made sure that the combat is something that is easy to pick up but also, if you put a lot of time in, you can master it. We call the combat in the game ‘thoughtful combat.’ You have to size up your enemies and exploit their weaknesses.”
We’re also going to be seeing more of antagonist the Second Sister, who’ll be aided in her pursuit by additional Imperial Inquisitors, force-sensitive agents of the Empire tasked with tracking down errant Jedi. Furthermore, while Cal will visit the Star Wars locales that we all know and love on his planet-spanning adventure, he starts on the new, destitute planet Bracca, where he, ironically, dismantles old Star Destroyers from The Clone Wars.
It’ll be nice to see a game flesh out what’s an insanely huge universe that, outside of some books that are now non-canon, honestly hasn’t been explored to anywhere near its full potential. Heck, the last two movies only took us to one new planet a piece, and Crait was really just Salt Hoth at the end of the day. As such, this is a new, fresh angle for a story set in the Star Wars universe and I’m all for it. I’m also kind of hoping for some non-half-assed stealth sequences, which seem to have been absent from this galaxy, to go with the theme of not standing out, which is repeated ad nauseum in this debut trailer.
With no gameplay footage, it’s hard to adequately assess just how, exactly, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will play or feel. But gosh dang it, finally, a new Jedi-based game. About time. I’m really hoping more developers get to take a crack at this universe and present us some more new ideas, but for now, us fans will take what we can get.