I don't know what it is about this title that keeps pulling me back. Okay that's not true, I know it's the impending hype for the Mandalorian that has sling shot this game into my eyeline. Perhaps I should just make an exception and decide to take an in-depth look at The Mandalorian instead, but that would open myself up to the world of TV blog content and I'm just not ready to open the floodgate right now. (Or ever.) So instead of taking an extensive gander at the incredibly exciting-looking Dave Filoni live action Star Wars series, I'm settling for a generic-looking action game from a publisher I hate and a studio that's getting there. (Is this masochism?)
With that being said, I will admit that even in their heyday, a majority of Star Wars games were hum drum outings who's only selling point was providing players a 'in' to the 'galaxy far far away'. Heck, some of these games were even plain bad and I still harbour found memories of them. Star Wars Republic Commando was a simple 'tactical' FPS, 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars- Republic Heroes' was... a chore, 'Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing' was a dull kart racer clone with the 'big heads' cheat permanently enabled. All of these titles would have crashed and burned if it wasn't for that 'Star Wars' connection, so could the same happen for 'Jedi: Fallen Order'? Likely, I'd say. Almost certainly. But that doesn't mean the necessarily game deserves it.
Today I will be looking through the launch trailer for this title and taking a look at what there is to be excited for in this game from a story perspective, if not a gameplay one. Oh and just a head's up, I'm actually not all that up-to-date on Dave Filoni's contribution to the Star Wars lore (Which this game seems to be drawing heavily from) so I may miss a few things that would be obvious to the casual superfan. (It's been a LONG time since I've considered myself a Star Wars superfan.) Also, this trailer appears to have fashioned itself as an 'accolades trailer', which I find slightly hilarious given that I don't believe review copies have even been shipped yet. (Gotta play that game as soon as you can, I guess.)
The trailer opens with a shot of another main villain who will be hunting the protagonist, Cal Kestis, throughout the majority of his story. We have another Sith inquisitor (That is, a Sith-trained force user who has attained the rank of Imperial inquisitor rather than those who have the rank of Sith Inquisitor. Because those are two completely different things. Star Wars lore, everybody!) although this is one who's name I can't quite pin down. All we know for now is that is he will be joining the Seventh Sister in the hunt, and this has lead me to develop a new speculation regarding how I expect this game to play out. We have been introduced to the existence of two main saber-wielding villains to hunt the protagonist, and that seems rather odd to my observing eye. Afterall, in storytelling isn't the magic number 3? Now of course, I have no concrete information to back up my hunch here, but the fact that we have been extensively shown off two badguys for this game could be indicative of the fact that there is a bigger threat behind the shadows. This is further backed up by a fact that I totally forgot in my last blog, when I commended the team for reintroducing the Seventh Sister because she was a threat that Cal could theoretically defeat. Namely, that the Seventh Sister is actually (spoilers) killed by Darth Maul in 'Star Wars: Rebels'.
Does that mean Respawn intend to pit us against a main villain who the protagonist will merely reach a stalemate with instead of killing? No, I can't imagine that being the case, it just wouldn't match the 'becoming a knight' angle that the team appear to be heading for with this story. Judging from the presented footage from these last two trailers, it is clear that they want to set up Cal's seclusive hideaway being interrupted by a Sith house call; one made by the Seventh Sister herself. Cal then goes to learn the arts and ways of the force and probably ends up joining the Rebellion in some small capacity, but how will the adventure be capped off by the end? I can't see EA going out of their way to fund a sequel before this first game is out, this game is very much an experiment on their part to see if traditional games can still be profitable, so the Respawn writers will be constructing a self contained story with this game. With that in mind, there must be foe for Cal to best in order to symbolize his reaching of mastery over the force. If it cannot be the Seventh Sister, and this other Inquisitor looks to be more of a throwaway lackey, then who could the big bad be? I dunno.
From there the trailer goes into the usual spiel, with narration setting up the world in which this game is set. For those who forgot, this game takes place after Order 66 has wiped out the majority of the Jedi and sent the rest into hiding. Cal Kestis was still just a Padawan when all this went into effect, and so he was able to stay under the radar and escape to a small outer rim planet in the middle of no where. Seeing as how this game takes place in the 'dark period' of time between the Prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, Respawn practically have free reign to say whatever they want about the state of the universe as long as it flies with Disney. However, instead of using this freedom to show as a spate of new and interesting worlds that we've never seen before, instead we run the gambit of familiar Star Wars locales. You have the middle-of-nowhere world which looks like a scrap heap (Just like Tatooine and Jakku), The icy planet with snow everywhere (Just like Hoth), and a jungle world full of hulking furry monsters (Just like... wait, no. This one is actually just Kashyyyk).
Now the trailer gives us a good look of Cal's journey as his ex-Jedi mentor, Cere, guides him through some old abandoned Jedi Temples. (You know, at this point I'm starting to wonder if the Jedi temples were ever actually manned. I mean, the only one's we've ever seen operational have been the ones on Coursant and Dantooine. Maybe the Jedi were just huge architectural nuts who kept building more bases then they could feasibly fill.) The stand out moment here for me was when Cal came face to face with a Mirialan. (Which was a hologram, I presume.) It stuck out as the Seventh Sister is famously also a Mirialan, which implies to me that Cal may end up digging into the past of his enemy and finding out that she used to be a Jedi. (Such a practise was common in The Old Republic, hence why they used the term Sith and Dark Jedi almost interchangeably back then.) Perhaps Vader saw fit to enlist traitor Jedi to hunt down their former compatriots. It would certainly support the real-world parallels that the Empire already draws to a certain movement whom I'm sure I don't need to explicitly introduce to the reader.
The last thing that I want to bring up in this trailer is something that is showcased throughout and which genuinely does excite me; the exploration. Previously we have seen a worldmap that the player can access within their ship that seems to allow for you to take-off and fly anywhere you want to. (Not sure if such an ability might rob some situations of their urgency, but I like the freedom nonetheless.) This subtle suggestion implies to me that we may be getting a game with a decently sized play spaces (maybe akin to the hub areas in the Crystal Dynamic Tomb Raider games) or even just a steady spate of side quests. If my hunch is true then this could be an interesting path that Respawn intend to walk by creating an action adventure game with areas that one is intended to plough thoroughly for secrets. Such a model would place them up against the likes of the Arkham Series. (A comparison that is given even more weight when considering the similarities in combat.) Could Respawn learn from these other games when forming their world to ensure that it is just as explorable? Sure. Will they? Once again, I haven't the foggiest.
When I say that this game doesn't excite me, it's not with the same trepidation that I claimed the same about 'The Outer Worlds'. (Still enjoying that game, by the by.) I'm not torn about whether or not the game will be quality, in fact I'm fairly convinced that this be a solidly average game, I'm more disappointed with a story that appears to be very 'paint by numbers'. Visually, the product looks great, audio-wise, it sounds like Star Wars, but everything else about the game screams 'one and done', and I feel like a Star Wars game could be much more. Admittedly, these concerns are more of a gut feeling, but I don't think that the first single player Star Wars game of the late 2010's is going to 'wow' the gaming world, when it really should and needs to. I suppose at the end of the day my biggest take away is; The Mandalorian sure looks fantastic, huh!
With that being said, I will admit that even in their heyday, a majority of Star Wars games were hum drum outings who's only selling point was providing players a 'in' to the 'galaxy far far away'. Heck, some of these games were even plain bad and I still harbour found memories of them. Star Wars Republic Commando was a simple 'tactical' FPS, 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars- Republic Heroes' was... a chore, 'Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing' was a dull kart racer clone with the 'big heads' cheat permanently enabled. All of these titles would have crashed and burned if it wasn't for that 'Star Wars' connection, so could the same happen for 'Jedi: Fallen Order'? Likely, I'd say. Almost certainly. But that doesn't mean the necessarily game deserves it.
The trailer opens with a shot of another main villain who will be hunting the protagonist, Cal Kestis, throughout the majority of his story. We have another Sith inquisitor (That is, a Sith-trained force user who has attained the rank of Imperial inquisitor rather than those who have the rank of Sith Inquisitor. Because those are two completely different things. Star Wars lore, everybody!) although this is one who's name I can't quite pin down. All we know for now is that is he will be joining the Seventh Sister in the hunt, and this has lead me to develop a new speculation regarding how I expect this game to play out. We have been introduced to the existence of two main saber-wielding villains to hunt the protagonist, and that seems rather odd to my observing eye. Afterall, in storytelling isn't the magic number 3? Now of course, I have no concrete information to back up my hunch here, but the fact that we have been extensively shown off two badguys for this game could be indicative of the fact that there is a bigger threat behind the shadows. This is further backed up by a fact that I totally forgot in my last blog, when I commended the team for reintroducing the Seventh Sister because she was a threat that Cal could theoretically defeat. Namely, that the Seventh Sister is actually (spoilers) killed by Darth Maul in 'Star Wars: Rebels'.
Does that mean Respawn intend to pit us against a main villain who the protagonist will merely reach a stalemate with instead of killing? No, I can't imagine that being the case, it just wouldn't match the 'becoming a knight' angle that the team appear to be heading for with this story. Judging from the presented footage from these last two trailers, it is clear that they want to set up Cal's seclusive hideaway being interrupted by a Sith house call; one made by the Seventh Sister herself. Cal then goes to learn the arts and ways of the force and probably ends up joining the Rebellion in some small capacity, but how will the adventure be capped off by the end? I can't see EA going out of their way to fund a sequel before this first game is out, this game is very much an experiment on their part to see if traditional games can still be profitable, so the Respawn writers will be constructing a self contained story with this game. With that in mind, there must be foe for Cal to best in order to symbolize his reaching of mastery over the force. If it cannot be the Seventh Sister, and this other Inquisitor looks to be more of a throwaway lackey, then who could the big bad be? I dunno.
From there the trailer goes into the usual spiel, with narration setting up the world in which this game is set. For those who forgot, this game takes place after Order 66 has wiped out the majority of the Jedi and sent the rest into hiding. Cal Kestis was still just a Padawan when all this went into effect, and so he was able to stay under the radar and escape to a small outer rim planet in the middle of no where. Seeing as how this game takes place in the 'dark period' of time between the Prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, Respawn practically have free reign to say whatever they want about the state of the universe as long as it flies with Disney. However, instead of using this freedom to show as a spate of new and interesting worlds that we've never seen before, instead we run the gambit of familiar Star Wars locales. You have the middle-of-nowhere world which looks like a scrap heap (Just like Tatooine and Jakku), The icy planet with snow everywhere (Just like Hoth), and a jungle world full of hulking furry monsters (Just like... wait, no. This one is actually just Kashyyyk).
Now the trailer gives us a good look of Cal's journey as his ex-Jedi mentor, Cere, guides him through some old abandoned Jedi Temples. (You know, at this point I'm starting to wonder if the Jedi temples were ever actually manned. I mean, the only one's we've ever seen operational have been the ones on Coursant and Dantooine. Maybe the Jedi were just huge architectural nuts who kept building more bases then they could feasibly fill.) The stand out moment here for me was when Cal came face to face with a Mirialan. (Which was a hologram, I presume.) It stuck out as the Seventh Sister is famously also a Mirialan, which implies to me that Cal may end up digging into the past of his enemy and finding out that she used to be a Jedi. (Such a practise was common in The Old Republic, hence why they used the term Sith and Dark Jedi almost interchangeably back then.) Perhaps Vader saw fit to enlist traitor Jedi to hunt down their former compatriots. It would certainly support the real-world parallels that the Empire already draws to a certain movement whom I'm sure I don't need to explicitly introduce to the reader.
The last thing that I want to bring up in this trailer is something that is showcased throughout and which genuinely does excite me; the exploration. Previously we have seen a worldmap that the player can access within their ship that seems to allow for you to take-off and fly anywhere you want to. (Not sure if such an ability might rob some situations of their urgency, but I like the freedom nonetheless.) This subtle suggestion implies to me that we may be getting a game with a decently sized play spaces (maybe akin to the hub areas in the Crystal Dynamic Tomb Raider games) or even just a steady spate of side quests. If my hunch is true then this could be an interesting path that Respawn intend to walk by creating an action adventure game with areas that one is intended to plough thoroughly for secrets. Such a model would place them up against the likes of the Arkham Series. (A comparison that is given even more weight when considering the similarities in combat.) Could Respawn learn from these other games when forming their world to ensure that it is just as explorable? Sure. Will they? Once again, I haven't the foggiest.
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