EA Play 2019 revealed a little less than 15 minutes of pure gameplay from Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order – the upcoming single player story-driven video game, developed by Respawn Entertainment. This article combines several things in one – the gameplay demo with Vulkk’s commentary, analysis and thoughts on abilities, environments, combat, characters and more, plus a collection of images for those, who prefer to read instead of watch!
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Before you jump, make sure you have checked out the introductory article I posted a few months ago. It’s a part of my Star Wars Celebration coverage and explains everything you need to know about Jedi Fallen Order. The only thing I couldn’t do for you back then, is talk and analyse the gameplay. Well, today this is the main topic, so let’s start!
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is a very linear narrative experience with small elements of progression, but no choices. The gameplay footage took us to the home world of the Wookiees – Kashyyyk. This mission is set some three hours after the start of the game.
Cal Kestis, the main character, is now a young Jedi and has learned a number of abilities and lightsaber techniques.
The game feels very linear and narrow with mini puzzles on your way through the missions and environments, but it doesn’t seem to feature different approach options.
[UPDATE June 12, 2019] In an interview for The Star Wars Show, Respawn Entertainment’s game director Stig Asmussen explained:
I don’t want anybody walking away with the wrong impression that our game is very linear. It’s not. It’s metro-linear. It’s all about learning and finding new abilities and skills. They will allow you to open up new areas. Bread and butter gameplay is really about exploring, using your combat abilities and pursuing the mission the way that you choose using the abilities that you have.
Based on this, it may seem like they have chosen a bad segment to showcase in the demo, because I stand firmly behind my impressions of Jedi Fallen Order feeling like a very linear game. If I am wrong (I would love to be on that one!), then perhaps just half of my statement will be true – you will still experience a linear story and set of events, which is not a bad thing in my eyes. [END OF UPDATE, ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES]
Things like Force Push, Force Pull and Force Flip (Double Jump) are natural to him. He is also capable of throwing his lightsaber forward, dodging, blocking and performing various other stunts.
Walking on Walls, I am told, is something Respawn is known for. So, it should not be a surprise to fans of this studio that the element is featured in their newest game as well.
In many aspects Jedi Fallen Order reminds me of The Force Unleashed, which is a very good thing. One major difference is that Respawn are creating Star Wars Canon and everything from Jedi Fallen Order may and will be used in other Star Wars narratives in the future.
Hell yes! Saw Gerrera, voiced by Forest Whitaker himself, will be one of the mission givers in the game. From the moment I heard his voice, I knew nobody else could portray this character like Whitaker does. Then I looked for a conformation and yes – this is his own voice indeed!
It’s no fun being a lonely jedi in one of the darkest times for the faction ever. The little guy in the image above is called BD1, which stands for Buddy Droid One.
This droid is not only Cal’s loyal companion, but it also provides valuable intel, scans targets and slices terminals for the main character.
Cal’s mission was to free the Wookies, so they can help them fight back the Empire. Wookies are *** ugly, by the way. I hope this is a result of the gameplay footage being recorded on an Xbox One console.
We’ve seen far better results on Wookies and their fur in Star Wars: Battlefront 2. I hope this is not going to be the end result. The gameplay was also alpha, so there’s both time and space for improvement.
The glow from the lightsaber’s hilt serves as a flashlight when needed and it creates a fantastic immersion. In this image we also see Cal using Force Push to break the door and continue forward.
This is kind of a panoramic view of the Imperial Refinery on Kashyyyk. The camera’s movement and positioning felt very well done and in no way intrusive of confusing.
Animations in the gameplay demo were a bit stiff at times, but overall I liked them and firmly believe we will see them much more polished and smooth in the finished product this November.
A brand new type of trooper – The Purge Trooper, was created by the dev team at Respawn and these guys are now going to be part of the Star Wars canon for anybody to use and include in their projects.
The Purge Troopers are specially trained soldiers to hunt and defeat Jedi. They are considerably stronger than a regular Stormtrooper in this game and will even resist some of your force abilities.
During the live premiere of my video with commentary on YouTube, we had a small discussion about the origin of these Purge Troopers. I am not 100% sure yet if they are recruits, droids or clones. There is misleading information from various Legend sources regarding other Purge Troopers, so we will have to wait a bit more (or until the release of the game) to learn what exactly are those and where they come from.
As you progress through the game and earn XP, you will gain Skill Points. A Skill Tree was not shown in the EA Play (E3) demo, but in the image above you can see a snapshot of your Skill Point meter filling up. During the course of this 13-14 minutes long footage Cal earned two Skill Points.
Yet another reason to compare The Force Unleashed to Jedi Fallen Order are the scripted scenes, where you are required to pump a button in order for something to happen.
In this case Cal was attacked by this giant spider-like creature from behind. He managed to pull himself away and killed it with one quick jump on its back and a vertical piercing attack with the lightsaber.
If I am not mistaken, these spider-like creatures are called Wyyyschokk. They are native to Kashyyk. They have been designed for this game (according to Wookieepedia) and make their first appearance here. They may be related to the Webweavers, who are also indigenous creastures to Kashyyyk and are featured in the Aftermath: Life Dept.
You can swim! I doubt it will have any larger impact, but am hoping for some hidden bonus intel or any other type of a lore object that will tell us more Star Wars facts about the worlds we explore and creatures we face.
In the final moments before the demo wrapped up, we saw Cal busy in front of a terminal, while a KX-series security droid approaches him from behind. This scene made no sense to me at all.
Cal should be able to feel a disturbance in the Force. Hell, the way the droid approached him, he should have simply hear the door opening and the heavy steps. Even BD1 remained silent.
At-ST fights? Yes, I’ll take five! Seriously, the final flashes before the demo ended showed some incredibly good creatures, human opponents as well as vehicles, like the one in the image above.
This was my dissection of the Gameplay Demo of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, shown at the EA Play 2019 event. The game releases on November 15, 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Leave a comment below with your thoughts and impressions with the gameplay demo. Are you excited to play this game? Do you think Respawn are capable of delivering and honoring the gaming community with their newest video game title? I do! I want them to do well!
All images, used in this article, are taken from the demo video linked above.
