Can Jedi: Fallen Order Bring Balance to the Force?
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, Star Wars was almost a video game genre in and of itself. Cut to 2019 and a mishandled use of the license by EA and there have been more Star Wars titles canceled in recent memory than actually saw light of day. At long last, Respawn Entertainment took the tightly sealed lid off their newest game – a single player micro-transaction free Star Wars title- Jedi: Fallen Order.
The first game of this caliber to roll out of the Star Wars camp in nearly a decade when The Force Unleashed 2 hit shelves way back in 2010. I remember playing through both titles in The Force Unleashed series and thinking “these aren’t bad, can’t wait to see what they do next.”
What they did next was absolutely nothing. Well, at least in the making video games department.
Lucas Arts closed, sold the license to EA who then in turned cancelled a bunch of cool games and made some pay to win First Person Shooters – we all know that story far too well. Needless to say, there was a lot riding on this initial reveal and I have to say that Respawn did not disappoint.
Though the first trailer only revealed story elements without gameplay. it was enough to suck me in and realize that Fallen Order could potentially be the game we’ve all been waiting for. What we know centers more around what the game isn’t. It’s not a stealth game. It’s not going to be Souls-like, even though some early rumblings suggested that it could be. Last but not least, it’s not Battlefront. EA could have done the easy cash grab and just produced a third installment to the critically underwhelming franchise, but they let Respawn do their thing. If their opening act – Apex Legends- is any sort of indicator, then for the first time in a while EA made the right decision.
Fallen Order will be the first game that really digs in deep to the events between Episodes three and four. To be honest, the only glimpse we really have into this time period was a brief Kanan comic book series that showed his journey from Order 66 on. It would have been pretty great if we had the chance to play as the hero from Rebels but we have faith that we’ll fall in love with Cal the same way we did Kanan. The game will seemingly connect or lead into rebels as we see Cal being hunted by an Inquisitor.
The Star Wars gamingverse has had some really high highs (Knights of the Old Republic, Rogue Squadron and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy) as we well as some really low lows (Masters of Teras Kasi, The New Droid Army and Star Wars Kinect) over the years and as long as Jedi: Fallen Order is even in the middle somewhere we have a lot to be thankful for. All signs lead to it being on the former list more so than the latter but we may not actually know for certain until we have some hands-on with the game or, at the very least, some actual gameplay footage.
I know that anything with the Star Wars license attached will be on my list of most anticipated games regardless, but it really feels as though Respawn is doing right by the brand and I, for one, cannot wait until November.
