Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Could Be the First Good Star Wars Game in Years. Here's What We Know.
Starting all the way back in the arcade era, the Star Wars franchise was a central focus for prominent developers and video game studios. Lately, though, the community has been stuck with underwhelming Star Wars games.
The most recent Triple-A Star Wars title of note, Star Wars Battlefront II, was an enormous disaster, leaving many fans furious with the way publisher EA handled microtransactions, loot boxes, and online services, which were barely functional at times. Now, EA (which frequently wins worst American company of the year) is trying to win fans back, this time teaming up with developer Respawn Entertainment for the tentatively promising Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Despite all the slick trailers and promotional content so far, it’s hard to be excited for Fallen Order. EA has repeatedly disregarded the passionate Star Wars fanbase in favor of releasing unfinished games with money-grabbing paywalls, embarrassingly hollow single player options, and game-breaking online server problems. But Respawn is the genius development studio behind the massively popular Apex Legends, and everything we’ve seen so far about the new Star Wars game looks quite impressive, from the first official reveal trailer to the plot details. Hopefully EA has learned its lesson, and Repawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be a return to form for the franchise. Here's everything we know about it so far.
When does Star Wars: Fallen Order come out?
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is set to release on November 15, 2019 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The PC version will be available exclusively on EA’s new game-streaming service, EA Origin. Fallen Order is available for pre-order now in standard and deluxe editions. A pre-order will get you some cosmetic bonuses in the game, as well as a Fallen Order skin for your PS4.
What is Fallen Order about?
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is set to take place during the "dark time" following the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Players take control of a Padawan named Cal Kestis, played by Cameron Monaghan (who you may recognize from his roles as Jerome Valeska in Gotham and Ian Gallagher in Shameless). Kestis is one of the few survivors of the Emperor's Order 66, a secret initiative to eliminate all of the remaining Jedi.
"Many Star Wars fans, ourselves included, are really interested in the dark times, so we wanted to explore that mysterious, dangerous period," said game director Stig Asmussen at the recent Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. "The team at Lucasfilm have been amazing collaborators, helping us explore and further develop this part of the timeline where the Empire is at the height of its power and any remaining Jedi are in hiding."
With the game centering itself around the tragedy of an oppressed group who has been exiled from its home after a fascist power crushed its democratic society, Fallen Order seems to have a very relevant plot for the Star Wars franchise and our current political landscape. Time will tell if Respawn and EA can handle the subject matter gracefully.
Where does Fallen Order take place?
Fallen Order is set on a new planet for the series named Bracca and promises several other new locations in the Star Wars universe. From the looks of the trailers and marketing materials so far, it seems that Cal Kestis’s journey of survival will see him endure dark regions of captivity and imprisonment as he struggles to free himself and his genocide-surviving compatriots from the all-powerful Empire.
Do we know anything about gameplay yet?
EA and Respawn have both been pretty secretive about their new title. We’ll see a lot of updates at EA’s upcoming E3 presentation in June, but as of now, we know that lightsaber combat and Force skills will be a main focus of Fallen Order.
Respawn said at the Star Wars Celebration that there will be a heavy and intense lightsaber system to help capture that same intensity that fans love in the films. Through Cal’s Jedi training, he'll pick up an extensive skillset of complex Force skills. According to Respawn, a lot of emphasis was put on combat, which sounds extremely promising.
Will there be online issues again?
One reason Fallen Order seems very enticing is the fact that Respawn announced the game is solely single player. That means no microtransactions, no server issues, and no paywalls. It’s been a very long time since any major development studio released a successful single player Star Wars—even though there’s a great precedent, with titles like TIE Fighter and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron still standing among the greatest games in the franchise’s history. Maybe this one will recapture that old spirit.
This story originally appeared on Esquire.com.
* Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
