Gaming Star Wars: Jedi (Fallen Order, Survivor) [Mod Approved]

I've just been watching a YouTube watch through video just for the story, looks about the same as the first game, some fun exploration and some fun character story stuff

I'll probably pick it up when it's on sale

 

I think that's a wise move.

This game can be fantastic but there's other times when, for what it is, it is pretty rough. Like not giving a scan prompt or being less than clear in its signposting.

Got to Jedha and, well, can't say I'm a fan of exploring in an area of instant death if you stay on the sand too long. It got better with Merrin turning up, though in the big fight that followed she trapped me against the two robots. Not good that.

In principle the idea that there's rocks you can TK to enemies is good but the controls, aiming and general speed of combat makes it practically useless. Ditto companion assists because they made the controls too complicated for me to use in the heat of combat.

Still, the sandstorm, the aftermath and the base was pretty good. Except for the base having lifts that don't return and really weird doors. And both could have easily been defanged.

Then I went to the Devastated Settlement on Koboh... Goddamn, this was awful. Bad puzzles, bad signposting, just not fun at all. Talking of not fun, those combat force tears certainly fit the bill. Two Oggdo Spawn? That is developers taking the mick.

 

I nearly cried when I tried that one and I was still going on Jedi Master.

 

That'd be brutal.

 

I definitely found the first game a bit difficult to navigate at times and watching this one on YouTube it seems like there's some bigger planets

combat was pretty difficult in the first one as well, looks about the same here, the person I watched on YouTube lost a few times so I'm sure I would die a lot lol

still looks fun though, and I enjoyed the story enough to watch all the way through

 

One thing I do have to give it - Survivor's map is far better than Fallen Order's!

 

The supposedly Jedi meditation chambers feel extraordinarily Sith. Infinite drops, numerous death traps, Force echoes of failed trainees impelled onwards... if Sidious wanted something to render the Jedi despised, these do that job flawlessly.

Oh, it looks like the entirety of bounty hunting is bugged until the next patch.

 

So, Shattered Moon and the return to Jedha....

In a game where the graphics and audio are excellent, that leaves combat, platforming and visual signposting to do it over. Combat is scrappy but OK, sometimes very good, so that leaves...

Yep, platforming and signposting, oh and it adds a mid-air dash to further screw with my perception of depth. Many, not all, but many of the traversal sections fell into "thank god I don't have to do that again" as BD-1 opens up a shortcut.

Add in stuff like the electric cables and the flame wall jumping bits in Shattered Moon and yeah, I had good reason I'm not getting much further.

Fortunately the story and characters are much, much better and encourages me to want to get past these one-mistake-is-fatal sections. And they are, sometimes, short, but not always.

Survivor is a more complicated game than Fallen Order, does it make it better? I'm not entirely convinced.

 

Did a major section last night that merits a spoiler box:

Spoiler

The Jedha drill boss sequence. To start off with this was pretty good - running, avoiding attacks from both the drill and TIEs, it was actually well signposted - I could see where I was supposed to go next that it made me forget the platforming bits had to be perfect.

Then there's the bit with Merrin's portals that severely undermined the fun. A dusty sandy coloured portal in a desert setting? Of indeterminate distance requiring dash jumps? Ugh.

To my surprise, I did pull off those jump sequences without too many deaths, but because I was having to look so hard for where to go, I couldn't fully enjoy the sequence. And it is an audio visual masterpiece that I would have liked to appreciate more than I could.

Tearing through entire squads of Stormtroopers with Merrin? Hugely fun. The underwater bits? Might just be one of the very few games where the underwater sections do not suck and look amazing. Finally, being able to get through the green force fields is very cool.

So a real mixed bag but the game has opened up a bit more.

 

Spoiler: Jedha/Merrin platforming set-piece

This was the high point of the game imo, almost all third person action games have some big ambitious platforming sequence which tries to wow you and them apart. Few actually do something memorable, but Surivir managed to make it work, and it was ludonarrative cohesion all the way. After seeing Merrin flip around from ledges to edges like a magician, we finally see her trick in action, a “revelation of the method” so to speak, and it quite spectacular. I’m glad they managed it since we expect Star Wars to be cinematic in all spaces, and here the swing for the fences.

 

Something I forgot to post earlier:

One other thing:

Spoiler

The Armias door "puzzle". Ugh.

What is it with Jedi and hell-spawned architecture in this game?

Back to the main game and....

Spoiler

The Viscous Bog can goddamn die. What's that? The Empire obliterated a planet because of a bog? Checks out. That whole set of ziplines that drop you into the bog with no clear exit, yuck.

The Lucrehulk was suitably massive and intricate. Some terrible platforming sections took the shine off it, oh and walking charisma void Dagan turned up.

In other stuff, Bode ain't exactly subtle in trying to set up Cal and Merrin.

Generally, I keep wanting to play this but the recent sessions have all ended with me needing a break from its bullcrap.

 

Hell even on replay that scene still had me smiling.

 

Tonight's run....

Spoiler

Returned to the Shattered Moon and it started off OK, despite indications to the contrary like being directed to run through a firing cannon! No, the problems started after that.

Like a "puzzle" where you're not allowrd to smash the glass, insteas dropping a ball onto ramps and then picking up in the second or two before it is lost. Or a new mechanic that isn't that well explained and a route where the next step is 180 degrees behind you!

Once I worked out the balloon mechanic it was mostly OK, but if the game decides to not register a L2 button press you are screwed - which happened on the too long by far exit sequence, until I switched controllers.

But that "room puzzle" was dire. It was also unaccessible. With all the accessibility adjusts this game does for combat, you would logically expect it to be true for its other elements but nope. No guidance to help you jump onto another zipline, no overlay to show up that crawl gap you can access - which the latest Horizon game had for climbing routes.

And then there is the honourless cur that is Rayvis. The boss fight was crap, his end unsatisfying and it all happened suspiciously early - Ray-vis felt like an endgame adversary. Disposing of him this early was odd. Cal should have kept him alive but beheaded him and stuck the head on a pike for all eternity.

The problem I have with Rayvis are that GenDai are practically nigh-on unkillable, so him going on about war and honour rang very, very hollow.

 

So apparently people ship bode and cal. You learn something new every day. But I am pretty sure some weirdos on the internet would ship a rock with another rock. So I really shouldn’t be surprised.

 

I'm pretty certain Geode has shippers.

 

So i just found a fractured determination that was spinning space station stuff you have to platform dash through and it was awesome.

I got super frustrated but eventually got a 1:07-ish time to beat.

 

The one that ****ed me the most was fractured momentum. I just couldn’t do the jumps right and it took me like 30 tries the first time I did it. I actually helped a friend do it cause he wanted to platinum it but was so sick of trying lol. So I did the tears for him

 

So....

Spoiler

Continued heading to the Koboh observatory.

It started off quite good, new area to explore and a new upgrade to really open up the game. Got to an imperial outpost which then terminally crippled what should have been an epic sequence with enemies from all directions, but you can't see them coming easily. Severely disliked that too long fight.

Rick The Door Technician was a hilarious "boss".

Then I got to the mountain summit and started traversing the gap to the observatory.... Cue an awfully opaque section, with a bad mechanism - I loathed the L2 grab then R2 push set-up. The way ahead was frequently unclear. So much so I was using a YouTube walkthrough to get through it.

Some of the combat sections were fun but they were followed by these terrible cylinder climbing sections. Problem is you can't easily see what is coming up with time to respond to it and if you get it wrong? Dead. The second one then threw in wind inteference which made it far worse, along with deciding not to register that Cal was on the grate. It was infuriating.

Taking out a few boss raiders en route to Dagan was fun, the main fight itself? Badly hit by too many cutscenes wrecking the entire flow of the fight. I certainly didn't to take Dagan out. Bye bye bastard.

This game is a very up and down experience that relies massively on the fact that being to run and jump around while using a lightsaber is damn cool. That single aspect keeps it afloat in the face of numerous design flaws.

Exploring the worlds outside of the many quest, plus sidequests, is where the game is strongest. Keeping that for after the main quest when I've got all the upgrades unlocked / acquired.

 

Wow.

So, er, yeah.... That was....Something else.

What games like this need more than anything are stand out, exemplary, stupidly ambitous and sustained showcase sequences. The kind of sequences that not only pay off all that preceded them, but which you would play all that preceded them again, just so you could get to that showcase section.

Also, this is the kind of game where a replay is likely to be more fun than the first one because you know its tricks, and more importantly, the routes through.

Spoiler: What I'm Talking About - Jedha - huge spoilers

So, the return to Jedha, Bode's killing Cordova, the speeder bike pursuit, playing as Cere tearing through an insane number of stormtroopers, an Imperial assault involving TIEs, walkers, AT-STs, all kinds of troops, all culminating in a boss fight with.... Vader!

Sure, there were odd, tiny, fractional flaws - the direction Bode went being unclear, the respawn message, the slide section but those were all. Everything else was a masterclass demonstration of what AAA gaming is. It was stunning work.

It also worked with the story. Cal is a Jedi, Cere has been his master. What happens when you play her? By definition her abilities have to be more than Cal's and they are. It was incredibly fun. What kind of bad arse has their opening line to Darth Vader as: "Been a while"?

Where the Cal-Dagan duel in the observatory suffered terribly from cutscene interruption, the Vader-Cere duel benefitted from it. Vader won't move that fast, plus he deserves the greater focus in a way Dagan didn't. It all worked together brilliantly.

And then there is the aftermath....

Spoiler: God of War: Ragnarok - big spoilers

It might he said Bode's betrayal and killing of Cordova is akin to Odin's impersonation of Tyr and killing of Brok in God of War: Ragnarok. But there is a huge difference. In that game, Brok's brother Sindri becomes bitter, blaming Kratos and Atreus for Odin's acts. It doesn't happen here.

As Cal and Merrin start to blame themselves, Greez ain't having none of it. It isn't on them, it's on Bode, it's always going to be on Bode. In a time where there is so many people passing the buck, this was fantastic to see.

Stunning stuff.

 

Yes I did find traversal more fun the second time through. A lot more.

 

The game is on a tear. Last night's run:

Spoiler

Cal takes a trip to Neva Garon and stumbles on an ISB base! The way this game is spinning together SW elements is rather clever.

This all ends with Cal getting Bode's full backstory which almost covers his betrayal, except that it comes down to him not wanting to share. At the same time Denvik's speech alludes to some internal Imperial politics between the Inquisitorius, the ISB and Vader which both fits together nicely and is very Sidious.

Where it gets really smart is with the upgraded dark side Slow move. It fits to the narrative perfectly. It feels very cool to use. But the way the game depicts it makes it very clear that it is the dark side, yet the amount of enemies thrown at Cal forces you to use it, even as you know you shouldn't. Really clever stuff.

This all culminates in a massive fight as Merrin and Cal save each other from the Imperial onslaught. It works far better than an artificial boss fight. And then there's the end sequence with Denvik, without whom Bode wouldn't have been in a position to betray Cal and from where all the death flows.

So many stories would have had Cal kill him. There would have been the usual, hollow justifications; of the need for injury and failure. But Cal has already had much of both, years of both and more is not needed. More would be excessive overkill so the game does not take that road.

This is excellent work. Really smart writing and execution that hits on both the intellectual and emotional levels.

 

That feel when your game keeps crashing to black screen so you uninstall and reinstall but even though you didn’t uninstall your save data, its gone.

 

The hell!? I've had some odd freezes happen once or twice, but with a big gap between them and nothing more. What are you playing it on?

 

SX

Apparently quick resume/starting the game can bug out and show a black screen and eventually the static screen i was seeing.

 

Xbox Series X? Wow, that is very surprising.