A/V Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order + Survivor

Right, back to the game - been wandering around Koboh:

Spoiler

Did the gyro mission and started working out how to use the map to spot the often, a bit too well disguised squeeze entrances. Really liked how they brought in the High Republic with Zee.

Sadly the lead up was a lot better than the actual Rancor fight. The fight itself suffered from a red indicator that both blended with the reddish rock and a very short window for it. Story mode for the win.

The other exploration was a good deal better, recruited an alien fishing guy with a Scots accent for the town then headed for the forest array.

One recurring weakness is it sometimes disguises what can be interacted with, but this tends to be a one time thing. Once you know you can take out a rock pillar or pull one out of the wall as a bridge, you start looking for it.

One thing feels pretty certain is I wouldn't get very far without the Story mode setting.

 

Re: rancors

No shame in hiding behind a rock pillar off the territory edge or up on a ledge and lightsaber throw for 30 minutes.

 

Oh and that was the other thing - always weird doing chip attacks then your next attack takes out its entire remaining 1/3 of its health.

 

It might be a consequence of the difficulty you're playing on, the "kill move" might trigger when enemies have more health.

In any case, I think the rancor was probably placed in the game too early. It's significantly easier to defeat with the right skills, but most players won't have them when they first encounter it. I think the dev team's intention was for players to come back and defeat it after they've invested some more skill points, but most people instead just seem to get frustrated and slam their head against it over and over.

 

When you complete the game, go back to Courscant, there is a force tear there you might find interesting

 

In terms of the death move trigger, probably. Just a weird mix of what happens going against what the boss health bar indicates and what previous hits have done.

Sounds like one of the major cocert bosses near the start of FO. Oggbo - or whatever the name - killed loads of players without warning.

Even the FPS podcast lot were critical of the difficulty for the Rancor fight, SkillUp saw it as misplaced.

 

Bits 'n' pieces:

- The Jedi like their puzzles, don't they?

Imperfections and flaws:
- The roller mine mechanic is awful. Plus the things are dumb enough to get stuck in the environment.
- Also the TK controls remain awful. - - The whole "here's your arc of throw" is never accurate and that is especially so with those damn mines.
- Combat remains a scrappy affair.
- The map is better but having to manually open it every time is a pain.
- The Force Fracture stuff can go jump in a black hole. I'm sure some masochists like it.

Done some exploration, some main quests and other:

Spoiler

- Daven can go screw a droid. Piece of crap.
- Also a crap boss fight complete with a "you lose by cutscene" rubbish.
- Did a trip to Fort Kae'Lin and....
- What bastard developer thought we wanted Oggdo back? Bastard of a boss.
- For all that combat is messy, when Cal is on a tear it is pretty damn glorious. The watchtower side quest culminated in an awesome mass brawl.
- Have the path to Jedha open.
- The taming animals mechanic is cool but 90% remains psychopathic.

I am reminded of why I didn't hurry back to its predecessor. Like it, this is an up and down game but more ups than downs.

 

The Force tears with combat are fine, the platforming ones are monsters and I always turned around and said nope on all but one.

 

Haha yeah the Jedha platforming one did my head in. I fist pumped the room when I finally got it.

 

Oh, there's more than one type? Wonder which the one in Doma's shop is? Will find out later.

 

Heh....

 

That is a rather telling hint that it'll be the one hit kill platforming bollocks.

 

Thankfully, no. Not that.

It is punishing combat though.

 

More seriously, appreciate the tip-off.

 

I actually like the parkour challenges. Even if one of them took me 40 minutes lol I can now do them in one go. 40 seconds about.

 

The Game Developer Stig Aummsen has done a sit down interview with IGN on Jedi Survivor

 

*shudders* evillll

 

Indeed

 

Spoiler

Okay, after struggling for a couple days to find my way through the desert, I've made it to the cutscene where Merrin first appears... Progress
And I absolutely LOVE Merrin!!

 

Lol I struggled with that part Much of Jedha is straight forward after this until your second trip. Back to the planet. But that’s because you have to go through the open world portion and it’s easy to get side tracked

 

I haven't made my way to the HR stuff yet but these games have definitely piqued my interest. The general world building is my favorite aspect.

 

Hopes for the future:

Spoiler

 

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.

 

The Jedha wilderness parts seem like they could drive one mad.

 

The tunneling scorpion section really requires a lot of double jump and run to the fallen columns.