This morning, 6/8/2019, EA debuted Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The game is being developed by Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends. Sig Asmussen, formerly of Sony Santa Monica, is directing the game. As we know, the game is set to release on November 15, 2019. During the panel hosted by Greg Miller from Kinda Funny Games, the Respawn team debuted 15 minutes of game play along with some background information on the game. First and foremost, Respawn worked Lucasfilm when developing this game, and because of this, this game is official canon. As fans have seen, this game does take place sometime between Order 66 and the events of Rogue One, as we Saw Gerrera is in the demo.
Players will play as a padawan named Cal Kestis, one of the last surviving Jedi. As such, players will not be able to go to the light or dark side like prior Star Wars games. Much like Star Wars: Force Unleashed, this game will have several force powers. During the demo, there were 5 major abilities shown: Force pull, Force push, lightsaber throw, the ability to block blaster shots with the lightsaber, and the ability to slow down time. It played out much like Kyle Ren freezing the blaster bolt and Poe in the opening moments of the Force Awakens. It was also shown that Cal will have a droid companion names BD-1(per Sig this stands for Buddy Droid 1). BD-1 is an explorer droid that has the ability to hack, scan the environment, and provide stealing stim packs. The stim packs will be limited and will have to be used wisely.
Players will encounter foes new and old. Fan of Star Wars will immediately recognize the clone trooper, stormtrooper, and biker scout armor. There are also new enemies that were created just for the game. They are dark armored clad enemies using force pikes, similar to Snoke’s guards in The Last Jedi. By defeating these and other enemies, players will earn skill points which will allow players to learn and level up abilities.
Overall, this game feels like a modernization of Force Unleashed, but this time with a story that is part of canon. I, for one, am extremely anxious to see the full game and everything that Respawn is bringing to the Star Wars universe. It has been quite a few years since Star Wars fans have been treated to a great game. In the end, do we as gamers and fans get a great game like Knights of the Republic with Force Unleashed game play, or do we get something like Masters of Teras Kasi. Only the release of the game on 11/15 will answer that question. May the force be with everyone until then.
