Straight out of EA's spice mines of mobile gaming comes something unlikely, but welcome – a solid game. That's precisely what STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order turned out to be as far as I'm concerned. By checking all the right boxes while keeping the experience familiar enough, and then applying the Star Wars license on top of it. Playing safe also means coming across issues that should have been fixed since with iterations, though.

We step into the shoes of Cal Kestis as he's trying to make a living scavenging scrap on planet Bracca. Doesn't take long for the game to establish it's set sometime after Order 66 was executed and it takes even less for Cal to expose that he is, in fact, Force sensitive in the process of saving his friend from certain death. Suddenly, Imperial Inquisitors are all over the place hunting down Jedi in hiding and through happenstance our young protagonist gets rescued by a rundown pair looking to restore the Jedi order. Greez and Cere also happen to have a ship capable of getting Cal off-planet so it doesn't take long to convince a man with endangered life and, you know, possibly being the last hope to restore Jedi, the guardians of the Galaxy.

Easily the most confounding aspect of Fallen Order's narrative segment is just how middling it is. I wouldn't call it low stakes or bad, you are after all chasing after a MacGuffin that could decide the future of an entire upcoming generation of the Jedi while the Empire is looking to snuff them out, but the manner in which it is presented to the player and how you interact with it is very sub-par. Entire game essentially boils down to planet hopping as you're gathering clues on how to access the final part. Narratively this means trouble because game gives you a degree of freedom in which order you want to tackle these planets, but as I'll get into later on gameplay limitations prevent you from truly having your way with them. If there's an ominous feeling I had to put into words it would be there's quite a bit missing from Fallen Order, primarily based on how piecemeal story bits feel with threads connecting them. Story comes together albeit in very weak fashion as game gives you only the barest of essentials.

Which is where characters would pick up the slack, right? Well, they kinda do. There are revelations and turning the tables on how you imagine things playing out, but the surprising part is flashbacks and somber moments between characters are standouts here. Greez and Cere are both more than just meets the eye, with one getting to spill the beans of her backstory, but Cal is the one who gets the most attention. In present day he's a surprisingly level-headed individual out to help people despite what happened to him in youth that scarred him for life and lead to life in hiding. I really liked him as a character, but I also wish he had more interactions with other people. Even as primary antagonist sheds her mask and they have a heart-to-heart it never goes beyond surface depth you'd expect from Sith vs Jedi. Hell, there are even hints of awkward romance from a last second party addition. In a way Cal is just a vehicle to carry out the search for the holocron and at times this becomes Cere's story as she tackles her own history and issues.

So what are we looking at in terms of structure and gameplay itself? I have limited experience with Souls games, but this is a take on that formula with deadly combat, mediation points to heal/upgrade/respawn enemies as well as level design laid out so you unlock shortcuts along the way. There is the addition of platforming bits in so it's not just combat all the way, but I would say this is also where dubious inclusion of metroidvania principles rears its ugly head. Why? Because you're never supposed to explore areas entirely upon gaining access as Fallen Order expects you to go back with expanded repertoire of what Cal can do. I'm talking about getting a double jump, ability to scale up walls, underwater breather, etc to traverse through levels as you handy diegetic map points out routes as yet unexplored. It won't remember chests you came across, but were unable to open at the moment.

Fine and dandy if somewhat annoying to me personally had it not been for a design decision to extend this to combat as well, though. This translates to being gimped early on until you get enough experience points to invest into basic things like heavy attack or such. Not a big deal as that's expected of character progression these days, but what I didn't like is how major milestones such as new Force powers or additional combat styles are hard locked behind story progression. When you add to this your trusty BD-1's own upgrades unlocking in the same manner you are quite clearly encouraged to rush to the finale, back off and then re-tread the entire game to locate all the [unmarked] chests and secrets. With so very few planets to visit, and re-visit multiple times as story dictates, I found my motivation sapped. Experience isn't really a problem since enemies re-spawn and you'll have more than plenty from just organically playing through the game.

Might as well talk about combat since we're on topic. In a way it's amazing to me how Jedi Outcast/Academy got lightsaber combat so perfectly right over twenty years ago. Needless to say Fallen Order does not come close since it's just a Star Wars skin job where lightsaber feels like a glowstick. Still, that's not to say what we have is bad. Expect low-scale encounters usually with couple of enemies or strong individuals/weak groups until the game flips the tables on you in the finale and starts throwing encounters comprised of the deadliest enemies Empire has to offer. It felt like a jarring, but welcome switch Cal is perfectly able to deal with at end game. Once you actually finish the game you unlock a challenge mode where you get really out there fights AND ability to create your own for maximum challenge. If there is a strength here it would be genuine enemy variety at hand where each planet brings everything it has. This means you'll fight your Stormtrooper varieties, giant spiders and undead Nightsisters with everything in-between.

Lastly, before I touch upon production values, there remains a matter of customization. It is the primary reason for you to scour across planets looking after chests for BD-1 to unlock and despite allowing extensively customization of the lightsaber hilt, outfit and your ship, I couldn't help but see it as tertiary at best. Character customization is limited to poncho and coverall patterns while with the lightsaber only the color of the blade really matters. Such an odd choice to put so much emphasis on the hilt you only get to see in handful of intense cutscenes. If there's a positive here it's that you're not FORCED to look out for chests to gain a gameplay advantage... until you realize secret golden ones will expand your healing canister capacity.

What to add about the presentation? It's amazing and you can tell both the budget and license were put to incredible use. Everything sounds right and composers did their utmost in recreating what an iconic Star Wars soundtrack should be. Also, The Hu are apparently canonical part of Star Wars now. Likeness of real people were unnecessary when working with a fantastical setting and just drew me out of the experience, though.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order is a perfectly solid blend of action adventure, meets Souls, meets metroidvania that perhaps has to wear one hat too many and loses some of its identity in the process, but license and outstanding production values arguably manage to deliver. Young Cal Kestis is dragged from his life of hiding and tasked with recovering the holocron that may well decide the future of the Jedi Order as post-Order 66 Empire's Inquisitors are constantly at his back. This premise is somewhat betrayed by dull moment-to-moment story that could've benefited from more fleshing out to eliminate some of disjointedness. Revisiting planets with new abilities, coming across familiar characters and trying lightsaber combat got me investing some 18 hours into Fallen Order with no regrets.