The last iteration of Star Wars in the realm of pure single-player video games still dates back to 2010: it was Force Unleashed 2 and, let's face it, it wasn't great. Nine years later, the studio that we least expected in the world to give birth to a new title of the genre - Respawn Entertainment, renowned for its flagship battle royale Apex Legends - wants to surprise with, this time, a resolutely more modern, more relevant. Farewell to the stupid and nasty beat them all: here, Jedi Fallen Order is at the border of styles, hitting the hand of Nathan Drake, Kratos and FromSoftware's The Wolf with obvious respect for Father George Lucas.
Direction therefore a few years after the prelogy and its fatal Order 66: as a reminder, this is the assault given by Palpatine against the Jedi, ordering their pure and hard eradication across the Galaxy for the benefit of a totally corrupt Empire, imposing its power on peoples and planets without much compassion. Particularly dark times when the few surviving Jedi hide in the depths of the countryside or in the middle of society, like Kal Cestis, a valiant redhead that we will play for a good twenty hours of play.
WHEN THE JEDI ROUX-SPETE
Covered behind the trade of scrap metal on a planet with a gray mine, Kal Cestis is in reality a Padawan who could not complete his prestigious Jedi training. The young man obviously has a skill and a significant rate of midi-chlorians but Order 66, which occurred during the apprenticeship of his Master Jaro Tapal and, in addition, many years ago now, prevented him from achieve this once coveted and respected rank. Worse, he has even forgotten a lot of gestures and abilities by dint of concealing his identity and his powers: so inevitably, when he is spotted by the Empire in full hunt for the last of his kind - a situation definitely inspired by the conflict of the Second World War - the boy has no choice but to come out of hiding, assume his destiny and, why not, try to rebuild the Jedi Order.
For this, he will be supported by Cere Junka (played by Debra Wilson), the adorable little droid BD-1 or Greez Dritus, pilot of the spaceship with which they will travel the solar systems in search of a precious artifact. A completely canonical story, this will be an opportunity to meet some well-known characters like Kashyykk or Saw Gererra (always modeled on the features of the owl Forest Whitaker) and to meet new ones, like the Second or Ninth Sister, fierce female antagonists.
The result is then a real enjoyment during the fights, a hectic crescendo nervousness which comforts the player himself in his osmosis with the Force.
Relatively classic, rather predictable on certain points, the plot of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order does not break three legs at a wookiee and does not lead to a fabulous end but, however, manages to score specific points: the development of its characters - especially Cal Kestis and his accomplishment as a Jedi - is effective (without being brilliant), several passages are enough to make any good self-respecting fan shudder and, overall, the respect for the lore is impressive. It was said that the establishment of the universe was shaped closely with Disney: more than ever, we have proof of this with brilliant landmarks whose exploration is a child's magic, tinged with wonder and anguish with, as the only means of survival, considerable bravery.
UNCHARTED JEDI’S FORTUNE
Undeniably, Respawn Entertainment's game is one of adventure, and a beautiful one: each planet conceals hidden areas and narrow paths strewn with enemies specific to the climates; the fauna and flora adapt to the many biomes present; multiple secrets are scattered and, often, accessible through abilities unlocked much later, allowing for some replayability. Far from being completely linear, the level design of Jedi Fallen Order turns out to be rather wacky, not hesitating to play on verticality and even some light puzzles but definitely there to insist on exploration. Because yes, let it be said, there is definitely Uncharted in this new Star Wars software, both in the discovery of places and their pretty panoramas and the many platform phases, also eyeing the side of Prince of Persia for the wall races or the latest Tomb Raiders for adventurous staging. Very good references which fortunately ensure a real personality thanks to, firstly, the so singular universe of Star Wars and, secondly, all these powers specific to the Force.
Cal Kestis will be able, for example, to pull elements towards himself, tear down walls, crush metal doors, swing elements or even slow down machines from a distance to make his way through the hostile environment that will face him. There is nothing very hard or revolutionary: let's just say that the proposed adventure manages to air out very well. Similarly, some passages will require a much more sustained rhythm with large phases of sliding or chase, sometimes totally focused on epic action, sometimes more on sweet poetry: there, the influence of God of War is feel and for good reason since Stig Asmussen, the man at the head of development, was none other than the lead director of the third opus of the god of war (just that). The result is flashy scenes that would almost turn Jedi Fallen Order on the side of the big Hollywood blockbusters: we still regret the total lack of mastery of these preposterous passages, sometimes in rhythm, coherence or technical, preventing the title from accessing the same prestige as that shared by Naughty Dog or Santa Monica Studio. As they say, “often imitated, never equaled”.
LASER SURGERY
Nevertheless, this new Star Wars software shows a sacred goodwill that is obvious. Respawn Entertainment has tried to do well and big: in the entire history of the saga in the Tenth Art, the situation is finally changing a little more concretely with ideas far from being lazy and very honorably executed. This also results in rather surprising, tactical and demanding fights directly inspired by a very fair dose of Sekiro. If the stormtroopers mainly acted as cannon fodder, here, it will be necessary to be extra vigilant, even in the face of benign enemies: learning the patterns is then seen as essential for dodging, rolling, parries and counter-attacks, far more effective than the cramming recommended for other action games. Like the excellent FromSoftware adventure, a guard gauge is present both in Cal Kestis and in his opponents, which we can try to break by force or circumvent by finding faults and attacking the right ones. times.
Similarly, Jedi Fallen Order opts for traditional and manual backup stations, scattered at specific points on the map: these will have the particularity of bringing downed enemies back to the field and adding, by the distance that separates, some difficulty. Another system to take into account: during a game over, all the experience points accumulated since the last save will be lost, then recoverable by touching the enemy who killed you. Picky logical mechanics once controller in hand, particularly spicy even if less punitive than a Sekiro: however, the game requires real mastery, especially in the last two difficulty levels which can really challenge the uninitiated of the genre . Indeed, some areas can be confusing with too many enemies or if the cogs are not properly assimilated, or the right abilities purchased at the right time.
DO NOT CROSS FRAGRANCES
Thanks to the XP garnered over duels or discoveries of points of interest, it is then possible to access a skill tree essential for good progress. This is also where Jedi Fallen Order knows how to apply: as skills are unlocked in the tree provided for this purpose or through history, Cal Kestis will become more and more powerful, agile, fast and close to perfect Jedi Mastery. The result is then a real enjoyment during the fights, a hectic crescendo nervousness which comforts the player himself in his osmosis with the Force. The few ruthless bosses are also successful: some, wielding the lightsaber and other powers of the Dark Side like aces, thus causing duels with surgical precision and palpable epilepsy, quite worthy of the great Star Wars confrontations.
This relatively intransigent spirit during fights, playing a lot on receiving blows, understanding adversity and relentlessness (you risk dying a lot) therefore supports the purpose of Jedi Fallen Order: learn from yourself and your enemies to defeat them. Suffice to say that this facet of the gameplay corresponds particularly well to the spirit of the Jedi and hits the mark once the adventure has started. To support all this, Respawn Entertainment has therefore set out to reproduce the many typical effects of the Star Wars universe as faithfully as possible. Unfortunately, Disney obliges, the dismemberment is far too little present – we would love to be able to cut Stormtrooper as we see fit and it would be all the more logical – but a whole bunch of other parts have been carefully displayed. This requires numerous particles (sparks, the first source of Star Wars brilliance), a clean sound design and a completely convincing graphic design. Overall, the artistic direction is frankly successful: some panoramas turn out to be sumptuous and the 3D models are finely detailed - on the other hand, we will allow ourselves to express some reservations about the chara design choices of Cal Kestis and Cere, their real Cameron linings Monaghan and Cere are really not the most charismatic once transcribed in-game. Of course, everyone sees noon on their doorstep, but on our side, despite his good will and his friendly personality, we still had trouble finding our very classy Jedi, let alone badass.
The OST is an undeniable marvel, propelling the atmosphere of Jedi Fallen Order into the high video game spheres of the saga.
In addition, some black spots are also to be declared. Especially on consoles, the display depth still shows some obvious weaknesses; the framerate is far from stable, even in “performance” mode and a lot of bugs have come to blacken the technical table: collision problems, fixed inanimate enemies, many dialogues without voice (but with the rest of the sound effects), long times loading, sometimes jerky animations… It's quite a shame, especially since the rest is rather attentive. Fortunately, updates are already beginning to be deployed to erase these few concerns. We will therefore try to end on an excellent point: the OST is an undeniable marvel, propelling the atmosphere of Jedi Fallen Order into the high video game spheres of the saga. We will therefore thank two men for their work, Stephen Barton (Call of Duty 4, Titanfall 1 and 2) and Gordy Haab (Star Wars The Old Republic, Battlefront 1 and 2), who have signed music there in the line of those by John Williams and adapting wonderfully well to the universe of Star Wars. A very good vintage that this new title: imperfect, but a very good vintage all the same.
