Ever since Electronic Arts acquired the exclusive deal to develop Star Wars games, fans haven't necessarily been thrilled about the quality and quantity of games that they've seen from the giant publisher. Both Star Wars: Battlefront 1 and 2 received middling critical reception, and in addition Star Wars: Battlefront 2 featured such egregious microtransactions that it sparked an industry-wide shift. Respawn Entertainment is releasing the 3rd, and hopefully best EA Star Wars game and fans are excited.
Let's look at 10 new gameplay details about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order that sound awesome.
10 Lightsaber Combat Variety
Throughout the years, there have been Star Wars games that didn't feature the player playing as a Jedi or using a lightsaber. Though some of these games were great and found a dedicated audience, the real allure of a game based in George Lucas' sci-fi opera universe is using a lightsaber.
In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, players can use the lightsaber in traditional sword-fighting style combat, while also being able to extend to ranged combat via force controller the lightsaber as you throw it at enemies and retract it to combo into plenty of different moves and finishers.
9 Minimal HUD
Vince Zampella and the rest of Respawn Entertainment have reiterated how important the responsibility they have in delivering a true Star Wars experience is. Their approach to the heads-up display or HUD for short in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order expresses this exact understanding.
They want players to pay attention to the world, so outside of your life bar, the HUD for the game is as minimal as possible. Designing it this way lets players fully immerse themselves into the world of Star Wars they've come to love and take in the breadth of it all.
8 Enemy Variety
In the short glimpse that fans got of the game during E3 2019, they were treated to many different enemies, and even more, is yet to be revealed according to Respawn Entertainment. The enemies showed, or at the very least teased, included stormtroopers, flametroopers, purge troopers, Inquisitors, imperial security droids, AT-AT, AT-ST, and giant spiders. Considering that the spiders are indigenous to Kashyyk, there are likely many more planet specific enemies you're going to run into during your time with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
7 Encourages Creative Problem-Solving
Having a solid base for combat in your game is important, but Respawn Entertainment understands that in a Star Wars game where you're a Jedi, freedom means everything. The combat and environments seem to give the player a playground where they can problem-solve and figure out what's the best plan of attack for their playing style.
From letting enemy non-playable characters take each other out to doing a force-move only run, the choice is up to you. You'll have the same tools and abilities as everyone else, but it's up to you to choose how to use them.
6 Your Droid Companion Is Your Healer
In the world of video games, one of the harder things to contextualize into the world without breaking immersion is how the player heals themselves. In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order your droid companion BD-1 supplies Cal with stimpacks that allow him to heal from injury.
In the demo, the user interface showed that these aren't of infinite supply, and players will have to use them strategically during their playthrough. Having BD-1 be responsible for healing Cal during their adventures together makes the relationship between the two that much more powerful.
5 Forcing Stormtroopers To Blast Themselves
There are very few moments that happen during E3 that catch the audience off guard or delight them with a mechanic that they didn't know was possible. While fans were watching the first extended gameplay reveal via a prerecorded demo during the EA Play event stream they were blown away by a simple move the demo player accomplished.
During a sequence where the main character Cal is going down a hallway he slows a blaster projection in mid-air, force grabs the stormtrooper who shot it and carries him over into his own blast. What a move!
4 Enemies Of Varying Difficulty
During the demo presented during EA Play the weekend before E3 2019 fans were surprised by the true challenge they would receive from the specialized purge troopers, but were also worried about how easy regular stormtroopers were to defeat.
Respawn Entertainment went ahead and clarified that the demo was made easier for the sake of presenting a good demo, but that difficulty would be harder come the actual release. Considering the game is set to have plenty of enemy variety it should come as no surprise when the difficulty matches that.
3 Seamless Movement & Traversal
Respawn Entertainment's previous titles Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends showed that their expertise was in first-person shooting and traversal/movement. The E3 2019 showcased that they brought their experience in the latter over to their third-person action Star Wars game in a major way.
Players will get to not only parkour through beloved Star Wars locations, but the imagery of climbing up a moss-covered AT-AT is simply breathtaking. The movement was a key part in making Titanfall 2's campaign one of the best of the generation and it seems Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will follow suit.
2 Thoughtful Combat
The hardest part about nailing a game in which you control a Jedi is making the combat meaningful and thoughtful. FromSoftware is currently the studio that's known for executing and delivering the modern gold standard for third-person action combat, so their games are the ones often looked at for comparison.
Although Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks similar to the Souls games in some ways, the freestyle use of the force and lightsaber make it unique and authentic to Star Wars. It seems that nailing the feel and look of combat was important to Respawn Entertainment.
1 It's A Metroidvania Game
Despite Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order selling fans and skeptics alike through its extended gameplay demo and trailer, there were outlets who stated fans hadn't even heard about the best part about the game. According to multiple reports the game actually resembles the structure of a Metroidvania game. Those being games were players unlock new areas of levels based on acquired items or skills. Players will reportedly get to visit a variety of planets in whatever order they choose, with the ability to return with new upgrades and abilities to explore previously inaccessible areas.