E3 was a joke right? So little to enjoy, boring announcement after boring announcement… Or maybe you just don’t understand what E3 is about?
…It’s not for you, little gamer sat there watching the livestream hoping beyond hope that the game you’ve waited years for will finally be announced – No it’s for the guys with all the money; it’s an event for the shareholders.
It’s to entice the people with deep pockets to come and invest in these companies and their wacky ideas. So you – yes you – sat there moaning to anyone who’ll listen to your rants on assorted social media, you should be pleased you even gotten a look in at something like this!
Now as for me, E3 has never gotten me too excited anyway, I mean give me one good trailer at least and I’m a happy little nerd… So this year was no exception to my usual experience. Most people who regularly read mywork on Respawning shouldn’t be surprised by now when I say I’m a huge Star Wars geek, so the second that E3 this year began I was ready for a Jedi: Fallen Order trailer.
What I wasn’t prepared for was a 15 minute long gameplay video that would give me all I wanted and more! Respawn’s trailer drop finally gave us a proper look, starting immediately with the young Jedi padawan Cal Kestis and his adorable droid companion BD-1. Both characters come to us voiced and acted by some fairly famous faces! With Jedi Cal played by Gotham’s Cameron Monaghan and his friendly droid buddy’s beeps and whistles performed by legendary sound designer Ben Burtt who, if you’re a geek like me, you should know as the sound designer behind another friendly little droid in the Star Wars universe, R2 D2!
Not long into the trailer we get another famous face and voice jumping on in. Forest Whitaker returns to the franchise once again as Rebel extremist and leader of the partisan faction Saw Gerrera. During the gameplay it’s made immediately clear that Cal and Saw are working together, at least for now. Historically Saw’s outlook and methods don’t align very well with the other rebels and heroes and he’ll normally alienate them for his own benefit and agenda.
Of course this was a gameplay trailer so we got to see a fair amount of footage showing us how Cal will handle. Combat looks very similar to what we got in 2018’s God of War which shouldn’t worry anyone. The combat there was near on perfect and seems to work just as well with a Lightsaber in hand rather than an axe! Kestis uses a varied mix of Lightsaber moves and force powers with the most often used power during the trailer being a Kylo Ren like ability to freeze blaster bolts in mid air to either more easily reflect them or, as shown and with much hilarity, force pull an unwitting storm trooper in the way of the blast!
An angle of Soulsborne rears its head too as Cal seems to have a stamina meter to keep an eye on during the fight, though it doesn’t seem too intrusive as it refills very quickly and drains only during the larger rolls rather than every little sidestep. A cute touch is after the fight if you’ve taken any damage Cal can ask for BD-1 to toss him a healing item.
Traversing levels seems to be a mixture of the old Prince of Persia games and the classic Star Wars Lightsaber slinging adventure The Force Unleashed. Cal hops around the wide open level with Force enhanced jumps and leaps then climbs whatever he can’t jump and even throws in some impressive wall running skills.
Very little of the story has been revealed so far which is just how I like it. I want to discover this story a thing the time, not sooner. All we really know is that little Cal is going to spend the game being pursued by the Emperor’s dark side trained assassins, the Inquisitiors. In this case the Inquisitor in question is the Second Sister; again we know very little about who she is or how she may behave but I’m looking forward to finding out!
We have been told though that unlike most other Star Wars franchise games, there won’t be a brancing storyline between the light and dark sides. There will be one cohesive story to be told and for us to take in which to me is ideal. Let’s face it, the light side story is always canon anyway and not focusing on two endings will allow Respawn to put all their effort into journey! I have an idea for how I’d like the story to go of course, maybe witness Cal walking the line between light and dark as he makes his way through an unkind and uncaring galaxy, but I’m hoping to still be shocked and surprised!
If you’re like me you can’t wait to grab your saber and take the fight to the empire! However, we have to wait a little longer, Jedi: Fallen Order is released in the U.K on the 15th of November.
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