Slider image from Flickr.

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is the latest Star Wars video game by the EA franchise, and I must say, it did not disappoint. In Jedi Fallen Order, you play as a young padawan named Cal Kestis- one of the few Jedis who survived Order 66 From Star Wars Revenge Of The Sith. However, Cal isn’t a full Jedi because, somehow, his force powers have been weakened, but as you progress through the game, he acquires new skills.

 Your companion throughout the game is a small droid named BD-1 who is a crucial character in the game as he helps to unlock doors, view messages, and short out electrical wires. EA made a smart decision to include BD-1 in this game because, without him, playing this game would feel even more lonely then it already is.

In Star Wars Battlefront 2 story mode, the last game EA made before this one, you play as an imperial commander. Throughout the game, players join the Rebels, and fight for their cause to free planets from tyrants. In Fallen Order, you’re on your own for much of the game, and a large part of the dialogue is Cal talking to himself or his droids, and the fame feels like a second character is missing. A second player would do more than make the player feel less alone, it would enable multiplayer or split screen play, which at the moment, is not available for Fallen Order. That means two friends cannot play with each other and experience the game at the same time. Conversely, Battlefront 2, you have a partner with you at all times, and multiplayer mode is available straight from the start.

These two games are different in many ways, especially considering they were made only a few years apart. For one, In Fallen Order, your only weapon is the lightsaber, and there is no way to attain more weapons; granted, you can customize it to make it look better, but that’s all cosmetics. While playing Fallen Order, I missed the feeling of shooting guns as plays can in Battlefront 2, where you choose from a large variety of guns, each with different effects and ranges.

Going into this game, I honestly didn’t have high expectations, owing to the fact that the last story-mode style game concocted by EA wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, and it ended up disappointing many fans. Jedi Fallen Order, however, exceeded expectations.

I’m reviewing the Xbox One version of this game, so the following is statement is applied only to the Xbox controller. Instead of using the RT button for main attack (a setting used by most games), the development team on EA decided to assign the main attack function to the beloved X button. That was a risky choice because, as far as I know, one of the only video game companies that uses X as the main attack button is the Lego franchise.

In my opinion, the idea to switch up the game controls was a great idea  because it gave them more room to add special abilities to the other buttons that would be unreachable if you had to keep your index finger on RT at all times. The development team on Fallen Order also made a lot of changes to the lightsaber handling mechanic. It’s much more detailed than in the earlier games, and it’s decidedly much easier to use for attacks.

By and large, the game mechanics are definitely an improvement from previous EA games, and the overall feel of the game is better. In the beginning, it may have been a bit boring, and slightly lonely, but as I progressed through the game and unlocked much more abilities, I soon became invested and enthralled by the game.  Playing this game was a great experience for me, and I would definitely recommend it.