I really wish I could give this a higher score because at its core it is fun, awesomely designed game and a substantial improvement over Fallen Order, but the performance issues and general bugginess were high enough that I feel it'd be disingenuous to pretend things were peachy the whole way through. The environments are awesome and the models detailed with everything spouting boatloads of beautiful color and effects, but what good is all that if the game can't run at a good framerate, let alone all the miscellaneous glitches?
There's more to the game than just looks and glitches, though. I was very much satisfied and pleasantly surprised by the movement and acrobatics this game provides. It feels like a total reinvention of this short series and takes inspiration seemingly from the 3D platformers of old. Indeed, rather than being a straight-up action game, this entry comes across as being a search-action platformer that has relatively fun combat.
The way Cal moves and feels in this game comes across as exactly how I'd want to if I were a Jedi, which I'd imagine fueled a lot of how the developers decided upon what to give him (well, that and replaying some Mario 64 and Sunshine). The various platforming challenges were a treat and I had a feeling that more than a few casual gamers were given a sharp introduction to 3D platforming tech many of us take for granted. I thank the game for this, buuuut I also scold them for adding an artificial death-by-falling plane that persists no matter the environments. Allowing for more sequence breaking would have made the semi-open nature of this game infinitely more rewarding than it already is.
Still, the amount of toys and tools Cal gets in his movement kit are clear indicators that the devs behind this game were given much more free reign over the core design of the game than the much more safe first one, and I find that great. Throughout my run I had to remind myself repeatedly that this was a AAA venture; there was just so much more soul and good stuff packed into an innocuous prestige-game-adjacent work that I nearly forgot it was so. Of course, a lot of the hand holding and forced cinematics took me out of that high of sorts but those still felt more like vestigial bits of fluff to ignore rather than things that actively got in the way of the fun.
The combat is largely the same as the first game, but I found the new stances (particularly the first of the two new ones) to be a lot of fun to play around with. The perks you can get in this game are a handy feature to use and the new skills for each stance feel very impactful. I do take issue with how clunky a lot of the force abilities felt, though, and using the force in general felt almost unresponsive at times. Whatever priority system is used for overlapping button presses just does not feel very good, and any buffering seems to be either bugged or nonexistent. This also goes for using heals, which are worryingly unresponsive at times as I recall had been a problem with the first game as well.
The minigames and extra bonus modes and such were a welcome surprise, and I was glad they expanded wildly upon the minor plant-growing mode from Fallen Order with a whole rooftop garden in this one. I was a bit worried things would be too straightforward and little innovation would be made, but clearly the devs did want to put together something with a lot of staying power. I'm honestly hoping some sort of Chao Garden-esque mode is in the third game, that'd be awesome.
Back to the main game, though, this time around I enjoyed the majority of the writing but found it fell a bit flat toward the end. Five or so 'final bosses' in a row became tiring and a lot of the tragedy you'd expect in a Star Wars middle entry came all at the very end, leaving the game's tone and feel a bit unbalanced. I also was not a fan of some of the boss and twist choices they picked for this last section, though I rather like the ultimate status quo established by the end of this game. It's an end whose means I disagree with as a set of narrative choices.
I'm not a huge fan of the mildly forced romance in this game either; it comes across as executive meddling, and while the writers definitely did what they could to make it all believable, it felt a bit meaningless when it came to the overall character arcs for those involved in it. Still, most of the character writing was great with a huge ensemble cast adding pieces upon pieces to the quality of the overall package.
It helps that the voice acting quality in this game is high as the sky, which I'd imagine isn't a huge unprecedented thing to say about a AAA venture but I think is still worth noting. Performances were believable and just the right mix of camp and solemnity that embodies the best of Star Wars. Clear passion was put into even the side characters' voices, and I applaud the devs for putting so much effort into immersing the players in the world with well-sprinkled voice acting that feels like it serves far more than just reading through the game's script. With the side dialogue and the solid environmental sound design mixing together with a soft but present soundtrack, I always felt like I was unfolding a Star Wars story with how cinematic yet unpretentious it all was.
Again, I do wish this game was wholeheartedly able to get my stamp of approval for what I hope to see going forward with AAA in general, let alone the third entry. I can't, though. With all the positives I have to throw at this game, it still crashes, it still has game-breaking bugs that force hard resets, it has massive framerate dips that make me fear for my console, and it's uncompressed to a point of ridiculousness.
It's all the things that I would hope would not be allowed for a game to ship with, but clearly the ones up top don't care about that. They care about the fact that the Star Wars name will sell copies like hotcakes for better or for worse. More dev freedom? Sure, so long as they don't ask for more time to make the game fully presentable, apparently. I can only hope that by some miracle enough of the higher-up EA execs who are involved with this game are thrown out to the point where the final entry is allowed to actually flourish. Fallen Order was a solid start and this game was a promise of potential greatness, but the third game may not be allowed to be at its best if things stay as they are. I guess we'll just have to see if EA can be redeemed.
There's more to the game than just looks and glitches, though. I was very much satisfied and pleasantly surprised by the movement and acrobatics this game provides. It feels like a total reinvention of this short series and takes inspiration seemingly from the 3D platformers of old. Indeed, rather than being a straight-up action game, this entry comes across as being a search-action platformer that has relatively fun combat.
The way Cal moves and feels in this game comes across as exactly how I'd want to if I were a Jedi, which I'd imagine fueled a lot of how the developers decided upon what to give him (well, that and replaying some Mario 64 and Sunshine). The various platforming challenges were a treat and I had a feeling that more than a few casual gamers were given a sharp introduction to 3D platforming tech many of us take for granted. I thank the game for this, buuuut I also scold them for adding an artificial death-by-falling plane that persists no matter the environments. Allowing for more sequence breaking would have made the semi-open nature of this game infinitely more rewarding than it already is.
Still, the amount of toys and tools Cal gets in his movement kit are clear indicators that the devs behind this game were given much more free reign over the core design of the game than the much more safe first one, and I find that great. Throughout my run I had to remind myself repeatedly that this was a AAA venture; there was just so much more soul and good stuff packed into an innocuous prestige-game-adjacent work that I nearly forgot it was so. Of course, a lot of the hand holding and forced cinematics took me out of that high of sorts but those still felt more like vestigial bits of fluff to ignore rather than things that actively got in the way of the fun.
The combat is largely the same as the first game, but I found the new stances (particularly the first of the two new ones) to be a lot of fun to play around with. The perks you can get in this game are a handy feature to use and the new skills for each stance feel very impactful. I do take issue with how clunky a lot of the force abilities felt, though, and using the force in general felt almost unresponsive at times. Whatever priority system is used for overlapping button presses just does not feel very good, and any buffering seems to be either bugged or nonexistent. This also goes for using heals, which are worryingly unresponsive at times as I recall had been a problem with the first game as well.
The minigames and extra bonus modes and such were a welcome surprise, and I was glad they expanded wildly upon the minor plant-growing mode from Fallen Order with a whole rooftop garden in this one. I was a bit worried things would be too straightforward and little innovation would be made, but clearly the devs did want to put together something with a lot of staying power. I'm honestly hoping some sort of Chao Garden-esque mode is in the third game, that'd be awesome.
Back to the main game, though, this time around I enjoyed the majority of the writing but found it fell a bit flat toward the end. Five or so 'final bosses' in a row became tiring and a lot of the tragedy you'd expect in a Star Wars middle entry came all at the very end, leaving the game's tone and feel a bit unbalanced. I also was not a fan of some of the boss and twist choices they picked for this last section, though I rather like the ultimate status quo established by the end of this game. It's an end whose means I disagree with as a set of narrative choices.
I'm not a huge fan of the mildly forced romance in this game either; it comes across as executive meddling, and while the writers definitely did what they could to make it all believable, it felt a bit meaningless when it came to the overall character arcs for those involved in it. Still, most of the character writing was great with a huge ensemble cast adding pieces upon pieces to the quality of the overall package.
It helps that the voice acting quality in this game is high as the sky, which I'd imagine isn't a huge unprecedented thing to say about a AAA venture but I think is still worth noting. Performances were believable and just the right mix of camp and solemnity that embodies the best of Star Wars. Clear passion was put into even the side characters' voices, and I applaud the devs for putting so much effort into immersing the players in the world with well-sprinkled voice acting that feels like it serves far more than just reading through the game's script. With the side dialogue and the solid environmental sound design mixing together with a soft but present soundtrack, I always felt like I was unfolding a Star Wars story with how cinematic yet unpretentious it all was.
Again, I do wish this game was wholeheartedly able to get my stamp of approval for what I hope to see going forward with AAA in general, let alone the third entry. I can't, though. With all the positives I have to throw at this game, it still crashes, it still has game-breaking bugs that force hard resets, it has massive framerate dips that make me fear for my console, and it's uncompressed to a point of ridiculousness.
It's all the things that I would hope would not be allowed for a game to ship with, but clearly the ones up top don't care about that. They care about the fact that the Star Wars name will sell copies like hotcakes for better or for worse. More dev freedom? Sure, so long as they don't ask for more time to make the game fully presentable, apparently. I can only hope that by some miracle enough of the higher-up EA execs who are involved with this game are thrown out to the point where the final entry is allowed to actually flourish. Fallen Order was a solid start and this game was a promise of potential greatness, but the third game may not be allowed to be at its best if things stay as they are. I guess we'll just have to see if EA can be redeemed.