A lot of potential here, weighed down by a few glaring missteps. Respawn should be applauded for creating a single-player Star Wars game that is rigorous and challenging while also largely avoiding the stench of an EA-style microtransaction nightmare. Respawn’s specialty - satisfying movement mechanics that make the traversal of the game world a consistent joy - is on full display here. There are only a few Metroidvania-style movement upgrades to track down, but each of them adds a really dynamic new element to the platforming, which ensures that the traversal remains fresh and enjoyable throughout. I’m a bit more ambivalent on the combat, which apes a number of features from Dark Souls and Sekiro. Fighting enemies one-on-one is generally quite fun, and nailing a perfectly timed parry is always satisfying. Unfortunately, fighting anything one-on-one is pretty rare - this game loves to throw you into fights with large mobs of weak enemies. Consequently, I ended up spending a lot of time in hit-and-run mode. While this hectic style can have its own pleasures, I don’t think that the encounter design does the game any favors by de-emphasizing one-on-one duels. The other thing that threw me off with the combat was the ability of some enemies to poise through almost anything - as a long-time Souls player, it was disconcerting to see even basic enemies experience zero physical reaction to being hit. I got used to it after awhile, but it contributed to a sense of fiddliness in some fights. A bit more weightiness and feedback would have suited my taste. Still, despite not reaching its peak potential, the combat is never less than serviceable, and it occasionally succeeds in being more than that.
One of the main flaws with this game is quite obvious (which also means it’s eminently fixable in a potential sequel). For a game that heavily encourages the exploration of optional areas, there’s just not enough cool stuff to find. There are a number of navigation puzzles and backtracking opportunities scattered throughout the different planets the player visits, but it is very rare to find any worthwhile while completing them. Occasionally, you will find something moderately empowering like additional heals or a boost to your HP or Force meter. But usually the only reward is a cosmetic item (sorry, you’ll just never convince me to care what color Cal’s poncho is) or a piece of random lore that is completely disconnected from the plot. It’s hard to overstate how powerfully disappointing it is to explore a hidden nook, only to be rewarded with something that has almost zero effect on your character’s abilities or the overarching narrative. Seriously, it got to the point where I was avoiding chests like the plague. Again, this is easily fixable - maybe replace the perfunctory skill tree with more optional upgrades that you can find out in the world? That’s just one possibility, but really anything would be better than what they tried in this game. Respawn - your developers did sterling work in creating these layered and detailed levels with tons of optional areas - now just give me a reason to actually go to these places!
The other problem with this game isn’t as easily rectified. In fact, I hesitate to even hold this against the developers. But the dull, poorly paced narrative of this game, especially in the first half, is essentially Star Wars mad libs. The junkyard-chic aesthetic of the series’s interiors also actively detracts from what is otherwise a pretty attractive game (as long as you’re outdoors). Obviously, EA never would have bankrolled a game like this without the Star Wars brand attached, but the weight and expectations that come along with the series don’t translate into a richer narrative experience, at least not until the story picks up a bit in the second half.
As with most of Respawn’s games, this really sings on a moment-to-moment basis. Only on reflection do the cracks really start to show. Still, the problems here are really more in the finer details rather than the core gameplay, and I would play the hell out of a sequel that has some of the edges sanded down.
One of the main flaws with this game is quite obvious (which also means it’s eminently fixable in a potential sequel). For a game that heavily encourages the exploration of optional areas, there’s just not enough cool stuff to find. There are a number of navigation puzzles and backtracking opportunities scattered throughout the different planets the player visits, but it is very rare to find any worthwhile while completing them. Occasionally, you will find something moderately empowering like additional heals or a boost to your HP or Force meter. But usually the only reward is a cosmetic item (sorry, you’ll just never convince me to care what color Cal’s poncho is) or a piece of random lore that is completely disconnected from the plot. It’s hard to overstate how powerfully disappointing it is to explore a hidden nook, only to be rewarded with something that has almost zero effect on your character’s abilities or the overarching narrative. Seriously, it got to the point where I was avoiding chests like the plague. Again, this is easily fixable - maybe replace the perfunctory skill tree with more optional upgrades that you can find out in the world? That’s just one possibility, but really anything would be better than what they tried in this game. Respawn - your developers did sterling work in creating these layered and detailed levels with tons of optional areas - now just give me a reason to actually go to these places!
The other problem with this game isn’t as easily rectified. In fact, I hesitate to even hold this against the developers. But the dull, poorly paced narrative of this game, especially in the first half, is essentially Star Wars mad libs. The junkyard-chic aesthetic of the series’s interiors also actively detracts from what is otherwise a pretty attractive game (as long as you’re outdoors). Obviously, EA never would have bankrolled a game like this without the Star Wars brand attached, but the weight and expectations that come along with the series don’t translate into a richer narrative experience, at least not until the story picks up a bit in the second half.
As with most of Respawn’s games, this really sings on a moment-to-moment basis. Only on reflection do the cracks really start to show. Still, the problems here are really more in the finer details rather than the core gameplay, and I would play the hell out of a sequel that has some of the edges sanded down.