A long time ago.....

Long ago, in a gaming world far far away, I used to write brief reviews of games I played... some people loved them.  Many were about EVE Online but I also reviewed several other games.  Over time I stopped updating my blog and eventually shut it down... but now... it's back :)

Welcome to RBWH Gaming's blog about... well... games we play :)

What's RBWH?

RBWH is Royal Black Watch Highlanders.... a gaming group that formed in the game EVE Online, many of us have been playing games together (particularly EVE Online) for over 10 years now.  This blog will consist of brief reviews of games we've played and enjoyed... and games we've played... and hated... and everything in between.  It may even have some posts about non game stuff along the way.

Hope you enjoy it!

So... to kick things off... my first post will be about a new game I have been playing...

Jedi:  Fallen Order

Preconceptions!

I'll admit it.  As a LONG time player of... literally... everything Star Wars... I've been burned, a lot... When I heard about Fallen Order I absolutely knew I'd get it right away (It's Star Wars, after all).  But I was also really worried that it would, once again, let me down.  Let's be honest... there hasn't been a GOOD Star Wars title in... a very long time.  The Force Unleashed games were... ok... BattleFront was... alright but mostly underwhelming.  Vader Immortal is pretty decent but, if I'm being honest, just not enough content for what you wind up paying for the series.  Hopefully chapter 3 (out this week!) will be big enough to make up for the fun, but limited, content in chapter's 1 and 2.

So, to say the least, I have been wary of this title and worried that I would, once again, be underwhelmed by yet another cash grab star wars game title.  Especially since it's EA we're talking about.  I was also concerned that, despite promises to the contrary, there would be a bunch of "microtransaction" type items that would be "optional" but turned out to be really needed to make the game less of a grind.

Micro transactions:

Let's get this elephant out of the way right up front.... There weren't any... none, not one, not even for a different look.  The game is completely free of micro transactions.  This, alone, immediately moved the game up about 10 notches in my "I like it" scale.  I have gotten extremely sick of the "Let's charge a premium price for a game and then charge extra for everything the players might actually want" mentality that has consumed the gaming industry of late.  Such a breath of fresh air not to have that in a game.  So a big kudos to Respawn Entertainment and, shockingly, EA for not putting these nasty things into the game!

First Impressions

So... of course... I pre-ordered the game on Steam :)  First impressions when I finally got to play it....

One word.... WOW!

Let's break it down:

1. The graphics are phenomenal, very well done.  And the settings FEEL like Star Wars.  The characters are well designed and the effects are top notch.  Truly an excellent job on the graphics side of the house.


2. The Audio is extremely well done.  The music scores are well designed and implemented, bringing the feel of being in the universe and they do a great job of setting the mood of each area you are in as well as the action of the scenes.  It just sounds like Star Wars, and I'm not just talking about the effects, the entire ambiance of the game just works.  You feel like you're in the Star Wars universe and, more importantly, you feel drawn into it and part of it as well.


3. The game mechanics are A.Maze.Ing!  It doesn't matter if you are TERRIBLE (me) at platform/reflex games or awesome (one of my kids) at them.  The game's difficulty settings do a great job of making the game as difficult or casual as you want it to be.  The developers did a masterful job of making the game as easy or difficult as you wish it to be.  What's more... you can change the settings at any point you wish within the game.  So if you like more challenging regular fights but don't feel like getting your nether region handed to you by a boss challenge... you can play on a higher setting along the way and tone it down for big fights or tough fights if you wish. 
   
   
   The combat feels polished and well thought out.  It's best with a controller but keyboard and mouse (for pc users who don't have a controller or don't like them) works very well as well.  You don't feel overpowered at any point and you don't feel like the game is cheating against you at any point either.


4. The Setting...  I touched on this in Graphics and Audio but what I'm talking about here are the planets, the story, etc.  The planets are all unique... you don't feel like you're re-hashing them over and over with just a different skin.  Also, you will have to revisit a few along the way, which is fine... the game does an excellent job of bringing you to the new areas without too much fuss or difficulty and the story does a wonderful job of evolving the game around you.  The story is top notch and well done.  At all points of the game the story feels solid and not forced or gimmicky at all.


5. The Characters...  I loved ALL the characters.  From your main character to the Dark Sisters to the bosses you fight along the way.... all were compelling characters that felt believable.  Some of them have even more interesting backstory than your character does, to be honest.  They just did a great job of character building, even for BD-1, your companion droid.
   
   
   


6. Animation... The graphics, as mentioned, were top notch.  But the animation within the game is also superb.  Character movements and NPC movements do not glitch, they're smooth and realistic and believable.  At no point during my game play (on my Mid-Range Gaming PC) did I encounter any stuttering/stammering or other issues with gameplay or animation.  The game ran extremely smoothly and, as I mentioned, the various characters motions and animations were smooth, believable and realistic.


7. Duration!  LOADS of content here!  Just so much to see and do.  Sure, you can blaze through and just do the story in a weekend of game play if you want to.  Or, you can explore and see and do lots of other things along the way and there's hours and hours of content.  I'm well over 40 hours in and still not finished yet, though I think I'm starting to get closer :)

Replay:

One of the only downsides to the game is it has limited replay options.  You can, of course, replay the game on higher difficulty.  Or continue the game after finishing and explore to find boxes, secrets, etc that you missed on the way through.  But other than that there's not much to do after you finish the story.  So it has limited replay value.  That said... the game is fun enough that playing it a couple times is worth it just to catch the things you might have missed the first time through.

How to get it:

There's a few options.  You can get it directly from EA via the Origin store, you can get it through Steam or... if you like other EA (and some indy) titles like Madden 20, Plague Tale, Or any of the Battlefield games, you can spring for the Origin Premiere membership ($15/month or $100/year) and get free access to this, and many other titles.  Personally I have the premiere membership annual subscription because I tend to buy 2 or more EA Games a year so it pays for itself easily.

Summary:

So... based on the above you can probably figure that I really enjoyed this title.  Fun, deep, loads of content and adjustable difficulty that didn't make the game feel like it was cheating at any point.   I prefer to play a more casual game.  I don't like having to struggle through encounters, etc so I played it on the lowest setting.  But even then I didn't ever feel like it was 'easy' mode... it was just obviously not HARD to get through things.  Knocking it up notches in difficulty got harder but not impossible (well unless you're up in the most difficult settings).

All in all, this was a top rate game that I would highly recommend to anyone, but especially Star Wars fans.  This is easily one of the best games I've played in the last 10 years and ranks right up in the top 5 or 6 Star Wars games I've ever played, period.