2019 Final Double-Feature ("Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Lost Ember")

Normally, I strive to give as many games their own reviews as I possibly can, but there are times when a double or triple feature is warranted. Sometimes I'm behind on my reviews and need to get a couple of them out at the same time. Sometimes I simply beat a couple games at around the same time and want to knock them both out around the same time as a result. In this case, it's a combination of both of these scenarios. It's now December, so I need to start wrapping up my reviewing so that I can get started working on the end of year lists. At the same time, I happened to beat both subjects of today's Double-Feature, "Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Lost Ember") within a day of each other. So my thought is that I'll get these two reviews out of the way, leaving me the time I need to complete and review Death Stranding before closing the year out properly. Both these games are quite good, so let's get started!

Jedi: Fallen Order

Available for: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Reviewed for: Playstation 4

Jedi: Fallen Order is a good game. Not only that, it's a good Star Wars game. Not only that, it's a good single-player Star Wars game. I mean, when EA is wrong, nobody is surprised, because EA is wrong about literally everything, but to see EA being objectively proven wrong by way of sales figures and positive reviews is beyond gratifying! Now, I'm not the world's biggest Star Wars fan. I've watched the original trilogy countless times (including one day with friends dedicated to watching the whole trilogy before The Force Awakens came out), I've hate-watched the prequels with friends, and I've been to see every new episode in theatres since Revenge of the Sith. That being said, I haven't read any of the extended universe novels, and the only Star Wars game I've even delved into is Knights of the Old Republic, which I couldn't finish because by the time I actually played it, it was way too outdated. So I am a fan, but I'm not a super-fan, and I've never been chomping at the bit for a new Star Wars game...especially given how the license has been treated by EA in recent years. Then, earlier this year, Jedi: Fallen Order was announced alongside a gameplay trailer...and I still wasn't very interested because it all looked kinda generic. But since the game came out, the reviews have been pretty decent, so I decided to give the game a chance. And, dear reader, boy am I glad I did! As I've already said, Jedi: Fallen Order is a good game! But not only that, it's the best Star Wars game I've played (not a high bar, considering my aforementioned Star Wars game experience, but still)! But not only that, it's one of the better Star Wars experiences I've ever had! So, trust in the force, muse on the negative qualities of sand, and let me tell you why you owe it to yourself to at least give Jedi: Fallen Order a try!

Jedi: Fallen Order takes place a number of years after the execution of Order 66, in which all existing Jedi were purged by then-chancellor Palpatine. You play as Cal Kestis, a former Padawan who survived the purge and is now working as a scrapper on a backwater world in an attempt to continue hiding from Imperial forces. One day, an imperial inquisitor known as the "Second Sister" arrives, and just as Cal is about to be cut down, he's rescued by a former Jedi named Cere. Cere then tells Cal that she's searching for a hidden list of force-sensitive children across the galaxy, and that she hopes to use it to rebuild the Jedi order. From there, it's a race against time as both our scrappy band of Jedi and the Empire scour the galaxy for what may be the last hope for the Jedi. There's more to it than that, of course, but rest assured that this is as good a Star Wars story as we've seen!

Gameplay-wise, I've heard Fallen Order referred to as a soulslike. To some degree, I can see that. There's a heavy emphasis on parrying and dodging, you lose your accumulated experience when you die, and when you rest at a "Jedi meditation circle," all the enemies respawn. In reality, I'd say that this game is more like a combination of this year's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Rocksteady's Arkham series. Most enemies can be killed super-quickly, but most crowds of enemies will have one or two special enemies that require different tactics to beat, similarly to one of the aformentioned Arkham games. However, these special enemies are typically taken down by reducing their stamina bar to zero, then attacking, much like in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. So, soulslike isn't quite the right word to describe combat in Fallen Order, but I played on the lesser of the two "normal" difficulties, so it's possible that it's more like Dark Souls on higher difficulties.
To be less vague about combat, you basically fight with a lightsaber that you can gradually unlock different modes for. You've got a light attack and a heavy attack that costs force (magic points, in case that wasn't obvious) to use, and you can parry and riposte. One Star Wars-specific addition to this basic formula is that if you parry a blaster attack, you knock the laser back to whoever shot it (just like in the movies)! Beyond the lightsaber, you also have three major force powers: slow, push, and pull. More likely than not, you'll be using the slow ability, as it lets you get a hit in on an enemy without having to break through their stamina. But if you want to get creative, you can also do things like force pushing a rocket back to an enemy, pushing a group of enemies off a cliff, slowing a rocket down, then force pulling an enemy in front of it, etc. Whatever you might want to do with these force powers, you're probably able to do!
In addition to combat, there's also some degree of platforming involved in gameplay, and for the most part it's pretty good! There are several explosive, mostly-linear platforming sections that require you to perform quickly, and I never had any trouble with those simply because object placing and signposting is clear across the board! However, it's in some of the quieter platforming moments where it begins to suffer a bit. I say "suffer," but it's really just one thing: many of the ropes you have to swing on blend in with the environment far too well, so most of my platforming mishaps were due to that.
There's one last thing I want to touch on in terms of gameplay that separates it from its soulslike label. See, the enemy placements actually vary in locations as the game goes on. You can't get used to the feel of an area, because on the way back, it might have an entirely different set of enemies. Furthermore, after a certain point in the story, the Empire starts hiring bounty hunters to capture you. What this means is that starting from this point, just about every part of every planet becomes a potential boss arena in which you'll face randomly generated bounty hunters. Normally, I'm not a fan of any randomly-generated content, but the fact that Fallen Order utilizes randomization to keep you on your toes and make any familiar area a potential boss encounter is pretty interesting to me!

Now, you'll notice that I've only listed one negative thus far, so is this game borderline perfect? Well...no. Unfortunately, Jedi: Fallen Order is an absolute mess from a technical standpoint. Other than crashes, if you can think of a technical problem, chances are good you'll encounter that problem in this game. Every single night that I played this game, I experienced many, many framerate slowdowns, and that's just the tip of the iceberg! On several occasions, I also thought the game had crashed, as everything froze for upwards of 10 seconds, only to realize that the game had just...stopped to load the area I was entering. There were many, many times where, upon using the "slow" ability, I found myself slowed as well. In one boss fight, I ended up dying because a quicktime event animation stopped and kicked me back to basic combat with the button prompt still up, and then after a couple seconds the animation started back up again and the guy killed me. Hell, there was a section on planet Dathomir in which, every time I respawned, without fail, the enemies in the immediate vicinity would pop in after I already passed their position, and they'd always pop in in the standard T-pose...and they wouldn't break from the T-pose until they did their death animations. It happened every time. Beyond these things, there were also several times that textures took a while to pop in. In many cases, more than one of these issues would happen at once. Make no mistake, Jedi: Fallen Order is far from polished in spite of its good qualities.

Because this is a Star Wars game, I feel there's little that needs to be deeply explained. If you've never been a Star Wars fan and don't plan on starting, I doubt you've even thought about getting Fallen Order. If you are a Star Wars fan, then this is the game you've been waiting for, plain and simple! It's kind of an odd situation in that the details of the game won't determine whether or not you'll like it as much as the license itself does. For instance, if you're not already a fan, then you'll find potentially familiar combat that lacks the context needed to make the experience truly special. On the other hand, if you're already a fan, you'll find the single player Star Wars game you've been asking for since EA took over, and you'll notice that it's also incredibly fun to play. But if you're more like me and you like the license, but you weren't exactly sitting around hoping for a game like this to come out, I feel that the experience is even more special. If you're like me, then playing this game will not only give you a good time, it'll instill that childlike sense of adventure that drew you to the mainline Star Wars movies in the first place. Some degree of technical polish would've been much appreciated, and there are some platforming mishaps that feel cheap because of lack of visual distinction between the environment and where you're jumping to, but for my money, Jedi: Fallen Order is a must-have if you're even remotely curious about it!

Let us review:
-some awkward platforming - 0.2
-many technical issues - 1.0

The final score for Jedi: Fallen Order is...





8.8/10 - Great
Great work, Respawn Entertainment, great work!

Lost Ember

Available for: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows

Reviewed for: Playstation 4

In recent years, I've been pretty tired of your average Indie Games. I mean, in every year there's at least one Indie Game that absolutely steals my heart, but for every one that succeeds, there are usually about 5 that I either get through and give a 6 or that I just drop before finishing because I find myself so bored. This year has been especially bad in terms of bad indie games that I couldn't even bring myself to finish, let alone review. So when I randomly saw a trailer for Lost Ember, I thought it looked promising, but I didn't feel much hope for it. Then, I beat Jedi: Fallen Order and realized that I wasn't quite ready to delve back into Death Stranding just yet, so I figured, "why not?" and downloaded it. 

The result?

I got to experience this year's best videogame story. Hands-down, this is the best one. But because this game is so story-focused, there's not a lot to cover, so let's just hop right into it, shall we?

Lost Ember takes place in the ruins of an ancient tribal civilization in which the people believed that those who lived good lives go to the "City of Light" after death, whereas those who committed grave crimes return to the Earth after death as wild beasts. You play as one of these "Lost Ember"s, a wolf who is approached one day by a glowing spirit who can't seem to find his way to the City of Light. After finding an amulet that seems to signify who you were before your death as a human, you embark on an adventure with this spirit in the hopes of leading him to his final reward and finding forgiveness for whatever crimes you committed on Earth. Just about everything I've just said gets twisted or turned on its head as the story progresses, and that's part of what makes it so great. I...really don't want to spoil anything, so I have to be vague here, but this is a masterfully told story that makes you think you know what's going on, but subtly provides clues that lay the mental groundwork needed for you to realize the truth when the time comes. Just when you think you're sure that the game is about ancient lesbian socialism, *wham*, it turns out to be a much deeper commentary on...dang it...I can't say what without blowing the whole thing. Just know that whether you're going to leave this review and look up videos from The Quartering about this game (though there are none...that I know of) or start using ancient lesbian socialism as some kind of war cry/new meme page, it isn't actually the point and that label I gave it is kind of an exaggeration in the first place. But it all leads to an ending that....it's a special kind of state, where you're not crying but your eyes are warm and slightly leaking and you start breathing through your mouth...that's what kind of impact this game's beautiful ending had on me. When the credits started to roll, I almost clapped like some kind of middle-aged white guy at a movie theatre. The story here is a slow burn at first, but it's all for a purpose.

A thing to note about the story that does kind of take away...at least at first...from the experience is the voice acting. Every cutscene on display here is voice acted, and while I realized at the end that the story wouldn't have had as much impact without it, the voice acting itself...just isn't very good. At best, it's serviceable, at worst, it comes dangerously close to making impactful moments laughable. This being an indie studio, it's not like they had the budget to hire a star-studded cast, but the developer is based in Germany and the cast is all either British or Australian...so it's not like they could only afford the janitor. It's not a huge problem most of the time, but I still have to point it out as a negative.

So that's the story, the major point of the game. What about the rest of the game? How does the game get you from story moment to story moment? Well, you progress in the game by locating fires and interacting with them to restore a bit of memory from your human life. Typically, you'll enter a new area, see a fire, and just try to find your way there. The catch? Sometimes a wolf can't get through some of the obstacles in the way. Luckily, our canine protagonist is no ordinary wolf, as she can possess other animals to get through obstacles! There are many animals to possess, and the one you'll need is usually pretty obvious, but there are many secrets and collectibles to find in the game world if you'll take the time to explore off the beaten path or take an animal somewhere you might not normally think of! Now, even with this simple premise, the gameplay isn't 100% perfect. It only happens twice or so, but there are times where you aren't looking for a fire and just have to make your way to a landmark. In these moments, the signposting isn't exactly clear. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but the hints you can request from your spirit friend aren't helpful and he'll only say them once, so you can't have it repeat until it clicks. He'll say "see that weird pillar? That looks like something, let's try to get to the top!" in an area where there's no less than 5 weird pillars. I was stuck in one area for quite some time because I was continuing the game's tradition of going forward from where the camera pointed me, and I couldn't for the life of me get up on the ledge I needed to reach the pillar in that direction. Turns out, I needed to go to the left of the area I last found a memory in, at which point it became clear, "oh, I need to possess that armadillo and go under that thing!" It's a relatively straightforward gameplay premise that has occasional moments of bad signposting in the environment, and that makes things a little frustrating, but it's only one or two moments out of the whole game. 

That brings us to the technical side of things. First things first: This game is simply beautiful to look at. It boasts an art style unique enough and a variety of level design just extensive enough that just about every single time I entered a new area, I let out a soft "wow!" This is a consistent experience throughout the game, which is nothing short of astounding. Furthermore, while the soundtrack basically starts off as your average reflective indie game piano soundtrack, it eventually becomes almost tearjerking even when removed from its context. Beyond that, I experienced no texture pop-in, no crashes, and no animation glitches. Even so, this being an indie title, it isn't perfect on the technical front. Many sections of Lost Ember could've used some ambient noise, many little gameplay moments had no sound effects, and there was a small stretch of time where the wolf running sound was replaced with the wolf swimming sound. Furthermore, while framerate slowdowns weren't really a thing, the game temporarily stopping to load in a new area was pretty constant. All in all, though, Lost Ember is definitely a cut above Jedi: Fallen Order in the technical department. 

Folks, games like Lost Ember give me hope for indie games. It proves that there are still creators out there with the passion to create a full-fledged game, not a procedurally-generated rougelike pixel platformer. It shows that there are small-time creators out there who actually have a vision and the drive to see that vision through. Lost Ember tells this year's best story, it's a stunning game to look at and experience, and though not technically perfect, it outshines your average AAA experiences! If you have the ability, and if you have the patience to sit through a game without nonstop action, then you simply owe it to yourself to support developer Mooneye Studio's masterful first game!

Let us review:

-occasional poor signposting - 0.5

-tech issues (including voice acting) - 0.5

The final score for Lost Ember is...

9.0/10 - Fantastic

Fantastic work, Mooneye Studios, fantastic work!