5 Years Ago, Star Wars Finally Got the Modern Single Player Game It Deserved
Dark Souls Meets Uncharted.
Few film series’ are as well suited for video games as Star Wars. In a universe full of smugglers on the run from the law, altruistic warriors keeping evil at day, and crack-shot pilots fighting space fascists, nearly every aspect of Star Wars’ science fantasy makes for compelling interactive entertainment.
Despite the source material being a treasure trove for developers in decades past, there was a noticeable lull period for Star Wars games in the mid-2010s. The 2013 closure of LucasArts resulted in the unceremonious cancellation of promising titles like Star Wars 1313 mid-development. It also ended ongoing series like The Force Unleashed as the franchise’s new owners Disney hit the reset button on Star Wars’ complex continuity.
To fill the void, Disney signed a 10-year deal with Electronic Arts. While the first few games to come out of this partnership were rife with controversy, the publisher would finally find its footing with 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. This excellent, heartfelt adventure wasn’t just the Star Wars game players longed for, it ended a nine-year drought of great single-player Star Wars video games.
Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after the rise of Palpatine’s Galactic Empire. The game stars Cal Kestis, a young Jedi padawan who escaped the violent extermination of the peacekeeping order he once belonged to. When players meet him, Kestis is living a peaceful unassuming life as a ship junker. But when he instinctually uses his force powers to save a close friend from grave injury, he blows his cover and finds himself fleeing the Empire and its elite force of Jedi hunters known as Inquisitors.
At the time of its release, Fallen Order’s story folded neatly into one of the more under-explored parts of the Star Wars timeline. It explores the inner workings of how Palpatine’s rise to power impacted the lives of the galaxy’s inhabitants. Only the animated series Star Wars: Rebels explored this aspect of the universe across its four seasons. It also helps that the game’s heroes are as compelling as any Star Wars character who’s graced the silver screen. Kestis, the lovable droid BD-1, pilot Greez Dritus, former Jedi Knight Cere Junda, and Nightsister Merrin are all some of the best new characters in the series canon thanks to strong writing and some surprisingly human moments not typically seen in Star Wars media.
From a gameplay standpoint, developer Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall, Apex Legends) riffs on some of gaming’s best. Fallen Order is best described as a Souls-like with Metroidvania-level design. Over the course of its story, Kestis is rediscovering his long-dormant Jedi abilities, which allow him to explore new parts of the levels. The game also borrows from third-person action games like Uncharted with big, blockbuster setpieces that replicate the grandeur and scope Star Wars is known for.
Fallen Order combines Dark Souls-like combat mechanics with the level design and progression of a Metroidvania.
Fallen Order followed the two Star Wars: Battlefront games. While Battlefront and Battlefront II were both mechanically sound multiplayer shooters, it was clear that EA and DICE had put the storytelling on the back burner. The first Battlefront had no campaign while the second featured a disappointingly short derivative narrative.
It was bizarre that Star Wars hadn’t seen a story-focused since 2010’s The Force Unleashed II. The scummy monetization practices of the two Battlefront games didn’t exactly fill the gaming public (or Disney) with confidence either.
Thankfully, Fallen Order would rectify that collective disappointment by delivering some of the decade’s strongest and most memorable Star Wars moments. Climbing to the top of Kashyyyk's tallest tree is a gorgeous and emotional stunner. Exploring the witchy, dead planet of Dathomir, the birthplace of iconic villains like Darth Maul and Asajj Ventress, remains a vivid and rare depiction of Star Wars’ mysticism outside the eternal struggle between Jedi and Sith. And the game’s anxiety-inducing closing moments remain one of the coolest endings to a video game ever.
The crew of the Stinger Mantis are some of the best characters introduced into Star Wars canon since the 2012 Disney acquisition.
Fallen Order was a much-needed reset button for the Electronic Arts era of Star Wars games. It ended a bleak period of Star Wars games being more interested in getting its players to spend by leaning into the franchise’s greatest strength — its deep lore, setting, and characters. Its success would rekindle confidence in single-player Star Wars games, which gave us hits like 2020’s Star Wars Squadrons, 2024’s Star Wars Outlaws, and Fallen Order’s fantastic sequel Jedi Survivor. The modern era of great Star Wars games begins with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as Respawn delivered one of the best games ever based on the science fantasy series.
