Jedi: Fallen Order lets you set the difficulty level, so prepare to die
By Meg Dowell
As the launch of Jedi: Fallen Order crawls nearer, hopeful players have flooded forums and comment sections with questions and concerns about Respawn’s upcoming game.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is still months away from release, and self-proclaimed critics are already mad about it.
Based on 15 minutes of pre-recorded gameplay footage, many people have taken to YouTube, Twitter, and other platforms to express their distaste for everything “wrong” with the game.
Some, however, used the same platforms to ask reasonable questions about it. Will there be an open world? (What we’ve seen so far doesn’t suggest it.) And why does the gameplay we’ve seen so far look so … not challenging?
EA Star Wars community manager Jay Ingram responded to some concerns in a tweet shortly after the initial gameplay reveal at EA Play on June 8.
According to Ingram, gameplay might be a little more customizable than many thought.
Being able to set the difficulty level in a game is nothing new. But Ingram needed to point out the option after too many viewers complained that the footage made the game look too easy.
“No, you have not seen it at its hardest,” he wrote, implying that what we saw onscreen was meant to show off basic game mechanics, graphics, and more. Every player will approach the game differently depending on their preferences, and Respawn took this into account during development.
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This probably means you can choose between easy, moderate, and hard modes, which is standard for most games.
No, you still can’t create your own character — very few Star Wars games up to this point have let us do that, KOTOR, its sequel, and The Old Republic MMO being the major exceptions.
But that’s because Cal might be a major player in future Star Wars projects and needs a uniform look. This is also not an RPG where your choices determine your fate, and if that’s the reason you’re upset about this game, hey … you don’t have to play it if you don’t want to. KOTOR is still fully playable and accessible to you.
However, you CAN adjust Fallen Order‘s gameplay based on your skill level (do you game sometimes or every free moment you have?) and whether you want to focus more on the story, challenging combat, or a healthy mix of both.
Ingram did clarify that players will have the option to choose between several different lightsaber colors, so that’s something!
Honestly? It’s too early to judge this game as harshly as many already have. I know we’re all skeptical because EA is publishing it (even though Respawn made it, not EA). But you can’t judge a game as long as Fallen Order is rumored to be on less than 20 minutes of gameplay footage and two trailers.
Most skepticism comes from the fact that we still don’t know a lot about the game despite its November release date. I get that. I also get that it’s been a while since we got a Star Wars video game outside the Battlefront franchise. We all have expectations, yet aren’t quite sure what exactly to expect.
Whether you pre-ordered the game the second it became available or you’re going to wait until it goes on sale, don’t trash it before you’ve given it a chance. Sometimes games surprise you, and while you might not like everything about one, there might turn out to be elements you can’t get enough of.
Or you could just rejoice in the fact that someone is trying to make a good Star Wars game. They might fail. But they could also blast all our expectations out of the sky and make the best Star Wars game we’ve ever played. Only time (and more gameplay) will tell.
You can pre-order Jedi: Fallen Order now, and play the game for yourself on November 15.