Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review - 5 Ups & 3 Downs

1. Backtracking Eventually Gets Repetitive

Fallen Order's Metroidvania elements weren't telegraphed too clearly before release, and that's actually quite a shame. Backtracking and discovering new areas you weren't able to access the first time around was really fun, while turning the tables on those early enemy encounters with new weapons, force abilities and experience helped showcase the development of Cal as a Jedi, as well as the player's own progress.

Unfortunately, there were occasions where backtracking erred on the tedious side of things. Fallen Order's story requires players to return to planets they were previously unable to fully explore, but in traversing the same areas a second time around, those old enemies and AI patterns pretty much repeat themselves. The same quantity of troopers in the same order and type appear over and over, and it happens to coincide with a mid-act lull that breaks up Fallen Order's brilliant beginning and final third.

Now to be clear there's nothing wrong with repeating enemies, but it has to be done in a way that lends itself to the narrative. Returning to a planet you've already liberated and having the same groups appear in the exact same way, fighting the same amount of native wildlife with the same weaponry just isn't compelling, and is the one area where Fallen Order's Soulslike stylings grow stale.