Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) - PS4 Review

Review:
*Originally written November 19th, 2019*

There's no denying that EA has had a bad run with the Star Wars franchise since it became owned by Disney. Their 2 Battlefront efforts were slammed and hated (2 in particular, but, that has been fixed by this point and is actually quite playable!), but in all honesty, what people have wanted from a Star Wars game for quite some time now is a story focused action RPG that lets you be a Jedi and fills in the gaps between films. This is exactly what Jedi: Fallen Order delivers. It's far from perfect and feels a little unfinished, but my god, this is still the best Star Wars game we've had in quite some time.

Taking place between episodes 3 and 4, it follows Kal Cestis, a young Padawan who has been in hiding for 5 years since the events of Order 66, but gets put into an adventure involving a list of all the force sensitive children in the universe and must find the list before the Empire do. Along the way you meet a droid BD-1 who is your companion for the whole ride and a rag tag crew in the form of an ex Jedi Cere and her shipmate Greez.

Story wise, I was very impressed, Kal is a very likeable and easy to like character with a very strong motion capture and voice performance from Cameron Monaghan. We follow Kal as he slowly relearns his force powers and gets stronger throughout the game. His journey is personal, involving him having to overcome his guilt and trauma over Order 66 and goes to many places new and familiar within the Star Wars universe, I won't spoil some of the franchise cameos, but there's a few and they fit in quite nicely. But with the 20 or so hours I spent on Kal's adventure I really did grow to like him and honestly would not mind seeing him pop up in other Star Wars material down the line. Which is the only reason I assume they didn't give you the option to make your own character, as they want to use him in future films/Disney+ content. The dynamic with his droid BD-1 really is the heart of the game too, as most of the conversations as you're exploring is with him and the little droid is both adorable and filled with personality.

Technical wise, this game is a bit all over the place. Visually, it is pretty gorgeous and brings the Star Wars universe to life with excellent character models, environments, classic score and incredible sound design. What really lets it down is just how unpolished it feels at times. It's no surprise (Especially from EA) that a game has been released that is quite buggy with the intention patching it down the line, but it is no excuse and has become a complete frustration with this generation of games. The game crashed on me a few times in the second half, I was constantly finding issues such as just falling through the map, enemy AI's not even reacting as I was attacking them and them just randomly spawning right in front of me as I was walking. It would be a minor thing if this only happened a couple of times, but it was happening consistently, which is no excuse for a game of this budget and from a AAA developer.

Onto the good and great though. The combat is excellent and requires patience and actually learning the enemies moves and making use of blocking and dodging. It was very similar to Dark Souls, but obviously not as unforgiving. That said though, there are quite a few difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere, where even I had to reduce the difficulty just get through an area where they throw so many different type of enemies at you, it was more frustrating than fun. When the difficulty is fair though, encounters can be very rewarding and satisfying as you feel Kal get stronger and more experienced as you do working through the game. Mixing lightsaber play and force powers makes for some great fun as you can annihilate faces-less hordes of Stormtroopers with ease.

The boss battles make for some really cinematic and interesting fights. Like the combat with everything else, you're encouraged to think while you're fighting these bosses and simply button mashing will only end with you dead. The variety of bosses range from some Sith lords in the form of The Emperors underlings called "Sisters", the rest of the bosses are mostly a range of big creatures that are pretty intimidating to encounter at first, but you soon begin to realise they are pretty simple to take down once you know what you're doing. There is also some minor bosses littered throughout with random Bounty Hunter encounters, who, if you're not expecting it, can mess you up pretty quickly.

I was pleasantly surprised how much the game implores you to actually explore the world in order to progress, I spent so much time trying to figure out puzzles and gathering all the collectables I could (You can't sweep up straight away though, you have to unlock new powers in order to reach other collectables later in the game). It was just so much fun just to explore these beautifully created areas as BD-1 would point out items and really help you out. The structure of collectables was very similar to the Tomb Raider reboot, which isn't a bad thing, they took elements and changed it just enough to feel unique to itself. The problem with clearing up though is that the map you use from BD-1 is a complete mess and borderline incomprehensible, making it impossible to clear up collectables later in the game when I wanted to return to areas. The Dark Souls esque resting stations also lacked a fast-travelling option, which would have made things so much easier and saved so much time as it does get a little tedious to constantly have to backtrack (Which you have to do a lot). I really wanted to 100% this thing, but when the game made it this frustrating to just get back to the area where the collectables were, I did not care enough.

It has its problems for sure, but honestly, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is one of the best Star Wars games I've played in such a long time. It might be unpolished and filled with glitches, but when things are going smoothly, it is a blast to play and my 20 hours with it flew by thanks to the satisfying combat, engaging story and great new characters that earn its place within the Star Wars canon. All my problems are things that could even potentially be fixed with updates down the line, but I've got to judge what we were given at launch and the results are flawed, but still fantastic for the most part. I really hope EA continue to follow path of Star Wars games that choose story over multiplayer. Hell, I'd also kill for a remaster of Republic Commando at some point. Star Wars games might actually have a bright future again.

8/10 Dans

Star Wars Fallen: Jedi Order is out now on PS4 and Xbox One
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Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written May 25th, 2018*

Going into Solo: A Star Wars Story was a weird experience. It was the first Star Wars film I'd seen from Disney that I just had no excitement for, I usually go to the midnight viewing, but I couldn't even be bothered, so I figured I'd get it out the way by going straight from work on release day. It was a weird day, I just felt nothing going into this film, but that's not entirely my fault.

The long troubled production that been long publicised, the casting of the iconic Han Solo left a lot to be desired, the trailers had done nothing for me, mostly looking like some weird expensive fan film (Even the font for the title from the trailers looked awful). The most troubling thing for me was the decision to give Ron Howard the directors chair after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired due to creative differences. Howard is not a director I've often got on with, I enjoy a few of his films, but find his direction to be very bland and workman life. I was worried.

Much to my surprise, Solo is a complete blast. It does very little to justify its existence and brings nothing new to the franchise, but I'd only be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the hell out of it. It has problems for sure, just not ones I expected going in. All in all, it completely exceeded any exceptions I had. It probably helped I had no expectations at all, if I was expecting another incredible Star Wars film in the vein of Empire or Last Jedi, I probably would have been disappointed.

An origin story of Han Solo is probably something we didn't need, but now we've got it. We see the smuggler's early days where he slowly becomes the man we know in A New Hope. There's obviously appearances from well known characters and events mentioned in the Original Trilogy. The problem with prequels is that you know where everything is going to go, who's going to live and who's going to die by the end of it. Solo subverts expectations on this front, the story is full of surprising turns I won't spoil. Disney are clearly going to make a franchise out of young Han Solo and based on this I am completely okay with that.

Alden Ehrenreich does a fantastic job portraying a young and inexperienced Han Solo, it really helps he wasn't always just doing a Harrison Ford impression, although he does do Ford's famous point a few too many times. He brought a lot of confidence and charisma to the role, making it his own without introducing on what made us love Han Solo in the first place.

Rogue One failed to give us many memorable side characters, which I thought was going to be the case here, but thankfully, despite being Solo's film for the most part, most of the supporting cast have a part to play and time to shine. I'll get Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian, who stole the show with every scene he was in, even before the film was released, everyone seemed to universally agree that this was perfect casting and they were right, Glover nails it. Giving us a perfect Lando full of charm, sexiness that some of the funniest lines in the Star Wars series. I'd happily see a spin-off with Glover that is just two hours of him as Lando told through interpretative dance.

We also spend a lot of time with Solo and Chewbacca, learning how they meet. It's a bit clunky (As is most of the first act), but they're growing partnership is clearly the emotional core of the film and for the most part it works. Emilia Clarke is an actress who gets a lot of hate outside of Game of Thrones (Some of it warranted), but she's fine here, not amazing and not given a massive amount to do, they are clearly setting her up for more in an eventual Solo sequel thanks to the surprise appearance of a Prequel Trilogy character (Which I'm still unsure how to feel about).

Aside from Lando, the side character that leaves the biggest impression is Woody Harrelson's Beckett, a thief who ends up taking on Solo to his crew. Harrelson is always extremely watchable and it's no different here, his presence brings life to a lot of scenes and they go places with his character in the third act I did not expect. I just need to watch this again with subtitles, but a few things he said, I just couldn't make out.

First and foremost, Solo is a heist film, it's about bringing a group of characters together to perform this heist and the fabled "Kessell Run". It's a shame that it's just such a slog for the first act, getting all these characters together for the heist is more than a bit clunky and a bit of a drag, but once everyone is together, it is more than worth the wait. I should also mention we learn about the origin of Han Solo's name in the first act and it was one of most laughably bad and poorly written things I've watched in a while.

With Ron Howard directing I was afraid the action would be pedestrian and boring, but it was far from that. It was exciting and well shot, making use of its smaller stakes for more personal and interesting scenes. The train heist shown in the trailer was easily the best of what we had here, and while that a very early scene, it doesn't mean the later action wasn't great. I massively appreciated the smaller approach to the final scenes, there wasn't some giant CGI fight, it was mostly just a confrontation between people and it worked very well.


Don't be put off by Solo's troubled production. Sure, it has very little reason to exist and adds nothing new to the table, but its an extremely fun, if a little clunky and a tiny bit bloated adventure in the Star Wars universe and far better than it had any right to be. Just don't go in with massive expectations and have a good time.

8/10 Dans

Solo: A Star Wars Story is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written December 14th, 2017*

*Spoiler Free*

"This is not going to go the way you think"

It feels weird that we're already at the end of 2017 and all the biggest films of the year already out (In the UK at least, some December Oscar contenders we don't get till January/February). At least Star Wars is a huge note to end it on, the continuation of the new trilogy J.J. Abrams started back in 2015. It's been a long wait for answers raised by this new set of films in the saga, and they mostly get answered, but not how you'd expect.

For all my criticisms about The Last Jedi (Which I'll get to), you can't call the film predictable or formulaic. This is unlike any Star Wars film before it, while still fitting nicely into the overall series. All the complaints that Force Awakens was simply a rehash of A New Hope are completely thrown under the bus here. There are some allusions to Empire Strikes Back (The tone is darker and the stakes are the highest they've ever been), but the film has its own unique take for the series. I wouldn't say Rian Johnson did a better job than J.J., but he comes damn close at times.

I'll get to my favourite stuff first. Daisy Ridley as Rey is still an infinitely likeable an strong character who goes through an excellently compelling arc as she's trained in the ways of the force by Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill has a much more expanded role here as he reluctantly trains Rey. He's a broken, hallow shell of the Luke Skywalker we remember, he's also given the heartbreaking and emotional core of Last Jedi. Every scene focusing on Rey, Luke and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are by far the best parts of Last Jedi. Not that the rest is bad, it's just every scene without them, I'd just wish it would go back to their story.

Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac) and series newcomer Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) go on a separate adventure trying to find a hacker to disable a tracking device on the Imperial fleet. Nothing at all was bad, there was some great moments, but it just dragged things out. A long stretch in a sci-fi version of Vegas brings thing to a halt and just seemed to stretch out an already very long film. Boyega and Isaac are still excellent in their roles, Isaac is just effortlessly cool as the hotshot pilot, while Boyega's Finn still struggles with finding his place in the Resistance. Carrie Fisher delivers a very different Leia filled with hope and anchors some very emotional scenes, aside from one bizarre moment that feels like a fake-out and leads way to one of the weirdest looking scenes I've scene all year. Not weird in a good way, in a way where I didn't know whether to laugh or just be confused. I'm amazed anyone thought that was a good idea.

While Last Jedi takes a lot of risks to create something new, some moments really suffer from the lack of willingness to commit. They were a few highly built-up scenes where you think they actually had the balls to do something, but sadly, they fail to commit to it and the characters make it out safe. I'd be fine if it was just the one one, but they do it a few times. I was sadly reminded of The Walking Dead's annoying fake-out deaths, which is not a good sign.

Adam Driver continues to be the MVP of this new trilogy, a deeply disturbed and pure evil character that seems to be capable of good, but continues his path to the Dark Side while showing shades of the prequel trilogies Anakin (I mean that in a good way). Thank God Driver was in this to provide a good villain, as all the hype and build-up to Snoke amounted to a giant wet-noodle. Andy Serkis is completely wasted as a generic and uninspired throw-away bad guy that ultimately amounted to nothing. He could have fitted perfectly as a Marvel villain.

At least on the visual/audio side, Johnson creates an incredible spectacle for the eyes that opens up and expands the world of Star Wars. Near enough everything looks gorgeous and cinematic, the action is some of the best seen in the series, John Williams score soars and the sound design was incredible. I love the cinematography of these new Star Wars films, they are filled with so many beautiful moments. Nothing feels like an overpriced CGI mess, the mix of practical and CGI is wonderfully balanced and leaves a lasting impression. Of all the new creatures, the only one I had a problem with was those goddamn Porgs, they have their moments, but mostly just feel like annoying, overly cute creatures made to sell toys.

I sound a bit negative about The Last Jedi, but I really did like it a lot, it has a lot of problems, but that mostly doesn't take away from the enjoyment I had from it. I know I have a soft spot for Star Wars, but if you're a fan, I'm sure you're going to have a good time. A gorgeous, emotionally rich entry that's focused on character and spectacle while proving a 40 year old series still has the ability to surprise. I'm sure this will grow on me on rewatches, but for now I'll say it was great.

8/10 Dans (First time watch)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written December 17th, 2015*

"A New Hope"

Someone give J.J. Abrams a blowjob right now. He has earned it. The Force Awakens brought my childhood right back to me. I loved every second of it. After the misguided prequels (Which I do like, but they are heavily flawed), Disney got Star Wars away from that mad man George Lucas and gave us a film that relied on nostalgia, but still paved way for a new generation of Kids to fall in love with Star Wars the same way I did.

Taking place 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker is in hiding after failing to train a new group of Jedi, while a new version of Vader's army called The New Order led by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are trying to finish what he started. Two new leads Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Fin (John Boyega) are swept into this story to help find Luke and fight the New Order.

What worried me most about this was the how the new cast would compare to the iconic original, and within the first few scenes I knew I had nothing to worry about at all. John Boyega was great, he was funny and he handled action well, but Daisy Ridley really stole the show out of the newbies. She was a strong, likeable and well developed character. I really liked where they went with the character too, she is the real star of the film and franchise now by the looks of it. Oscar Isaac (An actor I love now) was a charisma magnet in his role, he disappears for most of the film, but is great with all his screen time. All those new characters blended with the existing cast extremely well.

The original cast feel right at home here too. Harrison Ford eases back into his role as Han Solo and his chemistry with Chewbacca is better than it has ever been. Carrie Fisher was fine as Leia once again, she was sadly not given much to do. I'm not even sure what I can say about Luke Skywalker without branching into spoiler territory, so I'm gonna leave it at that.

The new villain of the piece Kylo Ren was damn fantastic too. He was menacing, violent and handled some dramatic scenes as well which I did not expect at all. People were confused about his light-saber from the trailers, but the new design is used effectively in the finale.

J.J. Abrams crafted this world with such care and respect for the material that it just induced nostalgia and made me feel like a child again. There was a great mix of practical and CGI effects, although some of the CGI characters did look a little out of place at times. There were some really beautiful shots throughout too, while a couple were in the trailer, there was still a lot to be surprised about. Even just the look of some of the sets and set-pieces blew me away. Like the New Order's weapon, it looked gorgeous when it was being fired, loved the bright and vivid colours.

The tone is handled extremely well. It captures that sense of awe and wonder from the original trilogy, the humour was genuinely funny at times too, there was the odd "easy" and crowd-pleasing joke, but that didn't bother me. I was fairly shocked by the opening scene, it was probably the darkest and most violent scene from the whole franchise. The tone quickly changes to a more lighthearted adventure, but when it needs to, it gets dark and effectively emotional. 

Speaking of emotional, The Force Awakens hits emotional heights more than any other film I've watched this year. From John Williams iconic score, I felt I was right back as a child. I'm not gonna lie either and I'm not gonna spoil it, but a scene towards the end brought a genuine tear out my eye. When the scene started you knew exactly where it was going, but you just didn't want it to happen, and when it did it was heartbreaking.


Star Wars - The Force Awakens was everything and more I could have possibly wanted from a return to the Star Wars universe. Emotional, nostalgic, beautifully shot and featured a great new cast which included a new rising star from Daisy Ridley. My film of the year. I just wish it was 2017 already so I can see Episode VIII.

10/10 Dans

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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