Publisher: EA
Gameplay Stats: 59 hours, 53/53 achievements
I really enjoyed Jedi Fallen Order when I played it during COVID, let's see if the sequel holds up!
It does not. The minute to minute gameplay is still just as fun, but there isn't as much sense of progress. It seems like the team was more focused on making the game bigger without making it as tight. It really seemed like content amount was a goal here and it makes this game feel a bit bloated. Part of the appeal of the first game was how focused it was and the team doesn't seem like it had the same goal here.
Respawn is a pretty well renowned game studio but it feels like EA or Disney might have done some meddling here to include some other popular mechanics from open world games. The result here is just a bloated game. You spend most of your time on planet Koboh and the fastest way around is to ride a Star Wars chocobo which isn't particularly faster than getting around by sprinting. A little, but not enough. The game still has some collection mechanics which are often fun, particularly in a game with platforming as a focus like this one does. Lots of fun little technical challenges for many of the collectibles.
But there are also seeds which are noted by little green light motes coming out of a bush. You chop the bush with your lightsaber and collect the seeds for a garden. Harmless enough on the surface, but their collection is marred by another big issue with the game, it's technical performance. I have a moderate PC, nothing too fancy. But I would need to wait next to a bush for several seconds before the little green motes would spawn letting me know I would be able to find a seed. The combination of a sprawling map and objects popping in commonly left a sour taste in my mouth. While playing I was puzzled that I was missing so many seeds while exploring areas as I'm generally pretty thorough. Turns out, I wasn't waiting long enough in the appropriate corners to see the little green bits. You do eventually get a collection icon for them so it's easier to collect them, but man. Annoying. Having to revisit spots and be like "Yeah, I thought there was something there but I guess I didn't wait long enough?" was frustrating.
The combat is still really fun and I liked exploring all of the non-Jedi bits of the Star Wars universe. With the success of other Star Wars series like Andor I was really hoping to get more of that but the plot was still very focused on the Jedi stuff. It does have Jedi in the name I suppose but I find the Jedi to be the least interesting part of the universe.
The plot felt pretty held back by the list of already included characters, I would've liked to meet a wider cast of characters that had meaningful impact on the story. Some of the side stories (particularly the fisherman) were always fun to see the next chapter of, but they seemed sequestered and not really integrated.
Overall I don't know that I'd recommend this game. The first one was an easy recommendation, but I think this game could be skipped without missing much.
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