What A Deck – Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
In What A Deck, I wax lyrical (or perhaps rant) about a game I've recently played on my Lenovo Legion Go.
If you know me, you'll know I'm terrible with finishing games I start. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was one of those games I picked up pretty much on launch, played for maybe 2-3 hours, then forgot about.
The great thing about having a gaming portable is that I can sit on the couch and watch a bit of TV or just hang out with the wife and dogs while I play an hour or two of a game in the evening. I've been able to finish way more games over the last year and a bit since I picked up the Legion Go then I have for years – it's great!
The Performance: Decent With a Few Stutters
When I first started up the game on my Legion Go, it actually performed terribly – I was a little worried the game just wasn't going to perform (despite what ProtonDB told me). However, once I'd updated and restarted Bazzite, it ran smooth as butter at 800p, topping out at the 36 FPS frame limit I have on my handheld.
Through the playthrough I continued to tinker with the settings and eventually settled on high settings. On high, the game still stayed glued to 36 FPS most of the time, with a few occasional stutters down to high-20s in particularly busy or particle-heavy scenes.
The thing certainly eats through battery though. I don't often play unplugged, but I gave the game a brief go unplugged and I think it wouldn't last much more than an hour on high settings with the second-highest default TDP settings. I'm sure you'd get a bit more time if you reduced the TDP and quality settings, but half-rate shading caused some weirdness so probably isn't an option.
The Game: Just the Right Length
There's nothing particularly unique or novel about the premise of the game. We have another story about a Jedi Purge survivor trying to make good on their former oath in a changed and dangerous galaxy.
As Cal Kestis, you start off working as a scrapper dismantling Old Republic vessels like Venators, just trying to live a quiet life and avoid detection. After having to use your powers to save a coworker, you're faced with a visit from the Inquisitors, and barely escape with your life.
From there it's a journey spanning multiple planets, from familiar ones like Ilum and Dathomir, to new ones like Bogano and Zeffo, as Cal searches for an important Jedi Holocron before the Empire can find it. You'll find yourself going back and forth between the different planets as you unlock new abilities and work towards your ultimate goal.
I'd describe the game as Souls-lite. It takes a whole lot of cues from the Souls series, from the level up mechanics, bonfire-like meditation system, and combat which can be punishing when you make a mistake or get too greedy for that one last attack. But it's an order of magnitude less difficult than the Souls series, making it a hell of a lot more accessible to the more casual player.
It should take you around 20 hours to get through the story, which I feel is just about right, though the final location of the game feels a little rushed and could have been fleshed out a little more.
Overall: Worth a Play
If you're wondering whether Jedi: Fallen Order is worth a play on your gaming handheld – my answer is a resounding yes! It plays beautifully on Linux, it still looks great, and you'll have a lot of fun working your way though a well written, if formulaic, Star Wars tale.
Bob Dendry is the owner and administrator of Fediverse.Games. You can find him on Mastodon and Peertube.