The opening to Kashyyyk is awesome.

One of my favorite things about Jedi Fallen Order so far, and it speaks volumes about Respawn Entertainment, is just how much respect Respawn has for the universe and the material.

There's no agenda or bullshit at work here, not that I've seen so far anyways.  This game is Star Wars.  It was made to appeal to Star Wars fans.  It was not made to appeal to the LGBTQ crowd, not to empowered women or submissive men or anyone else other than the fans of the series.

It's refreshing to see media today that doesn't have some kind of silly agenda at hand to please to anyone other than the fans and enthusiasts.

I do have one minor quibble, and it's a PC only thing I think.  Any of y'all playing on PC have any issues with the camera?  My game when it starts most times will have the desktop mouse cursor showing in the game, which means I can't control the camera.  I've had to fidget with settings and restarting the game a few times to get the camera working again.

I'm playing in full screen 1440, and I do have two monitors, but I'm only displaying the game on my main monitor.

I agree that it's a very strong showing for an otherwise lackluster year of games.

I'm gonna try to finish the game up this weekend. I've given up on mouse and keyboard, I cannot get the camera to work consistently. It plays well on controller at least.

I fixed my camera issue with a reinstall.  I guess the game files got mucked up between where I first purchased and downloaded the game on Steam, and where I ended up playing it on Origin.

I'm about 8-10 hours in I think.  This is a very good game, but at the same time, the combat just feels off.  It feels very clunky and sluggish at times, and I could see it being rage inducing at higher difficulty levels due to the inconsistencies in dodging, blocking and just general lightsabering things to death.

I'm playing on whatever normal difficulty is, it's one step above the story mode difficulty.  There's a part where like in Attack of the Clones, you're dropped into this arena where you have to fight a couple waves of trash, mostly animals and critters, then you face off 1v1 versus this bounty hunter Boba Fett type guy.  No spoilers, it's pretty early into the game this happens I think.  Anyways, I was getting absolutely sauced and getting very frustrated because of how the enemy targeting/lock on function works, and how it relates to how you face the enemy and how you attack/defend yourself.  Most of the combat in my experience so far especially against multiple foes turns into left click spam until everything is dead.

In most games that have some kind of defend/attack/counter-attack type mechanic, there's normally an enemy tell that shows you when it's time to block/parry/move, and certain attacks in this game have that.  But I don't feel most of them do, and if they do, they are very inconsistent about what gets blocked and what doesn't, what counts as a hit and what doesn't, and what turns into a slick slow-motion counter attack finisher and what just leaves you swinging the lightsaber around like an idiot hitting nothing but air.

Even something as normal/standard as reflecting shots back at stormtroopers - here's how it has worked in my experience so far:  Stormtrooper A fires anywhere from 1-3 shots at you, you can block the first one and send it back at him, but if you aren't ready/anticipating/primed at the thought of there being more than one shot headed at you, you're gonna eat shit on the remainder of the shots and there's no real recovery from that, like you block the first shot and it feels almost like the block/reflect goes on a little cooldown where you can't immediately bring it back up again.  I understand about the blocking stamina gauge, but I played around with this messing with one or two individual stormtroopers and a full stamina bar, along with the upgrade that reduces the stamina lost when blocking.  So I can right click the whole time at one stormtrooper and deflect everything, which is cool provided he's the only threat on the screen at the time; in this game, that is rarely the case.

Just killing anything or anyone with a lightsaber feels like shit.  You run at them, they backpedal, your character model just feels slow trying to catch up to these guys and you swing like a foot or two short of them.  Now the follow up swings will definitely get them, it's just I feel like a oaf with this combat system.  I end up using the lightsaber dash attack or throwing the lightsaber at most trash enemies just to try and close the gap, or throwing enemies off ledges with Force powers just so I don't have to put up with their bullshit.  It feels so sloppy and tedious trying to chase these guys down to show them what's up.

And about those Force powers, because the targeting/target switching is so wonky, aiming and using Force powers is kind of a hit and miss sorta deal.  It's already awkward to fight as is, and trying to incorporate various Force powers into a hectic fight, it's just...not fun.  Not smooth or fluid.  Very clunky and awkward.  It's a chore.  Combat in this game to me is a chore.  It feels bad and unfun in most circumstances.  Some of the 1v1 boss fights have been pretty cool, but again, the block/parry/dodge is just so inconsistent.  I imagine that it's way more important at higher difficulty levels, where the timing is tighter and enemies probably do more damage.  But overall it's alright I guess, I just get bored of swinging my lightsaber like the purple dildo in Saints Row and having about the same effect on target as the dildo in that game.

Pre-reviews of this game, people were talking like the lightsaber combat is gonna be super involved and deep and satisfying, but it's not IMO.

You know how at the end of Rogue One, where Vader carves through those rebel red shirts like a hot knife through butter?

He pushes forward undeterred, fluidly deflecting, slicing, dicing, using the Force...that's what I really want the combat to be in Jedi Fallen Order, and it just ain't there.

I played a bit more tonight and ran into some graphical glitches as well.  Falling through the environment, especially when climbing up to a higher ledge, I've clipped through walls and fallen to my death quite a bit.

Recently I replayed through Batman Arkham City, and like Assassin's Creed, I guess that's what I'm comparing combat to.  In that game, you can engage a dozen (or more) enemies and fluidly attack, counter, and counter attack from all directions, with melee attacks, throws, one-hit-KO arm and leg bars takedowns, all the while seamlessly integrating Batman's gadgets in the midst of battle.

Maybe I'm expecting too much out of Jedi Fallen Order because of that, or maybe I haven't put enough time into learning any nuances of the combat.  I just wish it were like the Batman Arkham games.