Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a Star Wars fan, from my collection of droids, to my own lightsaber, there is very little I don’t own from that galaxy a long time ago, so any new Star Wars games is almost going to be on radar the moment it is announced and Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, was one such game. Sadly, while it was playable at EA Play, those chances were only for a few selected folks, who got a behind closed doors session, for me and countless others, we got to see the game played live in front of us and I do mean live.

When the demo was first started, it actually crashed, error message and all, but at events like EA Play, whenever live code is in use, these things can happen, so a quick reboot and we were in. For those that are not aware, the game takes place after Order 66 has been executed, where the Clone Troopers turned on their Jedi Masters and slaughtered them all, with only a few selected Jedi surviving the purge. Cal Kestis was saved, how we don’t yet know, but he finds himself on Kashyyk, home of the Wookies, in the hopes of finding someone special, but things are not as easy as he would like. The Empire is on the planet, using Wookie slaves to harvest sap from the local trees, for some sort of plan, so sneaking in to save the Wookie slaves, is what was shown during the live stream, you can also watch it below. 

For those who were able to attend the presentation, we got to see a lot more of that level, a whole extra 10 minutes, prior to the where the video started on stream. The mission started with Cal emerging from underwater, near the shore, but far enough out, not to be noticed by the two AT-AT’s that were slowly walking towards the shore themselves. After swimming up to one, I have to assume the Force was used in that, Cal climbed up to the top and found his way inside. After taking out all resistance from inside, including a very wicked little distraction by BD-1, Cal was given control of the massive walker. Using it, he was able to take down the other one, which had moved ahead in the river. With that down, Saw Gerrera launched himself onto the window to ask what was going on and who Cal was, after a brief chat, Cal pushes on ahead, taking the AT-AT to destroy the base that the rebels are attempting to take.

A nice little cutscene played out, but after that, Cal walked into the ship that had landed and we got a sneak peak at the customise/level up menu and while it was only a moment, there seems to be a nice collection of ways players can upgrade themselves. After this, there was a few more minutes of gameplay, where Cal had to locate a way past a panel that was out of power, which was solved by upgrading BD-1, giving us a quick look at the his upgrades, thanks to the on screen text, now we were told previously that BD-1 would have a upgrade tree of his own, but sadly, we saw none of that here. It was then across the gap and that took us to the same place that the demo, shown above, started.

Of course, as this was a live playthrough, things were different, but the overall pacing and were much the same, small things though stood out, like how the trooper that was atop the little rise to the side, had his bolt sent back towards him, but in my viewing, he was killed by a lightsaber throw. Most of the rest, played to the same beats, but it was fun to see the differences between plays, which I hope means that there is some replayability in the game.

While I was sad I did not get a chance to play the game myself, I am more excited about the game and can’t wait for its release in November.