Star Wars: Fallen Order (PS, Xbox, PC) - Respawn Entertainment

Okay here we go... I am in no way a game reviewer, or particularly tech savy so just some very average Joe thoughts from about 2 hours of playing...

Game installed fine, requires 55gb.

First things first this game looks AMAZING. I have an old xbone (before S & X) and everything looks so nice. A couple of choppy textures but my xbone is ancient as I say. Lightsabers / lasers really pop. I'm getting massive Blade Runner vibes so far which is awesome. Cut scenes look really nice as youd expect

Running & Climbing to me definitely has a Assasins Creed / Shadow of War vibe. Feels smooth, pretty fast and responsive traversing terrain which is nice! I have fallen off stuff alot when I'm trying to climb but it's probably me being crap.

Skill tree so far looks big! split into three trees (that I have access too at this point). New attacks / Force abilities, everything you would expect. Again a bit like shadow of war in that you upgrade to get new attacks + abilities rather than stats like Dark Souls say. You can preview them and choose what bad assery you want next.

You encounter save points which are kinda of like Dark Souls bonfires, you rest to restore health and force + upgrade but enemies respawn. Pretty cool wasn't expecting that! Bd-1 can also heal you a little bit whilst not at save but only a couple of times.

Okay combat feels AWESOME. As soon as you whip out the lightsaber for the first time I couldn't stop smiling. Normal storm troopers die with one attack or deflection, but heavier troops you need to parry / guard break and you can get execution style animations. Combat feels like Sekiro lite or something along those lines to me. You can hold the block button but really you need to time parries to stagger enemies. Really really fun and duels with more powerful enemies do feel like a challenge, if you don't parry or you run out of stamina you can get rinsed pretty quick. Also I remember reading there's no dismemberment but non human enemies do seem to get chopped in half which is pretty fun.

Theres been a few set pieces so far, kinda similar to uncharted, but after the first hour or so things have opened up and I'm in the first area / planet. It's kinda dark soulsy in that there's places you can't get too, but you can see treasure etc but BD-1s map is pretty useful and shows you paths you haven't been on / your objective / current impassable areas.

Lightsaber customisation looks massive, 6 bits to change I think, with many options in each one from loot found in Game. Like modern FPS's with gun customisation but really cool.

Planets sadly I can't comment on how many there as I haven't had the option to travel anywhere else yet!

So far, its pretty great! Sekiro meets A/C meets Mass Effect meets Uncharted Im loving it after these couple of hours and I feel like I haven't scratched the surface at all

Alright update on round two...

I've had a lot of questions and PMs but as I mentioned anything story related Im not gonna answer. I don't want EA knocking at my door, dragging me out my gaff and throwing me in Sarlaccs pit for posting spoilers. I'll try and shed some light on some of the common things people have asked and give my thoughts now I've played about 6 hours in total.

This game is really really beautiful, even on my old Xbone. Snow / Water / Woods all of the terrain I've seen so far looks awesome. I did find myself coming out of a cave or what not and looking at the view for a while on a number of occasions. Some areas are really dark and you need to use your lightsaber to illuminate the way and honestly those bits have knocked me for six. The shadows / the way the light eminates is really stunning. Also fighting in those dark areas is pretty spectacular, hitting a parry and sparks going flying and then getting the kill is so satisfying and so so so nice to look at.

Also the general flow of the game is really nice, initial loading time I've found quite long. But once the game boots up you pretty much flow from cutscene to gameplay seemlessly (with a couple of small exceptions) alot like God of War and I have found myself a couple of times, not realising I can move around again whilst thinking the cut scene hadn't ended yet.

Each planet is DENSE, its way more Metrodvania than I first anticipated. You have to back track and unlock shortcuts for yourself, search for hidden areas & climb / wall run / do puzzles to find things. Very definite nod to all things souls like, but it is really satisfying to unlock those shortcuts and it is really nice how areas come back on themselves and you can see where youve been before.

Enemies really are not pushovers at all. Ive jumped too hastily into a couple of areas and got munched on or ganked by a group of storm troopers pretty quickly and been sent packing back to a respawn. You do have alot of bad ass moves and powers but you are most definitely not invincible. Having said that combat is still by FAR my favourite part of the game, and it does excel when there's a few enemies on screen. Deflecting blaster shots, using Force abilities, rolling, evading, attacking is all really responsive and its so cool to string things together and go to town on some enemies. There are some unblockable attacks so you do have to be on it, and not just running around holding block.

Things seem to unlock as the story progresses so until the game is over you can't really say how many skills there are, or how many planets there are for sure. It's not like mass effect where the galaxy map opens up and you can see all the places to travel too, or Skyrim where you can see all of the different levels involved in a skill tree. However from what I can see, I think there will be more planets than I've seen anybody mention so far. And the skill tree has almost doubled in available upgrades since I played yesterday. It's pretty deep, and certainly I think it'll take some time.

As I mentioned planets are pretty big areas and there's alot to find. I finished on one planet, story wise and had only explored 32% of it. So if you're a completionist there's alot to see. (EDIT this isn't actually the case, coming back to a planet I've previously been on with new powers and you can unlock massive new areas, so you do need to return to planets for new story missions)

Lastly I would say this is a very un "EA" type game so far. Obviously there's alot of EA bad sentiment around, and refreshingly there is no "buy this DLC" or use X currency to purchase this here, type things on the menu screen. That may all change come day 1, but so far it's a refreshingly non micro transaction affair.

I don't think I'm even a third done. So I reckon it'll be at least 20+ hours. And many more if you want to 100% all the planets
EDIT 20 hours seems very conservative now I've played some more, you need to visit planets more than once it looks like, and theres new areas once you have new powers.