I’ve been eagerly anticipating this game since I first learned about it back in the summer. Literally for the past few weeks I have been googling everyday to read news articles because “dammit it wasn’t out yet and I wanted it so bad!” and I needed something to take the edge off. BUT there was a problem with this because nobody was excited?!? It got even worse when the game came to Steam and I looked in the discussion forums, there were so many spewing hatred for a game that wasn’t out yet.

Now I’m not naive and I do understand that EA has a bad reputation. However for my sins I very much like Star Wars: The Old Republic and I don’t play shooters. I knew of course about the Battlefront controversy, my grasp on dates is shocking but I think it was about the same time as Marvel Heroes, which had a ‘gambling lootbox’ element and people had reportedly spent eye-watering amounts. However that at least was for cosmetics and not power upgrades.

Anyway I find it quite dispiriting that nobody seemed to share my hype. On the other hand the googling everyday meant I learned super quick about the game coming to Steam which was like a dream come true. I have a controller for my PC – a Steam controller, which meant I was having to look for a third-party Xbox type because I heard that Origin didn’t play nice with Steam. So yeah the game being on Steam solved my problems. I preloaded a couple of days ago, this morning I set it to download, it did freeze for a bit but recovered. I connected my Steam account to Origin and then I had to go to uni but it was all ready for me for when I got home.

I have never ever played a game like this. I think the closest would be Crash Bandicoot or perhaps the Star Wars Kinect game that I bought my Xbox 360 in order to play (unfortunately the sensor is shocking so it doesn’t work very well). I read in those articles so many comparisons to other games but it meant nothing to me. So I’m coming at this with completely fresh eyes.

Verdict? I mean build-up aside, that’s why I’m writing this post yeah? To give my initial impressions.

I like it.

My controller required a tiny bit of tweaking as the inbuilt controls are for an Xbox controller but 98% of it worked from the get-go. There are 4 difficulty modes, Jedi Knight was recommended for newbies but I picked the even easier mode – Story – because I know how shocking I am at these kind of things. I didn’t grow up with controllers and it takes me ages to remember the buttons. I’m confident I made the right choice as I’m still struggling with the dodging part, which I’ve heard is a major component to the combat. I think I might need to check the settings to see if I can set the camera to fix on the mob or something as I’m dodging, and then it’s behind me and then I don’t know what’s going on.

I made it through the intro (barely) as my initial fight with the Second Sister was mostly me just getting thrashed until I lucked into pressing some buttons which moved it forward. I’ve also gone through the initial run of the first planet and opened up the Zeffo homework and Dathomir. I’m not quite sure where I’m supposed to go next as I can’t see any level recommendations but I think I recall people saying Dathomir was hard so I guess the Zeffo place first would make sense.

I like that the first planet doesn’t have any Stormtroopers, just beasts because I think that’s a bit easier rather than having to parry away tons of blaster bolts. I was grateful for some kind of learning curve as I really struggled with the into. To start with I wasn’t sure where I was going and kept falling off the platforms and then getting shot at as well! I know, I know, and with it on story mode as well.

Which brings me to another point. I’m 3 hours in and I have done maybe half of the first planet? I’m not sure. I think I read that there were five planets and that new areas would open up on previous ones, (though whether that’s just the red doors or somewhere else I don’t know) so I think the game is going to take awhile. Also I have other games I like to play and many, many other things I have to do that isn’t playing games. I saw so much trash talk about campaign length and the price tag (and yeah the price was ouch) but maybe it’s my age but – didn’t people use to replay games?

There’s 4 difficulty modes. How I remember hearing about games, you complete it on one mode, and then you do it again but harder until the game is ‘mastered’, then if the game is a favourite you might just replay it anyway. There isn’t any real choice in the game (aside from cosmetics to unlock) so that does cut down on replayability as it will be functionally the same experience. Still I rewatch a lot of TV, just tonight in fact I watched a Killjoys episode I’m sure I’ve seen at least twice before. There are some TV episodes I’ve probably seen a dozen times and there are movies I have which easily double that number – probably more! I guess my point is that it doesn’t have to be one and done, you can get as much value out of it as you want (or as you enjoy). Plus the early parts of this game play like a movie anyway, there’s a lot of cutscenes which I know people hate but I rather like, it makes me feel like I’m inside a movie (aka inside the world I love) which to be honest is why I play licensed games in the first place.

I’m sure I’ll play some more tomorrow. Uni has been rough lately so I think I might take the day off, play some games, do a bit of Lego and just chill out. I’ll do another review when I’ve seen more of the story/experienced more combat, so I can give a proper verdict but for now, thumbs up 🙂