Category: star wars

Spoiler Warning: There will be spoilers ahead for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as for other iterations of the Star Wars franchise.

Welcome back to Jedi: Fallen Order! Last time, I came up against my first difficult fight in the game, and it took a couple of attempts to get past some of Dathomir’s Night Brothers. This session didn’t start particularly smoothly, as there was apparently a connection problem with Steam that took a while to resolve. Jedi: Fallen Order is a single-player title of course, but I’m never sure whether playing while Steam is in “offline mode” means things like screenshots are disabled. I waited until whatever problem Steam was having was fixed before playing.

When Steam worked and we’d made it through the various loading screens and updates for Steam and Origin, Cal was back at the meditation spot where we left him on Dathomir. The Night Brothers in the area immediately beyond had respawned too, but were easily dispatched – I might finally be getting the hang of the game’s combat!

Past the locked door were a series of corridors and rooms – including the corridor where the camera got stuck last time. This go around Cal made it through alright, and having only used one stim-pack to regenerate his health too! In a rather out-of-place space-age crate amidst the rocks and ruins, BD-1 found a customisation option for the Stinger Mantis, giving it a shiny new metallic silver paint job. Though I liked its previous yellow colour, I decided to mix things up and try out the new one for now.

Jedi: Fallen Order’s third-person camera has been okay, despite the issue last time. I generally like third-person cameras in games, and especially in an action/adventure title like this it works well. It would make exploring and some of the more complicated jumps more difficult if it were a first-person title – not to mention the combat. The camera can also be used to peek around doorways; spotting enemies before they have a chance to see Cal gives him an advantage. And there were plenty of enemies in these ruins!

The hallways eventually led to an open area, where a stone bridge is crumbling. The back side of the locked door from earlier was here, and unlocking it created a shortcut back to the meditation spot where this section of the playthrough began. Cal was able to jump across a gap in the bridge, where a mysterious “wanderer” greeted him. Dressed in old, dark robes, this character gave off a distinctly creepy vibe – I’m about 98% sure Cal will have to fight him sooner or later! He reminded me somewhat of Kreia, the mysterious Force-sensitive old lady who mentors the Jedi Exile in Knights of the Old Republic II. The wanderer talked in very vague terms about visiting Dathomir to study extinct cultures, but not much of what he said was helpful in the short term.

However, one thing the wander explained was very interesting. He told Cal that others have tried to discover the secrets of the ruin – the one beyond the bridge that Cal is trying to reach – but that something inside it corrupted them. Could this be a hint at something connected with the dark side of the Force? It sounds intriguing… and dangerous! It’s also implied that there may only be one Night Sister, as the wanderer speaks of her in the singular. He then ends the conversation by telling Cal in no uncertain terms to “avoid the ruin”. Cal says he can’t do that… but actually he can, and has no choice in the matter for now.

At this point Cal hit the wall… literally. The bridge on which the wanderer is standing is broken, and Cal cannot jump from one section to the next; every time he tried he fell. There was a path below the bridge heading back the way we’d come. After several failed jumps I headed in that direction to see if there was something there to help Cal progress, and found something incredibly exciting! At a random workbench tucked away to the side of the passage, Cal was able to upgrade his lightsaber to be double-bladed – like Darth Maul’s famous lightsaber from The Phantom Menace! Obviously I liked this; the upgrade may very well come in handy! But I didn’t like that Cal worked on the blade in silence, and I especially disliked that no explanation was given as to why he was able to perform the upgrade here.

A couple of lines of dialogue would have massively improved this moment – having Cal say something like “look BD-1, a new lightsaber macguffin, I bet I could upgrade mine to be double-bladed” would have been all that was necessary to explain what was happening. The databank did lodge an entry about the upgrade, but nothing to explain why it was able to be done, how it could be done here, or what Cal found to be able to make the upgrade. It felt like one of those situations where we were very close to having a great moment in the game, but one element was missing and the result was that it just kind of fizzled out.

The lightsaber can be switched back to its single-bladed form at any time with a single button press, and I like having both options as it feels like it adds more variety to the game. Whether the lightsaber options are purely aesthetic or whether, as the game suggests, the different blades will be useful in different situations is unclear right now. After going through the tunnel beyond the lightsaber workbench and dispatching a handful of the poisonous spider-creatures, Cal ended up back at the meditation point where we began this playthrough. I debated saving, but doing so would allow all of the Night Brothers to respawn and I wasn’t keen to fight them all over again. However, there was nothing here that would help Cal across the gap in the bridge. Exploring the ruins further yielded nothing either, and I must’ve spent fifteen or twenty minutes trying various methods of crossing the gap or finding a way around, at which point I did choose to rest, though Cal had no skill points to use.

Climbing on the wall by the wanderer didn’t work. There was a tiny hole at the bottom of the gap that I thought Cal could have squeezed through, but that did nothing. There were no vines on the wall to climb, and nothing else to hold on to. I mentioned last time that some elements of Jedi: Fallen Order feel less cinematic and very “video-gamey”, and this moment is absolutely one of them. The rough rock that’s supporting the next section of the bridge could be easily climbed – there are a number of potential footholds and handholds, and from its base the rock face can only be four or five metres high. A Jedi – even a trainee Jedi – should be easily able to climb this short, cragged rock face, yet Jedi: Fallen Order makes no such allowance. I eventually relented and headed to the internet in search of a strategy guide. I was careful to avoid spoilers for the rest of Dathomir, but it turns out that this is as far as Cal can go until he unlocks a “Jedi flip” ability much later in the game!

This Jedi flip sounds like it’s basically a double-jump, and will allow Cal to cross the gap with ease. As cool as it was to come to Dathomir and get the double-bladed lightsaber, I’m disappointed with this outcome. Why would Jedi: Fallen Order give me a choice of destinations if one is basically blocked to Cal until he levels up? Despite the amount of time we’ve spent on Dathomir so far, we haven’t actually done anything of consequence yet; if I had to guess based on the size of the previous planet (Bogano) I would say Cal has maybe explored a third of what Dathomir has available, and aside from the monsters and the Night Brothers, all Cal has done is speak very briefly to one Night Sister and this wanderer.

I’m playing Jedi: Fallen Order for the first time, and until this moment I hadn’t picked up a guide or searched online for any walkthrough as I wanted to experience what the game had to offer for myself. After completing Cal’s quest on Bogano, it felt as though I had a free choice of destination – two planets were available, one of which said it was the main quest and one – Dathomir – that felt like a side-quest. I’m just a little confused why the game would do this, and why it wasn’t made more obvious that we’d gone as far as possible into Dathomir. Cal makes an offhand remark that he “can’t jump that far” when failing the jump for the first time. But that’s it. There was nothing to say that I should go back to the ship or that this was all I could do on Dathomir for now – but it is, and after reading online that I’d done all I could I doubled back and returned to the Stinger Mantis. The enemies had all respawned, but sprinting and bashing the dodge button repeatedly meant the return journey was fast and Cal took no damage.

Back aboard the ship I went straight to the galaxy map and selected the Zeffo homeworld – confusingly also named Zeffo. The ship took off from Dathomir as smoothly as before, and within moments we were landing on a stormy planet.

It wasn’t a perfect landing – despite what Greez tried to claim – and the storm appears to be interfering with communications aboard the Mantis. I always like this kind of setup, as having no way to communicate with the ship ramps up the tension. The storm on Zeffo provides a good excuse for why communication may be difficult. Cere promises to stay aboard and work on getting them working, leaving Cal to explore the landing zone.

There were several things to explore in the immediate area. Near the ship was a large open hangar – it had one crate inside that contained a lightsaber part. Further away from the ship there were two routes, one that led up a hill and one into a larger hangar. Inside the hangar was a locked door and another crate – this one contained a new poncho for Cal, which I promptly equipped. He seemed to approve!

With the door in the hangar locked, and nowhere else to explore in the immediate area around the Mantis, Cal headed up the hill and across a damaged bridge, where two animals were chewing on the dead body of a Stormtrooper. That’s right – the Empire made it to Zeffo first! If only we hadn’t wasted all that time going to Dathomir… just kidding, I know that isn’t how it works. After killing the creatures (they were no challenge, like the other monsters seen so far) Cere had managed to restore communications. Cal informed her of his discovery and the Empire’s presence.

Beyond the trooper’s body were two paths – I took one that went off to the right, into a pitch-black cave. Holding the block button means Cal uses his lightsaber as a flashlight, illuminating a small area around him. Aside from a Force echo, the only thing of note in the cave was a crate that contained a stim-pack upgrade: BD-1 can now carry three stims instead of two, giving Cal one more chance to heal in between meditation spots. I knew sooner or later we’d be able to upgrade this, and I’m so glad I came this way or I might’ve missed out! BD-1 did the most adorable little dance when being given the upgrade, and honestly he’s my favourite Star Wars droid right now. Sorry BB-8. You’re cute too, but you’re not as cute as BD-1. If anything happens to BD-1 I’m giving Jedi: Fallen Order 0/10 for traumatising me.

Exiting the cave meant doubling back to the fork in the road, and after a couple of jumps and ramps up, Cal was on top of the hangars near the Mantis. Going down placed him behind the locked door in the hangar bay; unlocking it provides a shortcut which may come in handy later. There were a couple of monsters along the way, but no Stormtroopers yet… I was sure they couldn’t be far away, though!

Immediately beyond the door and we got our first group of Stormtroopers. All of them were using blasters, which meant it was relatively easy to hang back and deflect their shots back at them. The Stormtroopers talk during combat, both shouting aggressively at Cal and bantering with each other – but Jedi: Fallen Order doesn’t seem to have recorded many lines of combat dialogue for the Stormtroopers, and they very quickly begin to repeat themselves. Perhaps we should excuse that since they’re clones(!) but as with the lightsaber upgrade that had no explanation, a few extra lines would have been nice and would have avoided the sense of repetitiveness, especially as we got further into Zeffo and encountered more troopers.

The path leads away from the hangar towards a village crawling with Stormtroopers. In addition to the regular troopers carrying blasters, there are also Scout troopers armed with melee weapons – we’d fought a couple on the train on Bracca back in Part 1 of the playthrough. In small numbers neither type of trooper is particularly bothersome, but a larger group, consisting of both ranged and melee opponents is harder to overcome. Regardless, Cal made it through several scraps in the village unscathed.

We got our first mini-boss on the far side of the village – a Scout trooper commander, designated by his orange shoulder pad. This guy uses a melee weapon like the regular Scout troopers, but is more skilled and harder to take down. Eventually Cal was able to prevail, however! There were several Force echoes in the village, which combined with the one we found in the dark cave to tell a story of a family forced from their homes by the Empire. An eviction notice was seen pinned to a doorway in the village, too. Are these people the Empire expelled Zeffo? Or are they another race that has settled the ruins of the Zeffo homeworld? I understood from what Master Eno Cordova said that the Zeffo are extinct, so I assume these people were settlers – but that remains unconfirmed right now! Hopefully we will learn what became of these people.

The Scout trooper commander was guarding a drawbridge. The bridge seemed to have a red glow or aura to it, similar to how some objects have a blue glow indicating Cal can use his Force powers to slow them down. However, this is presumably linked to another skill Cal doesn’t yet have, as there was no way to move the bridge. At several points during Cal’s time in the village I heard the distinctive whine of TIE Fighter engines, but unfortunately I didn’t look up in time to see them (and when I waited none flew overhead).

There was another route near the bridge which took Cal into what looked like one of the huts in the village. However, this building was cut into the rock behind, and contained a passageway that was another shortcut back to the abandoned hangar near the Mantis – perhaps this shortcut will come in handy as well! More importantly, though, the passageway contained a meditation spot, and I was able to get two new powers/lightsaber moves for Cal, as well as rest and make sure the game had checkpointed. I was tempted to call it a day, but we’d only just got to Zeffo and I wanted to see what was beyond the bridge, so after using the meditation spot and unlocking the shortcut I headed back outside.

The outfit Cal wears under his poncho has been the same since we left Bracca, and I didn’t think it was something that could be customised. But in a storage box here, BD-1 found Cal a different colour for his outfit – there are only five options, but it’s another nice little element of customisation. This one is a brown/khaki tone, and I equipped it to replace the blue/grey outfit he’s worn since the beginning of the game.

The troopers had all respawned due to using the meditation spot (a feature I can’t decide if I like or not) and despite taking Cal on a different path I still had to fight several of them. There was another way across the gap that the bridge should have allowed Cal to cross, by climbing and jumping across a couple of roofs, and on the other side a couple of troopers were no match for Cal’s lightsaber.

This area was fairly small, and aside from a locked storage crate that BD-1 can’t access yet – he still needs repairing, apparently – there wasn’t much to see. I was able to get all the way around to see the bridge from the other side, though. If we have to come back this way later, hopefully Cal will be able to move the bridge somehow and use it to get back to the Stinger Mantis, as I don’t think jumping back the way he came is possible.

After heading up a ramp, Cal came upon another dark cave and another meditation spot. I decided to take this opportunity to have a break, and save exploring the cave for next time.

So Dathomir was a bust! What a waste of time. As cool as it is to get the double-bladed lightsaber, it’s patently obvious that the upgraded weapon can’t be necessary to complete Zeffo, or the game would have made acquiring it mandatory instead of hiding it. I don’t really like that Dathomir was made available to visit but not possible to complete – that’s poor game design, in my opinion. At no point while playing should I need to pause the game and open a guide because the game hasn’t made clear where to go or what to do, yet on Dathomir when Cal couldn’t make that jump I was stumped. It wasn’t in any way clear that this was an absolute barrier to progress, and I wasted time on that world that I could have spent advancing the story on Zeffo further. Not to mention that when Cal finally makes it back to Dathomir later, we’ll have all the same monsters and enemies to fight.

That aside, I think I’m getting better at Jedi: Fallen Order. The battles this time went much more smoothly, and fights I might’ve lost when I first started playing were easily won. Story-wise, aside from the Dathomir dead end not even being acknowledged by any of the characters, I think Jedi: Fallen Order is doing a solid job. I’m curious to see what we’ll uncover on Zeffo and what the Imperials are doing here. It seems unlikely they’re here for the same reason as Cal – unless they saw Master Cordova’s message somehow.

Swing by next time and maybe we’ll find out!

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is out now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the copyright of Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts. The Star Wars franchise is the copyright of Lucasfilm and Disney. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Spoiler Warning: There will be spoilers ahead for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and for other iterations of the Star Wars franchise.

Welcome back to Jedi: Fallen Order! If you missed the previous instalment of this playthrough, you can find it by clicking or tapping here. Last time, Cal and the gang left the planet of Bogano bound for the mysterious, dark world of Dathomir. I was hoping I’d made a good choice opting to head to that planet, but I ended up losing my first fight in Jedi: Fallen Order so far! Let’s go through how we got to that point.

After arriving on Dathomir, Cal was ready to disembark the Stinger Mantis and set out in search of the Zeffo – the race that Jedi Master Eno Cordova tasked him with learning more about. The route from the Mantis’ landing spot into the first area of the level was well-indicated, and I like the deserted, alien feel of Dathomir with its red-tinged stone and rock. Red often makes a good choice for an otherworldly terrain colour. After moving along the path a short way, a section of it collapsed and Cal had to jump and climb along some conveniently-placed vines to access the first area, which contained a patrolling monster. I really thought this was going to be a young Rancor monster (a larger one tried to kill Luke Skywalker during his mission to Jabba the Hutt’s palace in Return of the Jedi) as it looked very similar to the young Rancors seen in the Knights of the Old Republic games. As Cal is still quite low-level, I decided to sneak around at first, seeing what else the area had to offer.

The patrolling monster was easy to avoid, and Cal climbed up to a higher elevation, where several smaller monsters were easily dispatched – though these spider-creatures dissolve in a pool of acid when killed, injuring Cal unless he leaps out of the way in time. Taking on one or two at a time is no real challenge, but here I began to see why a number of reviewers said Jedi: Fallen Order isn’t a walk in the park! One or two of these monsters pose no threat, but on Dathomir there’s a long way to go from the Stinger Mantis to the first save point – save points/meditation spots are where Cal can rest and heal – and each fight against one or two of them adds up, knocking a few points from Cal’s heath, then a few more, then a few more – leading to consequences we’ll see in a moment! BD-1 can heal Cal if asked, but this can only be done twice in between save points (though I suspect that can be upgraded down the line).

After taking out several groups of these monsters, I came to a somewhat confusing point. A narrow gap in a doorway, window, or crack in the ruins of Dathomir clearly opened out into a room just beyond, and by moving the camera I could see something in that room to interact with. Yet despite Cal previously being able to climb through tight spots, there was no way in to this obvious room. I even tried smashing my way in with Cal’s lightsaber! There was nothing to interact with to allow Cal access to the room; he just ignored it and acted as thought nothing was there. Perhaps it’s possible to gain access via another route, or to come back here later when Cal has learned some new skill or other, but it was very odd.

Beyond the inaccessible room was a bridge; BD-1 scanned an artefact which led to an ominous reference to the Night Brothers – remember last time I asked if there were Night Brothers to go with the Night Sisters? There are! An entry in the databank says that the Night Brothers were second-class citizens in a female-dominated society that once flourished on Dathomir. Count Dooku apparently was responsible for the destruction of the Night Sisters after they tried to assassinate him – something which might have been included in The Clone Wars animated series as I know Dooku was a character there. I haven’t watched The Clone Wars so I can’t be sure, though. After cutting a rope which provides a shortcut to and from the lower part of the level, Cal proceeded across the bridge.

A cut-scene triggered after crossing the bridge, with cute little BD-1 scanning some markings on the rocks that Cal identified as being evidence of the Zeffo. However, before they’re able to do anything with the markings, a hooded figure materialises out of thin air. Waving her arms and using green “magic”, she summons two shirtless men. Cal tries to talk her down – though telling her he “can’t leave” Dathomir is not what I’d have said in that situation – but the woman disappears and her minions attack. This was Cal’s first encounter with a Night Sister – not so extinct after all!

Weakened from battling a number of those spider-creatures en route, Cal didn’t do very well against these two assailants, the Night Brothers. Taking one down felt like a good accomplishment, but the second was able to kill Cal fairly quickly thereafter. I’m still getting used to Jedi: Fallen Order’s combat; evidently I need to work on blocking and parrying, as well as dodging attacks! Getting better at those key skills will help as we progress through the game. Cal respawned at the Stinger Mantis. Being already back at the ship, and with no other meditation spots on Dathomir that I’d seen so far, I took Cal aboard and used the one in the rear cabin. I had two unused skill points; one had been awarded for defeating the first Night Brother, though I’m not sure how long I’d been sitting on the second! I chose to increase Cal’s maximum Force points, which will allow him to use his Force abilities more often and/or for longer. The second point was invested in Cal’s blocking ability, which should reduce the damage he takes from attacks while blocking. A solid use of two points, if I do say so myself.

Now I had to progress back through the level to get back to the fight, and using the meditation spot meant that Dathomir’s monsters and enemies had all respawned. Luckily Cal had unlocked that shortcut earlier, allowing several of the smaller spider-creatures to be bypassed. I also stopped to take on the monster I misidentified as a Rancor; it is in fact a different kind of creature unique to Dathomir according to its entry in Jedi: Fallen Order’s databank. It also wasn’t nearly as difficult to fight as it looked!

I wasn’t sure if I’d need to sit through the cut-scene again after crossing the bridge, but fortunately Jedi: Fallen Order is better-designed than games of the past had been! The two Night Brothers were both back to full health, but after jumping and dodging and a fair amount of hopeful lightsaber swinging they both went down, leaving Cal – to my surprise – still with a fairly full health meter. After swinging, Tarzan-style, across a couple of vines, we finally found Dathomir’s first meditation spot/save point. Cal had been awarded another skill point during the second fight against the Night Brothers, but there was only one option on the skill tree this time, some kind of dash-attack.

Immediately after the meditation spot Cal came under attack from another group of Night Brothers, including one who was using a ranged weapon – some kind of blaster in the form of a longbow. Having practiced on Stormtroopers during the escape from Bracca at the beginning of the game, it was relatively easy to bounce the shots back to the archer – though this was made more complicated by a second Night Brother attacking from close range. A second archer was similarly defeated, as was another Night Brother in the next hallway. Cal then came upon a locked door. As with the inaccessible room from earlier, there must be a way in; whether this is something we’ll find as we explore or whether it’s an area we’ll have to come back to later isn’t clear.

I’ve encountered a couple of graphical glitches since arriving on Dathomir. The first one came right at the beginning of the level, while Cal was climbing the vines near the Stinger Mantis. His hands, arms, and part of his head appeared to clip through the ledge he was supposed to be holding on to:

This wasn’t a big deal, and though I spotted it I wasn’t particularly put out by it. Evidently what’s happened is the game has designated the “edge” of the ledge incorrectly, slightly too far inside the actual texture of the rock. No biggie, and I might not have brought it up but for something that happened later. After defeating the Night Brothers and archers, Cal entered another narrow hallway and was attacked by another single Night Brother. But the camera swung wildly as Cal dodged an attack, and it was impossible to see what was going on:

I couldn’t get the camera unstuck and back into a normal position during the fight, nor could I find a way out of the hallway. I’m not blaming the camera movement for Cal’s defeat in this fight; I was already low on health and hadn’t used BD-1’s stim-pack to replenish it. But it definitely didn’t help, and while it’s the first time there’s been a problem like this I did want to bring it up because this is all part of the gameplay experience for me.

Even though we haven’t got very far into Dathomir or actually done very much, I had to get on with something else so I took a break – we’ll pick up from the save point next time and press on further into the ruins of Dathomir. Hopefully those last two points don’t feel too much like nitpicks; I just want to be as comprehensive as possible in a playthrough like this. I’m not an especially competent gamer these days, and it often takes me several tries to beat a difficult level or hard boss. As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I am playing Jedi: Fallen Order on its easiest difficulty setting. I do this as my health is poor, meaning things like button-mashing and millisecond-perfect hits are things I’m just not capable of for the most part. The first fight against the two Night Brothers definitely caught me off-guard – the fact I was able to easily beat them on my second try is, I think, evidence of that! Hopefully the next phase of exploring Dathomir will go smoothly!

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is out now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the copyright of Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts. The Star Wars franchise is the copyright of Lucasfilm and Disney. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Spoiler Warning: There will be spoilers ahead for Jedi: Fallen Order and for other iterations of the Star Wars franchise.

Welcome back to my playthrough of Jedi: Fallen Order! If you missed the first part of this series you can find it by clicking or tapping here. Last time, we left Cal on the planet of Bogano. He’d just met the droid BD-1 and was making his way toward a mysterious vault.

I’m sure it’s just me, as I’m less used to modern video games with their broader, more open levels, but at points during Cal’s adventure on Bogano I found it hard to know where to go. The scenery is very pretty – but it’s also all rather samey, with white chalk or limestone cliffs and green vegetation. Although there are some identifying features on Bogano – such as an elevator platform – it wasn’t always clear where Cal had been and where Jedi: Fallen Order wanted me to take him next. The level consists of a number of similar pathways and open spaces at different heights; it was very easy (for me, at least) to overlook a pathway that was lower down that Cal had to jump down to.

One thing is undeniable, though, and that is that Bogano is a beautiful setting. A lot of care and attention has gone into both locations Cal has visited so far, and even on my PC – which is no longer a cutting-edge machine (if it ever was!) – the environments look spectacular. Though I may have said something similar a decade ago, in 2020 we’re getting very close to photorealism in many aspects of games. I recently took a look at a tech demo that exemplified this. There were moments in earlier cut-scenes, particularly when looking at starships, characters in helmets, or aliens, that could have been scenes from a television show or film. And while my PC doesn’t have that fanciest of new, next-gen technologies – ray-tracing – the lighting on Bogano looked fantastic, as I think this next screenshot demonstrates.

Last time, we left Cal before he’d made his way to the mysterious vault. I wasn’t sure if this quest would take a long time, and after loading my save file (a suitably quick process) there were still some things for Cal to do first. After exploring a cavern and killing a few monsters, we arrived at a dead end. With no obvious way out or any way to go back, the only thing at the end of the cavern was a glowing spot to interact with. Tapping on this led Cal to draw on a memory from his past, during his time as a Jedi padawan under Master Jaro Tapal – someone we learned last time died during Order 66.

This flashback sequence shows Master Tapal teaching Cal how to use the Force to run along walls – something Cal remembers how to do and is able to use to escape the dead-end cavern. The wall-running ability opened up new pathways on Bogano, and Cal is able to further explore the cavern, using his ability to sense the past to note that a Jedi had once passed this way. I liked the use of the flashback as a concept, but the Jedi training room that Master Tapal and young Cal were in was incredibly generic; I’d have liked to see more decoration to make it appear even vaguely Jedi-esque. As it is, the grey tones didn’t really seem to fit with anything we’d really seen in the prequel era (when this scene was set). It was a very bland video game tutorial room that could have been from almost any other action-adventure title. It was nice to see Master Tapal again though, and I’m sure we’ll get more flashbacks to this character as the game progresses, not least because his death had a huge impact on Cal. He may have even died saving him – but we’ll have to wait and see if I’m right about that!

Returning to the main section of Bogano, Cal is able to use his remembered wall-running technique to cross to a previously-inaccessible area and approach the mysterious vault that Cere had tasked him with exploring. BD-1 and Cal race each other to the vault, and to reemphasise what I said last time, the little droid is absolutely adorable. The entry to the vault had a couple of optional things for BD-1 to scan, adding entries to read from one of the in-game menus. Other than that, all that was here was the sealed door to the vault, which Cal is able to open with ease thanks to the Force.

The mysterious vault seemed like it would take longer and/or be more difficult to reach; I was expecting Cal not to be able to enter and to have to backtrack or go elsewhere to find a way in. But the door opened at the first opportunity, and Cal was able to squeeze through a narrow passageway into the vault. The vault is a large open room with a wet floor. There isn’t much to say about it, really, other than it looked sufficiently ancient as to be believable! In the middle of the room is a single circular object, and after Cal looks around for a moment, BD-1 rushes over and beeps at it excitedly. Walking over to BD-1 triggers a cut-scene. Jedi: Fallen Order has perhaps the smoothest transitions between gameplay and cut-scenes that I’ve seen, and it makes the whole experience much more cinematic; it feels like playing – and taking part in – a Star Wars film. BD-1 projects a hologram…

BD-1, incidentally, has been given a paint job thanks to having the game’s deluxe edition. I don’t recall why I paid extra for this version, it may have been because it was on sale. Normally I wouldn’t reward a company for cutting content from a game and selling it back, and while Jedi: Fallen Order has hardly gone overboard with its cosmetic extras, they should really be accessible in the base game or unlockable via gameplay as everything else is.

The hologram is stored withing BD-1 – not in the vault itself – and is a recording of another Jedi Master. Master Eno Cordova had explored Bogano years prior, and earlier Cere had explained that the planet isn’t present on any star charts; it’s a hidden world. Master Cordova had what he described as a “vision of doom” – presumably foreshadowing Order 66 and the rise of the Empire – and has chosen to hide something of value within the vault. While I like this setup, the fact that the holo-recordings are stored within BD-1 and not the vault itself raises a question immediately, one which admittedly may be explained further into the game. But if all the information Master Cordova has is stored in BD-1, who displays holo-recordings when Cal takes him to specific locations, would it not be possible to simply hack the droid and get the information out? Rather than darting about from planet to planet to get to the right spot for BD-1 to display all of the recordings, if I were Cal the first thing I’d do is shut down BD-1 and take him to a black market droid hacker!

Master Cordova has acquired a list of force-sensitive children and squirreled it away in the vault. His plan, now taken up by Cere, is to use train these children as Jedi and use them to stand up to the Empire. Jedi: Fallen Order is set fourteen years before A New Hope, five years after Revenge of the Sith and Order 66. If Master Cordova put this phase of his plan into effect not too long before that, or if he updated the list, it stands to reason these children would still be out there and might be anywhere from ages 5-15 by now. While traditional Jedi teachings – according the prequel films – meant that a child of 9 was considered “too old” to train, Luke Skywalker and Rey both began their Jedi training as young adults and thus Cordova’s plan seems to have mertit.

The next part, however, is very “video-gamey”. Cordova insists that in order to gain access to the list of names – which may or may not be stored in BD-1, that wasn’t clear – is to “follow his path”. He tells Cal to go to the homeworld of a race called the Zeffo, who built the vault on Bogano. He’s to learn something there that will allow him to gain access to the vault. Nothing in games can ever be straightforward, eh? After Master Cordova sends Cal on his merry way, Cal chats to BD-1, saying that they have something in common as they’re both alone. It was a sweet moment. The only way forward from here is back out of the vault, and after sliding down the hill he climbed up to get in, Cal faces off against some kind of larger monster. This creature was able to perform unblockable attacks, meaning the fight took a lot of jumping and dodging. I couldn’t tell whether this monster was one of the ones recently seen in The Mandalorian or just vaguely similar.

En route back to the ship – a route which, as mentioned, was easily-overlooked due to the level’s layout – BD-1 stops by a wall painting and another holo-recording from Master Cordova plays. He thinks the Zeffo may have visited the planet of Dathomir – a name that sounded vaguely familiar to me, not sure why – and suggests to Cal that he visit there, despite it being a “dark” place. I’m thrilled that Jedi: Fallen Order – like Knights of the Old Republic before it – gave me a choice of destinations. In a game that’s otherwise fairly linear, some elements of choice are great – as are the customisation options and the game’s skill tree for levelling-up Cal. Incidentally, I invested my first upgrade for Cal into extra health, as it’s something I feel almost always comes in handy in these kind of games!

After stopping to inspect the holo-recording, Cal must backtrack through earlier parts of the level to return to the ship – which I forgot to tell you last time is called the Stinger Mantis, or just the Mantis for short. I’m not sure where I’ve heard the name Dathomir, or whether it’s just because the -mir suffix has a Lord of the Rings sound to it, but it really does feel familiar. I wonder what Cal will find there?

Upon returning to the Mantis, Cal tells Cere and Greez what he discovered in the vault and what BD-1 showed him on their return journey. He correctly susses out that BD-1 was the “someone” Cere wanted him to meet on Bogano (something which I had kind of already guessed!) They briefly discuss the situation – Cere knew Master Cordova, as she had once been his apprentice. She is also vaguely familiar with the planet of Dathomir, and says it was once home to a group referred to as the Night Sisters. The Imperial Jedi-hunter pursuing Cal is called the Second Sister, so I’m wondering if those two things are related. Were there Night Brothers, too? The information Master Cordova has stored in the vault is assumed to be in the form of a Jedi holocron – we just saw a Sith holocron in The Rise of Skywalker a few months ago, and apparently the Jedi use them too. Cere has one aboard the Mantis, and she shows it to Cal – it plays a short recording of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was a nice little tie to the mainline films.

After spending a little time looking around the Mantis – its interior is fairly small – I headed to the map near the bridge. There were two planets available to visit, and as mentioned, it was a free choice as to which one to pick. The Zeffo homeworld was displaying an icon telling me that was Cal’s main objective, whereas Dathomir had no indicators of any kind. I chose to go to Dathomir; whether this was a good call or not isn’t clear yet! There were a couple of reasons why I made this decision, though.

Firstly, I’m still not sure why but the name Dathomir is familiar. I’m curious to see if I find out why when Cal gets there! Secondly, if the game is pointing me to the Zeffo homeworld, that’s the main quest line, and if there are side-missions to explore I’d like to see those too. Jedi: Fallen Order is too much fun to skip missions! Finally, sometimes in games, quests or missions become unavailable after a certain point in the main story, and I would hate to miss out on Dathomir because I went to the Zeffo homeworld first. If the Zeffo homeworld is where Cal needs to go to advance the main story, it seems certain that area will still be available after the mission to Dathomir, but it may not be the case the other way around. I could look it up, but I don’t want to inadvertently spoil anything major for myself, as I’m playing Jedi: Fallen Order for the first time. After choosing to go to Dathomir, the Mantis takes off, and this whole sequence, transitioning from being on the surface of Bogano to being aboard the Mantis to heading into space was seamless!

I’m used to loading screens and cut-scenes breaking up a story, yet while the Mantis was taking off and headed to orbit, Cal was free to walk around the cabin and even head to the bridge to see the planet’s atmosphere give way to space. I think that might be the closest any Star Wars fan can get right now to being a passenger on board a vessel in a galaxy far, far away – except, perhaps, for the new ride at Walt Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge, aka Star Wars land. The visual effect of the jump to hyperspace could have been lifted from any of the Star Wars films, and it was a really fun, slightly nostalgic moment to play through. Before the Mantis landed on Dathomir, Cal was still able to freely move around the ship. I took this opportunity to visit the rear cabin and upgrade his lightsaber again; I had acquired a couple of lightsaber components on Bogano.

The journey to Dathomir was very short, taking only as much time as for a few lines of dialogue, and after taking a seat for landing on the Mantis’ bridge, a short cut-scene plays showing the ship approaching a red, Mars-looking planet. Immediately upon landing the area outside the ship is ready to be explored – there’s no transition between the Mantis and the two planets it’s visited so far, which makes the whole experience a touch more immersive. It was here I decided to leave Cal, and save the exploration of Dathomir for next time.

I’m still having a great time with Jedi: Fallen Order. I’m about two hours in now according to Steam – though a few minutes of that was taken up with patching the game and connecting to Origin when I first installed it. Dathomir sounds dangerous and potentially interesting, and I’m also excited to learn more about Cere, Jedi Masters Jaro Tapal and Eno Cordova, and Cal himself. The Zeffo sound interesting too, and perhaps we’ll find out something about them here on Dathomir. But you’ll have to come back next time for that!

I’m experimenting with adding more screenshots this time, as this is supposed to be a playthrough. Hopefully this format is working; it may evolve further as I spend more time on these write-ups!

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is out now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is the copyright of Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts. The Star Wars franchise is the copyright of Lucasfilm and Disney. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.