Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is almost out, and players got one last look at the game before release during the Inside Xbox X019 stream. The gameplay itself showed off the hero, Cal Kestis, using a double-bladed lightsaber for the first time. It’s not actually the first confirmation that double-bladed lightsabers would appear in the game, which came in an earlier gameplay trailer, but this does confirm that Darth Maul’s signature blade isn’t reserved for the dark side.
The release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can’t come soon enough for many fans, thanks to glowing impressions from previews, but there are some concerns about how the game will turn out as its launch closes in. It was recently announced that publisher EA set Fallen Order’s review embargo for launch day, meaning that no reviews will come out until then. That’s often seen as a troubling sign, since publishers that doubt the quality of a game sometimes set launch-day embargos to keep early buyers from being influenced by negative coverage. In other cases, publishers simply want to hold coverage of big games to avoid letting too many spoilers escape before launch. That seems to have been the case for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a game that inspired Fallen Order developer Respawn. In that instance, reviews for Sekiro were held until launch day, and then turned out to be almost universally positive.
Respawn’s final preview of Fallen Order at X019 suggests that the late embargo may be hiding some secrets, after all. In a trailer shown during the stream, Cal Kestis is shown piloting a ship into hyperspace, traversing some of the game’s environments, and using his Force powers to take on some never-seen-before foes. Toward the end, he even activates a blue double-bladed lightsaber, followed by brief gameplay footage of the blade in use.
Fallen Order’s lightsaber became the target of some controversy shortly after its reveal trailer. In that first trailer, the lightsaber was missing a distinct white light glowing from the hilt of the blade, which is present in canonical depictions of lightsabers. The developers at Respawn announced that they were adding that small but apparently crucial detail in and tweaking the blade’s overall design after the backlash. Some fans have also taken issue with the fact that players won’t be able to dismember enemies with the lightsaber, as is often depicted in Star Wars films. According to Respawn, that’s due to LucasFilm and Disney’s brand guidelines, which may rule out dismemberment as being too gory for modern Star Wars.
Whether Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ends up being as good as its positive previews suggest or justifying the worries caused by its launch-day embargo, there’s hardly any time left to speculate. What’s clear, though, is that Respawn looks to be delivering a Star Wars game that lets players feel the power of a lightsaber for themselves.
Source: Microsoft