These days, I’m hesitant to publicly say anything positive, negative, or even neutral about a modern Star Wars release for fear that a branch of the fandom will arrive pounding at my door with torches and pitchforks ready to execute me for my treason. That said—awkward colon placement aside—Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is pretty good! Developer Respawn wear their inspirations on their sleeve as they borrow heavily from From Software’s Souls games and Crystal Dynamics’ 2013 Tomb Raider reboot to create a Souls-like metroidvania set a few years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. You play as Cal, a Padawan survivor of the Jedi purge, as he races against the Empire to find the remaining Force-sensitive children.

The story starts out a little slow and safe, keeping its feet planted in familiar Star Wars aesthetics. Fallen Order looks, sounds, and feels like Star Wars, but almost to a fault. Things pick up in the second half when you find yourself on a planet home to Force users that stand outside the Light Side vs Dark Side dichotomy, though I wish it pursued this thread further. The combat is solid throughout, finding a space between a Souls game and more action driven titles like Devil May Cry. Finding your path to the next objective is often fun and entertaining, but backtracking is usually a chore. There is no fast-travel in Fallen Order, and finding your way back to your ship after a big story moment often kills the pacing. And while the game looks fantastic, the underlying tech is plain bad—glitchy and stuttery throughout. Respawn will be able to fix some of the issues with patches, but some are likely too deeply rooted to remove.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is greater than the sum of its parts. There are lots of little things wrong with it, but I had a good time throughout and it is easily the best Star Wars game to be released in a long, long time.