The gameplay reveal of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is near, with EA Play effectively kickstarting E3 2019 this Saturday.
Meanwhile, though, Game Director Stig Asmussen was featured in an interview published by the latest PlayStation Official Magazine (July 2019, issue 163). While the game is set in a dark time for the Jedi order (just after the infamous Order 66), with protagonist Cal Kestis on the run for his life, that won't dictate the entirety of the game's vibe.
We definitely want to have range in the game, we don’t want to feel like it’s always dreary. The game does have hope, it has colour to it, whether that’s elements that we sprinkled into the story, or whether that’s how we approach the artwork. You can find beauty in things that are very terrifying as well, and somewhat hopeless.
When asked by the interviewer whether the missions in the game would be linear or open-ended, Asmussen simply replied 'neither'. Most likely that means it'll be somewhere in-between, though it's hard to picture how that would work exactly.
Lastly, the Game Director expanded on the concept of 'thoughtful combat' and what that means in practice.
You see it as kind of a trend more in games now. When we started working on the game, that’s how we coined it, ‘thoughtful’. But you’re seeing some other games right now where it’s not about body count. It’s more about really figuring out what is the best angle to get on your enemy, and what’s the best way to take them down. That’s not only single combatants, but it’s also like, the arrangements, of specific enemies that you have in any given fight.
What makes it different than a weapon in any other game is that’s it’s not a sword, it’s not a bat – you can’t just keep on whacking at something. We had to give the enemies – we had to inject in them a certain amount of intelligence so that they feel like you’re not always landing like ten hits to take somebody down.
That’s kind of what that was born out of. It was a setup of how we wanted to approach battles in a melee action game anyway, and then it was like then you layer lightsaber on top of that. You really have to think when you go into fights.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will launch on November 15th for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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