Recent reviews by Vax'ildamn

There is something to be said about adapting the idea of a well established character for a video game, especially a super-hero.

Sure, yeah, the Arkham series for DC's Batman have more than proof-of-concept, it is rather arguable that up until this game right here they were the pinnacle of all video game adapations of super-heros. You moved like Batman, fought like Batman, the world you played through in each game was Batman's. All the while having fantastic gameplay designed to enhance all these elements. It is no wonder that the Caped Crusader has reigned supreme.

But Insomniac's Spider-Man stands walks in the footsteps of Rocksteady's go and dares to stride beyond them.

It is many things:

The sense of scale: Manhattan is the smallest of New York City's five boroughs, but webslinging around it will do little else but reinforce how much further we've come when it comes to developers making cities for gamers to run around in since 2015's Akham Knight's Gotham.

The gameplay: The combat and the movement are all clearly based on the Arkham-style foundation but fittingly tuned so that you truly get the sense that you're someone who has no problem dodging bullets or stopping automobiles at full-speed.

The world: Marvel's Spider-Man does it damnedest to put you into Peter Parker's Manhattan. A civilian populace, the days blurring into nights and newspapers updating with fresh headlines are all facets of the environment that serve to keep us tethered to the world that Spider-Man is protecting. It is a world that we are never separated from, immersed throughout.

But those all pale to what I truly think makes these game worthy...

It is only one thing:

It's Spider-Man. Peter Parker.
If the Arkham games strove to put forth the simulacrum that players were the World's Greatest Detective and also the vengeful predator of the night then Marvel's Spider-Man never strays away from the idea that Spider-Man is someone living up to his fallen uncle's creed: With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.

Whether it's striking out against super-villains and organized crime, to chasing down pigeons for a concerned owner, to even just allowing Peter Parker take the time to say hi to civillians on the street, the game's essence is that Spider-Man is someone who helps people.

That's it. There is no great mission, it is not a battle against fear, chaos or evil. Peter Parker can help people, so he does. This game is infused with this at its core. Aunt May's FEAST shelter for the homeless and impoverished is a staple of the main story. Peter Parker works in a lab focused on designing prosthetic limbs. Later on during the DLCs you can even find yourself recovering supplies meant to aid a foreign nation in trouble.

Furthermore the game grounds us, inking in reminders that Peter Parker is a young adult figuring out his way in the world. It is completely believable that Peter Parker finds it harder to navigate his relationship with Mary Jane than stopping criminals on the streets of Manhattan.

Marvel's Spider-Man tells stories in a way that truly fit and perhaps could only fit Peter Parker. It is a joy from start to finish.

As an avowed Star Wars fan I'm truly thankful that a game like this came out and anyone that likes some action-adventure and Stars Wars needs to gives this game a go.

Slight spoilers will be abound!

The gameplay is nothing to write home about when you compare to games like RPGs, especially Soulslikes, which this game shares many aspects with: enemy respawn on rest, heal refill on rest, defense centered around blocking/parrying/dodging, and set piece boss fights. Fallen Order leans more heavily on the action-adventure side of its makeup, small puzzles and exploration to fill in the space between combat and story beats.

But ultimately this game truly leans and excels in using it's greatest unique asset: It's a Star Wars game and more importantly: a Star Wars story.

Cal Kestis the protaganist is a far cry from the sheer ridiculous strength you can achieve as a battlefield hero in the Battlefront games or as Starkiller from Force Unleashed. You don't really achieve the freedom of character and choice that one would find as one of the Knights of the Old Republic. Nor do you get to run alongside the greatest hits of the Star Wars sagas like in the Lego games.

But regardless of all of this or perhaps because of it Fallen Order provides an intimate story centered around someone who isn't set to fulfill a grand destiny and mighty duty for the sake of the Force but rather someone who has spent the most important formative years of his live having to wrestle with loss of his entire way of life and find his place in a universe that no longer wants him.

Cal is no Luke, Galen, Revan or Meetra. Kestis isn't even adjacent enough to those big players to warrant being Katarn, Jade or even Tano. Cal Kestis is more like Ezra and Kanan, finding himself lost in the "dark times" of the Empire. Playing through Fallen Orders does a swell job of putting you through Cal's process of identifying, withstanding and eventually overcoming his trauma.

He isn't the one to take the one-in-a-million shot into the exhaust port of the Death Star, he does not defeat Sith, he isn't primed for some fated path, he isn't the one to bring balance to the Force.

But it is because of that Cal's story matters more. Cal Kestis' story reminds the audience that enduring great tragedy and reaching a point to where you have to confront what you have lost and sacrificed to survive is not something soley reserved for the messiahs and capital "h" Heroes of life. We all must do it if we wish to carry forward properly.

Cal Kestis IS the one who comes to learn that personal failure should not condemn oneself to guilt for the rest of life, he is the one to hear the message that "Failure is a necessary part of the path" (delivered in-game in a fashion much finer than The Last Jedi, mind you), and Cal's greatest success is something as small as proving himself worthy of trust and being confident in himself to continue to do so.

What comes out at the end Cal's journey in Fallen Order is no Chosen One, but he certainly is a Jedi.