Not the worst, also not the best
I had such high hopes but low expectations. This game comes in closer to the latter.
Cal Kestis is a former Jedi padawan that has been in hiding for several years after the execution of Order 66. He reveals his connection to the Force and subsequently has to run for his life. He meets up with the crew of the Mantis and they team up to try to restore the Jedi Order. It won't be easy since the Imperial group of Inquisitors will be chasing them trying to finish what they started... killing all of the Jedis.
Things I Liked...
The story and characters of the game are the key point of interest in this game. Everything they do to slowly reveal Cal's background and how they tie that to relearning his connection to the Force was very good. The story was well paced and remained interesting and intriguing until the end. No spoilers but... the very end of the game took off in a direction that was somewhat unexpected but very pleasing.
Things I Disliked...
Then there are all the problems and boy howdy. I played the game on a launch Xbox One and it was not a good experience. However, it sounds like some of the problems I had weren''t unique. The most obvious problem was the frame rate issue. At any point, whether in combat or in a cut scene, the frame rate could nose dive into the single digits making the game not only unenjoyable but also unplayable. As pretty as the environment was it still looked washed out and the drawn-in of textures was annoyingly noticeable. Then there was the combat. Even after dumbing it down to the lowest level it was still broken and no fun. No matter what I tried I could not get a grasp on the parry and dodge techniques making the combat frustrating. Add to it the fact that you could get stuck in a stun-lock situation with one enemy effectively knocking you out of combat.
When It's All Said and Done...
This was a game that had a legitimate chance to be a good Star Wars game and not just a good game. The fact that the game runs so poorly this late into the console generation dumbfounds me. What ruined this game was strictly technical in my mind. Would it have been great if it ran perfectly and the combat didn't suck? No, it would have been much better but still not great.
In the end, I liked the story but wouldn't recommend the game unless you can get it on the cheap. A full $60 is too much for the game but maybe the $25-ish area would be ok.
