There have been many other games, in many other genres, but the ones listed above are the standouts in one of the video game industry’s most exploited franchises.
And there do seem to be many lessons that Respawn can reflect on while creating Fallen Order. Judging strictly from the correlation between review scores and reception, it comes as no surprise that the most well received games are those that take the franchise the most seriously. Looking at some of the most-praised titles, such as Knights of the Old Republic, you see games that treat the source material as reverently as a die-hard Star Wars fan would. On top of that, it’s clear that obvious cash-ins aren’t too welcomed by Star Wars stans. Having a sequel for a sequel’s sake, or a game specifically tied into the release of a movie, doesn’t seem to be the best course of action for a developer/publisher to create a game of lasting renown. Many of the best reviewed Star Wars games, like 1993’s X-Wing or 1992’s Super Star Wars, came many years after the movie they were based on.
Fans can hope that Fallen Order follows a few of these bread crumbs along the twisted and treacherous road of Star Wars video games. It already seems to have checked off a few of those boxes. Some of the most celebrated games tell new stories in the franchise’s universe, which Fallen Order promises to do. And though Fallen Order, with its late 2019 release date, will come hot on the heels of Star Wars: Episode IX, it smartly is not directly tied in with that movie. It instead tells a story in between Episode III and Episode IV.
Respawn is a relatively young studio, formed in 2010, but it has already built a highly regarded name for itself. On top of that pedigree, it can also learn a great deal from the decades of Star Wars games that have come before Fallen Order. Those two factors give Star Wars fans a lot of reasons to be excited about Respawn’s upcoming game.