I was psyched when I could finally get my hands on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, thanks to EA’s Origin Access Premier, as we didn’t get access to a review copy. Here I was, about to dive into a game that I’d been salivating to get my hands on, and it was time. And for a while, it was enjoyable until the dreaded game-breaking bug I encountered reared its head.
Somehow, when my lovable droid, BD-1 was supposed to distract a pair of AT-AT pilots, the worse happened. When I was instructed to push the droid interact button, the desired result didn’t happen. No, instead of that, Cal stood up and bugged out, and I was trapped. I couldn’t slash either pilot with my lightsaber. I couldn’t walk out of the room, I couldn’t do anything. To make matters worse, thanks to the save system, it auto-saved up to that pivotal point. Meaning my game save was busted, and all my progress was lost.
Yeah, I wasn’t too thrilled about that in the least bit.
I panicked, I cried, I got frustrated, and then I took to Twitter to see if I could get Respawn Entertainment’s attention. After several tweets, I realized that wasn’t happening. So I recorded the bug and uploaded it to YouTube. I figured I was the only one with this issue, and it was an isolated incident. Sadly, it turns out that I wasn’t and that many people also had the same issue as me or worse.
Some ended up with the same bug as me, others messaged me about other issues. Such as falling through the world, others with a missing sphere in the first temple to end, and others with cinematics that won’t trigger. Some can’t acquire a specific weapon or found themselves at the end of an endless loading screen. While some poor soul got stuck in the very beginning of the game and encountered an endless falling bug.
Sucks to be this guy (actually, it sucks for all of us).
As you can imagine, this is super frustrating on so many levels. The game is fun, and it is the Star Wars single-player adventure that so many of us wanted. The combat is good, the platforming and puzzling segments are reminiscent of other popular games. It is the total package. Yet, with so many of us coming forward with these bugs, I have to wonder what sort of Q&A was done with the game, especially as these bugs end any progress throughout the game.
Going even further, I’m seeing massive glowing reviews for the game, yet not one review mentions any bugs like these. For the number of people having issues similar to mine (or worse), I find it hard to believe that those who reviewed the game also didn’t encounter these. I’m not even counting the other issues, such as enemies falling through the floor (which happens a lot).
I’ve reported the bug report on EA’s help forum, and I finally got someone to reply to that. However, there’s no telling whether my issue will be reported to Respawn or not. While I’m frustrated that Respawn is acknowledging other people who are praising the game, my (and others’) pleas for help go unheard. For many, there’s nothing that can be done without the assistance of the developer, which may or may not happen anytime soon.
For now, I’ve started a new game, but I’ve been manually making copies of my game saves so I don’t get stuck at the same point. Thankfully those batch-creating skills come in handy, so they’re being backed up on the fly. Still, I don’t feel this is something I should have to be doing just to play a game with a piece of mind.
Hopefully, Respawn sees these bug reports and acknowledges them. Until then, be safe out there, fellow Jedi. The force is not with us this time around. Oh, and Respawn, should you require a copy of my busted save the file, I have it for you. If you even see this, that is.
