It's an entertaining good star wars game with it's flaws.
Pros:
- Graphics are excellent (though there are some performance/frame rate issues on my PS5)
- Story is mostly great and enjoyable. Good characters
- For certain types of gamers (those who like and play Elden Ring/Souls) this could be a near perfect game for them
Cons:
- Pseudo-open world. It feels just open enough, but for most places you're going there's only one specific convoluted way to get somewhere
- Very on-rails puzzles and paths. As soon as you learn a new mechanic, all of a sudden you see it everywhere. Very gamey way of traversal (really how many flat side-runnable walls can there be?). Why can't Cal properly force jump? You are punished for trying different ways of getting places with non-sensical falling deaths
- Meh lore. I like a lot of the story, but there's pieces of the game that are just meh. Seems like the majority of enemies in Star Wars now apparently use stun batons and melee weapons. The separatist battleship seemed disproportionally large (I could be wrong). The overall design of the planets and traversal constantly remind me I'm playing a game. The humor is forced at times.
- Combat is frustrating for me personally. I'm not great at parrying, blocking, chaining combos, or other mechanics which are vital for defeating difficult bosses and some difficult common enemies. I struggled through on normal difficulty until the last boss I switched to story mode because I just got tired of it. The bosses just seem so OP on normal difficulty and for some I don't see feasibly how you would beat them first try which is a big turn off for me (it feels unfair if I can't reasonably beat a boss on normal difficulty first try if I play well). Lot of one hit or two hit KO move bosses that just suck.
- Lightsaber combat is good when it works. But it is really strange to see low level enemies easily block a lightsaber swing or stormtroopers take 2-3 hits to die. Doesn't feel like I really have control over the lightsaber, I just hit a button and Cal figures something cool looking to do that usually does nothing but wear down the enemies stamina bar (which somehow also become repetitive?)
- Game is filled with fluff. Plenty of appearances, clothes, lightsaber parts, BD parts and more, but who cares when most don't look good? I found a few appearance stuff I liked but much just don't look good.
- Buggy. Wasn't able to do bounties due to bug. Game died multiple times on playthrough. Not too bad but noticeably detracted from the game for me
- I can't help but compare with Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, which I enjoyed much more despite the age and older graphics. Kyle Katarn is a better protagonist than Cal (though I do like Cal!), the lightsaber combat feels more deadly and goes along better with the movies, more and cooler force powers, etc.
It's a good game that just may not be for me. 6/10, though there were times when I was playing and it felt like a 4/10.