Respawn Entertainment blew Star Wars fan away with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order back in 2019. Fallen Order gave us an untold tale set in a galaxy far, far away and blended it with a dash of Souls-like with a pinch of Metroidvania for something unmissable. Fast forward to 2023 and the long-awaited sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is here to pick up the tale.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor carries on the adventure of Jedi Knight Cal Kestis, and follows he and some friends old and new as they hop around the galaxy fighting the Empire.
Tale of Survival
The tale picks up things five years after the events of Fallen Order, with Cal battling the Empire at every trip and turn. Though for every victory his ragtag band of rebel’s scores, the Empire’s grows ten-fold in strength.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor features a darker and much more complex Cal this time around. Cal wrestles emotional turmoil and survivors guilt in his Survivor journey.
This is all reflected in the very well-written tale. No spoilers but just know you’re strapping into a emotional tale with some touching moments. You’ll meet up with old friends like Greez. You’ll encounter new threats like Rayvis and raiders. But it all feels natural. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is heart-breaking and sorrowful in equal measures.
Built Upon a Fallen Order
The backbone running though the tale though is the relationship between Cal and BD-1. Although the bite-size droid doesn’t talk, he is there to deliver a few lighter moments. As well as being a support for what Cal is going through in more ways than one.
Gameplay takes the core foundation of Fallen Order and turns it all up to 11, so you jump around planets on missions while finding areas you can’t get to just yet, until you have to unlock a new skill.
It’s a fun loop that rewards you with countless unlocks and upgrades this time around; from hairstyles for Cal to new parts for BD-1 to change his visuals. It’s a nice touch as it means you can customise them to your own taste.
While backtracking you’ll also hear rumours that will lead you to interesting little side quests and missions that help to add a nice layer of weight to the planets you’re exploring, often on your new mount – this is a fun new addition to this instalment.
Tomb Raiding
You’ll likely soon find Jedi temples as well, which are like the tombs found in the Tomb Raider series, where you have a puzzle to complete that will reward you with a powerful perk and are worth your time.
There is a deep upgrade and perk tree at work in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. One where you can tweak Cal to be outstanding in a number of Lightsabre stances. You can also earn bonus skill points to spend on the tree by heading to the Force Tier challenges. These will truly test your skills but will bag you tasty bonuses if you complete them.
Jedi Guided
Combat is brilliant; buttery smooth with added depth over the first game’s system. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor‘s fighting is build around five different stances like single, double and duel sabres.
Each fits into their own play style, where single is your standard run of the mill option – a jack of all trades let’s say. But you would switch to double to get a bit more reach in a fight, as well as crowd control if you are battling a group of enemies.
Blaster Master
The most interesting stance though is the blaster stance, which as it hints sees you wielding your sabre in one hand and a blaster in the other and though odd to start with, it adds a nice bit of range to combat.
And that’s before you add in your force powers, like push and pull. When all mixed together, you get an extremely healthy combat pool to play around with at first, and eventually master when you find the combos that best suit you.
You’ll also have to switch and swap your combat options depending on what foe you are facing. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a few new and challenging enemies that put up quite the fight.
A Beautiful Fish
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor features outstanding visuals. Each planet looks and feels different to the last and is laden with detail. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is also full of little details to enhance the game’s atmosphere. Touches like mud sticking to your clothes and robes or your sabre igniting grass as it passes through really sell the world.
The soundtrack is pure ‘Star Wars’ epic and suitably filled with grand orchestral numbers. Voice acting is top tier with Cameron Monaghan, Debra Wilson and Daniel Roebuck delivering outstanding performances.
Frog Performance
The Star Wars Jedi: Survivor download size is 133GB on the Xbox Series X. That’s massive in general, even more so considering this a single-player affair. The game experiences frame drops, especially when things really kick off.
It must be noted that the degree to which performance experiences such burps depend on which mode you are playing. It must also be noted that EA and Respawn have said fixes are on the way.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor doesn’t rewrite the rules set in the first game, but it adds to it in every single way. With a weighty tale that feels human at its core about family, loss and ultimately having to move on. All wrapped around a combat system that is as tight as a drum.