Full disclosure, my experience with the performance and visuals of this game were poor, and I am scoring and reviewing based on this complete experience.)
Respawn set themselves a challenge: follow up and improve on their surprise smash hit Jedi: Fallen Order in only three years. They should have, though, taken four. Jedi Survivor follows on several years after the ending of JFO: once again following the adventures of Jedi Cal Kestis, battling Droids, sharp-shooting Stormtroopers, Inquisitors and more bastardin’ Oggdo Bogdo.
Familiar friendly faces from JFO return, only now Cal is alone with only mercenary Bode Akuna at the start of the game. As we progress through the early chapters, needing the help of former friends Greeze, Cere, Merrin & Cordova becomes priority, and Survivor does an excellent emotional storytelling job. I always felt invested, wanting to know more and see how our characters’ arcs played out. Cal’s love interest, the strong and charming Merrin, features throughout the game, both during missions and throughout the story. The writing and animation teams did a wonderful job of portraying their relationship on screen, there are some genuinely beautiful and heart-warming moments. Sadly though, I feel the animation work and attention didn’t spread to the rest of the game, as similarly to JFO, I found character models and facial expressions wooden and lifeless often.
Much has been said about Jedi Survivor’s performance and fidelity and it truly is jarring at times to see how bad it is. I will say, I certainly had it worse than a lot of people. Screen tearing, a wholly inconsistent frame rate, visuals that looked like they belonged on PS3 and a kind of blurring when double-jumping or swinging the lightsaber with Cal.
Sadly, my time with Jedi Survivor became truly unimmersive which, in a world and game that should have had me gripped from the start, is a real damn shame. Various game crashes occurred at random times, and it would appear I have two bugged trophies just to rub salt in the wounds, ruining my Platinum endeavours. No amount of day 7 patching could bring that back, and it will always be something I remember with less than fond memories.
Cal’s journey takes place across one major planet, Koboh, and a few smaller planets and moons, but it is Koboh where the heart of the game is. Koboh becomes your home hub essentially, which you can open up very early in the game where we procure access to Greez’s bar, The Pyloon’s Saloon. Here we can meet and chat to new people, access new story beats, acquire new side content & bounty hunting missions, oh and also admire new fish species and plant species we find throughout our journey. Pyloon’s Saloon has been excellently designed by the team at Respawn, reminding me greatly of the Cantina where Han Solo murdered Greedo in A New Hope.
Koboh is vast, far reaching, and full of dangers. Various story and bounty hunting missions take you across its great landscapes. Similar to JFO, areas in Survivor are gated by upgrades, which you unlock as time goes on. Your trusty sidekick, BD-1 gains the ability to open/move platforms with an electrified bolt, as an example, to reach those ever-so-needed chests you couldn’t previously access.
A huge fix to JFO implemented by Respawn is fast travel and shortcuts. Anyone who has played JFO knows what I’m talking about here: the worst designed map in video game history. The previous game had you trekking from start to finish anytime you wanted to go anywhere, with no fast travels possible and only a handful of shortcuts. What did Respawn do to remedy this? They overcompensated, and it’s greatly appreciated. Fast travel between any discovered meditation spot (as long as you’re on the same planet) is now possible, and short cuts around the map are aplenty. Now when you want to travel to some unlockable doors, or find a chest you’ve missed, it can be done quickly and easily, like they should have done in Jedi: Fallen Order!
Combat is once again where Jedi Survivor excels and once again the game exceeds all expectations. Playing this game on normal difficulty was no joke, bosses were a good challenge, even regular grunts killed me often enough. Often touted as a Star Wars Dark Souls, the follow up game now offers stances to go along with your Jedi Powers. You can utilise one of five different stances (you can have two equipped at once), and I found myself using two of the newer style ones throughout my entire playthrough.
Blaster Stance was by far the most fun: Being able to wield a lightsaber, still use force powers, and fire off a blaster at the same time was immensely fun. A skill associated with the Blaster Stance is akin to using Deadeye in Red Dead Redemption. Time slows to a crawl, allowing you to automatically lock your shots onto enemies, the number you can focus on depends on the amount of focus you have available. An instant and powerful blast strikes each enemy automatically, knocking them down and depleting their health greatly – it’s an immensely fun skill to have in your Blaster arsenal.
By having the use of a blaster, I was then restricted in the number of lightsaber moves I had access to, that’s your trade off. Double Wield became my secondary stance, but even then Blaster was 90% of my game time. Dual Wield allows you to hold a lightsaber in each hand, the sheer number of skills offered to you on this stance made this a devastating way to play the game, and judging by feedback I’ve seen was definitely the more popular amongst players.
You won’t be short of skills to unlock and choose, akin to your experience if you played Jedi Fallen Order. Each of the five stances have an array of different skills, meaning no stance feels the same, and each of them have pros and cons to suit different play styles and bosses. And, again, you can bolster your life and Jedi strengths and skills.
The customisation in Jedi Survivor is absolutely sublime. I am a sucker for customisation of my character and the sheer number of physical alterations to Cal, lightsaber styles & colours, BD-1 styles & colours AND Blaster styles & colours was a joy. I ended up plumping for headband Cal cos why not, right?
Lastly, the soundtrack and sound effects are top tier. Between lightsaber noises, droid noises, blasters, X-Wings flying around – everything you can hear if you watched Star Wars with your eyes closed is present here. Including music. And my word, the music is beautiful. If you close your eyes, and can’t see the ugliness, Jedi Survivor is infinitely Star Wars.
Fantastic combat, a great story and excellent soundtrack isn’t enough to save Jedi Survivor, and that is criminal because I absolutely loved the game. Nevertheless, you cannot release a game in this state, and expect to get a free pass. Developers/publishers have to stop pushing games out unfinished, broken, or performing like Survivor is – paying gamers deserve better than this.
-Dony