Overview

1Star Wars is the Space fantasy juggernaut between good and bad space wizards. The series that has become renowned for its tale of the heroes' journey in the 70s has gone on to spawn dozens of branching stories that flesh out and broaden the universe. Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, we'd see dozens of Star Wars video games that would tell original stories that would become adored by many and exhibit a level of storytelling and expansion of the Star Wars universe that has been some of the series' best to date. However, over the last decade, we'd see a decline in new games from the franchise primarily due to EA's stranglehold on the rights to the IP and the focus on making multiplayer releases.

However, that trend would change in 2019 when one of EA's owned studios, Respawn, released their new Star Wars title Jedi Fallen Order, which would be widely successful. What was so fresh about Jedi Survivor was how it borrowed many of the successful learnings from many of the games that had come about in the past decade. They were taking systems mechanics from Souls-likes like Sekiro, incorporating metroidvania-like skills to the progression and exploration, and adding Triple-A styled platforming familiar to games like Uncharted. They were all given their twists to make this game fresh and innovative. But more importantly, Jedi Fallen Order was a return to form for single-player storytelling for the Star Wars series within video games, and man Respawn made something special. Now we're here in 2023 with the long-awaited sequel Jedi Survivor, and outside of the technical shitfire that this game was at launch, Jedi Survivor is an undoubtedly excellent sequel that builds on the solid foundations established by its predecessor and manages to deliver an experience that feels fresh and compelling the whole way through.

Story

The story for Jedi: Survivor continues the journey of Cal Kestus on his quest to master the force and fight back against The Empire. Here in Jedi Survivor, we get a more confident and experienced Cal who gives me the Luke Skywalker energy from Return of the Jedi. However, regarding the overall feeling and stakes, Jedi Survivor feels more like Empire Strikes Back. The story at play here, without diving into the spoilers, explores the line between light and dark, the choices one must make when facing different adversities and staving off the dark side. There are many new and familiar characters, and to me, that is one of the highlights of Jedi Survivor. I really did like many of the characters in Survivor, and the natural progression of things and the relationships between each of Cal's companions is something that I felt invested in as much as Cal's journey. This new series of games from Respawn capture what I loved about the original trilogy whilst still feeling fresh and not like they're trying to copy what has already been done. If you are a Star Wars fan, chances are that you'll be delighted with the story here for Jedi Survivor, as this story brought out the fan in me and reminded me why I liked this series so much, which is something that I'd say the recent films have lacked. Respawn get Star Wars and can get creative whilst paying respect to the quirks and characteristics that make the series so charming, and trust me, many of the moments, locations, and developments will blow you away.

Technical Performance

I initially played through this around its release in late April and early May, and my performance on the PS5 was primarily positive. I did notice some texture pop-in issues and did have my game crash once during a particular part of the game. I have recently, around the time of recording this review, gone back to check the current performance on my PS5, and the framerate is consistent in Performance Mode, with the worst issue being one metal object not rendering correctly.

That being said, there are still many negative reviews citing that there are mainly issues revolving around framerates, and people have stated that even when lowering their graphics to the lowest settings, they're still getting an inconsistent 30 fps. So, if you're looking to pick this game up on PC, be cautious picking this one up and consider checking some of the Steam reviews yourself. It currently sits on a 62% mixed on Steam, so as enjoyable as I found this game on console, PC copped the brunt of the technical issues, and some of those still do exist.

Gameplay

Combat

Stances and Iterating on Combat

The combat in Jedi Survivor is fluid and feels much more weighty here, where you can see a lot more dismemberment with your lightsaber. The main flow of combat begins to form through the different stances you'll acquire throughout your playthrough. Most of these stances feel great, with one or two feeling more situational and underwhelming. However, there are plenty of abilities and skills to unlock and tailor to your different stances as you progress through the game, making you feel like you're in control of your own playstyle whilst being given enough flexibility to be the Jedi you want to be. Respawn have tried to push the envelope here, providing you the all the force and lightsaber abilities in the first game, out the door in Survivor, meaning that every new sequential ability is a new tool that is fresh to play with, and there are plenty of utilities here to mix and match. This is a welcomed addition, as personally, I'm always fond of loading up a sequel and having to reacquire many abilities you already collected previously. This also leaves the developers open to pad the new game out with unique abilities to master

The new upgrades and additions are well-paced, as you are given enough breathing room between each upgrade to play around and get a feel for how it works. The different difficulties provide a fun level of challenge, and on top of that, once you have completed the game, you'll get a new game plus mode with three excellent new perks to spice up the replay value. The first is called trendsetter, where your outfit will change each time on death. Another perk, called Purity, increases the damage for both friends and foes in the world. Lastly, the biggest game-changing perk to New Game Plus is Warrior, which replaces standard enemies with new and more challenging foes, a fun way to test and master your Jedi capabilities. Speaking of perks, let's dive into the progression systems of Jedi Survivor by looking at the Perks and Skill Trees.

Gameplay Systems

Perks and Skill Trees

Much like in Jedi Fallen Order, we see the return of the Skill trees here in Survivor. However, they're much more extensive here as you kick off with many of the abilities that you acquired previously in fallen order. Meaning that there is an expansive set of skills that you can tailor to your advantage throughout your playthrough, and most of the skill upgrades feel meaningful, provide new abilities that add new combos to the moveset of a particular stance, or increasing the impact of a specific force ability, an example being the ability to force push or pull multiple enemies instead of 1.

On top of the Skill Trees, Jedi Survivor introduces Perks which work as equipable modifiers that can provide different sorts of benefits to Cal. There are three slots for these perks, meaning you can theoretically equip three different perks. However, various perks may provide a more substantial advantage consuming two slots, meaning you need to balance what is powerful versus what is optimal for your build. You can acquire different perks by completing tasks and collecting currencies for many other vendors as a reward, which threads itself nicely into the exploration aspects of the Jedi Survivor experience.

Rambler's Reach Cantina

The Rambler's Reach Cantina is a great new addition to Jedi Survivor that works well with open-world exploration. This works as a hub for Cal to check where he can interact with different characters, similar to The Mantis. However, what makes the Cantina unique is that you can find various exciting characters whilst exploring many of these planets and recruit them to join your cause and hang out in the Cantina. Some different personalities you'll meet provide specific quirks, such as filling up a fish tank or managing a farm. Others can sell cosmetic items or perks to help build out how you play as Cal.

On top of that, when encountering or chatting with many of these different characters, they'll provide a particular piece of information which takes the form of Jedi Survivors' side quests called Rumors' which are host to many of the discoveries and side bosses that are available of the main path when following the story.

Side Quests

So with that being said, how are side quests in Jedi Survivor? Well, they're pretty good. The quantity of quests never feels too overbearing, and many of these quests lead you to different locations with their platforming segments, puzzles, and optional bosses, which tick all the needed boxes to make the exploration and combat feel memorable and engaging. The storytelling through these side quests is often expressed more through the environments than through heavy cutscenes or exposition dumps. It works pretty well for optional content and the follow of Jedi Survivor. It feels like an excellent way to thread your exploration with completing quests, rumor's, and bounties into one cohesive package.

Bounties

In Jedi Fallen Order, you'd find various Bounty Hunters you could fight. Here in Jedi Survivor, you can become the Bounty Hunter as, at a certain point in the story, you'll be able to interact with a vendor who will provide leads to different bounties scattered across many of the locations you explore in Jedi Survivor. It is a great detour to break up the exploration from many side quests and rumours. Sometimes, you'll randomly find these bounty hunters if you go off the beaten path and explore. Many of these encounters provide a challenge relative to your selected difficulty. But the cool thing about these bounties is how varied many encounters are and how you're rewarded for completing them all. Overall I love the addition of Bounties. They're a different type of side content to the side quests that feel more aligned to discovering a side boss in a Souls game to discovering a minor enemy or mini-boss. That's one thing that I love about Jedi Survivor, its side content feels like it has found a sweet spot where there is a little content, and more importantly, the content that does exist feels meaningful and well-paced and placed throughout the game.

Customization

One aspect of Jedi Survivor that I love is the amount of customization available, but more importantly, how you are rewarded and unlock many of these customizable items. See, in Jedi Survivor, many worlds are explorable, and each location will be littered with chests, and each of these chests will provide some form of cosmetic upgrade for how you customize Cal. It is such a great approach that proves you don't need to put loot that provides stats or unnecessary systems into a game to provide collectable cosmetics through chests. This approach works quite well because you're looking to see what new beard or color palette you can get for BD or your lightsaber. If Fallen Order was a quest to find the coolest Poncho, then Jedi Survivor is the hunt for the coolest beard. Overall finding new cosmetics is always rewarding. The sheer customization available here in Jedi Survivor is excellent and allows for a good breath of player expression in how you style Cal. I hope they keep and iterate on this model in the next game.

Sound and Visual Presentation

The visual and sound presentation for Jedi Survivor is on point for the Star Wars experience creating incredible worlds that capture the environment with environmental effects, unique architecture and varied locations and biomes to explore throughout your 16 hours with the main story. Jedi Survivor is a grand tour of the Star Wars experience in terms of the areas that it takes you to, and the most significant setback that holds back the visual presentation is the texture pop-in issues that I experienced whilst playing on the PS5, which is one of the most stable places to have played Jedi Survivor on release. The technical issues do weigh on and hinder the experience when they occur, with texture pop-in and frame drops throwing you out of the immersion, however overall, the different locations and many of the other stop-off points within are so varied and exciting, making each location capture the particular mood that it is going for.

Conclusion

So to bring all of these components, Jedi Survivor is a fantastic fusion of many different elements that modern video games have to offer, and it blends them all seamlessly whilst providing its flare and unique inclusions to the experience. The adventures of Cal Kestus are some of the best stories I've experienced in the Star Wars universe in a long time. The combat feels satisfying and fun to engage with, and a wealth of skills and perks mostly feel meaningful and make the combat feel more dynamic. With the level of player expression with the abilities here, you can bring Cal to life as the Jedi you want him to be. The worlds and locations you explore are full of exciting discoveries and a neat bounty system to add extra spice and challenge to many of the different places you explore. It truly is a shame that this game launched in the state that it did because had this game launched in a stable condition, I do genuinely believe that this would have been one of the more highly regarded games of this year, and I still do think that Jedi Survivor is one of the better games that I have played from 2023. I haven't played this game on PC, but it is still sitting at a mixed 62% on Steam, with many recent reviews citing that there are still many framerate and performance issues, so I'd advise remaining cautious as a PC player. But as for my experience on the PS5, this game is technically in a place where it is worth playing. Because buried under the myriad of bugs and technical issues that this game was plagued with at launch lies a phenomenal story and a competent action-adventure game. Jedi Survivor was an excellent experience, and I recommend it. However, I still see a mixed response for PC, where it appears different builds are still facing particular issues, so I'd say at this point, I do recommend Jedi Survivor, but if you want to pick this up on PC, be cautious of the issues listed. Jedi Survivor is a great game, with a rocky launch and some lingering performance pains, but is definitely a story and experience worth your time.