On April 28th, a new game in the Star Wars universe was released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the direct sequel to 2019’s favorite action-adventure Jedi: Fallen Order, and it is a deep, satisfying AAA RPG.
Five years have passed since the events of the first part, and if you forgot how it all ended, then let me remind you. The crew of the spaceship Mantis quietly fled to their business, and the protagonist Cal Kestis continues a suicidal confrontation with the Empire. Now he is no longer a young Padawan but a real Jedi, hardened in many guerrilla attacks. But Kestis can’t do it all alone and will need a team again.
Respawn Entertainment has an unusual task: to make a successful sequel to the game in which you can find fault with literally every element. And it looks like the studio has more than justified the fans’ hopes. It turned out not just a good action in the cult universe, but also, perhaps, the best Star Wars for many years in general.
Adventure Time
Star Wars games have rarely featured outstanding storytelling. The adventures of Kyle Katarn are based largely on nostalgia and memorable characters. The plot in the Knights of the Old Republic’s dilogy was much more elaborate and memorable. But if the first part retained the slightly fabulous mood of the original trilogy, then in the second part the focus shifted from purely “star wars” to Obsidian Entertainment’s corporate style with excessive gloom and sometimes black humor.
Jedi: Survivor manages to be more serious and mature than a BioWare game and doesn’t feel alien compared to other stories set in a galaxy far, far away. Using the example of a variety of Jedi, we are shown how once unshakable ideals change and collapse and what they can lead to. Throughout the game, Cal tries to understand whether he should follow the postulates of a non-existent Order and whether there is any point in his struggle with the Empire when it brings him and his loved ones only pain and loss.
Survivor is a direct sequel to Fallen Order, so don’t expect gameplay revelations. As in the original, we play as a Jedi who constantly moves between several planets (the capital of Coruscant is one of the notable new ones) and cuts through crowds of stormtroopers and more serious opponents. Experience points earned in battles can be spent on leveling up the hero: strengthening one of the selected styles, for example, relying on a regular lightsaber, or improving the recovery of Strength or health. All this simplifies fights with enemies, which are often difficult, and you can save points strictly reserved for meditation – when the hero dies, you are thrown back to them. You lose all the accumulated experience that you have a chance to return after. In addition to fighting, you will have to actively engage in parkour – jump from wall to wall, climb steep surfaces with a grappling hook – one of the new features of the sequel, as well as solve simple puzzles and do other things in the open world. We still have the same simple mixture of a cinematic action movie in the spirit of Uncharted and God of War and a fencing adventure according to the rules of Dark Souls.
Most of the game takes place on the planet Kobo, where there is a kind of base, a cantina, held by Grizz, the owner of the Stinging Mantis. The welfare of this tavern is in the hands of the player. Did you complete the side quest to meet the robot DJ? Well, soon, he will be at the base and even be able to put music on order. Patiently tracking all the movements of a local fisherman? Then he will catch exotic fish, which can be released into the aquarium in the bar. I’ve always loved it since the Assassins Creed series, where you have a settlement that grows with you.
Well, the plot is not surprising, and it goes something like this: We RANDOMLY find an ancient vault right under the feet of our comrade, with a robot from the times of the High Republic, which leads us to a Jedi named Dagan Hera. He was a member of the Order, but he became disillusioned with the Jedi, and now he is running away from us, angry and bad, and since we freed him, we must stop him. The main plot is rather dull and with a typical villain. Plus, these ancient antiquities are already fed up. In the same Hogwarts, it was the same. But he is quite competently hung with arguments about the past, love, family, and self-sacrifice so that in the end, there are no special questions for him. Plus, as I said above, the game has enough fanservice and a couple of plot twists so that in the last couple of hours, if you are a fan of the series, you will be in awe of what is happening. There is a very cool staged moment of the battle with a huge robot that reminded Ratchet and Clank, and indeed there is something to compare with, a bar hub and a choice of planets. But what I also liked were the cutscenes. They look expensive, with great face images, and often feel like you’re watching a Disney+ series.
Gameplay and character development
Let’s talk about the gameplay. The first is combat. The combat system has become more complex and varied while maintaining the right to choose the difficulty level. There are strange animations and too cinematic productions, but everything looks acceptable and pleasant to review.
If in Jedi: Fallen Order I wanted to lower the difficulty to medium or even turn on the adventure and watch the plot, that game was sometimes so crooked and dishonest to parry windows or dodge unblockable hits. Everything was corrected, the game became fair, and the passage of the maximum difficulty caused me to feel exactly the complexity that it should have been. So, if you want to overcome and sweat, play the master. As in the first game, the whole challenge is out of plot, on the same Rancor or toad from the first game. Yes, here too. Although the last 3 story bosses made me sweat, I got that drop of pleasure after defeating the boss in the Souls games.
At the same time, battles consist of more than pressing the “strong” and “weak” attack buttons. You’ll have to use both parry and each stance’s unique Force moves because that’s the only way to defeat most opponents. And while combat now requires a bunch of buttons and combinations, playing Jedi: Survivor is much easier than Fallen Order. Cal is no longer a helpless Padawan who uses the Force in combat so-so and takes the head off every oversized turtle. He is a real Jedi with a gigantic arsenal of tricks. Although the game still cannot compete with the same Sekiro, the combat is still much more enjoyable than in the first part or even in the Jedi Knight series. Since Kal is now stronger, meaner and more desperate, Jedi: Survivor will appeal to those for whom Dismemberment is an integral part of Star Wars. You won’t be able to chop every second one into pieces, but decapitating a couple of enemies in a mass battle or depriving the next boss of limbs is easy.
The game has enough new characters and fan service for fans. Starting from Coruscant, we will see references to the universe or to the last part of the game every now and then. At the same time, Survivor remains an original game and does not try to shove the famous heroes of the franchise into all the cracks. It’s a balanced original story with many quests and interesting additional characters and activities.
In Jedi: Survivor, the combat system and movement through the levels have been almost completely redesigned. Fights now resemble a mixture of Sekiro and the first Witcher. Cal has five fighting stances, and they are not exactly designed for specific situations – rather, they allow you to choose something to your liking. Considering that only two of them can be used at the same time, it is unlikely that you will spend money on pumping the other three.
Most of the abilities also remained with us. And not like most games where you have to re-learn the blaster block while running or the stance from the last game. Everything is available immediately and from the first minutes. This is what sets the sequel apart. In Fallen Order, the fight was revealed only in the last couple of hours of the game, after the opening of dual sword racks and pumping the talent trees of Cal Kestis. Right there, even new stances are given in the first half of the game. For example, a stand with a pistol and a two-handed sword with a guard. With them, you will be able to distribute brutal last hits and adjust the style of play for yourself. For example, with a pistol you can keep your distance and shoot at a bunch of opponents at once with the help of talents, and with a two-handed sword it is difficult to fight due to the huge attack window, but many times it does more damage and often passes through the block.
To this was added the pumping of telekinesis or subjugation of the mind, hacking robots improved from the first part, riding mounts on which you can move around the planets and even fight and a pumped hook to cling to surfaces and jump on balls, perks for an increased block, experience and much more many more, so there is something to play with.
Notable gameplay features coming with the sequel include new combat stances that you can choose to suit your play style. Now the main character can not only brandish a lightsaber but also shoot back at opponents with a blaster at the same time. And then there is the new sword with a protective guard, like Kylo Ren from the sequel trilogy.
There is something to complain about. For example, here, literally all the NPCs talk to you, give you hints or quests, and just pile on the lore. But you can’t skip dialogues, get away from the conversation, but this will lead to the fact that after that, you will have to listen again to what you missed and the tasks themselves – go – explore – take what is. If you just list it – here is the study of the ruins of the Jedi, hunting for bounty hunters, playing on the holographic table, and much more, and it all ends with a cool cut-scene, so I advise you to complete these tasks in full. Like many, I liked the bounty hunt the most. There are a couple of bounty hunters who have separate plot stories.
The dark side of the game
Shortly before the release, game journalist Jason Schreier asked game designer Stig Asmussen how Survivor took only three years to develop? Asmussen stated that the Respawn team is willing to cut some features to speed up production and is also not afraid to fail. But now you can come up with an honest answer yourself, and it sounds sad. You need to release an unfinished game. Perhaps the developers should not have been in such a hurry because many aspects turned out to be raw.
Survivor is one of the most scandalous releases of recent times. Only the PC version of The Last of Us Part I can interrupt it. Players at the start greatly underestimated the ratings on Steam, and the Digital Foundry expert directly called it “the worst AAA release of 2023 for PC “. Long loading times, jerky animations, bugs, crashes – Survivor has plenty of these. The same 4070, in the first days of the game, I had problems with fps, which jumped from 45 to 90 in open locations.
Yes, the first-day patch has now been released, but by this moment, most players have already completed the game, and even now, the game is working rather mediocrely, and if you are not in a hurry, then you should wait for a couple of significant patches. Note that with all this, Survivor was not released on the consoles of the previous generation, and the developers did not have to focus on outdated hardware, and on new generations, everything works many times better than in the PC version of the game.
Poor optimization is not the only problem with the game. Survivor is not very well written. The first third of the game is generally incomprehensible. What is the main dramatic conflict? The formal main villain is Dagan Hera, a Jedi of the Rise of the Republic era who sat in a water chamber for a couple of centuries for a reason. But she appears in the plot rather unexpectedly. We will never know anything but introductory information about her, another flat villain who can be forgotten already in the final credits. And the stupidity of Kestis, who decided to wake up someone incomprehensible (a one-armed and gloomy man with a lightsaber – what could go wrong?), raises even more questions.
Dagan Hera is obviously supposed to be a figure related to Cal: our Jedi is also a bit lost, but this parallel seems far-fetched. If only because the authors must think through the characters’ motivation and important plot points. Shortly before the release of the game, the novel Jedi: Battle Scars was released, which takes place between the events of Fallen Order and Survivor but is essentially a filler book in which nothing important happened. In the game itself, we also do not know how and when Kestis parted ways with his friends, so we have to be content with vague formulations: everyone had their own path, and they had to disperse. Kestis wanted to fight the Empire, and Merin wanted to visit the entire galaxy, and our teacher restores order to the Jedi. There is a feeling that the writers came up with the plot of Survivor but did not think to convincingly fill the five-year gap between the sequel and Fallen Order.
The game has fanservice. It won’t come as much of a surprise if we say that we’ll be allowed to fight Darth Vader himself, who dropped in on us last game. While it would make more sense to introduce Cal to Obi-Wan, The Revenant takes place at the same time as the recent Disney+ series, and both deal with the theme of rescuing the downtrodden during the Imperial Purge. But Vader has nothing to do with the game’s main plot, and his appearance is really written lazily.
Collection and customization
The map is a huge map. As I said, there are a huge number of opportunities for exploration. This is a successful development of ideas from the first game. Survivor does not hesitate to leave one save fire per location and make 5-6 short paths to it so as not to overload the game with save points. At the same time, as we progress, our BD robot and we get new talents that make us return to the old points and collect loot. In addition, on the planets, you can collect plant seeds, fish, or close questions on the map at the prompts of the inhabitants, whether it be a mini-boss or a task to develop our base.
If you like to vacuum up such activities in Ubisoft games, then you will be comfortable here, and if not, you can easily skip them and follow the plot – you won’t lose anything, it’s purely plot here for 20 hours along with cool cutscenes. But you have to understand that the game has fewer corridors and more freedom. Sometimes you get lost because of this and don’t quite understand where to go because on the map, locations and passages to it are highlighted. Where it’s still impossible to get, they are highlighted with red gates. The map has become much more convenient than in the first part of the game.
It’s quite interesting to do research, collect items for exchange and complete side missions, it’s just a pity that other planets (there are six in total) are quite linear and small, so you will have to implement your adventure habits mainly on Kobo, where our “base” is located.
Data discs and other collectible tinsel lavishly hidden in drawers reveal cosmetic variety; on the same Kobo, the collected items can be exchanged for the purchase of perks (new in this game) or a hairstyle for Cal or a lightsaber upgrade. And lovers of digging in the beds will also be pleased: on the roof of the cantina, you can set up a garden and grow seeds found during your travels.
What about customization? The game has a huge scope for customizing the character and his items. Some of them are found in chests. Others are bought in shops for items found during the passage and exploration of planets. The game provides a wide range of options for customizing the appearance of Cal, BD robot, sword, and blaster.
The clothes themselves include a lot of fanservice, from Luke Skywalker outfits and R2-D2 skins to Boba Fett armor or the already legendary poncho from the first game. Customization of the sword is not limited to the color of the blade and hilt but also allows you to change individual elements, giving a unique look and making it possible to take the sword of one of the characters in the universe. Also, the blaster can be improved by changing its characteristics, adding various modules, and painting it in any color as well as a database that can be completely changed to your taste: coloring, body, antennas, and legs. You can sit in the editor for a very long time.
Well, I note that the game has a lot of puzzles and platforming even more than in the first part. .But now the character always clearly clings to objects, unlike Fallen Order, where the character often flew into the abyss through no fault of yours, for which many thanks to the developers. Wall running has become even more difficult and varied, even tests on this topic have been added in places of power, and puzzles are interesting and without tips from allies .. I have pleasant memories of both the first game and the sequel, as well as from new trends.
Verdict
Survivor continues Fallen Order’s efforts, and things are going very well in terms of gameplay. It is interesting to fight enemies and bosses and explore new locations. However, the first impression is greatly spoiled by optimization problems, to be honest. Without any discounts, evaluating the game only after a few months will be possible. It’s like reviewing movies with stuttering graphics or lagging audio for a new movie, and now with the latest releases from the gaming world, it’s getting scarier what the future holds for the products we’ll get.
But back to the game. Now patches and mods will fix all the problems, but no patches will fix the plot and dramaturgy. If you compare Survivor to the Star Wars series, it will be the level of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Boba Fett Books. Alas, we have not yet received the video games “The Mandalorian” and “Andor”: awkward dialogues, poorly written characters, hardly anyone will remember the conflict between Dagan Hera and the Jedi, and plot gaps make me sadly remember the simple and understandable Fallen Order. And look forward to a third game in the Jedi series – not yet announced, of course, but very likely.
