Destiny & fate have a funny way of drawing a person into their reality no matter how much someone tries to run away. The “Star Wars” franchise has been rooted in the idea of a person being drawn to their true being including destroying an entire galactic menace. Developer Respawn embraced the idea of a lone Jedi attempting to hide his true identity. As Cal Kestis, players moved from the scrap yard into the middle of a war that could change the course of an entire universe; and yours truly enjoyed a majority of what “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” had to offer.
So when the inevitable sequel got announced, excitement was at a reasonably high level especially with the developer’s promises of expanding the explorable universe. Sadly, “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” got off to a rocky start in regards to its technical performance; giving me every reason to wait a little while before picking it up with the hopes of major & minor issues being ironed out in fast fashion.
Did I Complete “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”?
Five years after the Great Jedi Purge that resulted in people with the Force being massacred as the Galactic Empire flourished, the player took control of a simple scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars in “Fallen Order”. Cal’s group of eventual rebels fought The Empire and picked up a minor victory at the end of the previous game. But another half-decade later would see Cal’s ragtag posse disbanded and trying to stop the inevitable galactic takeover was spread across planets and philosophies.
“Survivor’s” main narrative lasts around twenty to twenty-five hours on normal/“Jedi Knight” difficulty with the harder difficulty levels obviously adding some time to anyone’s playthrough. Beyond simply playing through the story is this game featuring side quests presenting hidden areas, rather interesting puzzles usually focused on moving an object to, say, burn away a wall of briers, “Legendary Beasts” that aren’t as numerous in regards to differing physical features, and a copious amount of collectibles housed in containers, attainable thanks to Cal’s small droid friend “BD-1”, & deep in the heart of chambers ready to tax a person’s idea of what should or shouldn’t fit together.
With certain Jedi powers needed to open particular areas, a lot of back tracking & planet hopping is needed for anyone looking to 100% complete the game. Sadly for yours truly, some two months after the game’s release, full completion is still out of the question due to a glitch that prevents me from completing the newly-implemented “Bounties” where unique enemies arrive in particular sections needing to be put down. The glitch – the only major one as I was able to get all the collectibles, overcome rivals in the tabletop “Holotactics” game, and finish every main story mission – is supposed to be fixed soon, but it seems like the only possible way to get past it is to replay the game via “New Game Plus” with the possibility of the glitch happening again as it has for others.
What Makes “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” Unique?
After having his world be turned asunder by the Galactic Empire, failed Padawan Cal quickly finds himself in the figurative & at times literal belly of the beast thanks to the game’s overall combat. Cal is mostly the same fighter he was when “Fallen Order” ended with foes presenting a good level of challenge early as if the developers wanted players to embrace the fact this is a true sequel to a game where the protagonist didn’t suffer from combat amnesia between games.
Originally sporting only a lightsaber, Cal can still dodge, block and even deflect using his grand weapon of choice with the player having to learn enemy patterns be it against a yeti, bear hug-loving androids, and the tough-as-nails bosses that show up rather infrequently, but leave a lasting impression mostly due to how many times the player will have to respawn & try again (“Legendary Beasts” somewhat make up for the lack of narrative-driven major foes).
There’s a gratifying feeling of learning from one’s mistakes and being able to overcome enemies both large and small with the latter usually being Storm Troopers who will take a one-hit kill if Cal properly deflects an energy beam at the right time. On higher difficulties the parry time is reduced, making it riskier to counter an incoming attack. Upon dying at the hands of any enemy, Cal will return looking for revenge as dealing damage to the highlighted enemy responsible for sending Cal back to the most previous checkpoint will return all of his lost experience points while providing him full health & “Force” bars.
The biggest addition to “Jedi’s” combat is the addition of equippable “Stances”. Beyond the single and double-bladed lightsaber options is the returning “Dual Wield” where Cal disconnects a double-bladed lightsaber to fight with two single blades at the same time. The most impressive additions to the stances are “Blaster” and “Crossguard” with the latter providing a broadsword-like counter-based stance where Cal has to really put his weight into a lightsaber swing before potentially landing said strike (depending on the enemy, may be already gone by the time Kestis performs a slash).
“Blaster” is, arguably, the best stance with the addition of a gun alongside Cal’s lightsaber so Kestis can mix short-range melee strikes with long-range firing. Blaster rounds only fill up if Cal lands those melee strikes with regular gunshots taking one round from the chamber while a charged shot utilizes two rounds. Though it may sound disappointing not having unlimited rounds when it comes to regular shots, refilling Cal’s Blaster with ammo is rarely difficult to manage with the amount of enemies usually thrust upon him at one time. The biggest flaw with stances isn’t the actual combat options, but the limitation of only being able to equip two stances at a time with the player only being able to change stances at “Mediation Points”. Instead of, say, using a menu wheel so players can freely change between stances any time in combat, this decision to limit players may result in players sticking with a pair of stances and never really experimenting.
With each enemy killed, collectible found & area discovered, Cal gains points used to purchase skills in the three skill trees (“Survival” focusing on improving Cal’s health & defense; “Lightsaber” that provides various abilities for the melee stances; “Force” for those supernatural powers only a Jedi can produce) at “Meditation Points” scattered across every map and in the Mantis Ship – the main tool for planetary travel. Resting at these “Meditation Points” restores Cal’s health, but all the enemies in the area respawn; forcing the player to decide whether or not they want to take on a Purge Trooper that gave the player a hard time minutes earlier as Cal will more than likely have to backtrack.
Unlike skills, the new “Perk” system is rooted in exploration as a majority of the perk slots are discovered through certain cerebral puzzles. The perks themselves – which take up a dedicated number of slots instead of each perk simply occupying one slot – are both found and purchased. Perks also can only be changed at “Meditation Points”.
As noted earlier, Cal does possess a “Force” bar that, during battle, allows for him to mix up his lightsaber attacks alongside the three Force abilities unlocked throughout the narrative: “Push” to shove adversaries backwards, “Pull” for a potential “get over here” situation so Cal can strike down said enemy, and the newly-implemented “Confusion” where the player temporarily turns a susceptible adversary against their own team. While not the most impressive list of powers, they all work incredibly well in the heat of battle including shoving a foe to their death when standing too close to the edge of a cliff or upgrading “Confusion” to make short-term allies of more than one enemy at a time.
The “Slow” Force ability from the first game gets relegated to a meter that fills up when performing successful attacks. When activating “Slow”, everything in the area surrounding Cal rightfully moves at a snail’s pace while Kestis can slash body parts off at his normal speed. Very late in the game, the “Slow” ability gets a significant boost in how much damage Cal can dish out when activated. Another big complement to the game’s combat system is BD-1. The little droid cannot only help with collectables, BD-1 also provides “health stims” when the player calls for one by hitting up on the directional pad (with the amount of stims BD-1 holds being increased when the player discovers a particular, well-hidden collectibles).
BD-1 can also hijack certain mechanical enemies when Cal chops off a good amount of said foe’s health. Expanding BD-1’s abilities plays into traversing every planet as well including an electrified dart to start malfunctioning electrical boxes and shooting flammable rocks to ignite briers via light ray-shining orbs. BD-1 isn’t the only ally Cal has with certain narrative sections allowing the addition of newcomer Bode and the returning Merrin being semi-controllable combat partners whose helpful abilities work on a cool-down timer.
Cal’s Force powers play a major role in traversing the multiple planets offered for the player to explore at almost any time; though certain planets are obviously structured to be fully experienced later due to both tougher enemies and major areas being blocked off when Cal lacks the necessary powers at that time including a new air dash ability that not only gives him the chance to make a harrowing jump, but also move through colored shields once impossible without shutting them off in the first game. The most beefy planets are Koboh and Jedah with the latter’s desert environment presenting different collectibles and, obviously, enemies than the more tropical biome of Koboh.
Koboh proves to be the most important planet for side stuff mostly thanks to the “Pyloon’s Saloon” where players can fill up this bar by meeting certain NPCs and convincing them to avoid the dangers of the Empire inside this Greez-owned cantina. Some of the NPCs will be responsible for giving Cal certain side quests, help him find collectibles like a very mouthy fisherman who loves diving for sea creatures that will be added to the Saloon’s fish tank, or a bounty hunter that may or may not prevent full completion by not talking to Cal.
Koboh also sports “Meditation Chambers” for those puzzle-loving gamers who also want more Perks and discover a slew of collectibles. Hidden deep within Koboh and other planets are “Force Tears” – optional challenges split between combat and traversal sequences with the latter being, arguably, the most difficult tasks due to how wild some of the maneuvering can get that will push the player’s reactionary time to the limit while fighting the camera and, at times, Cal’s stiff movement in midair.
Though moving throughout these planets gives some interesting and helpful collectibles, a majority of the game’s optional obtainables are customizable items associated with Cal’s clothing, weapons and even BD-1. None of these customizable collectibles have stats associated with them so the player can mix and match items to their heart’s content without a worry about losing damage buffs or an increased parry window – qualities solely associated with the Perks system.
One of the previous game’s biggest woes was the 3D map that didn’t offer much in the way of giving players a true understanding of how the world ahead & behind them was laid out. Though there are some slight improvements including an onscreen guideline when pulling up the map and certain alerts about inaccessible areas, the map is still rather confusing and downright useless depending on the section. The biggest positive change regarding the map is the addition of fast travel at and to any “Mediation Point” discovered.
If “Fallen Order’s” story was about a “Jedi Everyman” discovering their worth alongside a group of like-minded individuals, “Survivor’s” narrative shows how easily things can fall apart when that alliance isn’t what it used to be. There are more compromises made throughout this story to both what the protagonists are trying to accomplish and what must be done to get what they need including Cal using his Force powers to manipulate foes in giving him what Kestis wants at that moment.
Sadly, the biggest issue with the narrative is how expansive the world itself is with a good chunk of the story being rooted in simply moving through these new areas while Cal (and potentially an ally) discover what they’re looking for either isn’t where they thought or they need to go somewhere else because they need a particular item to get the original object to work properly. It really isn’t until the last few chapters that some significant, memorable story moments happen – being the exact opposite of how the game doesn’t wait to give players a challenge when it comes to the combat.
The technical issues are what hamper “Survivor” from attaining a high recommendation some two months after its release. Beyond the inconsistent bugs that may or may not break someone’s playthrough such as the aforementioned “Bounties” not registering, frame-rate drops, hard crashes, infinite loading screens, graphical glitches, and hit-detection issues plagued Cal’s adventures while playing on a PS5. Thankfully, the voice acting, music, and when the visuals work properly are fantastic.
For fans of “Fallen Order”, “Survivor” does mostly everything better from the combat to the world exploration while an argument can be made the narrative presentation is definitely weaker this time around with it feeling like a stopgap between story bookends. “Survivor’s” biggest problem is its unpredictability in regards to technical inconsistencies that, hopefully, gets fixed even though the game already has the negative stigma of being a “broken” experience.
Should You Play “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”?
Like its prequel, there’s a lot to enjoy about “Survivor” especially when someone is experiencing the best the game has to offer when engaged in combat or is happy to explore closed-off areas later in the game when Cal has all of his powers. Depending on the difficulty level being played it will be a true testament of one’s twitch & reaction skills. “Survivor’s” plot featuring more of a slow burn until the last act is solid, but doesn’t feel as extraordinary as it could’ve been with the expansive worlds being a bigger deal than the plot a majority of the time.
The game’s technical shortcomings are “Survivor’s” biggest flaw and something that makes the game impossible to recommend until a majority of them are fixed across every system with PC gamers, as per the norm, having the worst port of the bunch. Fans of “Fallen Order” and/or action-adventure gamers will find a lot to love with “Survivor” even if someone isn’t a “Star Wars” fan, but only when the game wants to cooperate and isn’t fumbling the opportunity like a droid with a grenade.
