Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Playstation 5) Reviewed

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was an unexpected hit. It successfully blended elements from action games, Souls-like titles and RPGs and created a rather fun Star Wars experience. It wasn’t perfect, which was why a sequel was inevitable. Well…that sequel’s here and it’s called Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

I’ve had the priviledge of playing through the final release version of the game for nearly a week now…exploring the nooks and crannys, mastering the lightsaber styles and basically just being a thorn in the bad guys’ side.

So how was the whole experience?

Find out by reading on.

What is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a third person action RPG and is the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It is developed by Respawn Entertainment, with publishing duties handled by Electronic Arts. The game is available on the PC, the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

Our review code was given to us by EA and we’re very thankful of that! Thanks for your support EA!

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor takes place years after the events of the past game. Cal Kestis has grown stronger and wiser in the Force. However, his companions from Fallen Order have all gone their separate ways. Cal has thrown himself headlong into the rebellion against the Empire, even allying with extremists like Saw Gerrera.

It’s on a mission for Saw that you reconnect with Cal and his new crew. Saw’s task serves as a tutorial and intro, taking place on Coruscant. It gives a bit of a history lesson on what’s gone on in the galaxy since we last were with Cal and also teaches you the basics.

However, it’s only when Cal reaches Koboh (the second planet), that the familiarity of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor sets in.

If you’re wondering whether that’s a good or bad thing, rest assured that it’s most certainly good.

I love the XP system and the varied skill trees. You have 3 different categories (Survival, Lightsaber and Force), with the Lightsaber and Force trees having multiple sub-branches that focus on a specific aspect. I do however, wish that the trees had more skills to unlock, and that later skills are more significant than they are. Cal never seems as badass as other Jedi, like Luke, Anakin or even Kyle Katarn.

The XP and RPG elements aren’t the only good things about the game either.

Koboh is also another shining example of all that was good about Fallen Order.

It’s a huge beautiful world with caves, ruins and other interesting locales to explore. It’s all interconnected too, and like a Dark Souls map, filled with unlockable shortcuts.

Koboh’s still a tad too big to explore on foot so thankfully there’s quick travel (you can warp to any unlocked Meditation circle) AND you can ride a mount later on, when you gain the ability to tame animals.

Koboh is just the start, as Cal will explore other locales in his journey, including the shattered moon of Koboh. Some of the other locations are just as big as Koboh, and some a bit smaller. It’s a nice balance but I wished the places Cal visited were more recognizable or interesting.

Jedha is too much like Tatooine (but with more giant Jedi statues) for my tastes, though I do see why they used the planet. It certainly solves some plot issues, particularly in other Star Wars media.

Cal also has new tricks up his sleeve, both in terms of Force powers and lightsaber skills. Cal can now use his saber normally, use his saber with a blaster, separate his saber to dual wield them (on top of his old double bladed saber style), or open the vents to use a cross guard saber, like Kylo Ren.

Yes, you heard that right. Open the vents on his lightsaber. That’s confusing to say the least.

If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’d know the reason for Kylo’s vents are because his saber’s unstable.

That’s from Star War’s official site by the way, so it’s not bullshit. It’s canon.

For Cal’s saber to even need vents is illogical. On top of that, when vented with a cross guard, Cal’s saber somehow does even more damage.

How does that track? Beats me, I have no idea too!

Illogicality aside, the cross guard stance is my favourite out of the four different saber styles. It’s incredibly powerful (but slow), and can smash through enemy blocks in a few hits. It’s my de facto stance for most of the game once Cal gets it.

There’s also another issue with another of the stances, the one with the blaster.

If you subscribe to the Obi Wan school of thought, a Jedi using a blaster is simply disgusting.

Personally? I don’t care.

Pirates have done it, samurai did it…so why can’t Jedi do it?

No, my issue with that stance stems from the fact that the blaster needs to be charged with melee hits (with the lightsaber) before it can fire regular bolts or charged shots.

Umm…what?

Why does a blaster need to be charged with melee hits?!

I don’t know which is more incredulous; that venting a saber makes the wielder more powerful or that blasters need melee energy before they’re able to fire.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also retains the customization elements from Fallen Order. You can customize Cal’s saber with parts you find throughout the game. Getting the Deluxe Edition also nets you Han and Luke’s clothes. I’m sad that Luke’s gear is his A New Hope Medal Ceremony look, and not his Return of the Jedi outfit. That’d fit in with the game more, I think. If you want to look like Obi Wan, you’ll need to preorder.

I honestly think the Obi Wan look is the best of the look. It’s highly reminiscent of Sideshow Collectible’s Obi Wan Mythos Statue.

Saber combat is thankfully is still very satisfying.

Respawn Entertainment’s made the wise decision to implement dismemberment (but no decapitations sadly) so you can now cut animals (or droids) in half (both horizontally or vertically) and cut off the limbs of humanoids.

It’s a huge step forward and partially addresses one of my issues from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order; that the lightsaber functions more like a stun baton than a weapon that can cut through almost anything.

Cal’s lightsaber is still disappointingly not as effective (or as realistic) as the lightsabers from the Jedi Knight series (Jedi Outcast and Academy’s dismemberments are still incredible) but at least it cuts through most stuff now.

It’s nearly a worthy death dealing weapon.

Speaking of death, dying is pretty much inconsequential in the game.

Sure, you lose the XP you have, but you also drop a shiny health aura where you died. This is important because the aura completely heals you without any downtime when you step into it. Now, can you see how beneficial dying can be when facing a boss? You basically get a free heal, which can literally save your butt.

I know it saved mine!

Perhaps its due to the scale of the game, but the frame rate is one of the game’s biggest disappointments.

Even on Performance mode, the game’s only smooth in indoor or enclosed areas. The wide open fields, or any other open area tanks the FPS something fierce. There’s screen tearing everywhere too, even when the FPS is smooth. It’s honestly a huge detriment an otherwise awesome game.

Due to the framerate issues, combat can be wildly inconsistent.

When it’s smooth, the fights are damn awesome. Almost like something out of the movies even.

You’re deflecting blaster bolts, parrying incoming melee blows, dodging and rolling and Force jumping all over the place. It’s phenomenal and a true representation of what a Jedi should be like in combat. It brings back memories of Jedi Outcast for me, which is great.

When the frame rate goes down though, parrying becomes hard as hell to pull off, button responses have minute lag and combat generally feels very sluggish.

There’s even texture pop-in. Whenever you load a new area (whether it’s through fast travel or via the ship), there’s a second or two of texture pop in as the game loads in the visuals. Try traveling to Jedha and landing in the hangar and you’ll see what I mean.

We never got a PC version from EA, but I think it’s safe to say if you have a PC that can run this well, you might be better off running the game on that instead of a console. I honestly can’t imagine that the PC version can be any worse off.

The Bottom Line.

Despite its technical issues on the Playstation 5, I’d still highly recommend Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. It builds on the solid foundations established by Fallen Order and adds in new gameplay twists and flourishes to make them even better.

While some of the lore issues might offend purists, that still doesn’t detract from the fact that the game is a worthy sequel to Fallen Order. It’s not Jedi Knight (the series) caliber yet though…but if the series keeps improving, it’ll equal or even surpass that one day.

TLDR:

Technical issues abound but the game is still a must play!