Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | Review

Initial Release Date: April 28, 2023

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Mode: Single-player Campaign

Composers: Stephen Barton, Gordy Haab

Genres: Action-Adventure

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Introduction

I love and hate Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. I have not felt this way about a game since, well, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have I played a game with such a useless map and a confusing mission design. I’m a bit of a weirdo I suppose, or a masochist, because I loved Fallen Order and Survivor to bits.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has everything a Star Wars fan could dream of. You have a great story centered around Cal Kestis. You have loads of quality single player content. You also have lore and memorable action set-piece gameplay sequences that could rival the movies and TV shows.

Just to be transparent off the bat here, I played Star Wars Jedi: Survivor through digital on my Xbox Series X. I also choose performance mode and downloaded the most recent patch mid-way through my playthrough.

The recent update didn’t seem to help much in regards to framerate and or common bugs. With that typed stick around because we are just getting started with this game. May the force be with us all. Look at the date this article was written.

Presentation

The presentation was rough. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was played on my Xbox Series X in performance mode with the recent patch that released a few days after launch day. About 80% of my playthrough had a weird framerate stutter with the patch.

Jank in-gameplay not withstanding the fucking useless map makes a return which was worse than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. And what the hell was up with some of the main quests designs forcing my confused ass into finding cracks in walls to shimmy through or else the story doesn’t progress.

The game could’ve at least point to where the cracks are throughout the game. I am convinced even after the credits rolled that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor purposely tried to make the player confused.

I would’ve been less confused as to where to go if the game didn’t have a holo-map. At least then I could focus on the white marking points to platform on. Another confusing aspect for the player of this game was where to platform next. Like do I slide down this grate? Death? Do I wallrun over here? Death. Jump here? Death!

Why doesn’t this game have a active moving waypoint system? I’ll answer for you, because the playing time would be drastically cut that’s why. This game chooses to keep you guessing either as a joke or as a shitty design choice.

Technical issues and confusing gameplay mechanics aside Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a great video game for gamers and a love letter to Star Wars fans. You have a great story, solid action role playing gameplay, customization and abilities options. The maps are bigger with more content. Despite my hate points Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a better game than it’s predecessor Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Story

Love, betrayal, self growth, family and lost. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for a Star Wars video game delivered the goods. The story goes as Cal Kestis along with the Mantis crew of Greez Dritus, Nightsister Merrin and Cere Junda are in search of a secret planet that they can live in peace from the Empire called Tanolorr.

Hundreds of years ago Jedis Santari Khri and Dagan Gera discovered Tanolorr. Cal accidentally unleashes a sealed podded Dagan Gera who turns Sith and is the leader of the Raiders along with Rayvid. Working with Cal Kestis throughout the campaign is Bode Akuna.

Most of the story is you hunting down three navigator compasses before Dagan gets them who Cal eventually kills for the final compass. Later on, at the secret base of the Hidden Ones Bode Akuna who’s actually hidden Jedi now Sith kills Eno Cordova after he fixes the final compass and escapes.

Zee, a droid belonging to Santari two hundred years ago helps Cal and crew navigate through an array to reach Tanolorr where Bode Akuna with his daughter waits. You kill Bode and take in his daughter to raise on Tanolorr. End of story till the next game releases.

Asides from the main plot you have a few important story beats with Cal Kestis. You have Cal Kestis and Nighsister Merrin finally starting a romantic relationship. Two kisses I counted in separate cutscenes.

You had story moments of Cal Kestis merging with the Dark Side using it’s powers. You also have Cere Junda almost defeating Darth Vader before being slayed herself. For a Star Wars video game I thought Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had a great story along with it’s gameplay elements and cutscenes tying into it fleshing it out.

Gameplay

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s gameplay has plenty of content from it’s streamlined 15 hour plus main story campaign, to hours and hours of side quests, collectibles and Psyloon Saloon sim-like content. Gameplay loop is that of choosing a planet to land on via the Mantis (spaceship) and get cooking.

The largest planet, Koboh is so large you will unlock the ability to tame creatures like Nekkas and other beasts to ride around on. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s planet and missions gameplay structures are very metroidvania in design.

There are multiple paths only unlockable if you progress through the main campaign that allows Cal the ability or necessary equipment to progress. From the ascension Cable to the plethora of BD-1 abilities you need to progress.

Puzzles were decent and include various equipment of simple force powers to solve them. Customization is huge in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. From Cal Kestis and BD-1’s look to your lightsaber’s appearance this game is layered with workbenches to customize your Cal Kestis or BD-1.

You collect items throughout various planets from cosmetic items for everything, to Scans, Echoes and recruitable NPCs even. On Koboh, Greez’s Psyloon Saloon is your hub of sorts. You can rooftop garden, acquire Rumor quests via NPCs, show your collectible and or rest.

The Mantis’s interior also has tidbits of items you can inspect. As for open worlds not all planets are huge like Koboh but all feature their own identity for combat, enemy types, puzzles, collectibles and metroidbvania shortcuts.

Cal Kestis has various combat stances from single to dual lightsabers, to double lightsabers. I ended up sticking to the blaster stance and crossguard stance via Kylo’s sword. Each stance as well Cal has various upgrade trees and also trees for survival or force powers. Collecting XP is important.

I used a perk that nets you more XP per kill. Enemy variety was great. You had dozens of different enemy types from wildlife creatures, to Imperialists, to the Raiders etc.

You can unlock bounty hunter quests along with various special type quests as you progress the main campaign. Controlling Cal Kestis overall was too janky for my tastes. Reactions were slow and wonky.

The main negatives involving gameplay centers around to what I alluded to earlier. That being the useless map, cracks in walls and a general lack of direction when platforming. This game needed more subtle hints for the player to not have to guess so much. The menus were also very convoluted and messy.

Visuals/Graphics

Visually and graphically Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can at times look stunning while also sporting blurry textures in-game. Character models in cutscenes were fantastic. Overall art design is classic Star Wars featuring great settings and atmosphere throughout all planets.

Sound/Music

Actors and actresses’ portraying in-game characters from Debra Wilson’s Cera Junda to Cal Kestis’s Cameron Monaghan did a great job delivering dialogue and exposition. Dialogue was written and delivered in a believable fashion.

Music and sound effects would make George Lucas proud except for the overlaying of sounds bug that crept into my playthrough. I really enjoyed the Droids and Storm Troopers dialogue sequences.

Tips and Tricks

My only tip is to finish the the main campaign first to unlock all of the shortcuts. You must complete main missions to acquire the special equipment needed to progress all over the planet’s maps fully. Only then can you do everything Padawan.

Final Verdict

Great great Star Wars game with a useless map, no waypoint system that works, bad framerate on Xbox Series X. Even with so many frustrating gameplay moments Star Wars: Jedi Survivor was a blast to playthrough and a great story all said and done when the credits rolled.

I would buy this on console but not on PC as of me writing this article. It seems the PC version is a broken mess. Anyways, thanks for reading and visiting my site. May the force be with you! – Jason