Now Playing: Jedi: Survivor

I reviewed Jedi: Fallen Order back in 2020 and said – ‘I can’t say I didn’t enjoy playing Fallen Order but I also feel like the game doesn’t quite live up to its own potential. It’s the kind of game you’ll play but also be frustrated by because it just falls short in too many key areas.’ Well I’m pleased to say that this sequel – Survivor – is a perfect example of a sequel done right. It’s a game that addresses the flaws of the original whilst also building upon, expanding and refining everything that made the first game so good.

Jedi: Survivor picks up the story of Cal Kestis who has continued his fight against the Empire – a fight that feels increasingly futile. A fight that has also seen him lose touch with those closest to him. After an opening mission on Coruscant goes awry, Cal seeks out an old friend for help, which inadvertently sets Cal off on a new mission involving a hidden world that may serve as a safe refuge from the Empire.

Overall, I did like the story, but I do think it has a couple of problems. The first being how Cal just kind of falls into this plot by chance – he literally just stops somewhere to pick up some new ship parts and discovers some ancient Jedi technology nearby that sets him on a new path. Will of the Force? Eh, whatever.

I also don’t think the villains of Survivor are as strong as those in the original. Trilla was such a good antagonist in Fallen Order because she was a dark reflection of Cal. She represented what he could have become had he not escaped the Purge. But she was sadly underutilised within that game and I was really hoping they’d bring her back or at least hint of her return here – but sadly not. The villains in Survivor are fine, but none of their motivations quite added up for me or felt properly explored.

That said, what Survivor does so much better than the original is the development of our key characters. Cal feels much better realised here than in the original and I’m so glad they also gave more time to the supporting cast. All of the character stuff in Survivor is great, even though the overall plot – I would say – isn’t quite as compelling. It’s . . . fine, but I’d also say it’s unfortunately the weakest aspect of Survivor. I kind of want to dig into the plot more but it’s pretty difficult to say anything else without seriously spoiling things so I’ll leave the plot stuff here and move on.

In terms of gameplay, Survivor plays just like the original in the sense that it’s unashamedly derivative. But I do feel that Survivor does far more to create its own sense of identity. It cuts down significantly on the modern Tomb Raider / Uncharted climbing nonsense. Sure, there’s still a fair amount of platforming involved, but it’s not just climbing and jumping from wall to wall like the original was.

And whilst it retains the Metroid style map progression, Survivor has much better pacing in terms of ability unlocks and the overall map design is much more accessible in terms of revisiting areas. Whereas it could prove a bit of a chore returning to locations to explore in Fallen Order, Survivor makes it much easier – not to mention providing better reasons to explore with a significantly improved range of side content and cosmetic items to discover.

The Dark Souls style combat of Fallen Order has been significantly improved and expanded with more lightsaber styles, more combo moves and more force abilities – exactly what I asked for. In fact, it feels like everything I wanted and asked for in my review of Fallen Order has been addressed here.

The customisation options for Cal in Fallen Order were pretty terrible but they give you a fantastic selection of items here. It makes seeking out those unlocks all the more worthwhile. Not only are you exploring for fun, you’re also getting a neat reward at the end of it. The side content is also worth exploring with platform and combat challenges, Jedi puzzle rooms, bounty hunters to defeat, legendary creatures to kill and plenty of skill / health / force upgrades to discover.

There’s also a new ‘perk’ system that lets you further customise your combat style. These aren’t, admittedly, the most game changing kind of perks – they’re more about providing a small boost to certain things – but they’re a welcome addition nonetheless.

I also really liked the development of a location in the game that sees you ‘recruit’ people you meet on your travels and transform the location as a result. Unlike the first game which was very limited with its supporting cast, there’s a lot more characters to interact with in Survivor and developing this location adds yet more worth to your exploration beyond the core mission locations.

There’s just so much more content packed into Survivor and yet it doesn’t feel like they’ve bloated the game with unnecessary nonsense. Everything serves a purpose, everything feels worth your time and no matter where you go, you’ll always find something fun to fight, find or explore.

Visually, Survivor looks fantastic. The environments and effects and of course – the music – are all top notch. But I do have to address how shoddy this PC port of the game is. Survivor has a frame rate that just won’t behave. It doesn’t matter your hardware or your settings – it simply refuses to be stable.

I had a few crashes and sometimes when the game transitions into a cinematic it starts to stutter and you get a few freeze frames. It’s also ridiculous how the game has to ‘optimise’ files for 20-30 seconds every time you start it up. I don’t know what happened during development but something clearly was f**ked up. None of it is game breaking – just really annoying.

But, overall, I can’t deny that Jedi: Survivor is a fantastic sequel. Technical issues aside – and a plot that I didn’t find quite as compelling as the original – Survivor is a perfect example of how to do a sequel right. I really don’t have much, if anything else to say about it. There’s nothing really here I feel the need to criticise or complain about. Whereas Fallen Order didn’t quite live up to it’s own potential, Survivor does.

I really hope we’ll get a third game to round off this series. And if I must make a suggestion for the next one it would be – bring back Trilla! Oh, and don’t f**k up the PC port next time, please?

8/10