After a lengthy break between installments, the next entry in the adventures of Cal Kestis has arrived with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Does it manage to surpass the original? Well, technically, in some areas, but most definitely not in others. Is it still a dang good video game, and a fantastic entry in the world of Star Wars? Absolutely. If you’re a fan of the world, this particular series, or 3rd person action games at large, you owe it to yourself to play this game!
So what’s been improved? Quite a few things, actually, most noticeably in the gameplay department. Cal has never controlled better than he does now, and it really helps that you start the game with all your previous abilities and then unlock even more atop that. From triple-jumping, to dashing through walls, to swinging around on a grapple-hook, the traversal is top-notch stuff. Coinciding with this, the level design is highly improved, and the world is a lot of fun to explore.
Combat is an improvement too, though not quite as drastically as the exploration mechanics. Fallen Order laid a really good foundation of measured, parry-focused combat, and Survivor ups the ante by including five different lightsaber stances to switch between, and a much more rewarding skill tree system to develop your true fighting potential. The addition of extra Force powers is the icing on the cake (like mind-controlling enemies to fight each other).
Graphically, of course, there’s hardly any video game that looks as good on a PS5 as this. The 150 GB download size had to be for something, right? This game is visually stunning from start to finish, though I was weirdly put-off by the cinematic bars that close in during cutscenes as opposed to the full-screen gameplay. Still, it’s a visual treat, and it runs well and loads fast too…except for entering/exiting your home base, which hangs a bit longer than I’d like for a next-gen title.
Speaking of next-gen, Survivor does not disappoint in the audio department either. Star Wars has always had great sound effects and music, and that’s no different here. There might not be any hum-worthy tracks save for one specifically catchy lullaby tune, or anything as haunting as the previous game’s main villain theme, but it’s solid stuff (with a few tactful uses of John William’s scores). Similarly, the voice actors all do an incredible job across the board, with some excellent work put in by Cameron Monaghan as Cal.
I’ll also take this moment to praise the addicting gameplay loop of recruiting new optional NPCs and side characters back to your home base, and then unlocking new quests and storylines to follow. In the grand scheme of things, it’s fairly elementary stuff for any RPG, but that doesn’t make it less fun to engage with. I especially loved the sheer magnitude of fully-voiced conversations every single individual NPC can have. It’s a fair bit of content.
There’s two big issues with the game, however. One is the rewards (or, truthfully, lack-thereof) received upon exploring the world. This was an issue in Fallen Order too, and while it’s marginally better than in that game, there are just a frustrating lack of genuine meaningful rewards to be found out in the vast galaxy. So many of them are inconsequential cosmetics that change the color of your little droid’s eye pieces, or switch to a different model of lightsaber hilt. Or, the rewards could be new (and extremely stupid-looking) haircuts and beard styles for Cal. I’m sorry, but how am I supposed to get excited about trivial and barely noticeable things like that?
Much more than this, though, the main story of Survivor simply isn’t very good. There’s some solid character work and a few brilliant scenes, but 3/4ths of Survivor‘s runtime is kinda a slog to get through. There’s a messy lack of clear focus, flat and weakly-developed villains, and a complete lack of stakes or an end goal for anyone. This is especially annoying because there’s a crazy twist three hours from the end of the game that unexpectedly changes the entire dynamic of the story into something genuinely amazing…but where was that the whole time? Also, as great as the final stretch of the game is, it’s such a strange pivot from the rest of the story that it’s kinda jarring on its own.
And, at the end of the day, the story tends to be what I value most in a video game, which is why there is certainly an amount of disappointment I hold towards Survivor, even while I mostly enjoyed my time playing it. Still, as mentioned above, I’d overall recommend it!
The Contrarian Corner 