Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Review

The long-awaited return of Cal Kestis and the Mantis crew is here. The game is set 5 years after the events of Jedi Fallen Order and sees Cal Kestis take on a new journey centered around the High Republic as well as the Empire.

---

Information and products Daniel used to play the game;

• Platform: PlayStation 5
• Edition: Standard
• Screen: 4K Samsung TV 32″
• Audio: SteelSeries Arctis 7P+
• Release: 28th May 2023

Information and products Phil used to play the game;

• Platform: PlayStation 5
• Edition: Deluxe
• Screen: 4K Samsung TV 46″
• Audio: HyperX Cloud II
• Release: 28th May 2023

Initial thoughts

My initial thoughts were simply “it’s great to be back playing as Cal”, the game immediately threw you into the story of you being captured, laying down the groundwork of the story ahead. I was in shock at just how good the beginning was.

My initial thoughts were overall positive, I truly have had a great experience in the early part of the game, and I have no bad thoughts about it but I do know other people have had bad initial thoughts about how the game has been run on PS5 and PC.

The overall world(s) that the game is set in is actually really insane. In a good way, each planet is different, each environment you go into is unbelievably packed with details that are unique to that certain world. Each planet has a different weather feel too.

While the first part of the game, the tutorial if you will, is set on a locked section of a planet, after that you travel to a different world and the planet opens up massively, allowing you to explore freely but still has much platforming to it.

My initial thoughts on the DLC packs were that it wasn’t worth the extra money if does give you some extra customization but I still don’t believe it’s worth the money. Although I did buy it to be able to use Anakin’s lightsaber.

“each environment you go into is unbelievably packed with details that are unique to that certain world. Each planet has a different weather feel too.”

Phil Weaver

Dislikes

As always, I like to point out the flaws of a video game early in the review. I do this, particularly because I prefer to get the bad points out the way so when you’re reading it, you can save the best until last.

Personally, it’s too much platforming. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game but it’s constantly platforming. It’s 10 fold compared to the first game. It’s satisfying to an extent when you complete the platform puzzle correctly but as I’ve said, it’s just constant and doesn’t stop. Every entry point you go to on open-world planets consists of you having to platform to get to your next objective.

Story

At this current stage of the game, I’m around 12-14 hours into the game. I’m absolutely loving the story and have been from the moment I loaded up for the first time ever. I have no issue with the story so far, I loved the pacing, I loved the overall story from the early stages, and hearing hints of the stories from the time between games has been interesting.

The difference between this story and the previous story of the Jedi Fallen Order game is that this story is a seemingly open world. You can go through the story and progress to the point where you are on Koboh. When you get there it becomes sort of a hub world for the story.

In this world, you can talk to people and do side quests, and explore more of the world. The story is not just a set thing, you can go through it at your own pace essentially. This is huge, as mentioned, there are side quests but another thing introduced in the story is bounty hunters, which becomes a whole separate thing that you can spend time doing.

Honestly, I’ve absolutely loved this story so far and it has made me feel like Cal Kestis is the Kyle Katarn of the modern games. This is such a popular thing because it gives me some hope that we’ll see more stories revolving around Cal.

Gameplay

Honestly, if you loved the gameplay in Jedi Fallen Order, you’ll be satisfied with this gameplay and more. This game delivers some amazing gameplay from fighting, force abilities, lightsaber duels, different boss battles, and exploration.

As of being around 12-14 hours into the game, with exploring quite a large portion of the game and essentially being nowhere near done with exploration, the gameplay will last a while and you’ll have fun doing so.

As many games typically at launch have issues with the release, I’ve honestly not seen anything at all to warrant any hindrance to the gameplay at all. I’ve been playing the game solo and without a party chat in the background but speaking to a friend, he’s basically the same as me, although he does have an issue.

While going through the game, it was delivered as an open-world game, but my friend has played a lot more of it and has completed the game, his issue is the game has a lot of platforming to it. Kind of a set route instead of the typical open-world system

I, myself have not had this issue, although when spoken about it, I have come across that feeling but personally isn’t a big deal. The gameplay is fantastic and has been incredible to play through and explore.

What makes the gameplay even better is the open-world system where you can speak to NPCs around the map and get to be involved in side quests which lead you into unknown places and come across unique collectibles.

The new buddy system brings a new and refreshing gameplay to the series, although, I would have liked to be able to do it more, I do like it. It’s a neat feature.

Characters and customization

The character customization has been improved massively compared to Jedi Fallen Order and I was shocked to see just how much. In Jedi Fallen Order, you could only change your poncho and the color of the suit you wore.

In Survivor, you can customize Cal to your liking. You can change his hairstyle and facial hair. You can change each piece of clothing and can explore and find new colorways for the clothing. You can go buy clothing and hairstyles. It’s pretty impressive how much you can change, this way it feels unique in each play-through.

The customization options completely blew me away. I thought Fallen Order was fantastic but knew there were things they could add. In this game, they added it. You can now customize Cal more in-depth including his beard and hair. You also don’t need to wear a poncho anymore and can fully customize the clothing styles.

The sabers are better than before with 2 added colors. White is available from the start and the party (color changes on hit) is available in new game+. As per the last game, you can customize the hilt, the switch, and the rest of the saber from things you unlock throughout the game. You can now even customize BD-1 more as well. There are more hilt color options too giving you different types of metals, how much wear and tear you put on, etc. It’s perfect. It really is.

Content

The content in the base game is truly fantastic. Especially on a planet like Koboh where you have NPCs to do side quests or you can straight up do the main story. The map is huge and you can travel everywhere to do something, find something, or fight something or someone.

Outside of the main story and side questions, you have the ability to travel to different planets, find collectibles and unlock clothing, hairstyles, and more. You can travel around finding unique lightsaber mods and more.

A huge part of the new content in the game is bounty hunting. You have the ability to put on hold the main story or side quests to go full bounty hunter and fight different bounty hunters to earn pucks to sell for more customization.

Bugs

1. I noticed some framerate drops, more so on the planets that were open world such as Koboh and Jedha. These were very noticeable in parts of the game but they seemed to sort themselves out as the game went on.

2. I had this on 2 occasions where the entire world around me went black. I could move, turn my saber on, etc but it’s like everyone just switched the lights off and the saber did nothing. A reset fixed it thankfully but it’s just annoying. The first game had an issue similar to this but that was patched quickly.

Buy, rent, wait for a sale, or avoid?

This game is an absolute buy. If you enjoyed the first game or if you’re even a Star Wars fan, this game will fit everything you need. The customization, the story, and the twists and turns are what made this game so immersive. I really hope Respawn and EA go for a third because this adventure with Cal Kestis has been a special one.

---

Rating 9.8/10

---