Review: Jedi Survivor

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR JEDI SURVIVOR

In November of 2019 Electronic Arts (EA) released Jedi Fallen Order, it immediately became clear that this would take the lead for EA’s best Star Wars game. Star Wars battlefront games quickly lost the edge as a game that allowed for a new style of first person adventure gained popularity. Over ten million copies were sold and the game gained a great deal of popularity among youtubers, and streamers who became immersed in the Dark Souls like combat and a very harsh adventure style, no fast travel, included. The story was enjoyable as we followed Cal Kestis a Jedi renegade with emotional trauma, Merin a socially isolated witch, Cere an ex-Jedi, and most importantly, Greeze the lovable pilot. The story involves trying to track down a Jedi Holocron, a tool that is used to find force sensitive children, from the imperial inquisitors. Over a wide variety of planets, Cal is able to grow in both his skills with a lightsaber and with the greater force. 

Now, in April of 2023, the franchise has returned and the player base is ready for a new take. The game gained serious traction and it all built up toApril 28th, 2023, when the game was finally released. The launch on May 9th has been shaky, lagging and timing glitches presented huge problems. One example is the loss of sound and complete fast forward of entire cutscenes for the second mission. The problems were fixed relatively easily but this is most likely due to the large world building, and the ability to play Jedi Fallen Order in the same game. The community has also expressed serious concerns over other bugs, all of which seem really random. The largest is turning of your game during a cutscene and then losing sound. EA has announced that it will have an update to fix the numerous bugs. Nonetheless, the game still functions and is easy to work with. 

Jedi Fallen Order starts by giving you no abilities and attacks to work with; rather you build up your skills and constantly backtrack to more unlockables. As a result, the game is very methodical. Instead of being able to constantly progress through the story, it takes a lot of patience. There is no fast travel and due to this you push through a large horde of enemies just to unlock more health, stamina, or a poncho. However by the time the game ends you have unlocked every major force ability and lightsaber combat skill. This game focussed much more on exploration rather than combat, while it retained certain similarities such as puzzles and BOTW shrine-like temples, it was able to create a method of making new force abilities, such as levitation and force parry. It also contributed to a very advanced customization option, rather than the original games system. The most important aspect of progression has to be the new lightsabers. Lightsabers are the most important part of Jedi Fallen Order for most and Jedi Survivor has clearly succeeded in this category. In addition to the original lightsaber and double bladed lightsaber, you earn dual wield which is a quick flurry attack style, crossguard, the crossguard heavy attack saber, and my personal favorite is the blaster stance. This combines a stager pistol and a single bladed lightsaber in a fencing stance. It is extremely fun to be able to use all these and all are balanced and situational. 

The story, unfortunately fell short for me. While the first game's story was a lesser known, but well crafted, part of Star Wars, this one felt very dry and rough. It felt like there were two separate stories happening and the missions would rotate between the two. One following a group of Jedi rebuilding the order and, the other following a dark Jedi and some local bandits. While I did enjoy character development the missions were incredibly long and it was easy to get side tracked. Cal’s mission in simple terms is that he meets a dark Jedi, who is obsessed with a lost planet, while on Koboh, where his friend owns a saloon. Cal must then go to Jeddah (Rogue One) and meet up with his master, who is trying to rebuild the Jedi Order. He travels between Koboh and Jeddah multiple times, each fighting one of the antagonists from the bandits or Empire. Finally Cal is able to kill the dark Jedi, and claim the lost planet for the Jedi Order, but Vader comes and kills his master. Distraught, Cal is able to finally make his way to the lost planet. This is really simplified but you can see what I mean when I state that there are two stories. Also there are six planets to travel between but you only go between two. While the two planets you travel to have a lot to offer, it can get frustrating to look at the same scenery.

Despite the weaker story, the exploration is much better that it was in the original. While Jedi Fallen Order had a smaller, much more one-way movement style, Jedi Survivor had much larger maps and because of this there is much more opportunity to work with exploring, boss fights, and fun collectables. Koboh, the main planet, has offered me so much more than any planet from the original game has. As of right now I have only explored around 50% of the planet and have certainly more to explore on this map. The other planet fans eagerly awaited was Coruscant, the capital of the galaxy. This city was the starting point of the game and while it offers a unique perspective it feels short and not important after one play through.

Finally there is the customization. I felt that Jedi Survivor was very lacking in customization but this game really built up from the gray area. With new types of outfits, skins, and lightsaber colors, handling it is a very complex system but has a great deal of potential. I personally enjoyed the amount of customization and the constant need for new clothes, or lightsaber handles, but I can understand why this is confusing for some players. I paid the extra $20 for the deluxe edition which comes with Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker attire. While these are absolutely my favorite sets of clothes in the game, the game is already so expensive, and I myself would not purchase/ask for it again.

In all the game has done what was originally planned, make a good sequel nonetheless while I have enjoyed the experience, the places that don’t excel, it can fall short, the biggest problem is of course the story and the lag.

By Jackson Stewart