HomeFeaturesStar Wars Jedi: Survivor
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is more Fallen Order, and that’s okayWe’ve played four hours of it, and it’s exactly the game you’re expecting
We’ve played four hours of it, and it’s exactly the game you’re expecting
Image credit:Electronic Arts
Image credit:Electronic Arts
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Official Story TrailerWatch on YouTube
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Official Story Trailer
I did not beat the Rancor. But you can force throw bones into its mouth…
But I digress. Here you are, stranded on Koboh, and in need of a spare part from your old pal Greez, who now runs the local dive bar. So you and BD-1 head over to find him. This necessitates exploring what is almost a prohibitively large map - because you’d expect the sequel’s maps to be bigger, and so Koboh is, and it’s studded with things to draw you from the beaten track. Huge skulls embedded in cliffs. Mysterious mines. Shimmering caves. There are Breath Of The Wild-adjacent Jedi Chamber challenge dungeons to find and complete. I didn’t finish the level in my preview, and I saw other players exploring places I never found. There’s no telling yet whether the rest of Survivor’s worlds are as big as Koboh, but even if only a few of them are, you’ll certainly have more than enough to do in them.
Cal finds Greez and the parts for his ship, but is soon (as you’d expect) drawn into a more involved Jedi-esque adventure involving an anomaly in the sky, and will evidently treat Rambler’s Reach as home base for a while. You can even plant a little garden with seeds you collect - just outside this time rather than on your ship. As you’d expect, Cal almost immediately starts collecting newfound family, including Greez’s robot bartender, the local stable-owner Mosey - you cantame and ride some creaturesaround the world now - and a large and motherly lizard-y alien called Doma, who is the de facto leader of Rambler’s Reach. There is also a spindly-legged frog creature called Turgle, whose main job is comedy flailing - I am a fan of Turgle - and several characters I’m not allowed to mention (although for one of them, I’ve simply written the word “massive” down in my notes). Gathering more friends will improve Rambler’s Reach with different shops and amenities. This includes a DJ crew for the bar.
Ashe Javi and DD-EC, said DJs
This leads to probably the most noticeable change, and another expected one, because every sequel pushes the combat a bit, doesn’t it? And in fairness, Survivor pushes it a lot. Single and dual-blade lighsabering both return, and dual wield is now its own thing. There are two further stances that we didn’t get to try: a slower, cross-guard style a la Kylo “Flesh Wall” Ren, and dual-wielding a single-bladed lightsaber and a blaster, which looked like a lot of fun in a live video demonstration. As before, you level up your fighting abilities and unlock new moves, but five different stances - combined with Force powers, too - makes for alotof new combat.
A more civilised ageYou can equip two of the five possible stances at once to quick-switch between in combat. Fights also include yer standard blocking and timed parries for devastating damage. You can do finishing moves to dismember baddies, which is always fun, and if you have enough Force power you can slow time. Also, you can still hold your lightsaber up as a torch, which is obviously the best and most important feature.
A more civilised ageYou can equip two of the five possible stances at once to quick-switch between in combat. Fights also include yer standard blocking and timed parries for devastating damage. You can do finishing moves to dismember baddies, which is always fun, and if you have enough Force power you can slow time. Also, you can still hold your lightsaber up as a torch, which is obviously the best and most important feature.
I still, honestly, favour the single blade, but dual-wielding does feel legitimately different - more chaotic, less defensive. I am not very good at chaining the combat together with elegance, especially when you take into account your Force confusions, and your Force pushes and Force pulls that move the enemy around the map like Moses parting a sea of limbs. There are lot of controls to remember, most of which do different things in the different stances, and it would take a more dedicated person than me to remember them all - though the aforementioned live demo did demonstrate that it can be done, with much windmilling and flying kicks and switching to a different stance on the fly.
I have to confess that the fights didn’t excite me as much as being able to change my lightsaber’s colour. You can, as you’d also expect, do more customisation in Survivor. As well as changing BD’s basic colour, you can also change his parts (he’s divided into, broadly, heads, shoulders, knees and… well, not toes, but you get it) with different variations you can find in chests around the open world. Similarly, you can now change Cal’s hair, facial hair, and have more in-depth customisation with the clothes he wears, as well as the individual parts of hise saber. You can even change how weathered the thing is. I zoomed in to examine how much dirt was ingrained in the hilt.
I’m okay with that.Star Warsis basically the only Disney property left that makes me feel something these days, and these games do recreate the things about Star Wars that I like - and in a better way than the recent trilogy of films. I’m willing to give it slack for being predictable because it’s still fun. It’s exactly what you’re expecting, or possibly hoping for, depending on how you felt about Fallen Order. And “exactly what you expected” can include expecting something decent, rather than groundbreaking. Consistent.
