Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is an ambitious follow-up to 2019's Fallen Order, expanding on its predecessor in nearly every capacity while continuing the impactful story of Jedi Knight Cal Kestis and the crew of the Stinger Mantis. Set five years after the events of Fallen Order, Respawn Entertainment's Metroidvania-esque action-adventure game sees the iconic Star Wars galaxy further steeped in the fascist, Sith-controlled Galactic Empire. Survivor's narrative is multi-faceted, heartfelt, and mature, and while the gameplay side is equally compelling, its mechanics make few concessions for players who might not be immediately enthralled.
In the in-universe year 9 BBY, the Stinger Mantis crew that became something of a found family for Cal in Fallen Order has splintered. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor opens on a mission to Coruscant, the heart of the Empire, where Cal is tasked with retrieving state secrets for rebel guerrilla fighter Saw Gerrera. Saw does not make the list of returning Star Wars characters in Jedi: Survivor, but the rest of the Mantis crew eventually reconvenes along with newcomer Bode Akuna, a jetpack-strapped gunslinger hoping to topple the Empire for his daughter's sake.
The intervening years between games have resulted in changed characters that provide a gravitas to Survivor that the naïveté of Cal in the first game could never approach. Jedi: Survivor deftly balances a cast of characters all carrying their separate baggage. Cal has been relentlessly fighting the Empire hoping to avenge the massacre of the Jedi Order, but teeters on the edge of disillusionment with his cause; Cere Junda strives to preserve what she can of the Jedi tradition in the face of the Sith's overwhelming dominance; Greez Dritus struggles to recover both physically and mentally from the loss of his arm between Fallen Order and Survivor; and Merrin searches for a purpose in an unfathomably large galaxy where she's one of the last of her kind.
It's among these dire circumstances that Cal stumbles upon a potential haven from the Empire: Tanalorr, a planet hidden beyond an anomaly known as the Koboh Abyss and last visited by Jedi in the High Republic, centuries before Survivor takes place. A race to traverse the Koboh Abyss propels the plot, pitting the Stinger Mantis crew against not only the Empire, but also a band known as the Bedlam Raiders terrorizing Star Wars: Jedi Survivor's new planet Koboh, lead by a threat surviving from the High Republic.
It's throughout Jedi: Survivor that Cal establishes himself as a premier Star Wars protagonist. He grapples with the allure of the dark side as he's put under immense pressure not only because of his current circumstances, but also by the weight of his past. Jedi: Survivor confronts the developmental ramifications of being recruited as a child soldier under theocratic generals in the Clone Wars, and depicts Cal questioning what it truly means to live as a Jedi without the Jedi Order.
Numerous bombastic set pieces and action sequences keep the pace, and the third act especially continuously ramps up the tension. Much like the first game's story, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor impressively sequesters its narrative from the main film and television sagas, while still keeping the Stinger Mantis crew connected to and engulfed in the Star Wars galaxy at large. It breaks new ground for the franchise in terms of new stories, characters, and locations, while fervently celebrating its universe through an exploration of its cornerstone themes.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor uses the breadth of the notoriously enormous galaxy to its advantage, while keeping the game space itself a manageable size. Koboh is Survivor's primary location, and it's largest, hosting multiple biomes ranging from open expanses to maze-like caverns. In every corner there are collectibles to find, datapoints to scan, fish to catch, seeds to harvest, and chests to open. Multiple currencies, each corresponding to their own vendor, buoy an impressive yet not oversaturated customization system.
Players will collect components for customizing and Cal's weapons and BD-1, hairstyles and facial hair options, and a range of clothes. With appropriately in-universe accent materials and paints - such as Beskar and Durasteel - also contributing to BD-1, lightsaber, and blaster customization, there's ample opportunity for the player to feel as if they're creating their own version of Cal without sacrificing the all-important characterization that keeps the game moving. Many of these systems in Jedi: Survivor wonderfully let the player engage as much or as little as they'd like.
The same, however, cannot necessarily be said for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's combat and traversal. Lower difficulty settings will let players who don't enjoy the sometimes punishing, quasi-Soulslike combat enjoy a smartly told Star Wars narrative, but the Jedi games' Metroidvania level design foundations may turn people away, as was the case with Fallen Order. While Koboh's breadth allows for a decent amount of open-ended exploration, progression down various paths is gated by traversal mechanics unlocked as the game unfolds.
Understanding Jedi: Survivor as a third-person action Metroidvania reveals the impressive deliberateness with which Respawn created the game world. However, those who find insurmountable frustration in the possibility of a decent amount of time being spent fighting through an area, only to find the way forward blocked, resulting in frequent backtracking, may feel the ultimate rewards are less than satisfactory. While Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is certainly more open than Fallen Order, its core mission structure especially remains the same - a combination of platforming, puzzle solving, and mechanically demanding combat.
Engagement with the combat systems does, however, result in a refreshing amount of player agency. Five lightsaber stances, all revealed pre-release, are available - Single, Double-Bladed, Dual Wield, Blaster, and Crossguard. Each fall somewhere on a spectrum that balances power versus speed, with their individual skill trees offering iterations on their specializations. Cal can equip two stances at any given time to switch between at will, providing a sufficiently varied number of approaches to Jedi: Survivor's combat.
Even on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's default, third of five difficulty settings, encounters can be occasionally punishing, with a missed parry or a lapse in monitoring Cal's block meter resulting in a combination of enemy attacks that quickly drains the health bar. A good bit of patience and a willingness to learn each enemy's attacks goes a long way in mastering a combat system that can be incredibly satisfying. Higher level skills will let Cal dispatch groups of mid-level enemies with relative ease in a matter of seconds if they're caught unaware, a sort of power fantasy that marries with the setting well, making it plainly clear how the Jedi were able to flourish and establish the Order's galactic influence under the Republic.
Although there's a lot of upside to Jedi: Survivor's combat, a few notable detractors cause some frustration. Although its checkpoint system takes inspiration from that popularized through Dark Souls, the combat encounters in Survivor haven't necessarily mastered the tough-but-fair mantra usually accredited to the former. Multiple melee enemies charging Cal while a firing squad unleashes blaster bolts and grenades from a distance only succeed in frustratingly overwhelming the player with attacks to block. Granted, it's a sound strategy for the Empire or Koboh's Bedlam Raiders in-universe, but that bit of diegetic design doesn't mesh terribly well with the gameplay.
It's also not uncommon to feel as though the enemy AI has little strategy or awareness beyond doggedly attacking the player. B1 battle droids will frequently throw grenades into the fray, regardless of danger close concerns, taking their comrades out of the fight rather than damaging the Jedi they're targeting. Such blunders may be unsurprising from the B1 series, but all the enemy AI suffer from similar disappointments. The exception is well-crafted boss fights, where squaring off against a massive beast or skilled duelist feels like it's tapped into the unadulterated excitement of using a lightsaber.
Such gripes do little to detract from the larger experience of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, however. For players willing to approach the game on its terms, Survivor has a lot to offer, and it should be considered among the upper echelon of Star Wars video games. Its characters are some of the most compelling in modern Star Wars, with deep-rooted personal faults yet empathetic personalities. Cal especially centers the game on the fascinating, potentially unanswerable questions generated by a post-Jedi Order galaxy, bringing to the forefront understandable brushes with the dark side and the importance of once-forbidden personal attachments.
Those who enjoyed Fallen Order will likely be enamored by Survivor. It takes the often rough foundation delineated by its predecessor, smooths some of the rougher edges, and builds it into a much more expansive experience that tells a more complex tale. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a shining example of how a rather insular story can still explore multiple eras of the Star Wars timeline without becoming convoluted, while simultaneously coexisting with the wider, legendary setting under the Galactic Empire.
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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases on April 28, 2023 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PS5 digital download code for the purpose of this review.