Game info

• Title Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
• Developer Respawn Entertainment
• Publisher Electronic Arts
• Year 2023
• Platform Playstation 5
• Genre Action

The story of Cal Kestis continues in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a third person galaxy-spanning action-adventure game from respawn entertainment, developed in collaboration with lucasfilm games. This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness. Pushed to the edges of the galaxy by the Empire, Cal will find himself surrounded by threats new and familiar. As one of the last surviving Jedi Knights, Cal is driven to make a stand during the galaxy’s darkest times – but how far is he willing to go to protect himself, his crew, and the legacy of the Jedi Order?

Player Select

As a category, this kind of game should be right up my street - it’s third person player, it’s a story-driven action/adventure and it’s an offfical Star Wars game. Sign me up! This was in the January sales for the Playstation, so picked it up with the intention of getting completely stuck in once I was done with Spider-Man. Of course, the webbed one took a bit longer than I’d thought but once I got through saving New York, I headed over to a galaxy far away.

After playing for a bit, as detailed below, I thought, this is fine but I don’t know who these characters are, don’t have any attachment to them and I’m not sure why I should care? They’ve not done a good job of really embedding them with me. That’s when I realised that this is a proper sequel to 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and that to fully love this I’m no doubt going to have to play that one first.

It’s in the Game

Although the game doesn’t do the best job in making you love the characters straight away, it does do a credible job in introducing you to the controls and moves as you go through the first level. You’re traversing the streets (and walls) of Coruscant, and are gradually introduced to the various things Cal as a character can do - force powers, light saber skills, and making best use of droid BD-1’s skills. I did get stuck trying to get past one particular stormtrooper, really thinking it was impossible, before realising I’m a jedi and can use the force to resolve the situation.

I’ve not got off of Coruscant yet, assuming that is in the future of this story, but even so, the levels of the city planet are absolutely gorgeous to look at. So much detail, so well crafted, and the sounds are really immersive. Stormtrooper chatter and city noises, flying cars, cracked billboards, grim areas, shiny fronts, plenty to look at. You could power through this game, I’m sure, and speed sport your way to the end, but you’d be missing out on a lot.

There are quite a few cut scenes but once I can get invested in the story this will no doubt be a good thing. I haven’t quite got my head around the respawn/only saving occasionally thing, so spoiled with other games have I been, but repetition is no bad thing in this environment.

Thoughts

I know this is a game that isn’t going to fit quite as naturally as Spider-Man does for me, but it’s a pretty good replica of the gaming elements I like so I think there’s plenty of life in this game left for me. The only question is whether to power ahead with this one now or wait until I can pick up the previous Fallen Jedi title and actually follow the story from the start. A familiar question for these huge sprawling franchises, and one I don’t yet have an answer for. Watch this space!

Rating: 3 / 5