4/5 ★ – OrangeLight7895's review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Beat this last night and was honestly shocked by how much I enjoyed it. Back in 2019 I felt like the only person who was excited for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order but ended up being one of the people who walked away underwhelmed. The game took a lot from Uncharted, Dark Souls, and Metroid Prime, but ultimately failed to string the elements it lifted from them away in any meaningful way. Add on top of that an incredibly buggy launch that constantly impacted my progression and a narrative that had some great beats but generally dragged its feet, I liked Fallen Order, but if Respawn has proven anything with the Titanfall series it's that they know how to make a really great sequel. With this in mind, I'm really happy to say that Jedi: Survivor exceeded my expectations. Similarly to how I felt with God of War Ragnarok (which I didn't write about on here), is an iterative sequel that takes all of the most promising elements of its predecessor and builds upon them substantially, even if there are a few lingering issues. Combat this time around felt a lot more unique, blending the Souls elements we've come to know from the overwhelming amount of modern games lifting from FromSoft's titles together with a generally more forgiving action game framework to create what is undoubtedly the best feeling lightsaber combat in a video game ever. The stances are also a great addition. On top of all feeling fully fleshed out and satisfying in their own way, they emphasize the game's focus on customization and creating the version of Cal Kestis that represents the player's journey with the character, and I had a ton of fun changing his appearance and decking out the lightsaber and BD-1. An issue I had with Fallen Order was that, on top of the poorly designed map, it was very easy to get lost in the games worlds, an issue punctuated by a lack of well implemented fast travel. Also, the areas were not distinct enough to make traversing them multiple times backwards and forwards justifiable. Thankfully, Survivor not only fixes the map and implements better fast travel, a godsend given the game's more open areas. A focus on less planets allows the game to also build a more intimate and well established setting, a problem Star Wars media has had for a long time. I've replayed Uncharted 4 enough times to know that I have a weird obsession with third-person climbing in action adventure games. Jedi Survivor does something with its climbing that I'd struggle to say about games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider however and that's making it genuinely fun. Respawn has taken a page out of traditional 3D platformers like Ratchet & Clank and Super Mario 64 and just built fun levels to jump around in with varied context sensitive terrain types that made this weird obsession of mine feel justified. It can't be easy writing a Star Wars game. Not only do you have to appeal to a potential non-film watching crowd, but you also have to try and match the unbelievably high expectations of much of the Star Wars community, many of which probably won't ever be satisfied unless George Lucas hand delivered them the game and french kissed them like they were a Jar Jar Binks lollipop. Jedi Survivor's greatest asset however is undoubtedly it's storytelling. While many of its strengths come from it naturally being a sequel and playing off some of the best elements of its predecessor, the actual narrative being told here knows exactly the limits of how far it needs to go into the wider Star Wars galaxy and thankfully displays a lot of restraint, giving us a refreshingly self contained narrative focused entirely on its strong main cast. One of mine and many others' biggest criticisms of Fallen Order was that Cal Kestis felt like the least interesting character in a generally well rounded cast. Thankfully, Cal's growth coming off Fallen Order's dramatic ending takes center stage here and the game continues his journey to understand what being a Jedi means to him and how he can respect where he came from while also not making the same mistakes those before him did. His relationship with BD-1 is still adorable and Cameron Monaghan gives a brilliant performance, far above anything that was asked of him in the last game. Returning characters like Cere, Greeze, and Merrin are also a joy to see return and continue their arcs of coming together as a family and overcoming trauma, while new characters like Cal's new friend Bode and the new villains add new depth to the cast. The villains even help provide an interesting glimpse into the new High Republic era, with a central narrative that has some interesting implications for the newly defined history of Star Wars. My biggest issues with the game outside of some difficulty balancing nitpicks (which I say as a staunch FromSoft defender) all come down to performance. Playing the game launch weekend on Xbox Series X was a nightmare of poor performance and stuttering, until randomly I learned that disabling data sending in the menu salvaged some sacred frames that dramatically improved the experience. I have no idea how that works, but a patch has come since that has improved things some more and I thankfully played most of the game with this update. Still, this is an absolutely unforgivable state to launch a game in TWICE given that Jedi: Fallen Order was arguably worse at launch. I at least didn't have any crashes, falling through the floor, or t-posing enemy bugs this time around. I will think twice before getting the next entry at launch though. Finally I think that while visually this game is very impressive with some really great looking environments and gorgeous ray traced lighting that really felt like a generational leap, either the use of FSR or just the aging Unreal Engine 4 itself made this, like its predecessor, amount to a blurry, pixelated mess at times on both the FHD and 4K TVs I played it on. I feel like I won't be able to truly appreciate this game's visuals until a 'remastered' edition releases at the beginning of the next generation given how smeared some animations and post processing effects can make the game look. Even if you were on the fence following Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is absolutely worth playing both as a fan of Star Wars and of action games. Respawn's series has finally found its identity and Survivor has cemented itself as one of the greatest Star Wars games of all time.