Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Preview: A Risky, Refined Sequel

By Cade Onder - April 3, 2023 11:00 am EDT

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is looking like it could be the most exciting and interesting Star Wars game since Disney acquired the IP. It could even be one of the most interesting Star Wars stories in the last decade depending on how it sticks its landing. It's clear that this is a game that is only possible after the runaway success of the first game, allowing Respawn the freedom necessary to take much bigger swings.

Five years after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis is doing his best to fight back against the Empire, but has split ways from all of his cohorts with the exception of his robot companion BD-1. The empire is at its strongest right now, though, and although Cal is a much more accomplished Jedi since we last saw him, he is only one man going up against a galactic army.

Our hands-on preview with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gave us about three hours of hands-on time with the game. It picked up about an hour into the game after a mission Cal was on goes horribly wrong and sends him on the run once again. He ends up crashing the Mantis on a prospector planet known as Koboh, forcing him to navigate through caverns and lakes with an oil-like substance to get help and find a way to fix up his ship.

It all seems pretty standard at first. The are some raiders causing trouble with the locals, some beasts like Gorgers and Shiverpedes to slash apart, and some fun collectibles such as Force echoes that reveal stories from other characters, but this little detour for Cal leads to a game-changing discovery – which we won't spoil here – but it did cause my hype to shoot way up. It's something that feels like a big swing and comes as a result of Disney seemingly giving Respawn more freedom to play in the very meticulously controlled Star Wars universe. At a time where Star Wars is heavily criticized for relying too heavily on the greatest hits with constant cameos and callbacks to iconic moments, this feels like an almost dangerous breath of fresh air.

Even outside of these big spoilerific moments, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is allowed the opportunity to dig deeper than its predecessor. Cal Kestis is at war with his mission, feeling like he always loses and his allies question why he is still going. However, Cal feels he has to do the things no one else will, whether that be by challenging the Empire or saving an innocent from a situation that doesn't involve him.

At one point in our demo, Cal approaches a cantina in a small, dusty town, but sees a frog-like creature named Turgle get tossed out by some raiders. The raiders and Turgle clearly have beef, and Cal hesitates to step in until they are about to kill Turgle. He ends up saving Turgle, almost like a lone cowboy or samurai, by making a flashy entrance and staring down the bullies. Given Luke Skywalker is still just a boy at this point, the Star Wars universe doesn't really have a Jedi hero like Cal Kestis and he's offering hope for those who feel oppressed by the Empire, raiders, or other evildoers, despite the galaxy repeatedly pushing him down. These moments seem to be the things that restore his belief that he's on the right path. It's a classic underdog story which is something Star Wars has always excelled at.

Naturally, as Cal Kestis rises to the occasion and becomes more of a hero, we also see a more refined Jedi within the gameplay of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Personally, I found the gameplay of Jedi: Fallen Order to be too floaty, clunky, and lacking the energy that one hopes for when wielding a lightsaber and using the Force. However, Jedi: Survivor is a major step up, and while mechanically it is very similar, Respawn has carefully iterated upon the gameplay to make it feel weightier. Cal is no longer moving too quickly, jumping too high, or moving in ways that make him feel loose or out of control. He's grounded, but dangerous. In Jedi: Fallen Order, lightsaber combat felt too light and lacked the danger that tool inherently offers. It's a laser sword that can hack off limbs and cut through all kinds of surfaces, yet it felt like a glowing wiffle ball bat that you'd beat people with.

This time around, thanks to better animations, sound design, and even more powerful moves, combat feels like you're in control of a Jedi who has become far closer to mastering the Force. Enemies feel like they can be taken down with more ease without it feeling like a hack-and-slash game like The Force Unleashed, the finishing moves and new dismemberment help Cal feel a bit more brutal, and the various stances that include things like double-sided lightsaber and the dual lightsabers keep things feeling fresh and strategic.

These stances have their own benefits. Some are better for speed or power, others better for defensive play, and some just opt to offer a more balanced approach. Nevertheless, it gives you options and further showcases Cal's evolution. He's no longer flailing his weapon around trying to block blaster shots or defend himself, he's treating it as a multi-purpose tool that can be split in half on the fly or assembled into one big blade for various needs.

In the previous game, Cal also felt like he was reacting to every situation and doing so in a way that showed his lack of experience. In Jedi: Survivor, he feels like he takes a more proactive approach to every situation. Instead of being on your backfoot, you can confidentially take enemies head-on. While that thoughtful combat with parrying, blocking, and overall defense is still present, you're able to slice and dice enemies more efficiently and feel more aggressive.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor even includes a number of new Force powers to allow you to retain a feeling of control in battle. You can use the Force to push a group of enemies really close together, allowing you an opportunity to quickly slash through a large number of enemies in just a few swipes of your blade. A developer also showed us an ability where you can lift a bunch of enemies in the air, hold them there, draw your blaster like a cowboy, and then mark them in slow motion a la Red Dead Redemption's dead eye, and then blast them all out of the air. You really feel the expertise of Cal Kestis in this game thanks to all of this variety and power.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also brings back its Metroidvania approach to level design, which was a bit divisive last time around. In Jedi: Fallen Order, it was very easy to get lost and a lot of environments looked too similar to be able to mentally navigate yourself back where you came from. The actual in-game map was also incredibly confusing to read and just made exploring feel like a headache.

In Jedi: Survivor, there's more clarity in moving through a planet like Koboh. The planet felt like it was split into parts that had their own purpose. One was a little town, another was filled with desert-esque caves and caverns, and another featured more trees, grass, and waterfalls. The paths are more clear, and the map points you in the general direction of the main objective, but I did still get lost a few times. I got stuck in a few areas that had grand puzzles, making me assume I must be going the right way. I spent at least 20 minutes trying to solve an elaborate puzzle until a developer came and told me that this was just a very tricky side activity that was separate from the main story. I wasn't the only one who stumbled into this area thinking it was the main path either.

This probably wouldn't be as big of a deal if we didn't have a limited time to see the end of our demo or risk going home without knowing how this demo concluded. If you like detours in your games, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has plenty of them, but it may come at the risk of getting stuck on side content that you didn't even know was side content.

Ultimately, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a sequel that allows Respawn to fully understand its own vision. It no longer has to figure out the rules of its piece of the Star Wars mythos, but instead allows it to expand and build upon what it already established. It's a much more refined game that had the opportunity to fix a lot of the shortcomings of the predecessor and make something that uniquely places you in the shoes of one of the galaxy's most promising Jedi. Even the story seems to be setting up some risky ideas, which should excite those who have felt unsatisfied with recent Star Wars media. Only time will tell if the full game sticks the landing, but the pieces are certainly there to do so.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will release on April 28th for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. EA provided travel and lodging in Los Angeles for the purposes of this preview.

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