It goes without saying that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was one of the most anticipated video games of 2023 and after a short delay, it’s finally here. The game is now in a good state but on launch weekend the performance issues that plagued the game were rife through every single platform. PC players couldn’t get the game to function whilst console players suffered frame drops and resolution problems.

This has resulted in me bringing this review slightly later than intended as a result, because I didn’t want to endure the 30+ hour experience with the bugbears I faced in the first week. With the bad out of the way though, this is perhaps the greatest Star Wars game that has ever been released and after a performance patch a week after launch, it has rectified most of the visual annoyances I had. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is clinching masterpiece status and brings far much more freedom and exploration than Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Introduction

It’s important that I don’t ruin the storyline for you here since I know how important it is as a Star Wars fan to keep it under wraps. The number of times I have had to try and keep spoiler free around the time of the launch of Star Wars movies, desperate to get to a cinema to see it as early as possible, so I won’t spoil it for you. In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor you’ll be following on five years after the events of Fallen Order (if you haven’t played Fallen Order it’s on Xbox Game Pass). What you will find is a rollercoaster of twists and turns throughout a story that can both be predictable and unpredictable at times. You’ll be seeing Cal Kestis and his trusty companion BD-1 in more detail than ever as you become the ultimate Jedi Knight after starting out on Coruscant.

Gameplay

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has taken the qualities of Fallen Order and expanded beyond that. Once you progress into areas like the planet Koboh you’ll realise how much more open the game is with lots more NPC’S to converse with scattered throughout. It is useful to take note of the difficulty settings when starting out, as I struggled with some of the combat later on as I put my playthrough on a harder option. What impressed me though was the range of accessibility options throughout which alongside the difficulty settings, can cater for almost any player of any ability. The field of view can be altered which is always a big plus and you can even tinker with damage settings. Essentially you can tailor how easy or hard it is to suit your personal preference and I admire that it gives you that freedom.

You’ll see from the get-go that this game bears all the same similarities as Fallen Order when it comes to the platforming, wall running, clambering up walls and using the force to cause an object to move. Everything functions with smoothness and fluidity with some challenging areas where you’ll need to use your brainpower to negotiate how to reach a faraway platform.

Combat

Combat is excellent in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Respawn Entertainment have introduced new stances and more attack options within the skill tree menus. There are three stances to choose from including the option to dual-wield lightsabre’s and each stance has pros and cons. I loved messing around with all of these but especially enjoyed the blaster stance, allowing you to have both a sabre and blaster giving you versatility in your attacks. Combat is spontaneous and isn’t just all about going in waving your lightsabre around. You’ll need to adapt your approach and know when to parry and dash in order to maximise your health. The LB button will block enemy gunfire and other attacks but bigger enemies may overcome this. You’ll know when to completely avoid an incoming attack as the enemy will flash red, a very short period of time before they unleash something with devastating power.

Use The Skill Tree Wisely/Meditation Areas

When you successfully and consistently slay enemies satisfyingly by hacking limbs off and the other plethora of ways to defeat the empire in front of you, you will accumulate experience. If you die then you will lose some of this if playing on normal difficulty and above, you will need to go back and slay the same enemies again to get that XP back. It’s a minor annoyance to your unfortunate death, but it doesn’t happen frequently unless you have it on super hard mode. You’re granted one skill point per level and you then will need to choose how to spend them wisely.

Survival, lightsaber and force make up the three categories and you will need to start from the bottom of each tree and work your way up. Not everything is available in the early game and you need to progress to grab everything on offer. There are also areas across the game that serve as meditation points in order to utilise the skill tree, alter appearance and rest. Resting will replenish health but will respawn all enemies previously killed, so beware.

Graphics

We may be almost three years into this current generation, but very few games have made me sit back in my seat and given me the wow factor. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ticks the boxes in almost every single way. Fallen Order was a beautifully stunning game when it launched and I didn’t think it was possible to excel any further visually, Respawn Entertainment has absolutely blown my mind with the art style here. It doesn’t surprise me though as they turn most projects to gold with their previous work with the Titanfall Universe and beyond.

The environmental design work is where the game really shines with planets that have never been seen before and the variance of atmosphere surrounding them. Outside of this, looking into the backdrop of certain areas of the game just makes you stand back in awe and a moment of gaming goodness that for me unlocks a core memory. Just check out the screenshot I snapped above to see what I mean, the minute you see the vast expanse of what is in front of you, it just makes you want to stand there and absorb every detail.

Everything Just Looks Amazing!

It isn’t just environments that ooze quality though, it is every single aspect of the game. Using the glow of your lightsabre in darker environments just shows how exceptional the lighting is in this game. From the sunlight beaming through the clouds to static fire pits in dark caverns, you can instantly see how much technical work must have been poured into the lighting design, it is absolutely superb to admire especially when you see every shadow in the right spot as well. The cutscenes are outstanding and emit the feeling of sitting watching a Hollywood blockbuster from the comfort of your chair, the voice acting and dialogue are on point. I could keep waffling on about how good this game looks, but I would say probably the best-looking game I have seen this generation so far.

Audio

The audio echoes the graphical quality of the game. The range of usual options of volume is within the settings of the game. The dynamic range can be switched between Default, Midnight, and Studio Reference and the languages featured are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), Japanese, Polish, and Portuguese (Brazil). The voice acting is fantastic and has a cleverly selected cast who has done voice work on several video games. For instance, Noshir Dalal who plays Bode Akuna also featured in Red Dead Redemption 2. The soundtrack gives off the usual Star Wars vibes and every piece of music appears to suit the intensity of each segment. A* quality in this area of the game.

In Conclusion

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is honestly a must-buy title, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan. If you aren’t into the storytelling and lore of the franchise, you perhaps won’t enjoy it as much as the hardcore community out there, but I still think you’d have an absolute blast. It is an exceptional game and one that will be an absolute classic of this current generation and Respawn Entertainment have proven that they can absolutely scoop up and run with anything Star Wars related. I’m kind of sad that the Titanfall brand has taken a bit of a back seat, but I can see why.

There is plenty of content in this one to enjoy and you will get and achieve bang for your buck. If you want to just run through the story you’re looking at perhaps 25 hours of gameplay time with an additional 10-12 hours if you want to tick off every side quest. New Game+ is also a feature this time around which wasn’t available the first time around, although I didn’t manage to tackle another playthrough on this before a review. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a huge improvement on Fallen Order and does everything bigger and better along the ride of this second outing and becomes a serious 2023 GOTY contender.