Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is an ideal sequel to the saga

With a larger scope and more care with some gameplay elements, Jedi: Survivor fulfills the role of a sequel very well that expands the attractions of the original game, but it is a shame that it does so with so many performance problems.

Cal is maturing

The adventure begins five years after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order. The group that Cal assembled during his first adventure has disbanded, with each member going his own way. The young Jedi continues to be mercilessly hunted by the galaxy, but now he knows not only how to defend himself, but also how to devise resistance plans to dismantle the Empire.

With very well-made cutscenes – highlighting the convincing animations of the characters – we see that the boy is now more mature and not just because of the beard that makes up his design this time. Master of his destiny, he makes difficult decisions without hesitation and even manages to command his companions on missions that are beyond complex.

Even adding several new characters, such as the excellent mercenary Bode Akuna, the Respawn team has not lost a hand here and the development of everyone is very satisfactory. Merrin once again steals the spotlight and makes a perfect pair with Cal, with a convincing chemistry that makes both show interesting sides that should resonate with players.

At Greez’s bar, in Koboh, it is possible to interact with a good part of this group whenever you return from a mission. The place, which works as a HUB to prepare for the missions, has several NPCs that do a little of everything, from collecting fish that Cal collects from the planets he visits, to vendors that provide the most diverse improvements and cosmetic items. The highlight, however, is the interaction with the characters, who always have new dialogues that expand their stories.

With a plot that focuses on elements of the High Republic era, there are several memorable moments that hook you from start to finish. The set pieces are visually breathtaking and magnify the most important chapters. The ending is beyond satisfying and for all that in a trilogy it seems inevitable (thank goodness).

Giant planets to explore

The gameplay keeps what worked in the previous one and expands practically all its fronts, correcting the main errors, which is always welcome in a sequel. Cal already starts with many of the powers he learned in the previous game, such as double jumping, saber throwing, and invading enemies’ minds. The double jump, in particular, makes exploring much more fun and traversing cooler.

The available planets are extremely large, with some featuring a respectable open world. Koboh can be explored for hours on end during the adventure. With elements of metroidvania still present, several paths are only released over time and when Cal learns new skills, such as a boost in the air or the ability to lift heavy objects with the Force.

As the maps are huge, there are many locked locations for most of the game, which makes exploration a bit frustrating. Several times I traveled enormous distances to find something locked and zero reward. This ends up undermining the desire to explore and disrupts the pace of the campaign. The tip, by the way, is to focus on the story first and explore only its paths. If you come back to enjoy the rest of the game only after finishing the campaign, which lasts about 20 hours, you can get all the collectibles.

Speaking of collectibles, this time they are way more interesting. Gone are the ponchos and colors for the ship, there are now full sets of clothes, more variations of the saber, in addition to health improvements, mastery of the force and even special maps showing more treasures. Sometimes you miss something with more impact: the editing table continues to contribute practically nothing to the gameplay and is basically just something aesthetic, for example.

The fight continues with ups and downs. Far from being accurate, several times the player felt that animation issues or control lag prevented a clean victory, especially on the higher difficulty levels and against the larger aliens. Cal’s new skills and stances are welcome and give cool possibilities in fights, but the feeling remains that instead of choosing something to compose your build, you’re just being deprived of seeing the full potential of combat until the final parts of the game. game.

The variety of enemies is good, but not all of them stand out. Bosses are the most affected. Few are memorable and some battles, like the final fight, expose what’s most flawed in combat due to an attempt at difficulty that isn’t based on legal moves and with solutions in the player’s build. Something that definitely needs to be the biggest focus in a third game.

ridiculous performance

If there’s one thing that annoys an action game, it’s poor performance. Jedi: Survivor is yet another title of this generation to be released with several optimization problems, even giving the impression that it was released unfinished in some areas.

On PC, you don’t even need to comment. Social networks are already full of videos showing how the game runs poorly and even the most powerful machines cannot maintain a stable frame rate. On PS5, where the analysis was done, the big problem is in performance mode, which is one of the worst of the generation. The frame rate couldn’t stay at a pinned 60 at any point and caused constant stuttering in the image, even just rotating the camera in places. Resolution is aggressively dropped to try to retain some fluidity, which results in pixelated scenarios and poor quality to play on the new generation. The resolution mode manages to be more stable with 30 frames per second, but it is also far from ideal.

It is very evident that a little more time was needed here to take care of these serious problems, which are already an epidemic in this generation. Unacceptable, they are reason enough not to be in a hurry to play, with the ideal being to wait for more updates with improvements and even some promotion.

Conclusion

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the ideal sequel to the franchise and is one of the coolest games of 2023. Without losing its essence, it ambitiously expands on all fronts, especially with regard to the narrative and complexity of the explorable planets. There are still problems that can be corrected in an eventual trilogy conclusion, not to mention a poor technical performance, but the balance is super positive and it’s another hit from Respawn.

pros

• Gorgeous animations and breathtaking graphics
• Well-executed narrative with good character development
• Bar in Koboh is always nice to visit
• Exploring rewards are interesting
• Giant planets full of things to do

cons

• Below average performance
• Combat still has inaccuracies and skill tree issues
• unmemorable bosses

Grade: 8.5/10.0

A PS5 copy of the game was provided by Electronic Arts for the preparation of this review.