Written by Hassan
Hello and welcome to the Streamcast, your one stop shop for everything gaming and today, we’ll be honing our force abilities with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!
First things first, a very special thank you to EA for providing us with a code so we could get our Jedi on!
A disclaimer; I have been playing on PC whereas Blackamura was gifted a PS5 code.
This will be a mostly spoiler-free blog with my initial thoughts after sinking about 20 hours, so don’t worry about any major cats being let out of any bags.
We’ll have a full review out at a later date, where we will be diving more into the story and the juicy spoilers!
Without further ado, let’s dive into my initial thoughts on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!
Story
Picking up 5 years after the events of Fallen Order, we rejoin the fight as Cal Kestis, a rogue Jedi, is fighting to stem the tide of the Empire’s onslaught.
While he may be boasting a few new tricks in his arsenal, Cal will still need the help of friends old and new to meet the dark threat of the Sith encroaching on the galaxy!
Performance
Before we get into all the fun we have to address the elephant in the room, and that is the PC performance.
While I’ve not encountered any game breaking issues yet, my time with the game has been marred with low frame rates, stuttering and hard crashes.
This is most notable in the outside areas of the world where exploration is and platforming is the focus.
At the time of writing this review, EA has addressed the community, promising patches and hotfixes to tackle these problems as soon as possible.
While these issues are rife, there is still a lot that Jedi: Survivor does get right.
Visuals
Despite the performance frustration, Jedi: Survivor still presents a visual feast for the players and engaging hub areas to explore.
Bringing each new planet to explore to life, full of colour and character.
Evolving from the mostly linear level design of Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor gives the player more to explore in a 3-dimensional space.
While not a truly open world, each hub world is full of treasure and side quests to reward you for running, jumping and scrambling around each new fork in the road.
Gameplay
Movement
I have to admit, I’m biased when it comes to Respawn and their movement mechanics.
Since their Titanfall games, I’ve had a lot of love for frenetic wall-running, jumping and having a hook shot brought back many pleasant memories (Vince Sampella, please tell me Titanfall 3 is not just a pipe dream).
While the platforming sections do feel very on rails, they do culminate in some very satisfying set pieces.
Combat
If you’ve played and enjoyed the combat in Fallen Order, you’re going to find Survivor a bit like riding a bike.
Okay, maybe a bike that demands you parry blaster fire, angry droids and shock batons but one you’ll find quickly find yourself back in the groove.
Straddling a line between hack-and-slash and Dark Souls, Jedi: Survivor melds the timing and parrying of a Soulsborne with a faster and more frantic style, perfect for those (like me) who are looking for a challenge without the gruelling stamina management to wrestle with.
Providing you with a flexible tool kit to approach combat, the new stances allow you to find the style that fits you.
With a buffet of enemies ranging from giant beasts, bugs, humans, aliens and all manner of droids, you’ll need to stay on your toes and learn to juggle your new powers.
Conclusion
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a flawed gem (at least on PC).
This game delivers on all the swashbuckling adventure that lies at the heart of why I love Star Wars.
As the best sequels do, it strives to build on the legacy of its predecessor and does so admirably in many respects, delivering an engaging story alongside beautiful graphics and fun gameplay.
But, and again on PC, that is very much dragged down by the performance issues, bugs and crashes.
The sumptuous visuals and fast-paced combat drag as frame rates drop consistently, the hard crashes at inopportune times building frustration and detract from the many, many things this game absolutely nails.
With that all out of the way I recommend Jedi: Survivor but with a large caveat, not yet on PC (I promise that’s the last time I’ll say it, maybe?)
This game deserves to be played in its best state to fully absorb the tremendous work the Respawn team have brought to bear and if that means waiting for patches, I strongly recommend waiting.
If you’ve got an urgent need to play the game now then you’ve got a lot to look forward to in this flawed gem.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
Disclaimer: Our copies of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor were provided by EA.