Jedi: Survivor Review

With thanks to the folks at Respawn Entertainment and EA we’re bringing you our full Jedi: Survivor review. As always, we’re including our common-sense parent’s guide to let you know what’s in the title, and rate it for use by our own Micro-Bandits. We’re playing on desktop, where Jedi: Survivor had a rocky launch. With that in mind, we can only consider our own experience, so if you are looking to find out if Jedi: Survivor is good now, then read or watch on!

The Basics – What is Jedi: Survivor About?

Jedi: Survivor is set five years after the events of Fallen Order. Players will once again find a galaxy in turmoil, with the fate of the Jedi Order remaining in the hands of Cal Kestis and a supporting cast of colourful characters. Cal’s desperate fight against the dark forces of the Empire continues, and you’ll travel from planets to moons to seek out a safe home for the order, and stand against Imperial oppression.

Jedi: Survivor brings the same souls-like action RPG meditation “bonfires”, but has upgraded to include different lightsaber and combat stances which each bring their own benefits and weaknesses.

We’re playing on PC where Jedi Survivor originally got off to a pretty rocky start. By the time we’d gotten in game the team at Respawn had made a lot of improvements, but it’s still not exactly up to the standard we’d expect. We’ll break that down a little more in the run down.

What’s New in Jedi: Survivor?

Rather than just resting on the laurens of Fallen Order, survivor brings a good amount of new features and abilities to the franchise.

The title provides a more open approach to level design than fallen order. Larger and more open areas provide a decent amount to explore with shortcuts, upgrades and new customisation options scattered through each area.

Cal can now switch between dedicated stances, such as single-bladed, dual-wielding and a maul-like double lightsaber. You’ll also unlock a couple more stances as you make your way through the title, and each manages to provide unique actions and abilities as well as tweaking your speed and power.

In addition to the main story and collectables, Cal will also find “rumours” as side quests along your journey. In addition, the title has introduced taming of (some) local wildlife, giving you different options for traversing these larger maps. If push really comes to shove, meditation points also now act as fast travel spots which come as a very welcome break for exploring new areas.

As a Jedi Knight, Cal also now has some true force powers, and you’ll look to take advantage of these throughout the game. This includes not only force pushing and pulling, but slowing enemies in combat, influencing local wildlife and full on jedi mind tricks.

Is Jedi: Survivor Safe for Children?

Rating: Mostly Harmless.

Jedi: Survivor is rated by PEGI at 12 and above, and by the ESRB at T for Teen. These ratings mostly revolve around bad language, but there is also some violence in the title. One thing of note is that customisation options aren’t reliant on microtransactions and for Cal, your lightsaber and BD-1 different modifications and paints are unlocked through progression and exploration.

Bad language is certainly no worse than your average marvel movie. Violence does play a part, with frequent lightsaber battles against various stormtroopers, raiders, droids and local beasts both small and large. With that said, and while there are dismemberments (shown in our video review), there’s no blood and these deaths aren’t that gory. With that in mind it’s one which we’ve been happy to let our Micro-Bandits see and have a go on themselves.

Is Jedi: Survivor Accessible?

Rating: Low Barrier.

While it would be wrong to say there is no barrier to entry at all, Jedi: Survivor has a substantial set of accessibility and difficulty options. This includes a low-difficulty story mode for those looking for more of a narrative adventure as well as harder modes which can pose a significant challenge. There are also several other modes within the dedicated accessibility menu meaning that Jedi Survivor will be accessible for most if not all abilities.

The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Jedi: Survivor

Gameplay – 4: The lightsaber duels have made me feel absolutely heroic, and I’ve really enjoyed the environment puzzles in survivor much as we did in Fallen Order. There are a good number of skill trees and options to move through, and the single, dual and double bladed lightsaber stances mean you can mix up your gameplay well. There are, however, some things which still need work, such as game optimisations which still happen every time you boot up. With that said, while there is still a little way to go, it’s been a lot of fun so far, and the team seem to have fixed the PC’s clunky and jerky controls.

Visuals – 3: It feels odd to be marking a Respawn title so low, but Jedi: Survivor’s beautiful vistas have been hit by performance issues even now. This includes awkward animations which are usually centred around animals. While there are some frame rate drops on PC still (even though we’re way above recommended build) most of the time things are now running smoothly. I have fallen in love with the photo mode which allows you to get some stunning shots of Cal, BD-1 and your surroundings so while it needs work, it’s certainly not all bad.

Audio – 5:While the visuals may need work, audio has been pretty solid throughout. As you’d expect, this includes some pretty great soundtrack work, as well as solid voice acting from pretty much everybody. Effects are also nicely done, and one-liners have been sparse enough to mean that they don’t get too repetitive even with the more open world approach.

Narrative – 4: Continuing Cal’s narrative feels great, and the story has been well received here. It’s impacted slightly by sub-par visual animations within cutscenes which do impact immersion slightly, but overall it’s been great to carry on Cal’s story.

Replay – 4: the lack of microtransactions means there is a lot to hunt around for in Jedi Survivor. As well as new outfits and hardware, you can pick up new paints by heading to the less-travelled areas of each map. Exploration is a big aspect of Fallen Order, and it will also help you to find new perks and bonuses, as well as tickle the pickle of any completionist as they head towards completing each area.

The Verdict – Is Jedi: Survivor Worth It?

Pixel Bandits Use the Force Level for Jedi: Survivor is a respectable 8 / 10.
Jedi Survivor certainly seems to have had its challenges surrounding PC launch, but a lot of this has since been ironed out. By the time we got around to playing, any serious performance issues have, quite fortunately, been reduced to niggles rather than game breaking defects.

As such, it’s mostly been a pleasure to continue through Cal’s emerging story. This is a title which has brought a great single player experience, fun combat and a complete lack of microtransactions which is a little odd to see in 2023.Respawn have been working hard to rectify the poor PC launch and have done a solid job at patching things which, while not quite complete, has definitely sanded off the roughest edges.

With some frame rate drops and awkward animations it’s not up to the standard which Respawn set for themselves. Paired with some frustrating moments such as having to optimise files every time you load the game, it’s certainly far from perfect. When you get in game, however, Jedi: Survivor does everything it can to make you feel like a Jedi knight on the galaxy’s edge, and (for the most part) it works.

As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received one free copy of Jedi: Survivor from the folks at EA.