When I reviewed Jedi: Fallen Order I said that it was okay but a solid foundation for a much more ambitious sequel, and Survivor certainly delivers that. I was pleased to see that no key jedi abilities were lost between games, and the additions to Cal's moveset throughout the game lend themselves well to exploration. You actually feel empowered as a Jedi from the start, none of the abilities you gain feel like they're specifically missing before you acquire them,
Combat is improved somewhat over Fallen Order, mainly through the addition of different stances, building on the double blade. All of the styles are viable and the strengths of limitations of each are clearly explained. Though the 'heavy' stance does feel a tad too sluggish for most use cases.
Perhaps controversially I think the story is an improvement on Fallen Order. The issue in my view with the period the game is set in is that any conflict focused exclusively on the Empire feels fundamentally futile, so exploring other options is a pleasing move. The cast are incredibly likeable, I enjoyed returning to the hub to catch up with them.
Cons: Performance is an issue. I've seen various accounts of crashes, softlocking if you try to remap certain controls, pop in, and frame dropping on performance mode to the extent it runs worse than in quality mode. This introduces major issues for the combat, given the focus on tight parry windows. Bad enough that I turned the difficulty down to Padawan to widen the window. It's disappointing that a game with such attention to detail runs like this.
A sequel could also have more meaningful rewards for exploration. I have enjoyed exploring throughout the game but having now beaten the main story I don't feel much incentive to as most rewards are cosmetic. I think I'll seek out any additional unique boss fights or interesting side stories but I feel no need to achieve 100%.
Overall, a very enjoyable game and a massive improvement over its predecessor. I imagine for someone who is a big fan of Star Wars this could be an easy 5 stars game of the year with improved performance. But even as someone with no real attachment to the series, this is a very strong action RPG.
Combat is improved somewhat over Fallen Order, mainly through the addition of different stances, building on the double blade. All of the styles are viable and the strengths of limitations of each are clearly explained. Though the 'heavy' stance does feel a tad too sluggish for most use cases.
Perhaps controversially I think the story is an improvement on Fallen Order. The issue in my view with the period the game is set in is that any conflict focused exclusively on the Empire feels fundamentally futile, so exploring other options is a pleasing move. The cast are incredibly likeable, I enjoyed returning to the hub to catch up with them.
Cons: Performance is an issue. I've seen various accounts of crashes, softlocking if you try to remap certain controls, pop in, and frame dropping on performance mode to the extent it runs worse than in quality mode. This introduces major issues for the combat, given the focus on tight parry windows. Bad enough that I turned the difficulty down to Padawan to widen the window. It's disappointing that a game with such attention to detail runs like this.
A sequel could also have more meaningful rewards for exploration. I have enjoyed exploring throughout the game but having now beaten the main story I don't feel much incentive to as most rewards are cosmetic. I think I'll seek out any additional unique boss fights or interesting side stories but I feel no need to achieve 100%.
Overall, a very enjoyable game and a massive improvement over its predecessor. I imagine for someone who is a big fan of Star Wars this could be an easy 5 stars game of the year with improved performance. But even as someone with no real attachment to the series, this is a very strong action RPG.