Jedi: Survivor Takes Fallen Order’s Successes and Dials Them up to 66

Tell me if you’ve been here before: you boot up the sequel to one of your favorite games. It was a critical darling, beloved by fans, and did so much right. It feels impossible to top; how is the studio going to release a sequel that’s even better? Then you take the first step in-game and say, “Wait! I’ve been here before!”

Jedi: Survivor joins the ranks of an emerging genre of game I like to call the “DLC-quel”:  a sequel that, to the untrained eye, could be an expansion of its original game. This is not a bad thing in any regard. Among peerless games like Arkham City, God of War: Ragnarok, and the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom, a “DLC-quel” is less a jab and more a commendation that Survivor feels like its first game, Fallen Order, just…better. EA and Respawn took the original game’s criticism and went to work, improving nearly every aspect of the game. That’s not to say that Jedi: Survivor is perfect. But, it’s pretty darn close.

Survivor picks up five years after the events of Fallen Order, with the original crew having split and Jedi Knight Cal Kestis facing the Empire (relatively) alone. Right away, Respawn makes the admirable choice to have Cal keep the majority of his upgrades from the first game. His double jump, Force moves, and extra lightsaber stances all become readily available within minutes of the opening scene. It’s a hallmark of the DLC-quel and one that is welcomed with open arms. There’s no cheesy “you lost all your stuff somehow!” cop-out to ensure an easy progression route. Instead, Respawn makes it clear early on that they’ve already done what Fallen Order did in 2019–and they’re ready to do more. 

More is the operative word for Survivor. The size of the skill tree more than doubles with skills designated for each specific lightsaber stance Cal Kestis unlocks. And unlock he does, with two more stances designed for the game that make combat feel less straightforward then “mash square until dead.” That being said, I never got to a point in my playthrough where I felt the need to switch my stance up, but it was always nice to have the option to do so.

There’s now a dedicated hub in the form of Greez’s “Pyloon’s Saloon” (named for his grandmother!). You can unlock tons of different vendors, take side quests and bounties on hunters (Mandalorian style) or do some lovely rooftop gardening. This simple housekeeping makes Survivor feel less cramped than the previous confines of the Mantis and builds the world out in a realistic, charming way. That’s not to say every single character is perfectly written. At its worst it’s serviceable and at best it’s endearing at best, highlighted by the incessant rambling of battle droids before Cal inevitably sends them to meet their maker. But all the new characters have a strong personality and are likable from the get-go, which allows Respawn to spend more time fleshing out its their pre-existing characters. Cere, Greez, Merrin, and Cal get deeper time to explore who they are and why they continue to fight against the Empire. It’s nice to see.

Gameplay is as stellar as ever, maintaining the same engine (with quality-of-life updates, of course) as 2019’s Fallen Order. The new additions are welcome. Fast travel between meditation points makes the incessant backtracking of Survivor’s predecessor a thing of the past – and thank goodness for it. Koboh and Jedha are sprawling worlds filled with nooks and crannies to explore, so the ease of movement between locations is a smart addition from Respawn. 

Speaking of movement, in Survivor, it’s an absolute joy. Respawn adds two tried and true video game mechanics in their sophomore outing–the grappling hook (sorry, “Ascension Cable”) and dash. One set piece in particular where Cal is outrunning a massive drill over a desert planet stands out as a brilliant example of Respawn’s stellar level design–though I won’t spoil it any further.

Combat itself runs well, with AI feeling a bit tighter than Fallen Order. New enemy types pulled straight from Clone Wars lend more variety than your average Stormtrooper, and the new lightsaber stances afford a nice change of pace (if and when you want to change it up). However, this brings me into one of my few gripes with Survivor. This isn’t what I expected going into the game, which is why it was so shocking, but…it’s too easy. Seriously.

Maybe this is just me as someone who plays far too many video games. It’s possible this is a moot point, as I was playing on normal difficulty (as I usually do for game reviews). Maybe for other people it’s way too difficult, or just right, Goldilocks style. Difficulty scaling is always a challenge, especially in DLC-quels when you begin at the peak of the last game’s performance. As such, and with options to make things harder, this won’t factor into the review much, but man. I only died three times more than halfway through the game and I played with reckless abandon the entire way. Bosses quickly lost their white-knuckle tension when I realized I had enough stims and power to just brute force them. Common enemies were mowed down left and right. And the difficulty only scales up late in the game, with a few bosses that actually feel like bosses. The vast majority of Survivor lost the biting edge of Fallen Order for me.

Aesthetically, the game sounds fantastic, with a score evoking Lucas’ classic trilogy played over sprawling landscapes and starry space. Art direction is strong, building on an already well-established tone from the greater Star Wars universe. One of Survivor’s biggest sells was its wild dedication to customization, and I have to say…it doesn’t matter. Having more options than simply different colored ponchos is wonderful, but they didn’t need to go so hard. Different facial hair options, hairstyles, jackets, pants, shirts, lightsaber colors (for each individual part), aging conditions, BD-1’s colors (you guessed it–for each individual part), the list goes way longer than it needs to. It felt like a diner where they serve everything: quantity over quality in a lot of ways. I stuck with Cal’s base haircut the entire game, only slightly altering colors of clothes or length of beard. The added options felt overwhelming, and oftentimes made exploration feel less impactful if all I was getting by the end was another color palette for the pommel of my lightsaber. I know I said that “more” is the operative word here, but there can be too much of a good thing.

And on the topic of aesthetics, performance must be mentioned. It’s the AT-AT in the room, the thing every other reviewer in the galaxy has harped on. Thus, I won’t beat a dead horse here. But it’s rough. Frame rate dips, graphical tearing, whole sections of game loading in and out of cutscenes. It feels like more and more, the pressure to meet deadlines is rearing its ugly head. This has always been an issue, of course. Crunch is nothing new in the gaming world. But Jedi: Survivor was delayed a month and is exclusive to next-gen consoles. Nothing should be holding it back if it’s not scaling down for older ports. Except, of course, itself.

Even with that in mind, though, Jedi: Survivor is absolutely fantastic from start to finish. It feels like a further iteration on everything Fallen Order did well, and a step away from everything Fallen Order did poorly. IGN’s reviewer very boldly called Survivor the Arkham City to Fallen Order’s Arkham Knight (an esoteric analogy for anyone outside the gaming sphere). They also said that if Respawn releases another game like this, then EA will have the strongest Star Wars trilogy of games in decades. And frankly?

After playing, it’s hard to disagree.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

An incredible follow-up to Fallen Order, marred only by rough performance and easier-than-normal difficulty.