The galaxy's future continues to get bleaker as the Empire's reach expands over more and more planets and systems. Slivers of hope remain though as people like our returning hero, Cal Kestis show that not everyone is willing to give in so easily. Despite this though, we have to wonder if that will be enough to tip the scales, or will Cal start to seek darker forms of power to level the playing field in, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
This next chapter of Cal's story takes place a few years after the last game and has our hero being brought to Coruscant, but he's cuffed and is going to be turned in for his bounty to a senator. Things certainly aren't looking great for Cal until it's revealed that this was all part of his and his teams' plan. BD-1 rejoins Cal and our newest team member, Bode aides us as we cut through some Imperial forces. It's not long until we make our way back to the senator but from there, things start to actually go horribly wrong for Cal and crew.
After a surprise counter-attack by one of the Inquisitors and additional forces, Cal and Bode are the only ones to escape the planet. Cal and BD are forced to land on another planet, thankfully one that has a friendly face happy to see us again, Greez. He has his own bar now, although it could certainly use some customers... cleanup ... probably some actual credits coming in wouldn't hurt either. Greeze tries to get Cal to just take a moment for himself but Cal's determination to get one over the Empire is the only thing driving him currently. Once Cal discovers there may be an entire planet tucked away within the galaxy that the Empire couldn't hope to reach, he sets it as his new goal to reach.
While Cal and crew are seeking a way to this planet, let's take some time to talk about the game itself and it's combat. Koboh offers the most area to explore over any other planet and it keeps giving as like any good metroidvania, you'll undoubtedly encounter areas you can't reach and things you can't interact with. Throughout the course of the story, we steadily gain new means of traversal and naturally we'll be able to get to new areas and collect new items and upgrades. Some of these new traversal items make more sense like getting a new attachment for BD-1, while others like Cal having a quick flashback and then going, "Oh yeah, I can use the Force to lift or slam things" just feels silly and will likely gets a 'really?' from you. Traversing the different worlds and areas feels good though and I found it fun figuring out the puzzles both environmentally and the actual dungeon puzzles. The different worlds and areas you'll travel to across the game do a great job of distinguishing themselves from each other. Koboh truly comes off as a living planet with its wide range of wildlife and vegetation in every area that wishes for you to explore further. Then in direct contrast there's a base you'll enter that is the exact opposite as metal and cleanliness are demanded and Cal appropriately feels like an intruder there.
Cal being who he is, conflict is bound to find him in one manner or another and you'll have plenty of ways to deal with it. The first game hosted 2 lightsaber styles and the option to dual-wield but only as a temporary power-up. Here in Survivor, once you're off of Coruscant you'll discover that the game has not only given you single saber and double bladed style, we also have the option to freely use dual-wielding style. We'll also gain two more styles later on which come as nice additions but with one of the styles I don't understand, has it make Cal swing his saber as if it has gained 80 additional pounds. The style itself does deal more damage and crashes through an enemy's guard so I understand the trade-off, but I just wish there was an actual reason why we're slowed down. We are able to switch between two styles while we're out and about and we can freely switch up the styles at any meditation point but I do have to wonder why all options aren't available at all times from something like a style-wheel we could bring up, small knit-pic I'm sure but you'll likely gravitate to one or two styles to use primarily since we're restricted in this way and the others will be left in the dust as they're rarely used.
Enemies remain fairly standard as you'll be cutting through swaths of storm troopers and mercenaries but a new but old faction makes their entrance, the droids. The same droids from the clone wars have been reprogrammed by the raiders to aide them so you've got those skinny battle droids, the super battle droids, and even the droidekas too! Their inclusion helped to keep combat feeling a little more varied since we're not just cutting down troopers and mercs, plus there's plenty of small moments you'll find where the droids are talking amongst themselves and these small moments usually offer a moment of levity. Beyond the inclusion of the war droids, some new mercs types show up that I feel like are wildly appropriate, that being mercs wielding lightsabers, possibly from bounties they've turned in or ones they've just found. It is nice seeing that enemies are smart enough to use and fight with these weapons but I am surprised that Cal didn't take offense to this and collect the sabers once these foes were defeated to honor his fallen jedi.
Boss fights in Survivor are a mixed bag for me. The story boss fights never felt especially challenging and beyond the spectacle of a lightsaber duel, they just don't have the impact they need. Part of that is due to who you're fighting and why, the main villain for instance felt like a forced villain and the fact we defeat him two times before just makes the final bout a forgone conclusion. Optional bosses like the rancor and the frog suffer the most most from one simple problem, instant... death... grabs. You have no option other than not being in their hitbox area when they start the grab until it's over. There's no counter you can do, no way to get out of it once you're caught, you're just dead and it just sucks. I bring this up because there is a set of bonus fights you can do that involves you fighting a pair of rancors in one and a pair of frogs in another and these fights showcase how awful the fights are. As you can't cancel out of an attack, you'll likely get caught in one of these insta-kill moves while you're midway through an attack against the other target or while being hit by the other target, again and again and again. Story fights had a bad habit of making me feel like a cat toying with a mouse, while the optional fights had an equally bad habit of frustrating me mostly due to the double fights not being balanced and forcing me to cheese them until it was a one on one again.
Customization is back and better than ever in Survivor as you'll discover you have a very wide range of options. Cal's hair, clothes, the clothes' color, and of course the lightsaber itself can be customized to your liking. Some options are available through shops owners, but the majority of your options are going to come from seeking chests out in the wild. This helps to make you want to explore more as Cal's next piece of clothing or hairstyle may just be out there waiting for you to find it. BD-1 can also be customized to your liking too to give the little guy some added personality and your own special touches.
Greeze's bar becomes your main hub as most of the shops and people you encounter out and about will make this their favorite watering hole. Its real nice seeing the bar liven up steadily as more and more patrons show up, music starts to fill the air as well the constant chatter, and new things you can do become available like gardening or playing in some holo-games. Besides just seeing all your hard work coming to fruition, the bar can also offer up rumors or side-quests that point out an area Cal should check out or a bounty hunter Cal should get off his tail.
How about we jump back to the story for a quick moment before we round this out. So the biggest problem I had with Fallen Order's story was how it was almost pointless and unfortunately that sentiment is nearly echoed here. By the end of the story there have been some changes sure, but those changes feel incredibly forced due to a betrayal that just isn't well thought out and the explanation makes it even worse. Another problem with the story comes from the main villain's own intentions and involvement. Our big bad guy wants to get to the hidden planet to... train up an army to take over the galaxy. Because we know so little about the planet's resources and knowing how long it would take to form such an army, this threat falls flat. It's really just baffling that the main villain even was a villain at all and I'm very surprised the devs opted not to make them our surprise betrayal instead of this. Overall, I just found the main threats in Survivor were far weaker and less believable in their motivations than what came before and it truly felt as though these elements should have been rewritten or changed entirely, or even dropped, as unfortunately the end felt just as underwhelming as the first game.
What about that good ol' achievement hunt though, is that gonna be good time or a miserable time? This list isn't that bad at all frankly and the most demanding of the achievements requires you to collect all of the pyrite shards so you can buy out the entirety of a shop. That's made not so bad thanks to an upgrade to BD-1 late in the game that reveals all collectables on the maps but there may be one or two that elude you, but thankfully guides here on site can help you. It is refreshing though to get a handful of achievements that are just for fun and goofing off rather than just making them for something more arbitrary. I think you'll find this achievo hunt to be pretty fun and easy to complete.
Jedi: Survivor does a pretty good job as a sequel as it improves on plenty of things from the past but it does suffer from poor writing and a couple poorly done characters we've seen in the prior entry too. I was hoping to see more of where Cal's part in the story might go as he begins to understand that being a Jedi isn't the be all end all to his life but it looks as though we'll have to wait on a 3rd entry for that. While I would recommend this to anyone that enjoyed the first or just wants to get their saber slaying fill, I must also mention that it's not going to offer too much beyond that, especially if you don't like exploring vast areas or backtracking for side-quests or collectables. If a 3rd game is in the cards and I do hope it is, I can only wish that they take more time to make a worthwhile villain for Cal and not have the MacGuffin to protect/get as it's fallen flat both times. While Survivor may not be the ideal sequel, it does play well and can be entertaining but not very memorable aside from a pair of moments. (Waves hand across your face) This is not the game you have been searching for.
3.0