It’s been 3 years since our last outing with Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Finally, it’s time to reunite with the gang in another starship-cruising action-adventure in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Respawn Entertainment teamed up again with Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games to take us to a galaxy far, far away.

Our journey begins on the planet Coruscant, a city that acts as a hub for travellers. Coming in for a landing is Cal Kestis, the unlikely Scrapper- turned-Jedi from the previous game. In the 5 years after the events of Fallen Order, Cal has become a battle-hardened Jedi fighting for what’s left of the rebellion. He’s also become a prime target for the Galactic Empire, which becomes obvious once landing and being escorted into the Imperial City.

Casually strolling through the district while surrounded by armoured thugs is a great time to take in the scenery. A view of the iconic neon city from Star Wars lore, Stormtroopers interrogating civilians and being passed around from person to droid to really get a feel for the place. Luckily, it’s not long until Cal gets to explore, and even luckier for us, it’s more of a refresher course than beginner’s training. Being able to use mind tricks and the force from the jump makes for some great moments, especially yeeting Stormtroopers off ledges. 

Going through a Jedi-flipping, climbing, wall running, and slashing refresh while exploring the first planet feels more organic than a slow, clunky tutorial stage, and Cal retains most of the skills from Fallen Order while developing a slew of new abilities and techniques to master. Most notably, there are now 5 combat stances instead of 3, meaning you can now have 2 different styles of lightsaber combat-equipped at a time, some of which include single-bladed lightsaber, double-bladed, and even one with a blaster! These can be changed around at meditation points and workbenches, and at the latter, you can customise lightsabers and BD-1’s look using cosmetics found in the world.

Skills can be learned at meditation points, falling under 3 main categories: Survival, Lightsaber, with a branch for each of the 5 stances, and Force, with branches for confusion, Jedi concentration, and Telekinesis. Gaining skill points through progression, side quests, combat XP and finding collectibles makes working through the trees fairly quick. That said, the massive amount of skills available is daunting, whether I will get through the majority of it remains to be seen. I’m really hoping I get to see all Cal is capable of, but if not, there is a reset skills option, so I could make use of that! 

To top it all off, Cal can also spec into “Perks” for further stat boosts including resilience, dexterity, and defence buffs. Perks are found throughout the planets and through quests, and they can be swapped out at meditation points at any time. Cal really feels like he’s become a serious Jedi, which is much more fun to play than the young Padawan we started off as in Fallen Order. 

I learned that the way of the Jedi requires patience and technique in combat. Button-mashing won’t keep blaster bolts at bay, instead, a balance between attacking, dodging, parrying, and force powers thrown in for good measure is optimal. Companions will occasionally come along and help out, restoring balance in overwhelming fights. Combat is incredibly satisfying, the tactile swinging of a lightsaber through the familiar buzzes and controller vibrations helps make fighting as a Jedi addictive. 

If you really want to test your skill, there are 5 difficulties ranging from Story to Jedi Grand Master. I played on normal and found it to be challenging but forgivable, and with a bit of time and more skills, I’d love to test out the higher difficulties. For those looking for a challenge, I can guarantee you can have it. Just be willing to respawn a lot. 

New Game Plus is available on release, carrying over skills, stances, and cosmetics, and it introduces bonus perks like Purity, a glass-cannon mode, and Warrior, introducing more difficult groups of enemies, and Trendsetter, which randomises outfits on death – be warned, there is a mullet. I’m keen to give New Game Plus a try to see the absolute chaos unfold, between having the ridiculous new perks and all skills from the beginning, there’s a huge amount of replayability to the game.

Exploration is a lot more open this time around, with vast expanses and varying environments for each planet. Koboh, a mining planet, becomes the new base of operations, and though it’s fairly bland to look at early on, I started getting more enamoured once the true Star Wars vibes started reaching the settlement. One of the best parts is the endearing companions: 10/10 good droid, BD-1, new friends, and being reunited with companions from the Mantis crew, I became much more invested in what was happening. 

It took a while to get interested in the story, but once the world’s opened up and I was free to take a look around, I felt more involved. Traversing expands with a grappling hook and taming local wildlife as mounts made exploration much more enjoyable.

There’s an abundance of meditation points for local fast-travel, and you use the Mantis for cross-planet commutes, and using the force to solve puzzles to scale large structures or assist in searching underground tunnels for sought-after upgrades and cosmetics was much more accessible. There will also be times you’ll want to revisit previous locations, just in case you missed something that you couldn’t reach because you didn’t have one of Cal’s abilities.

There were times progression wasn’t always clear resulting in a lot of aimless wandering. Often the solution was needing to use the force in some form. For those times when the struggle is real, there are options to turn on audio and visual cues to get back on track. If it takes too long to progress there’s also an option for a hint, meaning accessibility options are available to tailor gameplay and visuals to suit individual preferences.

Audio is crucial for the authentic Star Wars experience. Reminiscent of the orchestral style of John Williams’ original score, the familiar sounds of the universe and its inhabitants hits hard in the nostalgia: droid beeps and the sound of TIE fighters served the fantasy. We love a Cantina theme, but do yourself a favour and find the DJ droid for the bar; they lay down some absolute banger tracks to swap between, and I spent a good amount of time jamming out to the stellar playlist. 

Speaking of performance, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor pushes the capabilities of PlayStation 5 hardware, but it doesn’t always pay off. Lighting, textures, and effects are next level, but it comes at a price. Quality mode runs up to a 4K resolution with a locked framerate of 30FPS, which makes the game look incredible, but I experienced stuttering cutscenes and slow texture load-in. Performance mode targets 60FPS, compromising some detail, and I still had some framerate drops, but mostly during cutscenes. Issues didn’t happen too often and were more visual than game-breaking.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor breaks away from the first game, which was linear and relatively restrictive in progression. Being more proficient in skills reduces linear pathways and is a huge leap forward in immersion. I see myself spending a lot more time taking in all Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has to offer. The force is strong with this one. If you want a true Star Wars experience as a Jedi, this is it.

Written by: Yasmin Noble