If you haven’t heard of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor yet, well, it’s the sequel to the beloved Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game of a few years ago. The sequel officially releases at the end of this month, and we’re finally starting to get more information about it. Various industry leaders have now had a chance to play portions of the incoming title early and have resoundingly loved the improvements that Respawn is making to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, with some saying it improves “every aspect of the original.” What’s changed, and what can you expect from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor when it launches on April 28? Let’s take a closer look.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor brings a lot of improvements to the table
While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a great game, there were absolutely some shortcomings to it. One that the developers at Respawn quickly took note of was the lack of fast travel. It wasn’t designed as part of Fallen Order, and Stig Asmussen said that “you can do as much focus testing as you want, but once millions of people are playing, it becomes a different story” in reference to the feature. And as such, fast travel has been part of the conversation (and is now included) in Survivor to make the levels feel more fluid, intuitive, and rewarding when playing.
Another aspect being improved on is the “hub world.” In Fallen Order, you were only able to use the starship Mantis as your hub, where you could talk to the crew, look at collections, and interact with some objects. When Mike Nelson from the Xbox team went hands-on with Survivor, Cal was residing in Rambler’s Ranch, which is a small town located on the planet Koboh. There, Cal isn’t just carrying the weight of being the last surviving Jedi but also trying to help locals improve their town. There, Cal is tasked with helping clean up the small town, ridding the area of bandits, and even helping grow a garden. Mike also said that this made playing the game with this aspect feel “more like living Cal’s life than reliving a single story within it.”
The team at Respawn also took customization to a new level in Survivor after it admitted that it was a little lacking and an afterthought for Fallen Order. In Fallen Order, you could only customize a lightsaber, and Respawn took that and ran with it, giving all the customization features “the lightsaber treatment,” according to the team.
This comes to light, according to Mike, with many elements in the game. You’ll be able to swap colors and parts on BD-1 and fully customize Cal’s facial features, hair, and even outfits. “Practically everything has been given new options to make your take on Cal’s adventure feel personal,” Mike said after his time with the game.
Respawn also is improving on the combat mechanics that were already pretty great in Fallen Order, improving on features like dual wielding of lightsabers, Cal’s ability to use the Force, and even having five “stances” that have their own strengths to utilize when counteracting the enemies in the game. Mike left his playtime with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor with this statement: “Everything we’ve seen so far promises a bigger, better, more customizable adventure with Cal Kestis and BD-1,” and I’m all here for it.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launches on all consoles and PC on April 28, so if you’re intrigued by the game, you won’t have to wait too much longer.
9to5Toys’ Take
While I didn’t spend a ton of time in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the little I did play has me excited for Survivor. With Mike’s hands-on time with the game paired with what we already knew about it, Survivor is shaping up to be one of the best Star Wars games to date. I’m excited for the release later this month, though I’m not sure whether I’ll pick it up right away or not. What do you plan on doing?
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