Star Wars is without a doubt one of the most culturally impactful and popular franchises ever created. Its legacy spans decades and its imprint on our culture as a whole is rivaled only by others like Pokemon, Harry Potter and Marvel. However in the last few years a lot of Star Wars content has become a mixed bag. While shows get pumped out and sup bar movies being released. There is higher amount of Star Wars content than ever but less and less of it is quality.

So where does Jedi Survivor stand? Ultimately, somewhere in the end of the good quality stuff despite its glaring and obvious flaws. First and foremost, for a game that's been out nearly 2 years its performance on PC is quite abysmal. Frame drops, stuttering, crashes ( had an issue where my PC would literally just black screen which I found out was caused by the game having random power spikes), to name the major culprits, this should be absolutely unacceptable for a modern AAA game considering this is backed by EA and made by Respawn who are very competent developers. However after a couple performance mods and tweaking some settings I have found the game to be stable despite its inconsistencies. This is still not good, but it allows me to play the game.

That disclaimer aside, let's actually talk about the game now. Jedi Survivor is the sequel to the 2019 Jedi Fallen Order. In nearly every capacity this game carries on the same trend and gameplay style as its predecessor. It functionally plays like a vaguely diet Dark Souls (closer to Sekiro) action game with strong platforming segments as well as some metroidvania elements to its traversal and map exploration. The key difference between this and Fallen Order is quite a few of its world maps are far more open to explore and traverse. Now with far more secrets to find there is more to discover if you're willing to spend the time outside of your main story.

Content wise this game blows Fallen Order out of the water, more bosses, more secrets, more puzzles and a bit more depth to its combat make it a truly excellent sequel. I found the story was as engaging as the first. Cal is an excellent protagonist and seeing his journey as he struggles with his Jedi teachings and his endless battle against the empire makes him feel far more fleshed out than in the first game as he represented more of a plucky Padawan who was still finding his place in the galaxy. As the story unfolds you get a real sense and feel for the separation he has from his old crew and as things come back together it feels truly renewing to get back with this characters again. Without spoiling, I will say the story is one of the strongest aspects and a key part in what gives this game its depth and feel.

A great addition is 3 new forms of lightsaber combat, dualwield (which only had a brief attack in the first game), crossguard and blaster stance. As well single bladed and double bladed have been rebalanced so all forms have benefit and usability depending on player preference. I will say an issue is that only 2 can be selected at a time, but with mods this is easily fixable. It is a shame this was not in the full release as it doesn't break the game flow in any real way.

There is a surprising amount of depth to the exploration as well as a great amount of secrets for those who are willing to look, as someone who is usually quite meticulous at finding things I was surprised how much I missed when I would come back through areas. Which brings us to our next major flaw....This game has an offensive amount of backtracking. Be it looking for hidden things or for story segments. You frequently return back to multiple planets for short missions or to simply touch base and returning to old areas for loot can be an absolute chore if youre like me and obsess over unlocking every goofy outfit and beard style for Cal. I would HIGHLY recommend saving this till the end when you have all the upgrades to your movement and traversal to save time.

All in all, Jedi Survivor is a very solid game with its only real flaw being its performance. That aside, even if that were perfect it is not a masterpiece. Its combat while fun and satisfying, is not incredibly finely tuned, it has a jank to it that makes it feel not as fluid as it could, but it still feels weighty and powerful (though lightsaber combat is always awkard as it is difficult to balance a game around a weapon that SHOULD be a one hit kill). All that aside, Jedi Survivor is a 7/10 game with its performance being as it is and an 8/10 if it were running as a modern game should be. A must play for Star Wars fans and a solid maybe for those with passing interest.