Jedi Survivor

''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game is the sequel to '' Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order'' (2019), taking place five years after the events of the previous game and continues the adventure of young Jedi Knight Cal Kestis, as he and his friends continue in their struggle to survive the tyranny of the Galactic Empire.

''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on April 28, 2023. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are currently in development. Critical reception was positive, though the PC version received criticism for technical issues. A third game is in development.

Gameplay

''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' retains many of the gameplay mechanics from its predecessor and introduces new elements. In lightsaber combat, Cal Kestis has access to five different lightsaber types, each with unique features. He can use the single blade and double blade stances from the previous game, ''Fallen Order'', and the special dual-wield blade attack is expanded into its own stance. The dual-wield stance was originally intended to be a playable stance in ''Fallen Order'', but it was only included as a special attack due to time constraints. A new stance has also been added that uses a Kylo Ren-style crossguard lightsaber, which requires players to pay attention to timing windows to use effectively, particularly when blocking and parrying enemy attacks. The second new stance is the blaster stance which allows the player to use a lightsaber and blaster combo allowing for both close and ranged attacks. These different stances are designed to be used to combat specific types of enemies, which game director Stig Asmussen says will make the player "figure out what the best weapon of choice is". Cal's Force Slow ability, which was previously used frequently in short bursts to overcome obstacles and slow individual enemies, has now been reworked in ''Survivor'' to purely function as an ultimate ability that can be unleashed in battle after a long cooldown to slow the entire world around Cal, including enemies and mid-air projectiles, similar to Kylo Ren's Force Stasis ability in '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens''. Player cosmetic customization options have been greatly expanded in ''Survivor'' over the limited options available in ''Fallen Order''. ''Survivor'' allows the player to customize Cal's entire outfit, along with his hairstyle and facial hair. A white blade is a new color option in lightsaber customization.

The level design of ''Jedi: Survivor'' features larger, more expansive maps populated with more non-player characters compared to ''Fallen Order''. Lead level designer Martin Badowsky said that Respawn wanted Koboh to feature a dense central area with more open outskirts areas as the player explores outwards. In addition, the ''Mantis'' landing pads have been moved to more central locations on planets to provide easier access to the various regions. The planet Koboh has been described as a "home away from home" that the player will revisit throughout the game, and with each revisit, new pathways will open up. Design director Jeff Magers said that "By exploring the worlds, players will both make Cal more their own through customization" and many of the optional areas contain skills, upgrades and perks that will make Cal "more powerful and equipped to take on the challenges ahead". By comparison, revisiting planets like Bogano in ''Fallen Order'' was done primarily in service of progressing the plot rather than for encouraging exploration. Exploration is made easier in ''Survivor'' with the addition of fast travel at meditation points where the player can be quickly transported to another meditation point on the planet that they have already discovered. However, Respawn wanted to ensure that using fast travel was not necessary to ordinarily traverse the environment or to complete the story. Fast travel was absent in ''Fallen Order'' and was a much-requested feature. Scattered throughout Koboh are seven High Republic-era Jedi Chambers for the player to discover. Jedi Meditation Chambers feature puzzles and challenges for the player to complete and provide rewards such as perks or skill points for the player to upgrade their abilities. Jedi Chambers become available once the player has rescued the droid ZN-A4 from the Chamber of Duality.

Synopsis

Setting and characters

''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' takes place five years after the events of '' Fallen Order''. The game follows Jedi Knight Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) as he fights the Empire while searching for a place to hide from them. Cal's allies include: Jedi Master Cere Junda (Debra Wilson); former pilot of the ''Stinger Mantis'' Greez Dritus (Daniel Roebuck), BD-1 (Ben Burtt), a small droid; Merrin (Tina Ivlev), one of the last surviving members of the Nightsister clan of Dathomir; and Bode Akuna (Noshir Dalal), a mercenary fighting for the safety of his daughter Kata (Tajinae Turner). Other characters include Jedi Master Eno Cordova (Tony Amendola), BD-1's former owner, now helping Cere recover the Jedi Archive; and ZN-A4 (Kendal Rae), a droid from the High Republic Era formerly owned by Jedi Master Santari Khri (Tracy Ifeachor).

Cal fights many enemies during his journey, such as the Pau'an Senator Daho Sejan (T. J. Ramini); Imperial Commander Lank Denvik (Gideon Emery); the Ninth Sister (Misty Lee); who is trained by the Sith Lord Darth Vader (Scott Lawrence) as part of the Imperial Inquisitorius program; former High Republic Jedi Dagan Gera (Cody Fern), who seeks to reach Tanalorr; and his right-hand man: the Gen'Dai Rayvis (D. C. Douglas), the leader of the Bedlam Raiders. Temuera Morrison voices Boba Fett, having portrayed the character several times previously.

Plot

Five years after destroying the Jedi Holocron, Jedi Knight Cal Kestis has parted ways with Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, and Merrin to continue his battle against the Empire as a resistance fighter working under Saw Gerrera. Cal and his team infiltrate the Imperial capital world of Coruscant and steal valuable military data from Senator Daho Sejan. Cal is disheartened to learn from the data that despite all his efforts, the Empire has only become more powerful, expanding its reach farther through the galaxy. After Cal retrieves the data from Sejan, the Ninth Sister, who survived her defeat on Kashyyyk, arrives to confront and exact revenge on Cal, slaughtering Sejan and most of Cal's team. Cal fights and kills the Ninth Sister before escaping Coruscant with mercenary Bode Akuna.

With the ''Stinger Mantis'' damaged during his escape from Coruscant, Cal decides to seek out Greez, who resides on the remote planet of Koboh, to see if he can repair the damages. After surviving a crash landing on the planet's surface, Cal finds the local population menaced by a criminal organization known as the Bedlam Raiders, led by an armored Gen'dai named Rayvis. Cal reunites with Greez, who directs him to a cave containing the parts needed to repair the ''Mantis''.

While exploring, Cal comes across ZN-A4 or "Zee," a droid that served the Jedi Order during the High Republic era. Zee gives Cal a High Republic tuner device and tells him she was ordered to activate a device called the Forest Array hundreds of years ago but became trapped in the caves. After freeing her, Cal travels to the Array, where he has a vision of two High Republic Jedi, Dagan Gera and Santari Khri, who discovered the mythical planet of Tanalorr hidden behind the supposedly impassable Koboh Abyss nebula. Cal activates the Array and discovers Dagan suspended in a bacta tank. Cal frees Dagan in hopes of recruiting a fellow Jedi, but discovers that Dagan has fallen to the dark side of the Force, angry at the Jedi Order for having abandoned Tanalorr. Dagan fights Cal before escaping with the help of Rayvis and the Bedlam Raiders.

Realizing the value of a planet inaccessible to the Empire, Cal, Bode, and Greez repair the ''Stinger Mantis'' and head for the planet Jedha, where Cere has been working with Merrin and a still-alive Eno Cordova to rebuild the Jedi Archives with the help of a resistance organization called the Hidden Path.

Cere and Cordova use the Archives to research Koboh and Tanalorr. Cordova explains that Dagan was the first and only pilot who managed to find a path through the Koboh Abyss. Khri developed special compasses to navigate it, and the Republic then established a settlement and Jedi Temple on Tanalorr. However, a group of raiders known as the Nihil assaulted Tanalorr, causing the Republic to withdraw from the planet and order the destruction of the compasses to keep the Nihil from using them. Dagan became obsessed with Tanalorr, believing it was his by right. After Dagan murdered several Jedi while attempting to retrieve one of the compasses, Khri severed his arm and trapped him in the bacta tank. Cordova notes that three compasses are still unaccounted for. Cal, Merrin, Bode, and Greez decide to search for them; Bode wishes to find a refuge for his young daughter Kata, while Merrin believes that the Hidden Path could use Tanalorr as their new home. During their journey, Cal and Merrin confess their feelings for each other and decide to pursue a relationship.

Two compasses are unsalvageable, but after Cal, with Bode's help, defeats and kills Rayvis and Dagan, they discover one that Cordova is able to repair. Shortly after, the Empire launches an attack on Jedha. As chaos erupts, Bode steals the compass and murders Cordova. Cal tries to stop Bode from escaping, but Bode defeats him using Dagan's lightsaber, revealing himself to be not only an Imperial spy but a former Jedi who has since fallen to the dark side. Meanwhile, Cere prevents the Empire's forces from reaching the archive, but is killed while holding off Darth Vader to buy time for the Hidden Path to escape. Furious at Bode's betrayal, Cal uses a locator beacon to track his location to an Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) base in the Nova Garon system, commanded by Lank Denvik.

After infiltrating the base, Cal eventually confronts Bode, who reveals that he worked in intelligence for the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars but disappeared when the Jedi Purge began. After the Inquisitorius killed his wife, Bode made a deal with Denvik to work for the ISB as a spy in exchange for keeping him and his daughter hidden from Vader. Revealing that he lured Cal to Nova Garon to create a distraction, hoping to be free of the ISB on his rendezvous to Tanalorr, Bode escapes with Kata and the compass. Cal briefly embraces the dark side in order to escape the garrison, though he stops himself from succumbing fully by sparing Denvik after Merrin talks him down.

Cal recovers a recording left behind by Khri, explaining that the arrays on Koboh can be used to open an alternate path through the Koboh Abyss. After narrowly navigating the abyss, the group arrives at Tanalorr in one piece. There, Cal, Merrin, and Kata attempt to convince Bode to back down, but he refuses and attacks them. Bode overpowers Cal, forcing him to embrace the dark side to overpower him. Cal attempts to give Bode a second chance, but Bode refuses and nearly kills Merrin. Cal, seeing that his former friend is now beyond redemption, fatally shoots Bode.

Afterward, they hold a Jedi funeral for Cere, Cordova, and Bode to mourn their passing. With the planet now under their control, Cal, Merrin, and Greez decide to adopt Kata and plan to make contact with the Hidden Path to relocate them to Tanalorr.

Development

The development of a sequel to '' Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order'' was announced in January 2022. The game's title of ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' was announced in May 2022 alongside the debut of a CGI teaser trailer at ''Star Wars'' Celebration. The game was developed by Respawn Entertainment and was released on April 28, 2023, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Game director Stig Asmussen claimed real-time ray tracing and other next-gen capabilities enable Respawn to operate "at a quality that's much above anything that we've ever developed before." By exclusively targeting ninth-generation consoles, ''Survivor'' enjoys significantly faster load times with a development team that is no longer obligated to support the older PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles the first game launched on. This is due to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles featuring a solid-state drive (SSD) that enables much faster asset loading times compared to a hard drive. Despite these statements, versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were announced in August 2023.

Marketing and release

The first cinematic teaser for ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' was released in May 2022. EA showed expanded gameplay for the game at The Game Awards on December 8, while also announcing that it would be released on March 17, 2023. On January 31, 2023, EA announced via Twitter that the game's release would be delayed to April 28, 2023, for the Respawn development team to carry out final "bug fixes to enhance performance, stability, polish, and most importantly, the player experience". A nine-minute gameplay video was released by IGN on February 7. At ''Star Wars'' Celebration on April 9, 2023, a "final" gameplay trailer was released for the game which included a look at the planet of Coruscant that Cal will journey to during the game's events.

There are three cosmetic sets available with a pre-order of the game. The first, available with a pre-order of both the standard and deluxe editions, is a "Hermit" cosmetic set replicating Obi-Wan Kenobi's outfit from the ''Obi-Wan Kenobi'' series and Kenobi's lightsaber from Episodes I and II. The two exclusive "Scoundrel" and "Rebel Hero" cosmetic sets available with the deluxe edition replicate Han Solo's DL-44 blaster and scoundrel outfit and Luke Skywalker's yellow jacket outfit from ''A New Hope''.

A free PC copy of ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' was included with a purchase of an AMD Ryzen 7000 processor in a promotional bundle deal that ran from January 2023 until April 1, 2023.

Tie-in media

'' Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars'' is a tie-in novel written by Sam Maggs, released on March 7, 2023, which bridges the five year story gap between ''Fallen Order'' and ''Survivor''. The book's cover was revealed on December 1, 2022, featuring returning characters from ''Fallen Order'' including Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, Nightsister Merrin and BD-1. The Inquisitor Fifth Brother, who appeared in the TV series ''Star Wars Rebels'' and ''Obi-Wan Kenobi'', was confirmed to appear. A preview excerpt from the book was released on January 31, 2023, where Cal must infiltrate the secret headquarters of the Haxion Brood crime syndicate that featured in ''Fallen Order''.

Following the game's initial release, Jedi Knight Cal Kestis, as he appeared in ''Survivor'', was also introduced as a special playable character in the mobile turn-based role-playing game '' Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes'' on iOS and Android, unlocked by completing a series of stages that recapped the events of ''Fallen Order'' with several characters from that game the player was required to collect and upgrade.

''Survivor'' is the final ''Star Wars'' game published during Electronic Arts' exclusivity contract with Lucasfilm, which was set to expire later in the year.

Reception

''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

''The Guardian'' called ''Survivor'' "the best ''Star Wars'' game in 20 years" that is "visually spectacular, mechanically sophisticated and riotously entertaining". While disliking the "bland" story, ''The Verge'' enjoyed ''Survivor'' mix of action-platforming, writing, and how "it manages to balance all of these different elements so that it never feels like you're stuck doing just one thing". ''Polygon'' praised the visuals, but felt the game's combat broke down when fighting multiple enemies, "the battles in which you're pitted against a horde of enemies — with a melee swarm steadily hammering your block meter, and laser fire breaking your combos from afar... those fights are intolerable".

Many reviewers noted performance problems with the PC version. ''PC Gamer'' review highlighted an average of 35 frames per second with dips as low as 15-20 frames in cutscenes. EA released a day one patch to improve the game's performance on PC and promised to release more patches in the following weeks. EA stated that a significant reason for poor performance is players using Windows 10 with advanced processors built for Windows 11.

Sales

In Japan, the PlayStation 5 version of ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' sold 16,742 physical units, making it the seventh best-selling retail game during its first week of release. In the United Kingdom, ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' launch sales were thirty percent higher than that of ''Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order''. In April and May 2023, ''Star Wars Jedi: Survivor'' was the most downloaded game on the US and European PlayStation Store.

Awards

Sequel

In a 2023 interview with ''IGN'', Asmussen stated that he planned the ''Star Wars: Jedi'' series to be a trilogy, with the possible third and final major installment targeting the new Unreal Engine 5. In September 2023, Monaghan announced that the team were "in the process of aking a third gameright now".

References

External links

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{{Star Wars The High Republic series

2023 video games
Action-adventure games
Electronic Arts games
PlayStation 5 games
PlayStation 4 games
Respawn Entertainment games
Single-player video games
Space opera video games
Star Wars video games
Star Wars Jedi (series)
Star Wars: The High Republic
Video games developed in the United States
Windows games
Xbox Series X and Series S games
Xbox One games
Unreal Engine 4 games