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Not So Long Ago…
In 2019 the gaming world got yet another game set in the ever expanding Star Wars universe. Ov there years there have been so many offerings from Lego Star Wars through to Battlefront (II being one of my personal favourites as a great multiplayer) and then to modern classics like The Old Republic. So much Star Wars! But Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order quickly became one of my favourite outings in this universe. The story follows young Cal, five years after the Revenge of the Sith movie. Cal, a Padawan and survivor of the Jedi purge, is trying to bring back the Jedi Order and take down the Galactic Empire. On route he makes a number of friends, including the super cute BD-1, a little droid and merchandiser’s dream and Greez, the owner and pilot of the Stinger Mantis. What I love about that particular game along with its super smooth and fun to play combat system is its story, script and impeccable voice acting led by Gotham’s Cameron Monaghan. The whole cast is fantastic and the performance capture is clearly at the forefront of the industry. So much so it was inevitable that a sequel would be on the cards.
In A Galaxy Not So Far Away…
So now we get Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. This follows on almost immediately from the previous, meeting Cal and BD-1, captured by some bounty hunters on Imperial Coruscant. Everything has a feeling of familiarity about it, which is not a bad thing. You can just jump in where you left off. And this is the highlight for me. There is no forced narrative that means that Cal has to learn everything again. All the main skills you had at the end of the last game, you start this one with. You will be force pushing stormtroopers off platforms in no time! You also start with the three lightsaber stances from the previous game as well. So you will be able to swing around a single, double and dual-wielded saber right from the off. However, it is the saber development that is perhaps the most fun element of Survivor. First of all, the animation is just a lot better. The moves that Cal can make are just so fun to mess around with and now it’s not just droids you can cut up but enjoy chopping arms off stormtroopers and bounty hunters as well. Secondly, there are two new stances to explore. There is the Kylo Ren style cross guard which is slow but incredibly powerful and then there is the blaster/saber combo which lets you access your inner Han at the same time. These were the two I had constantly loaded, but the blaster just added more fun combos. You also get a grappling hook very early on which allows you to cover so much ground. You can whizz around like Spider-Man upgrading it as the game progresses.
I Have A Very Good Feeling About This…
The story of Jedi Survivor is great, leading you from one exciting point to the next and the planets are large enough to kill time in exploring without getting bored but small enough not to feel too overwhelming. And much more than the previous installment, you will want to revisit every planet as you start to access different powers and gadgets allowing you to explore different areas throughout the game. There are old friends as well as a healthy dose of new characters and some exciting cameos along the way. The one thing that really annoyed me and many others about Fallen Order was the lack of a meaningful New Game + mode. Well, the publisher listened and now as soon as you complete the game you can jump back in but maintain all the saber stances as well as getting all of your tech tree skill points refunded to spend again immediately as you want. I love this. I jumped straight back in, upgrading very differently to the previous play just to try a different play style. With that, the game becomes so replayable in a way that its predecessor did not. I have no doubt that a third installment will make its way to our consoles in the coming years and I for one, am here for it, but maybe with a co-op mode!
