Early Thoughts – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

We are now 5 days on from the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and while I haven’t had as much time as I hoed to play the game so far, the bank holiday still allowed me to a decent number of hours into the game, enough that I felt confident coming forward with my initial thoughts at least.

So first of all, how far in am I? Well not very far, but I still want to be vague for those who have had even less of an opportunity than me so far, so I will say that I’ve been on Koboh for a few hours, met an old friend and just returned to the saloon with a new friend after my first trip to the smugglers’ tunnels. Oh and for the record, I’m on the Jedi Padawan difficulty, the first level above Story Mode.

So what do I think so far?

It’s great. To put it simply, it’s Fallen Order, but bigger and better. As great as the original game looked, by focusing this game on the current generation consoles, they have been able to deliver a game that truly immerses you in the galaxy far far away. I’ve honestly spent so much time just looking around at the environment; not just what’s immediately around me but also what is off in the distance, as it’s so incredibly realistic and detailed. 

And just the size of these maps! While Fallen Order had maps that were fairly linear, but with little side paths to extras to find (sense echoes, seeds or crates), that is basically what you get from the opening mission, but then when you arrive on Koboh you quickly realise just how big the environments are, with some more linear sections then leading to large free-roam areas, while I have already identified plenty of areas to come back to at a later date as I do not have whatever/whoever I need to access yet. I’ve also already found a few of the new side quests available, but it’s very clear that I have barely even touched the tip of the iceberg in this regard so far. Meanwhile, while the sense echoes and crates remain, there are now also so many more things to collect, and we are talking in big numbers. It feels like there will be much more replayability for those of us who want to get 100% completion. In fact, I almost wonder if it could be so much larger that things are a little overwhelming for some more casual gamers like myself.

As for the general gameplay, that is also a matter of bigger and better. The variety of opponents has been great so far, with Imperials, creatures, raiders and Separatist droids (yes we are well beyond the Clone Wars, but there is a legitimate reason for them), while I’ve already faced 2 or 3 large creatures—including stumbling on a rancor— and taking part in 2 or 3 other boss battles. And already in this fighting, I’m seeing the potential replayability due to the new stances. Where the previous game focused on single blade or double blade, we basically start the game with both of these (double blade unlocks early in the level as it gradually introduces you to the game and controls) and by the end of the level have already introduced our third stance (dual blade, which featured a little towards the end of the first game), while I am still to unlock the final 2 stances. And the way these work is that you can explore with 2 stances picked at a time and swap between these 2 on the fly, while you can swap out your selected pair of stances at meditation points, which are also where you save and spend skill points on your skill trees, which are relatively small and simple, but due to the number of trees allows a great variety or growth routes—I’ve definitely put an early focus on health, healing and the dual-bladed stance. Meanwhile all the old exploration techniques remain, along with a couple of new ones, while there are also chances to go around with a companion (I’m not sure if it’s just specific sections or how this will work yet), and this will open up new navigation areas by using their own skills.

And is not just the stances and skill tree that we can customise with Cal. Remember how the original game allowed us to pick between a variety of different poncho colours? Well this game has done customising Cal right, as you can select his hairstyle, facial hair, shirt, jacket, trousers and boots, while each item of clothing then has a range of colour options. Instead of just different colours of BD-1, we can now completely change his physical appearance with different head, photoreceptors, audio receptors, main body and legs as well as different colour options and an option for how worn he should look. As for the lightsaber, so far it feels very like the previous game, though I have heard that there will be more variety in some of the parts available as the game goes on.

And the final thing I want to bring up is the story, but I honestly can’t say much at this point, as it’s still not really clear to me what the overall story is as I’m so early in the game, but I like what we’ve had so far, while for many people, this may be their introduction to the High Republic era, which looks like it will play a part in the plot.

So it’s 2 thumbs up for me so far. Now excuse me while I go explore some more….

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