The team at VULKK.com got to play and present our Star Wars Jedi Survivor Review before its release. Here you can read everything about our impressions on gameplay, story (no spoilers), and new features from the second Star Wars Jedi game!
This review does NOT contain story spoilers.
The road to Jedi Survivor
It’s been five years since the events of Fallen Order and a lot happened before Jedi Survivor. Everyone went their own separate ways, fighting what seems to feel like an endless battle is something that not everyone can endure.
Merrin’s hate for the Empire is what motivated her but even the wildest fire weakens over time. The Night Sister had to find a new meaning, something that could point her in the right direction.
Greez never liked the idea of fighting the Empire until the last of his days so he decided to open a small bar. Cere realized that there are different ways to resist the Empire, one of them is recovering Jedi knowledge and trying to rebuild the Jedi archive for future generations.
Cal on the other hand kept fighting countless battles against the Empire, one mission after the other hoping that his efforts would eventually put a dent in the Empire’s impenetrable hull. That is, until the events of Jedi Survivor.
Cal Kestis And The Mantis Crew: Character development is remarkable
The version of Cal Kestis that we met in Jedi Fallen Order is insecure, full of fears, and unsure of what the future has prepared for him. After five years Cal is now more determined than ever to fight and defeat the Empire, he can’t run away from the fight.
The once defenseless Padawan has turned into a very capable and confident Jedi Knight that is now recognized and wanted by the Galactic Empire. But just like his powers have increased, so have his fears.
Cal’s only purpose is to fight and defeat the Empire, no matter the risk, no matter the cost. His approach to many situations is not one that you would normally expect from a Jedi Knight.
He is fighting to protect others but not all of his motivations come from a good place, Cal’s obsession with fighting those that destroyed the Jedi Order and the fear of losing his loved ones is a very dangerous combination that sooner or later, put Kestis in a very difficult situation.
Nightsister Merrin’s evolution since Fallen Order is incredible. From being tormented with an endless desire for revenge to an incredibly mature and wise woman. Merrin is logical, cool-headed, and always knows what to say even in the worst situations.
The synergy she has with Cal is undeniable, sometimes it’s almost like their minds are linked. Other than maybe Cere, there’s no one more important for Cal than Merrin. If there’s someone that can serve as a beacon of light during dark times, it’s Nightsister Merrin.
Greez hasn’t changed much, he is still a sarcastic, funny, and caring Latero that we all love. Greez is not the fighting type but that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to risk his life for the few people that consider him family. He is a little grumpy but under that character hides one of the best friends you could wish for.
Cere Junda is exactly what you would expect from a Jedi Master. Wise, kind, selfless, and powerful. There is no one Cal respects more than Cere, she saved him from the Inquisitors, continued his training, and became his mentor and friend.
She is devoted to salvaging any Jedi knowledge and will protect it like a lioness that protects her cubs. One of my personal highlights of Jedi Survivor is the role of Jedi Master Cere Junda.
There are other characters that bring a lot to the table but since this review is intended to be as spoiler free as possible I am not going to mention them.
Exploring The Galaxy has never been so fun and easy
One of my favorite things to do in every Star Wars game is explore the vast worlds that are full of wild beasts, dangerous corners, and secrets waiting to be discovered.
Jedi Survivor takes what Fallen Order did to the next level. I’ve already spent many hours exploring every possible route just trying to find things like collectibles, easter eggs, and hidden enemies.
Many of these secrets can only be found after you have acquired all of your abilities which is almost before finishing the story.
Returning to previous locations with newly acquired abilities that grant you access to unexplored areas is very enjoyable and seeing how expanded the majority of the game’s locations are is something that encourages me to explore every corner.
It is amazing how every place is extremely detailed! The buildings, floor, lighting, sounds, and especially the music make you feel completely immersed.
It doesn’t matter if I’m contemplating the beautiful landscape or in the middle of a fight, my eyes are glued to the screen. As someone who gets distracted very easily, I don’t say this lightly.
I have to say that the number of planets/locations is very similar to Fallen Order and that leaves a bittersweet feeling. Maybe my expectations are unrealistic but I’d have enjoyed having at least two or three more locations.
However, the three main planets are huge which is something very nice. Coruscant has been the heart of the galaxy since the times of the Old Republic. Complete industrial sectors filled with Stormtroopers make it perfect for wreaking havoc in the Imperial capital. Even when playing as a Jedi, it’s so easy to feel insignificant on such a big planet.
Koboh is where a good portion of the game happens. There’s a small settlement where a few merchants (including Greez) have established. Koboh is occupied by different factions and their troops are everywhere, sometimes you won’t even have to defeat them because they will be too busy fighting each other.
It looks like a very common planet but it has secrets that pre-date the Galactic Republic era. Unlocking these mysteries is key if Cal wants to complete his new mission.
I will not reveal the name of the third planet but you can figure it out by watching some of the images in this review. It is a very ancient planet that was once a home and refugee for thousands of people. It is by far my favorite planet of the game, the ruins, and temples are both beautiful and intimidating.
Like Koboh, it has many hidden secrets that can only be accessed after spending a good amount of hours playing the game. Cosmetics, apex predators, and even an unsuspecting Stormtrooper that talks to himself about how happy he is to have some free time.
One thing that I must highlight is the NPC’s dialogues. It is very common to walk into an area and hear a silly conversation between Stormtroopers or different types of Battle Droids. B2 Super Battle Droids often fight over which droid is superior or in charge while B1 Battle Droids just say funny and dumb lines.
The cherry on top is that B1 Battle Droids are voiced by Matthew Wood, the actor that voiced them in the prequel trilogy and the Clone Wars animated show.
The sidequests make the experience of exploring planets like Koboh a lot more fun and with something to gain from it. Some people might find it a little repetitive but personally, I don’t.
Being able to tame wild animals and use them to get to otherwise unreachable places is super fun. The number of creatures that can help you is sadly very limited but it’s still a very refreshing mechanic.
There’s A Fighting Style For Everybody
Lightsaber combat is essential in Jedi Survivor. What we got in Fallen Order was fun but too one-dimensional. The existence of five stances in Jedi Survivor gives us the opportunity to fight according to our own playstyle.
Single Blade Stance is good at everything but excels at nothing. A healthy balance between attack, defense, range, and power. The animations and combos have improved a lot since Fallen Order but for me, this one is the less appealing. However, if you want to keep things simple this might be the stance for you.
My personal favorite is the Double-bladed Stance. It provides a lot of coverage between offensive/defensive options, looks incredible, and is super fun.
This stance reminds me a lot of Form VII (Juyo). As someone who loves characters like Bastila Shan, Darth Maul, and the Jedi Temple Guards I couldn’t be happier using a double-bladed lightsaber.
My second choice was the Blaster Stance, this stance is perfect for creating space between you and the enemies. Sometimes it is necessary to find a better position or recover health/force and there is no better stance to do so.
I really like that the blaster shots aren’t something you can simply spam. To recharge your weapon, enemies must be hit with your lightsaber.
On top of this, the Blaster Stance is quite elegant when performing lightsaber attacks. It really feels like you’re using Form II (Makashi) like Count Dooku once did.
Crossguard Stance is my least favorite, it is very powerful but you have to sacrifice speed and agility. Fighting in a 1v1 versus one bulky opponent is super fun but foes like the MagnaGuards will easily outspeed you, this is even more annoying when facing a diverse group of enemies.
I must admit that I am a little disappointed with this stance, it should feel like Kylo Ren but instead, Cal’s attacks remind me of Din Djarin when he’s struggling to wield the Darksaber (being a little too dramatic here). Take this with a grain of salt until you play it yourself.
Dual Blade Stance is the flashiest by far with its fast and precise strikes. There is only one option with it, to go full berserker mode.
Every other stance gives you more defensive options but when using dual sabers these options are pretty much minimal. It is a high-risk high reward that anyone who enjoys an over-the-top aggressive playstyle is going to love.
The fast and powerful combos can overpower even the strongest defenses and the ability to block mid-combo is something completely unique but be mindful that mistakes are more punishing. If you are a fan of Form IV (Ataru) and/or have ever played Star Wars The Old Republic as a Marauder/Sentinel you are going to love the Dual Blade Stance.
While I was disappointed with the Crossguard, other members of our team absolutely love it. That’s the biggest benefit of having five stances. And the developers have stated that these stances are not mandatory. While they do provide benefits in specific situations and against certain enemy types, you can play through the entire game with just a single stance and never change it.
Force powers are as intrinsic to a Jedi as a lightsaber but unlike the Jedi’s signature weapon, the Force can be used to fight indirectly. I love being able to confuse enemies so that they fight against each other.
If maxed, you can even control powerful enemies like Purge Troopers and all of the big creatures. I’ve lost count of how many times I simply stood still while some Purge Troopers destroyed a bunch of Stormtroopers.
Throwing droids, beasts, and troopers around is also possible in Jedi Survivor. Pulling a group of Scout Troopers together and then cutting them in half with a lightsaber throw is too much fun. If this skill is maxed, you can even lift and throw the biggest enemies in the game.
Fighting alongside Merrin or Bode is very satisfactory when Cal and his ally work together to give the killing blow in a very flashy way. I can’t deny that it looks extremely cool but other than that it is super limited. You can only activate one ability that has a relatively low cooldown but the rest of the time it feels like it’s just a random NPC helping you.
As you might have noticed, there are a lot of combinations between stances and Force powers. It’s up to you to decide how you’re going to combine them. Will you go for a full aggression build or perhaps something that reflects more the centered nature of a Jedi Knight?
Customization options
Messing around with your character’s looks can be very entertaining for many people. I normally don’t care about the physical appearance of a character but I must recognize that being able to give Cal a mullet and other non-conventional haircuts is super hilarious.
For better or worse, Cal can now wear jackets instead of ponchos. I know, it’s outrageous but the good news is that every jacket, shirt, and pants has multiple color variations. I am a simple person when it comes to fashion so any cloth that looks Jedi-ish does it for me.
BD-1 gets the lightsaber treatment and now we can change every part of Cal’s best friend as well as its colors. You can do a subtle modification to its base appearance or make it look like a completely different droid.
Lightsaber customization is super fun, the immense amount of colors, pieces, and materials make it super easy to have your lightsaber look like the weapon of a respected Jedi Master or a fallen Knight that has embraced the dark side of the Force. All lightsaber blade colors are available from the beginning, including white!
With the addition of the Blaster Stance, it is obvious that Cal must use a blaster. And luckily for us, it is also customizable. Every unlocked color and material for the lightsaber is also applicable to your blaster.
Sometimes I like to imagine simple backstories for some of the items my characters use. It is a little silly but Jedi Survivor makes it a lot easier with the “condition” option. The blaster can look like it was recently bought from a fancy store or acquired through a shady vendor on the lower levels of Coruscant.
The customization options are more than enough to find a look that is appealing, there is even an option for all poncho enjoyers.
Puzzles: This Is(n’t) The Way
Puzzles are not my thing, I tend to be very patient with many things but solving a puzzle in any video game isn’t one of them. There are a lot of puzzles throughout the story and the majority of them aren’t optional, if the puzzle isn’t solved you can’t continue.
With the exception of two that took me like half an hour to solve I spent an average time of five to ten minutes on the majority. Many times I thought that some very weird action or interaction needed to happen but the answer was always in front of me. It took me more than I’d like to admit to learn this.
Sometimes the light and/or space in certain areas made it harder to realize what needed to be done but every puzzle related to the story progression gives you everything that you need to solve it.
I got frustrated multiple times but by just taking a little breath (trust me, it works) it was possible for me to relax and find out what had to be done. There are a lot of puzzles in Jedi Survivor so prepare yourself for it.
Similar to the Stances situation, puzzles are something some of you will absolutely adore. Vulkk, for example, liked the puzzles in Jedi Fallen Order and loved the puzzles in Jedi Survivor.
The puzzles are not designed bad, it’s just a matter of whether you enjoy solving puzzles in a Star Wars action game or you prefer to bash things with your Lightsaber(s).
Jedi Survivor offers a great Enemy variety
I can’t express how much I enjoyed playing against all sorts of enemies. Bedlam Raiders, battle droids from the Clone Wars era, Imperial Troopers, Bounty Hunters, deathly creatures, and obviously the boss fights.
In Jedi Survivor standard enemies are a lot more punishing than Fallen Order, at least that was my impression. I’m really used to messing around and not taking fights too seriously, as a result, I was defeated on multiple occasions due to dumb mistakes.
The first encounter with an iconic Star Wars creature caught me completely by surprise. But what really surprised me is the return of the true Jedi Fallen Order final boss. I’ll let you figure out who I’m talking about…
The more I progressed through the story the more I had to adapt to every enemy, especially three of the last main bosses. All of them have patterns and exploitable weaknesses but you can’t use the same tactic to defeat all of them. Some skills can be translated to other fights but for the majority that’s not the case.
A negative point is that there aren’t enough boss fights that feel memorable. Once you figure out how to defeat most of them it’s just a matter of patience and precision. Only a few really push you which I think it’s a shame considering how high the stakes are for the characters involved.
Your adventure continues after the Credits roll
The story is the best part of the game but there are plenty of things to do after you’ve finished it. Getting all the cosmetics is certainly one of the first things that I tried to do.
Some of them aren’t reachable until you have all abilities unlocked which doesn’t happen until the later parts of the game.
There are also legendary enemies waiting to be discovered and defeated. Just like the game cosmetics, you must have all abilities unlocked to find them. Some of them are hidden in plain sight, so make sure to return to re-explore every location.
Not every quest is about saving the galaxy, the people of Koboh still need help with minor tasks so following Rumors is also a good way to spend your time in a Galaxy far, far away.
After finishing the game, the “New Journey+” option is unlocked. Start a new game with your current skill points refunded, abilities reset, three new perks that will increase the difficulty of the game, and two new lightsaber blade colors.
Accessibility Options for everyone
Everyone should be able to enjoy a game like Star Wars Jedi Survivor but sometimes there are conditions out of our control that might prevent us from appreciating it to its fullest potential. The good news is that Jedi Survivor features a lot of accessibility options to make your experience easier.
These are some of the said options that I find to be more useful: Subtitle Size toggle, HUD Scale, Camera Shake, Slow Mode, Arachnophobia Safe Mode, being able to turn Dismemberment on/off, and a Blind Mode that affects every important UI element of the game.
I really appreciate that Respawn added these features, one would think that it is standard practice for a game of this importance but sadly it’s not.
A very popular game that was recently released by a major studio didn’t include Arachnophobia Safe Mode despite having a lot of spiders. There are things that can be criticized about this game but the accessibility isn’t one of them.
Performance is a hit and miss
Before talking about the final verdict, I have to address that there are a lot of performance issues. Obviously, what we at VULKK.com were provided is not the release version so hopefully, patch 0 fixes all or most of these problems.
The most common issues were massive FPS drops, stuttering, ghosting, out-of-sync audio during cutscenes, and game crashes. It is annoying but understandable considering that the game has not even been released.
In case you are wondering, these are the PC configurations (CPU/GPU/RAM) where Jedi Survivor was played:
i7 7700x / RTX 3080 / 32 GB DDR4
i7 7820X / RTX 3080Ti / 16 GB DDR4
i7 9700k / RTX 4090 / 32 GB DDR4
Ryzen 5600 / RTX 3060 Ti/ 16 GB DDR4
Ryzen 3800XT / RTX 3070 Ti/ 32 GB DDR4
Every PC has different hardware and all of them had persistent problems with FPS, stuttering, and ghosting so if you have the same issues there’s a big chance that your PC is not the problem. I will update this segment when future patches are released.
Final Verdict
Jedi Survivor takes every appealing element of Fallen Order and enhances it significantly. The world-building is amazing, I could spend hours contemplating and exploring some of the ruins, temples, houses, and fortresses that appear in the game.
The interaction between NPCs can be hilarious if you pay attention to what they say but underestimating them during a fight can prove fatal. I like this because it keeps you focused and with your guard up.
The combat is taken to a whole new level with so many stances, abilities, and force powers. There are so many possible combinations for every play style. What is going to limit you is your own skill, for better or worse.
Most enemies are different in terms of appearance and mechanics but only a few feel worthy of mentioning which is a little disappointing. However, I feel that those that are memorable compensate for it. Learning enemy patterns is always fun and very rewarding if you actually take the time to do it.
Even after finishing the game, there’s so much to do. I’m all about finding every collectible but if you are a fan of increased difficulties you are going to have a good time. I’m not sure if it’s on Dark Souls/Elden Ring level of hard but it is certainly a challenge.
The puzzles aren’t too hard and the fact that you can solve them without having to run around finding hints is an improvement over Fallen Order. The mechanics are simple but the fact that almost every puzzle is different prevents this from being boring.
Jedi Survivor is connected to the Obi-Wan Kenobi Series and Phase I of the High Republic which is something I value a lot. Even if it’s subtle, learning how stories from different eras are connected makes me so excited. Who knows, maybe there’s a possibility of future Star Wars projects that are related to this game or its characters.
We got a very intimate perspective of every main character. Being able to see them show their vulnerabilities while also showing growth and maturity let me appreciate the journeys and evolution of each one of them.
The best thing about Jedi Survivor is by far the story. I laughed on countless occasions, cheered when something that I was really looking forward to finally happened, my heart was broken, anger took over me and my eyes couldn’t believe what happened on the screen. I felt like a small child when playing it and for me, that’s what Star Wars is all about.
I really enjoyed playing it but it’s not perfect. The performance issues were very frustrating, sometimes it made me want to stop playing for a couple of hours.
Having all enemies respawn when resting is a double-edged sword. It can be very useful to farm experience but if you are struggling complete an area it becomes like a loop where you can’t continue because you must heal and recover stims but by doing so the enemies that almost killed you will return.
Using the Force in combat is very fun but it is very limited. I’d have enjoyed having the option to fight with more diverse force abilities. For example, something to channel the dark side of the Force.
Perks are great as they can have a huge impact on your gameplay experience but I’m not a fan of having to look for them. There are a lot of them and not many are accessible when playing the game for the first time.
Now that I have addressed the positives and negatives, I am convinced that Star Wars Jedi Survivor is a worthy successor of Jedi Fallen Order and you should absolutely play it at least once in your life.
Siow, Endonae, RubyRose, Vulkk, and I have been and will continue working hard to make the best guides for Star Wars Jedi Survivor, make sure to check them out!
If you haven’t decided on which edition and platform to get the game on, consult with our Jedi Survivor Editions Differences guide.
