Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: The Review

Overview

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a sequel that builds on everything that worked in Jedi: Fallen Order, making it bigger, more polished, and more personal, while also upgrading most of the gameplay systems the original game had. Respawn has tightened up the combat and exploration, and Cal Kestis’ journey hits harder this time around, with more emotional weight and depth added to this ragtag team of rebels. The worlds are larger, traversal feels smoother, and the combat gives you more ways to play. It’s not a perfect game: some technical issues and pacing problems pop up, but overall, this is easily one of the strongest Star Wars games we’ve seen in a long time.

Score: 8.5 out of 10

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The Positives ✅

There’s a lot that Jedi: Survivor does right compared to Fallen Order, but the combat system stands out for me as one of the highlights. The new stances, especially the duel-wield one, were game-changers in how I actually approached fights. You can play more aggressively or defensively depending on how you upgrade Cal, and that variety makes encounters feel fresh throughout the entire game without ever feeling like you're just doing the same thing. Enemies help with that too – there's a better variety of enemy types this time, from standard stormtroopers to alien creatures and even some Force-users, which helps keep you on your toes.

Exploration is also much more engaging than in the first game. Planets like Koboh and Jedha are massive, and they’re not just large for the sake of it. The game actively encourages you to revisit these planets often for additional missions, and that helps the planets not feel like one-offs but instead makes them feel a part of the story itself. You'll encounter a lot more side content, secret bosses, and little bits of story that flesh things out throughout the six planets you visit. The new traversal moves, such as the grapple and air dash, make platforming smoother and backtracking not nearly as frustrating. Plus, the customization options are kind of ridiculous in the best way – changing Cal's outfit, lightsaber, and even his beard style doesn’t affect the gameplay, but it adds a weird little personal touch that I ended up enjoying a lot because it felt as though I had made Cal my own.

Story-wise, it’s also a step up from Fallen Order as Cal’s journey feels more emotional this time, and you can tell he’s been through some things. It’s darker, more introspective, and gives you a better look at the pressure of being a Jedi with everything falling apart around you.

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The Negatives ⚠️

While Jedi: Survivor is a significant improvement in many areas compared to Fallen Order, it is not without its own personal flaws. At launch, the game was hindered by several technical issues, frame rate drops, bugs, and general performance problems, which were particularly noticeable on the PC release. Although a few patches have helped clean things up, the game's rocky state at release was difficult to overlook while writing this review.

The pacing of the game can also feel inconsistent as some sections feel unnecessarily long due to the game sometimes relying a bit too heavily on filler quests just to extend playtime. Even with the option for fast travel, there are moments where backtracking across large areas slows down the pacing of the game to a halt. A few of the side quests feel like filler, either repeating the same types of objectives that have already been done or offering rewards that do not feel worth the necessary time and effort to complete them. Although this is not enough to detract from the overall game, it is noticeable when compared to how polished the core experience can be.

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The Experience 🎮

Playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor took me roughly 40 hours to complete 100%, including all the side quests and exploration. Combat feels spectacular in this game, with a good amount of depth and variety. The larger, detailed worlds invited me to slow down and explore, which added a lot to my overall experience. Cal’s story felt more personal and emotionally grounded than in Fallen Order, which made the stakes feel real and gave the game a surprising depth that I wasn't expecting to find when I started the game.

That said, I did experience some technical hiccups here and there, which occasionally pulled me out of the moment. The backtracking sometimes slowed things down more than I would have liked, but fast travel helped ease that frustration. Overall, Survivor left me hopeful and excited for what a third game could bring—especially if it builds on the strengths here while tightening up the overall experience.