Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – First Impressions

The long-awaited sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out now on Xbox Series X|S, and we've spent some time flinging stormtroopers off buildings and slicing off limbs to bring you our first impressions on Cal Kestis' latest outing.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is finally here, and while we didn’t quite have enough time for a full review due to the code coming in after launch, we’ve opted for a quick First Impressions article to get our thoughts out there on the Fallen Order sequel.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gameplay trailer

Survivor opens with Jedi fugitive Cal Kestis arrested and handed over to a senator on the city planet Coruscant, with its towering megastructures, neon lights, and flying space cars. From the off, you can tell that EA and Respawn have gone all out in the visuals department, and the attention to detail is second to none — Survivor looks absolutely fantastic, and the world created is exactly what I wanted from a Star Wars game. What happens next is a Star Wars thrill ride that will have you force-pushing stormtroopers off the side of buildings into the dark abyss and slashing off limbs as you clamber over rooftops and through the underworld of Coruscant to capture a crashed space yacht. It’s a superb opening tutorial that’s filled with Star Wars blockbuster action and mixed with some Dark Souls-inspired gameplay.

In my ten-or-so hours with the game so far, two of the biggest improvements over Fallen Order that I’ve noticed are with the combat and traversal. The combat is excellent, and I was happy to see that Respawn hadn’t come up with some arbitrary reason to nerf Cal of his powers and abilities from Fallen Order — he’s still a capable Jedi. Sure, not everything has made the jump to Survivor for obvious gameplay reasons, but you still get to live out that power fantasy of being a Jedi with plenty of force powers, lightsaber styles, and attacks. The overall combat is more complex but feels fluid. The inclusion of lightsaber stances really changes how the game is played and requires you to consider your approach when it comes to a challenging enemy or a group of enemies — do you want to clear everyone out of the room with the slower but deadly double-bladed lightsaber, or do you want to dual wield your light sabre to do less damage but build up your force meter to unleash a devastating force attack? Survivor adds options to the combat experience and improves on an area some considered weak with Fallen Order.

As for traversal, Cal now leaps, bounds, flips, and wall runs like a dream. In Fallen Order, the wall-running was always a bit off and incredibly frustrating when you’d not stick a landing and slip off into the dark unknown. With Survivor, Respawn has worked out the traversal kinks, and Cal now speeds through environments and platforming sections without issue. Talking of speeding through environments, you can now fast travel and use mounts to get around the larger open area, saving you from all that frustrating backtracking.

On Koboh, the second planet in the game, the training wheels are off, and you can explore much more freely once you reach a certain point. Again, Respawn has created an interesting, rich, and highly-detailed world that begs you to explore its rocky landscape and lush forest while cutting down stormtroopers and a menagerie of weird and wonderful Star Wars creatures, familiar and new. Of course, you won’t be exploring Koboh and the other worlds Survivor offers just for kicks, as there are lightsaber parts, clothing, hairstyles and beards to collect — it’s a little odd finding a buzzcut tucked away in a box in the middle of a forest, but whatever works, I guess! You’ll also have side-missions to complete here and Zelda-like shrines with complex puzzles that will get the old noggin’ working.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor new lightsaber stances

Quality mode? This is the way

Sadly even with all of the excellent work Respawn has put into Survivor, the game’s woeful performance, annoying bugs, and visual issues hamper the experience. Putting it bluntly, the performance mode is unacceptable. On Series X, performance mode dialled back the resolution so much that the game became a blurry mess that still couldn’t maintain a solid 60fps. Luckily, the quality mode sings and doesn’t suffer all too much from performance dips, so for now, this is the way the game should be played. Of course, you are limited to 30fps here, but Survivor’s motion blur does help smooth over things somewhat. On top of performance issues, I’ve encountered numerous bugs in my ten hours with the game and had it crash on me several times, which resulted in lost progress. I’ve had textures not load in correctly and flicker, the audio cut out, and have been unable to progress in some areas. Thankfully, Respawn has announced that an update to improve performance and fix some issues is rolling out to players today, so a few of these problems should be sorted out soon.

Aside from all the bugs and performance issues, I have loved my time so far with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. From the excellent combat to the detailed worlds to explore, Survivor is a worthy sequel that could be shaping up to be my favourite Star Wars game of all time — I can’t wait to see where it takes me next. If you are on the fence about this one and playing at 60fps is important to you, definitely wait until Respawn has rolled out a few patches to get the game in a decent state.

How are you finding Star Wars Jedi: Survivor so far? Let us know down in the comments!

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Xbox Series X|S First Impressions

Written by Sean Carey

Avid Xbox and achievement fan, Sean has committed to playing the best RPGs, racing games, and first-person shooters Xbox Game Pass and his precious free time will allow. Prior to joining TrueAchievements, Sean gained a degree in journalism from Solent University.