Spoiler Warning

Finished this game with a mixed bag of feelings. Everything that was good and bad with Fallen Order is applicable to this one to.

On the one hand, being in one of the vastest, and free to traverse Star Wars worlds yet was really fun. Although, I wouldn't go as far as to say that this game is 'open world', it certainly offers more in terms of exploration than its predecessor. Moreover, the movement mechanics pick up where you left them in Fallen Order which is a nice logical step forward. The mechanics that you learn throughout your journey also add more depth to what I already considered a pretty polished move set. This gave traversing the world and combat more engaging purely from a movement standpoint. However, this game still doesn’t give you the opportunity to experiment (outside of combat).

Much like with Fallen Order, this game is visually impactful. All the assets used look so incredibly polished and clean. The atmospheric music and the sound effects aided in immersing me into this game. The sound of powering a lightsabre on and off or deflecting a blaster shot will never not give me chills. With acknowledging that visual bugs definitely had a place throughout my time, (mostly some rendering issues) none impacted my ability to play the game.

Customisation was honestly one of the most enjoyable parts. Everything on you can be customised. The options available are also quite vast too. The intricacies of the lightsabre customisation were something that really sucked me in. I’m glad that they gave you the full option of colours from the get go.

Combat got a pretty big overhaul. New Stances, new skills and new animations. For the most part, all of these new features added a breath of fresh air to the combat. Having to invest time into each of the stances to truly see the capabilities of each, was a fun and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, the real issue I had with the combat and the game as a whole were 2 things: hitboxes and unbalanced enemies.
The hitboxes in this game are broken. Plain and simple. I cannot count the amount of times that things that just shouldn’t have damaged me, did. Especially playing on Jedi Master, this was incredibly frustrating.
The regular enemies in this game aren’t too dissimilar to the first game. The only difference being a couple new enemies, new wildlife and all the existing enemies having a Bedlam Raiders variant. Amongst all of this and bosses aside, this game is in an intimate relationship with ganking the player. Even with the tips that this game gives you for every enemy (which personally I’m not a fan of), I can’t really perfectly parry and avoid, a security droid enforcer, two DT sentry droids and, two heavy assault troopers. That may be an exaggeration as I can’t remember a specific encounter, but those that have played I think will understand. This rant will continue into the ‘bosses’ portion of this review.

For the most part, the bosses in this game are fun and challenging. The main antagonist fights feel justified and just difficult enough. Even though it only took me a maximum of 3 times to beat them, there still enough elements of trial and error to make the overall fights enjoyable, although not overly memorable. Apart from that, the rest of the bosses comprised of reskinned animal bosses (legendary animal! Ooooo), Raiders that somehow found lightsabres and 3 bounty hunters that get reskinned however many times.
This is where the rant continues. I am so incredibly dulled and unmotivated to fight a boss that is a previous boss multiplied by 2 or 3. This without a doubt is the laziest way to add difficulty to a boss fight. This combined with some bosses that have the ability to one-shot you AND combined with the horrible hitboxes makes for incredibly frustrating experience. I’d like to give a shout-out to the 2 Spawns of Oggdo, 2 Rancors and (because I didn’t know I could destroy the doors until after I did this) those 3 raiders with lightsabres.
I understand that this might be unpopular, but I’m beginning to get tired of the use of Vader. Don’t get me wrong, his appearance in the first game was an awesome experience and is honestly one of the reasons I even played the sequel. His boss fight was also really fun in this game. However, the timing of this encounter, the relevance to the overall plot, and what comes about because of it all had me questioning what the point of it was. The only logical justification for having him in the game (as well as other notable characters), is fan service. Unlike Vader, the other notable characters I feel were done much better.

The overall story was quite good. The start and the end are very strong. However, the middle portion and where the majority of the gameplay resides is quite empty and lacklustre. Similarly, to the first game, but expanded upon in this game, I appreciated the darker elements. The elements of loss, anger, revenge and betrayal are all common themes amongst the Star Wars universe. Cal’s continued personal development and the development of the rest of the crew has come to fruition. The added romantic tension between Cal and Merrin adds another layer of depth to the group. It also couldn’t be a Star Wars product if it wasn’t completely saturated in hope.

Overall, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a decent expansion into what I predict (and hope haha) will become a trilogy in the future. It’s a project that both active and passive fans of Star Wars will enjoy. Personally, I believe this and the first project are the best pieces of media that the Star Wars brand has put out in a very long time.