Some background info, I thought Fallen Order kinda mid. Couldn't tell you much of the story and the combat was jank. Sekiro outclassed it in every way for me in 2019.
In Survivor, I felt they vastly improved a lot of systems. The combat is really fun and might be some of the best combat this year. The parrying is smooth and satisfying and doesn't feel like jank anymore. It feels a lot closer to a Star Wars version of my beloved Sekiro. The movement has also been improved with new tools to traverse the map. On top of it, the boss fights are actually KINO especially a certain boss around the middle of the game. Difficulty wise, I played on Jedi Master (Hard mode) and thought the game was pretty damn easy. If you want a challenge, I suggest trying Master or Grandmaster mode.
Now the bad part. The navigation sucks in this game. This is one of those rare games I would actually want some kind of mini-map on the top right or objective marker on the screen because holy hell the game is confusing sometimes and where to go. It's not all the time but it happened a couple times that it really annoyed me.
This might not annoy everyone but I also hated the amount of puzzles and platforming sections in the first 1/3rd of the game. This was actually one of the reasons I really didn't like Fallen Order. It had too many puzzles and platforming and very little combat. I don't mind puzzles and platforming to break up the level but when it feels like 10 minutes of straight platforming and puzzles, you start to lose me.
In Survivor, there was a small stretch the game just felt like a platformer and not an action game. Thankfully, it stopped and the last 2/3rds of the game was insanely raw with a tons of combat sections. The "semi-open world" stuff is mainly all puzzle shrines with some bosses here and there so i kinda skipped it after dabbling in it for a bit and just mainlined the main story. It's not "bad" but its not for me. I would appreciate if the third game functioned like Elden Ring and all the hidden dungeons around the open world had challenging bosses that gave cool loot. Since its just puzzles, platforming, and more puzzles, I decided to skip out on it especially since the rewards weren't game changing.
Story Wise, I actually really liked the story and characters in this one a lot. Cal Kestis is a much better character and a lot more interesting than the first game. The supporting characters are top notch and have good chemistry with each other and Cal. The antagonists are also really really good and a big upgrade from the bland forgettable ones we had in Fallen Order. Don't wanna say too much on it because there's actually some really cool moments in this game.
The game overall took me about 24 hours to beat while doing some side content but skipping most of it. Highly recommend if you liked the ideas in Fallen Order but thought it had lots of jank. I am excited to see what they do for a third game and where they take Cal's character.
Also side note on performance: I played on PlayStation 5. The performance was good for 90% of the game on performance mode. I had 1 crash the whole game and the only times the frame rate dropped were in the semi-open world sections (which I ended up ignoring) and when transitioning into a cutscene. This personally did not annoy me but its worth pointing out for those who can't stand technical issues.
In Survivor, I felt they vastly improved a lot of systems. The combat is really fun and might be some of the best combat this year. The parrying is smooth and satisfying and doesn't feel like jank anymore. It feels a lot closer to a Star Wars version of my beloved Sekiro. The movement has also been improved with new tools to traverse the map. On top of it, the boss fights are actually KINO especially a certain boss around the middle of the game. Difficulty wise, I played on Jedi Master (Hard mode) and thought the game was pretty damn easy. If you want a challenge, I suggest trying Master or Grandmaster mode.
Now the bad part. The navigation sucks in this game. This is one of those rare games I would actually want some kind of mini-map on the top right or objective marker on the screen because holy hell the game is confusing sometimes and where to go. It's not all the time but it happened a couple times that it really annoyed me.
This might not annoy everyone but I also hated the amount of puzzles and platforming sections in the first 1/3rd of the game. This was actually one of the reasons I really didn't like Fallen Order. It had too many puzzles and platforming and very little combat. I don't mind puzzles and platforming to break up the level but when it feels like 10 minutes of straight platforming and puzzles, you start to lose me.
In Survivor, there was a small stretch the game just felt like a platformer and not an action game. Thankfully, it stopped and the last 2/3rds of the game was insanely raw with a tons of combat sections. The "semi-open world" stuff is mainly all puzzle shrines with some bosses here and there so i kinda skipped it after dabbling in it for a bit and just mainlined the main story. It's not "bad" but its not for me. I would appreciate if the third game functioned like Elden Ring and all the hidden dungeons around the open world had challenging bosses that gave cool loot. Since its just puzzles, platforming, and more puzzles, I decided to skip out on it especially since the rewards weren't game changing.
Story Wise, I actually really liked the story and characters in this one a lot. Cal Kestis is a much better character and a lot more interesting than the first game. The supporting characters are top notch and have good chemistry with each other and Cal. The antagonists are also really really good and a big upgrade from the bland forgettable ones we had in Fallen Order. Don't wanna say too much on it because there's actually some really cool moments in this game.
The game overall took me about 24 hours to beat while doing some side content but skipping most of it. Highly recommend if you liked the ideas in Fallen Order but thought it had lots of jank. I am excited to see what they do for a third game and where they take Cal's character.
Also side note on performance: I played on PlayStation 5. The performance was good for 90% of the game on performance mode. I had 1 crash the whole game and the only times the frame rate dropped were in the semi-open world sections (which I ended up ignoring) and when transitioning into a cutscene. This personally did not annoy me but its worth pointing out for those who can't stand technical issues.