20 | he/him | Huge CBM fan ~ Writing mediocre reviews for every game I play (I'm trying to improve)
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Extremely hard to please therefore I am never finding a masterpiece :(
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74-84 / â â â â = Great
85-94 / â â â â ½
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(Non-spoiler review, but the third paragraph contains minor spoilers for the second half of the game)
I probably shouldnât have made Silent Hill: The Short Message my first foray into the Silent Hill franchise, and although it shares no connection to the other entries, I wish I wouldâve played those first to be able to give more insight into how well it stands against them, but the damage is done⌠so whatever! Iâm not going to go too deep into this one, as itâs a freeâtwo hour horror game akin to some random steam indie, and I donât want to spend too much time thinking about thisâhonestly? Complete and utter fucking waste of potential.
The idea of a self-contained, standalone, high-budget horror game aiming to convey a brutally honest and sincere story of anguish with mental health undertones is brilliant, but the execution is shockingly piss poor here. At timesâmost times⌠it feels as if this was written by a film student without a single creative bone in their body. Itâs generic, with blatantly underdeveloped themes due to its tightânot even two hourâruntime, and its worst aspect is how on the nose the writing is; throwing constant talking points at you with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Some people are excusing and chalking this up to how short the game is, and thatâd make senseâclearly thatâs part of the issue, but itâs still an issue. It doesnât matter if thereâs a reason for a particular shortcoming⌠a shortcoming is still a shortcoming. And for me personally, if a game is talking at you rather than guiding you through the experience⌠it becomes exhausting to play. âBullying is badâ, âSuicide is not the answerâ, âTalk to people youâre close to about your problemsâ, is it me or did I just get transported back to 2017 when Netflixâs 13 Reasons Why released? Like fuck me! Come up with something more interesting to say about such complicated issues. I know this isnât the best comparison, but a game called Gris delved into similar topics and was substantially more subtle and in-turn meaningful about themâand not only that, it had gameplay that meshed well with its writing and aesthetic to a degree. But thatâs on the completely opposite side of the spectrum as people said it felt too abstract; and I guess thatâs a line these games have to toe sometimes⌠but I much prefer the latter.
And it pains me to say all of this, because there are some good ideas at play here. Specifically the whole child abuse angle, I think the game does well to showcase the dread of having to endure a parentâsâa monsterâs spiraling mental stability; circumstances continuously worsen until you finally break and all of their mistakes ripple into the rest of your life⌠leaving you to pick up the pieces. Like a dark cloud hanging over you, chasing you through every step of the way known as lifeâevery loud thud, getting closer and closer; wondering if youâll ever escape them... Itâs a haunting metaphor that the game doesnât fully pursue, as Iâm sure âthe monsterâ is linked more so to Anitaâs friend: Maya, as they both share the same sweaterârather than her mother. I suppose the metaphor works both ways. Maya and Anitaâs mother are two sides of the same coin, both events drastically propelled Anitaâs life into chaos and pure misery; so I think it makes sense if theyâre both chasing her throughout the maze, acting as a personification for life itself. But thatâs sadly where the positives end. The 15 points I gave has everything to do with that thread. Whereas everything to do with the: âIâm uglyâ, âShe gets more likes and followers than meâ story is woefully inept at conveying anything engaging⌠at least for me. And Iâm not saying real people donât experience feelings like thatâthey obviously, very much do! Itâs sometimes hard not to when so much of your life is based around seeing the highlight reels of other peopleâs lives in the form of social media, but a game isnât real lifeâand I donât think it has any business portraying something so mundane with nothing new to say. I genuinely think my personal experience with bullying is more creative, and it feels weird to power scale âbullyingâ, but fuck me if it isnât true! Youâll have to take my word on that one though, I am not elaborating further⌠But thatâs pretty much the entire reason why the story didnât click with me; and so the ending with the clear, hopeful sunrise directly contrasted against the bleak and fog-filled start menu⌠didnât feel earned to me. Itâs a nice way of conveying an arc of sorts, but at the same time⌠was it impactful enough to make me care about it? Nope, I canât say that it was. But thatâs not even the worst part⌠the gameplay is.
Iâm not well-versed with walking sims, I donât think Iâve ever really played one for longer than a few hours. But as far as I can tell, there doesnât seem to be much here? Itâs very linear in the way that the player is literally tasked with going from one room/hallway to the next, to look at notes, which more often than not will trigger a chase sectionâyou then complete it, and the cycle restarts. Itâs nothing groundbreakingâin fact, itâs among the most generic gameplay loops Iâve ever seen; and along with all the issues Iâve gone over forms a really dull experience. Its most aggravating aspect are the aforementioned chase sections. These are little âpuzzlesâ that you have to solve by finding the correct door in a maze while outrunning a monster. And thereâs definitely something exhilarating about them; runningâbut seemingly never being able to escape it, hearing those powerful footsteps bang against the concrete floor every step of the wayâright behind you, while you slowly open doors and what-not⌠but when itâs so heavily rooted in trial and errorâwhich it is, it becomes a slog. The final chase is the most guilty of this, because youâre essentially running through countless rooms that all look the same trying to find five random photographs, and if by chance you die then you'll have to repeat the entire thing; and I canât emphasize this enough⌠itâs BORING, itâs AWFUL, itâs HEADACHE INDUCING. I had exactly zero fun with it.
The funniest thing by far is that Silent Hill: The Short Message is basically a UE5 tech demo⌠with the one huge downside being that it runs like complete fucking ass! The FPS go from the high 50s to the 30s very often due to how many assets are on screen. Iâm convinced thereâs forced motion blur too? But Iâve seen nobody mention this so I canât be sure, all I know is that turning the camera felt like shitâand I couldnât see anything. Lip syncing is also terrible, although maybe thatâs intentional? Either way, it doesnât look good and makes focusing on the cutscenes difficult because Iâm constantly distracted by its weird visuals. And if this is what the future of UE5 looks like for the Playstation 5⌠then I donât want it. Iâd rather get a technically competent UE4 game with consistent performance that doesnât take me out of the experience. I donât think UE5 is viable for this console generation, as the only way to achieve stable performance would be through very heavy-handed upscaling techniques that weâve seen plenty of games use so far ahem Jedi: Survivor, ahem Final Fantasy XVI; and both of these are using older engines! So yeah... but maybe on the Playstation 6!
All in all? This game made me want to kill myself.
Playtime: 1.6 hours
Every Game Iâve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Playstation Exclusives - Ranked
Silent Hill - Ranked
2024 - Ranked
This review contains spoilers
My Uncharted: Drakeâs Fortune review if you want more context (beware of the quality difference! I feel like Iâve improved a lot since then).
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is often heralded a masterpiece, the best of the franchise, and is certainly one of the most beloved Playstation exclusives of all timeâwith people praising the abundance of exhilarating high-spectacle set pieces, the pulpy nature of both the story and characters, and the pure adventure of it all. If you want a review thatâll regurgitate all of that to you⌠then youâve come to the wrong place. I like this game. I enjoyed it. Itâs good. And itâs a step-up from Drakeâs Fortune. But in my humble opinion, itâs severely overrated, and Iâm convinced most people take a big dose of copium/nostalgia when they rate this game a perfect score (not that you shouldnât). And I get it! This isnât a first-time playthrough for me, I used to play these first two games religiously when I was younger, and I loved both of them, but as youâve just readâmy love for them has only deteriorated. Recently Iâve found myself longing for something more, something more personal, something that might challenge meâhowever that may be, and maybe thatâs on me for placing such expectations on an Uncharted game, but I go into every game with those expectationsâsometimes theyâre met, sometimes theyâre notâregardless, I appreciate the games that make me feel, more than the games that are nothing but a short stop at the entertainment venue. Which is all this game is. Itâs not complex, itâs very simple in factâtoo simple. Thereâs no finesse or depth to the combat, the platforming is nothing but an excuse to prolong the game and give you a chance to look at some beautiful environments (the only valid reason), the puzzles are still the most undemanding and pointless inclusions Iâve ever seen in a game like this; everythingâfrom the gameplay to the story is by-the-books and uninspired. Itâs like Uncharted 2 is an appetizerâsomething light before the main course; an experience so weightless, that youâll forget it ever happened within a week of finishing the game (I know how silly that sounds given its acclaim). But you might ask⌠why the three stars (albeit an extremely low three)? Well for that reason alone: the entertainment value. I canât deny that I had fun. So from here on out, this review will be split into three parts: the story, characters, and gameplay. And will detail why Iâpersonallyâbelieve these aspects to be a front for Naughty Dog to fill the screen with destruction galore and a bunch of big explosions.
Iâm not going to shamelessly recap the story, if you wantâhereâs a short video thatâll do just that in case you havenât played the game, but⌠who hasnât? So if you can go off by memory, then do thatâbut letâs not kid ourselves here, this game doesnât have much of a story so youâll be fine!
I want to paint a picture for you. Imagine laying down on your bed during a rainy night, turning on your PS5, booting up the game⌠and you hear it. Those drumsâin quick succession, building. The brass coming in with an adventurous and heroic melody, slowly dying down to reveal a melancholic strain thatâsignifies something more, something deeper; before building one final time to finish in an epic flourish that combines both parts. Thatâs right⌠itâs Nateâs Theme 2.0. Differing from 1.0 in the way of more instruments, but Iâm no music expert so I canât really elaborate on that. This themeâunlike the actual gameâimbues nostalgia in me on a level I canât describe, and is able to deliver more emotionâthan the entirety of the gameâin less than two minutes. Greg Edmonson clearly wanted to iconify something, and he succeeded with flying colors. This singular theme is some of the best video game music Iâve ever heard, and clashes tonally with the story of Uncharted 2 in a way that has always stood out to me. Itâs deep, thought-provoking, and emotionalâwhereas the story is none of those things. In typical Uncharted fashion, itâs an amalgamation of tropes from a bunch of action-adventure movies that were released in the 80s, with the huge one being Indiana Jones; the globe-trotting adventure, the romance, the betrayals, the artifacts, the villainâs self-serving desire to rule the worldâamong many, many more. Which is why people often defend the pulpy nature of it. They say âItâs not meant to be thought about!â. They say âDonât take it so seriously!â. They say âWho cares? Itâs just an action movie!â. I say⌠is the genre of action-adventure-pulp an excuse to write a painfully mediocre script that massively prioritizes style over substance whilst expecting the audience to not question any plot decisions? Because thereâs a ton of stuff that doesnât make any sense in this game; alongside creative decisions I fundamentally disagree with (Iâll go into some of those when I talk about characters). So as per usual, Nathan Drake is back to steal another artifact so he can stock up on some V-Bucks given how his last adventure left him brokeâboth in terms of relationship and financial status. Iâm bringing this up because itâs one of my biggest issues with the story here; thereâs hardly any connective tissue between Drakeâs Fortune and Among Thieves. Itâs a sequel, yes, but Iâm confident anyone could start with this one without batting an eye. Itâs a return to normalcy. A return to the status quo. Last gameâs story? Oh that! Forget about it⌠I mean it. Nate and Elenaâs promising relationship? Yeah? I said fucking forget it dude⌠or else. Because they got together and broke up off-screen! Itâs a shining example of the similarities between Uncharted and other action-adventure/espionage films such as Indiana Jones or James Bondâodd example, I knowâbut itâs an issue that plagues a lot of these massive blockbusters, the fact that nothing ever progresses from one to the next apart from obscure references. Itâs all a clean slate! None of it will ever amount to any meaningful character work or a storyline (or a part of one) that develops throughout the entire series. I understand thatâs a defining characteristic of these films/games, but itâs an aspect thatâs always been seared into the back of my brain while playingâthat none of it matters, the outcome will always be the same. And maybe it speaks to my disinterest in the genre of action-adventure pulp, but itâs hard to be invested. Itâs hard to care. And is that an unfair mindset to hold⌠since thatâs exactly what Naughty Dog were aiming for? I donât know. I canât tell you that. Maybe. Maybe not. All I can do is tell you how this game made me feel. And it made me feel precisely nothing. If it werenât for some of those high-octane set pieces, this would easily fall into the forever nothingness of⌠âmidâ.
To be completely blunt, thereâs not much worth talking about in terms of storyâthat wouldnât be me mindlessly recapping it while interjecting at certain points with a comment. Itâs all based around beats like âHey, take a look at this map/note/symbolâ, âLetâs go hereâ, set piece ensues, which now that Iâm thinking about it⌠is a critique in and of itself huh? But Iâd much rather talk about Among Thievesâ implementation of the supernatural⌠You can probably tell by my âtoneâ that I donât really like the supernatural element in this franchise at all. Now, this is the part where a lot of the Uncharted fandom is divided. Some fans love itâexclaiming that itâs what gives these games their own identity; while other players (myself included) dislike it because of their intrusiveness and out-of-place feel. I want to preface that having supernatural elements isnât inherently a bad thing, I actually applaud Naughty Dog for taking that approach in the first place; as I would agree with âsome fansâ in saying it gives these games a unique touch⌠but the execution is half-baked at best. The structure of exploring these elements has been the same in both games; occurring towards the latter-half, introducing fresh locales with new (annoying) enemiesâwhich links in with gameplayâand treating the whole ordeal as a twist (from the perspective of the characters). It comes off as very predictable storytelling. Thereâs always a massive change in tone that happens during the second halfâas itâs kept relatively âgroundedâ for the first. Itâs inconsistent and an annoying way of splitting up the game. If theyâre going to go in that direction, then commit to the idea of the supernatural? Itâs no surprise that the beginning-to-middle of these games are always the most enjoyable and fresh parts (for a myriad of reasonsâgameplay included). Itâs funny, because I genuinely like the setting of Shambala towards the end, but how come we didnât get to spend any time there? Apart from twoâheavily combat focusedâchapters. Let me absorb the gorgeously vivid, breathtaking atmosphere, let me explore the undeniably zany culture of the guardians, let me ground myself in this completely new world! But no, instead we have to hurry to the next set piece! This hearkens back to what I said about Unchartedâs story elements near the beginning of my review; it feels like theyâre an excuse to push the player into countless action sequences. Can they ever slow down? Can they ever actually take the time and effort to do something outside the box? Hell, even the Indiana Jones movies did that! And the rushed nature of the Shambala segment wasnât even worth it, because it resulted in a laughably bad boss fight followed by a (pretty much) beat-for-beat ending of the first game. Like??? Iâm sorry if all of this comes off as nitpicky or⌠petty, but I donât know how else to express my thoughts on this game, it doesnât sit right with me. And to end this segment off, I donât know why Nate and Elena have trouble believing in Shambala's legitimacy when they literally encountered Nazi-fucking-zombies in the last game? Why do they all of a sudden find the possibility of a secret city hard to believe⌠it makes no sense, I donât buy it. All in all, itâs safe to say that I didnât enjoy the story of Among Thievesâmuch like its predecessor! Itâs middling in some aspectsâdownright bad in others, and doesnât try to do anything new or worthwhile. I donât know much about Uncharted 4, but I do know that it takes a completely different approach to its storytelling, a far more realistic and nuanced approach, which makes me curious, hopeful, and above all elseâexcitedâto get to that entry.
âYou got a great ass, Sully.â
If thereâs one thing I undeniably like about this franchise⌠itâs the charactersâor more accurately their witty and sarcastic interactions with each other. Itâs what makes those âgoing from point A to Bâ sections of the game tolerable and occasionally funny. Whatâs better is thereâs more characters in this one. In Drakeâs Fortune it was mostly centered around Nate and Elenaâwho have the least amount of chemistry due to the fact that theyâre both very different people and thus have less of an aptitude for bouncing off of each other in humorous or creative ways. Not to say that I donât like her or the pairing in generalâbecause I do! Itâs actually one of my most anticipated aspects of the fourth game, but the writing lets it down in this entry because of how focused it is on those sarcastic comments instead of building up their relationship or showing why they even⌠like each other? I need more to truly care about them as a couple; instead of constantly telling the audience that Nateâs jealous of Jeff through little remarks with Chloe, how about you have Nate talk about what exactly their relationship was like, what went wrong, and why he wants to get back together with her. I know youâd be sacrificing the humor (for a few chapters), but itâd do magnitudes in building up their dynamic. Whatâs even better is you could intertwine those moments around Chloe. Build up all three of their characters at once! But they clearly had no intention of doing anything even remotely similar to that⌠which is why the ending when they get back together comes off as rushed and weirdly⌠out of place? I didnât pick up on any sexual tension between them while playing, itâs not like they were getting closer or more intimate throughout. Itâs almost like itâs a happy ending for the sake of a happy ending, it means precisely fucking nothing because it says nothing. I do wonder if theyâll still be together in the third game, or if sheâll even be in the next game. Maybe a potential return to the status quo!? I canât wait!
Nate & Chloe take more of the focus here (at least for the first half), a nice surprise since I liked her selfish and double-crossing mannerâin what is otherwise an underdeveloped characterâmaking for some fairly compelling and unexpected moment to moment gameplay. Sheâs just really fun?âas if this franchise needed even more of that⌠but it does make me excited for her spin-off. The title of best duo easily goes to Nate & Sully though, which is a shame considering heâs only in two chapters. Thatâs a missed opportunity and a half. So much of Unchartedâs identity is based around their father-son bond, so itâs weird to me that I havenât seen any of that two whole games in (much less a critique and more of an observation). Like who the fuck are these people? Does Sully not care about Nateâs well being as he left him with a woman he barely knows to go off to find Shambala of all places? He then magically reappears at the end with no explanation⌠I really donât appreciate the Sully underutilization. His displeased reluctancy to every situation is the best part of this series.
A huge point of contention within this franchise is the whole âNate is a bad person who kills hundreds of people without remorseâ argument. I only kind of agree with this. Ludonarrative dissonance is a term that effectively means thereâs a difference between the narrative and gameplay elements in a game, one doesnât necessarily have to adhere to the other for continuity's sake; theyâre basically two differentâisolated parts of a game that donât share the same logic. With this term in mind, Nate doesnât actually kill hundreds of people in a single day, itâs more like a dozen (from boss fights/cutscenes). And I donât have an issue with this explanation at all, I meanâsure, itâd be an interesting way to deconstruct a character like Nate; integrate themes of mortality and morality, but in the endâitâs not what Naughty Dog were aiming for, so the exclusion is fine. But my issue lies more with how inconsistent that explanation is when you take the ending into account. Why did they bring it up? Why did they call attention to it? If they hadnât, thereâs no issue⌠but they did. Not only did they call it out through one of the worst villains Iâve ever seen, itâs also an outright dumb thing for the game to do considering theyâve put no effort into establishing that as part of its themes. The closest they get is Nate not wanting to kill any innocent guards during chapter two⌠but⌠he throws one off the side of a building? In all fairness, he swims away if you look down, but why would Nate assume that he can swim? Or that the fall wouldnât kill him since itâs a 15+ story fall? Or that he wouldnât hit any walls or rocks on the way down? Again, Iâm probably not supposed to think about this! But I am, and it makes no sense. It seems like the swimming away part was added to counteract all the people that wouldâve called out the inconsistency. Itâs half-assed and lazy. LazareviÄâs entire speech introduces the idea that Nate is âmercilessâ and âcruelâ... and heâd be right. But why does he then take issue with killing LazareviÄ when heâs murdered countless goons who have families and are probably only doing their security job? So youâre telling me he can kill goons... but not the one genuinely terrible person who absolutely deserves to die? I got severe whiplash when this cutscene played because of the drastic change in tone; the entire game up until this point had been light fun with a few moments of drama sprinkled inâyet now theyâre talking about morality and shared violenceâtaking issue with killing horrible people when they didnât before. Itâs a weird shift. To my surprise Nate doesnât kill LazareviÄ and instead lets the Guardians finish him offâsort of disproving his point, but Iâm pretty sure he returns to cool old-fashioned murder right after this game? So I guess it was all in vain and didnât mean anything. Great! Thanks Naughty Dog, for some genuinely fantastic writing here! I said this before, but Iâm fine with ludonarrative dissonanceâas long as they donât call attention to it, but they did the exact opposite, and not only thatâbut in such an arbitrary way. On a fundamental level, I think story and gameplay should acknowledge each other. I think it leads to a more well-rounded experience, and exhibits intention where there otherwise wouldnât be, which is contrary to how it appears hereâintention-less! And more like a way to cover up their writing mistakes.
The way all of this is delivered through LazareviÄ is the most shocking aspect though. Lots of people go on about how heâs the seriesâ best villain, and if thatâs the case⌠what the fuck am I in for with the rest of this franchise? Because heâs not good at all. He comes across as cartoonish and mustache-twirlingâand not even in an entertaining or fun way. Thereâs usually something to latch onto with other roles of the same caliber; the actorâs performance, their personality, mannerismsâbut here heâs so shallow. Heâs a big tough military guy, who⌠wants moneyâno, he wants power! Woah! Really fun and creative Naughty Dog! Heâs more of a physical obstacle for Nate to overcome than a character with his own story. Does he impact Nate in any meaningful way? Does he allude to any themes? Does he do anything of value? No. Heâs dull and generic. I canât stress enough how bored I was whenever he popped up. Flynn on the other hand wouldâve been a much better alternative, he actually had a charming personality and some chemistry with Nateânot to mention history too! I donât know why he went out in such a disappointingly anticlimactic way when he was clearly the superior character.
âYeah, good luck pal, that's almost impossible to- oh, you did it. Nice.â
Weâve arrived at Unchartedâs most middling aspect, and thatâs obviously the gameplay. Iâd say this is a universally agreed on opinion, I donât think anyone genuinely likes Unchartedâs gameplay enough to play an isolated version of it. Itâs not what makes their games, as itâs a common complaint thrown at literally everything theyâve ever developed. Thereâs more variety in Among Thieves when compared to Drakeâs Fortune no doubtâas itâs a sequel, but I donât think it fixes any glaring issues the first game had, or improves upon any existing systems in noticeable or note-worthy ways. But⌠how can they really improve this system? Structurally, it requires the player to rush into every room to hit headshots with a bunch of interchangeable weapons; thereâs not much here, they dug their own grave when they made the gameplay take the form of a semi-grounded cover shooter. Naturally, a lot of this gameâs praise comes from the set piece momentsâand oh lemme tell you! Theyâre fun as hell! Going from that iconic first chapter of having to scale a train thatâs slowly toppling down a cliffâwhile bleeding all over the place, to sliding down a collapsing building, progressing through a moving train while being bombarded by a helicopter, running from a tank, hopping from moving truck to moving truckâalbeit clunkily⌠itâs all great stuff. Thereâs a lot of variety in terms of set pieces here. But seeing how (mostly) short they are, it doesnât sustain the game with âfunâ throughout, as right after one of these⌠youâre forced to do another shooting room! And another climbing section! And for some unknown reason⌠the first chapter again (thatâs right they make you repeat it twice, they couldâve easily connected the two timelines by having Nate resume from where he was before). They also couldâve put more effort into making mundane objectives more fun⌠like to disable an alarm system in chapter two all you have to do is flip a lever by finding it in the most obvious place ever and pressing a single button. Like thatâs it? Hell if thatâs what it takes to turn off alarms maybe I should get into the burglary business! I know it shouldnât explicitly adhere to realityâs rules, but they couldâve done something there? Put in a short minigame, a puzzle of sortsâas it already has a limited number of those. I say all of this but I actually did enjoy the stealthy nature of the second chapter, I thought it was a unique way to pace the game out and it was surprisingly creative with unconventional level design. Rooftops laid out in a fairly linear but open type way, never making the player feel like theyâre on rails or being guided by a hand in the sky; allowing for choice (although usually only two) in terms of how you approach âcombatâ scenarios or make your way to the next objective. Thankfully the QTEâs from Drakeâs Fortune are gone too, but thereâs still remnants of that here. Button prompts are littered everywhere (although I guess thatâs a staple of the seventh console generation), but I wish they flowed into gameplay seamlessly instead of being real-time cutscenes. Itâs a whole lotta âboost meâ, âpull down the bridgeâ, âopen the doorâ, it exemplifies the âcompanionshipâ vibe, but gameplay-wiseâit does nothing and its repetitiveness is starting to sink in for me.
Similarly, the same thing can be said about the shootingâbut I wonât be as gracious with it⌠Itâs the goddamn same. Among Thieves? No dude, itâs Drakeâs Fortune. There are no improvements here, apart from a bigger variety of weapons that donât impact gameplay whatsoever, as you can practically put all the weapons into one of two groups: slow fire rate vs fast fire rate; and the difficulty of the fight will be determined by which of these you have. The awfulâinaccurate bloom makes its return; when my crosshair is directly on top of an enemyâs head, the bullet somehow flies off to fucking Mars? The shooting is arcadey enough as it is, so I donât know why they would intentionally make it this way. Itâs so heavily rooted in luck. The weapons in general lack kick and oomph. Sound design is flat and sterile so it feels like youâre using a pea-shooter most of the time; guns do not feel like guns. This next thing might sound like a nitpick, but it makes a world of difference in a heat-of-the-moment shoot-out; whenever youâre aiming and decide to change shouldersâand by chance let go and re-aim, it switches back to the default (right) shoulder. This disrupts the flow of gameplay since it constantly demands changing it backâcausing a potential death (this is especially annoying on crushing/brutal difficulty). Itâs even worse on specific chapters that have shallow walls placed in the environmentâmeaning you canât properly hide behind them (without using the cover mechanicâwhich in and of itself is hit or miss and doesnât work a lot of the time). Although I appreciate that Among Thieves places most cover spots in naturalistic parts of the map; for example, in a jungle, a cover spot might be a tree, whereas the first game had an excessive amount of boxes placed everywhere, even if it made no logical sense (this is still a problem here, but less prominent). And a little side note; I genuinely hate the M32 Hammer and the RPG. Those two weapons donât have a blast radius which is an odd choice. They both shoot explosives, and I have to treat them like any other gunâdirectly shooting at enemiesâ chests. Itâs just another reasonâin a sea full of themâthat the guns feel awful. Whereâs the distinctiveness? Whereâs the power and force? Theyâre fucking explosives! Itâs really lackluster weapon design.
You know those moments in God of War (2018) when youâre climbing a mountain, or shuffling through a crack in a wall to another section of the map, or generally scaling something? Yeah, those moments work because you have constant banter, and more often than not important character building. Thereâs a back and forth there. Which is the entire reason those moments work. They progress arcs, give contextâhave value, and generally provide something to hold your attention as you get to the next fight or story moment. Among Thieves doesnât have any of that. It feels like youâre climbing just for the sake of climbing. Thereâs some occasional banter, but with all the issues I went over regarding charactersâthose donât do much when all theyâre good for is making you laugh (sometimes). Are the environments captivating to observe from such heights? Yeah. But thatâs not enough of a reason to validate the entire existence of the aforementioned gameplay segments when thatâs all youâre doing. These moments are the worst parts of the entire game, not for any insulting or frustrating reason, but more so because theyâre just really boring to play, and thatâs arguably the most heinous thing a game can do. Not to mention how clunky the movement is in general. I donât know if this was only an issue on my end, but Nate would sometimes jump/climb in the wrong direction despite me pressing/holding the right buttons. And it only became really noticeable on my third playthrough. The only time the platforming worked for me was chapter six, when you were in Nepal and were going in and out of this huge building as you made your way to the top. I liked the scale and the intricacies of the layout. But nothingâand I repeat nothing, will make me hate the fake-out falls any less. Am I a fucking moron? Because I donât get what these add to the game. Some tension? Some fear? Or is it to make the game more cinematic? If so thatâs all well and good, but maybe keep a limit on them? Donât throw in hundreds scene after scene (slight exaggeration but thatâs what it felt like). The one huge positive Iâll say is that they went above and beyond with the placement of treasure. Something as miniscule as collecting collectibles has never been quite as satisfying, and itâs all very creative and clever. Thereâs a genuinely worth-while incentive to grab them tooâwith rewards such as skins, cheats, weapons, etc, being unlocked. It makes future playthroughs more fun and I wish this was standard practice in most games with collectibles.
But all of these issues (with shooting and movement) culminate in the boss fights, and itâs almost like Iâm fighting against the game during those moments, which is obviously frustrating. The train carriage one was tacked onâit didnât serve a purpose, and felt claustrophobic (I realize thatâs intentional, but the shoddy movement made it a nightmare). LazareviÄâs was the biggest headache though, thatâs the one that seriously made me question the purpose behind them in this particular franchise. Every single one up until this point has felt like a gimmick, been repetitiveâand not something thatâs even remotely belonged. It speaks to Naughty Dogâs roots with Jak and Daxter, but theyâre two completely different franchises, and trying to carry that formula into Uncharted doesnât work. They should really let it go. And it sucks because thatâs not even the worst part, the guardians are. As Iâve said, I donât inherently mind the supernatural elements, you can have them! But for the love of god⌠please donât put in bullet sponges as substitutes for enemies. Is pumping around seven entire mags into a single guardian supposed to be fun? Or just annoying? Itâs not engaging, itâs dullâeven when you can kill them faster using a crossbow. If anything this is consistent with the first game. Drakeâs Fortune also introduced enemies during the second half that were annoying to fightâboth are lame attempts at enemy variety.
The last thing Iâm going to talk about regarding Among Thievesâ contents are the puzzles. Iâm sure itâs not surprising at this point that I didnât like them either. Again, itâs the same issues that plague Drakeâs Fortune. Thereâs not enough of them, theyâre incredibly easy, and they lack creativity. Imagine my shock when I was on chapter 19 (seven away from the ending) and the game had only given me two full-on puzzles to do. And Iâd be fine with that number if they were challenging⌠but theyâre not. They all revolve around symbol matching. Like am I playing fucking Candy Crush or something? Maybe root some of them in the environments? Maybe design them intricately instead of completely laying out the answer for me in Nateâs journal? I had more fun during an environmental âpuzzleâ when the game introduced a minigun-wielding-brute enemy during the train chapter, and required me to shoot the chains that were holding all the tree logs together where he was coincidentally standing so I could kill him⌠that was brilliant, and actually funny. Everything else was not.
The obligatory optimization/technical paragraph: I can never escape these⌠Enemy waves loop if you donât go to the exact place the game wants you to be at. If you get ahead of the NPC companions when climbingâand they happen to catch up, youâll be knocked off and have to restart entire checkpoints. There was a bridge bug I encountered which made it so I couldnât progress because⌠I killed everyone too soon? (Basically, the game penalizes you for being too good). You can be shot through walls! Brutal difficulty scaling is still horrible, youâll die as soon as you spawn leading to many RNG moments! They clearly didnât even consider the difficulty options when creating some of these chapters, they also couldâve just tweaked enemy starting points to fix this issue, itâs a fairly simple solution I imagine. Iâve heard these are all issues with the remastered trilogy though, so I guess itâs my fault for playing that version.
I know itâs hard to believe⌠but I did like this game! I still think itâs good (barely). The reason for the score is mostly the set pieces, as without them this would easily fall into mediocrity; which is why this can sometimes read like Iâm continuously dunking on it, but thatâs because itâs the only consistently positive aspect that is the least versatile in a discussion/review.
(This isnât a part of the review). I honestly didnât expect for this review to be so long, I thought it was going to be a shorter one but I just kept writing and writing, and it turned into another long one! I need to do less of these, I swear to godâŚ
Playtime: 33.4 hours
Every Game Iâve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Playstation Exclusives - Ranked
Naughty Dog - Ranked
Uncharted - Ranked
2009 - Ranked
This review contains spoilers
My Fallen Order review if you want more context.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The next installment in Respawnâs Star Wars franchise. Oooh baby. Lots of thoughts on this one. So itâs no secret that Fallen Order took a lot of cues from a ton of other memorable games, included but not limited to; Uncharted, Dark Souls, Sekiro, and at timesâsome of the older God of War games. Survivor definitely continues that trend! But Iâll address those issues when I come across them, so I digress. Survivor is a sequel that improves upon every system in the originalâone of those sequels that is undoubtedly better than the original in almost every way, one of those sequels that you can look at and say⌠âNow this, is a fucking sequelâ. You know, something akin to Batman: Arkham City, BioShock 2, or even God of War: Ragnarok. Itâs one of those. Respawn are entering their element here, and itâs very obviousâwith how many additions and improvements theyâve made across the board. But you might think⌠why am I only giving it 3.5 stars (which is still a really good/positive score) based on the amount of praise I just spewed out? Well, besides some of the issues I have with the gameâs story, exploration, and combat, itâs also a bug-ridden mess. 7+ months after its release. So before I dive into its main aspects, I need to get the technicalities out of the way.
Deep breath. Frame rate issues, broken reflections, grainy movement animations, mounts disappearing/bugging out, clipping, textures not loading in at every possible moment, pop-in, characters T-posing like itâs fucking Fortnite, egregiously bad ghosting, finishers not working correctlyâwith Cal literally swinging at thin air while enemies are floating in the sky, the camera freaking out whenever you do something slightly unconventional⌠or dyingâspeaking of dying! Dying animations do not work. And more⌠crashes, softlocks, itâs all here! All the issues! I usually wouldnât deduct this many points because of technical issues, because theyâll most likely get patched⌠eventually, but in this very specific case, the developers have clearly abandoned the game and it will never get fixed unless they decide to do it before they release the third one. But then again, they never did that with Fallen Order so itâs safe to assume they wonât with this one either. And I get it! These arenât game breaking bugs, itâs not like I had to restart my game hundreds of times, itâs nowhere near that badâbut thatâs also not justification for it being so⌠ugly, to look at. In a game that is built around immersing you in a universe this inherently special with all of its planets, creatures, loreâit sure likes taking you out of it every chance it gets. I donât think I was ever immersed for more than 20 consecutive minutes before it reminded me of how disastrous the launch of this game was. And that is plainly unacceptable, I hear itâs even worse on PCâeven after all the updates! Oh, and I have to share this because I found it really funny. So the natural assumption behind this gameâs development issues would be that EA forced Respawn to release the game early, right? See, I thought that too! But no, it was actually Respawnâs choice, EA even offered them extra time but the lead game directorâStig Asmussenâdeclined and settled on a six week delay to not compete with other upcoming games like Tears of the Kingdom, and because⌠he apparently thought six weeks was enough time to get it up to par⌠well, it fucking wasnât Stig, was it? I donât know how someone play tests Survivor on PC/PS5 before launch and thinks âYeah⌠this is goodâ, like no! Itâs unmistakably shit. On one hand, I understand why he decided to do it, itâs either; release it near TotK and risk underselling, or push it out early to get all that sweet-sweet money and take a hit to your playerbaseâs goodwill. And he chose the latter. This shouldnât be okay, and I for one will not be buying their next game on launch, since they donât deserve my money for constantly half-assing optimization just so they can âfix itâ later; I will patiently wait for a big sale when the third game comes out. Okay, so now that those issues are out of the way⌠the actual game.
âThe Orderâs gone, itâs time to leave it behind.â
From the very first frame, this⌠looks different⌠feels different. Darker. More dramatic... more personal. The skies of an imperialized Coruscantâsubmerged in an overpowering orange hueânot unfamiliar, placing us in a new age yet again. This bright orange sky is shown across all the covers and promotional material, I donât think itâs a coincidence that it looks eerily similar to the skies in Revenge of the Sith, clearly showing some resemblance between events and character transformations. The Empire is in their prime. The Jedi Temple, a symbol of peace and hopeânow corrupted into a bastion of tyranny and malevolence. Cal Kestis. A prisonerâmore metaphorical in Fallen Order, now very literal (or so it seems). Heâs changed, grownâfive years will do that to you. The days of the immature, inexperienced boy-scout are over; heâs now a fully fledged Jedi Knightâcareless, overly confident, and to put it plainly⌠a bit of a fucking badass? A stark contrast to his former self, and I bring this up because I really want to emphasize how much of a better character he is here, in every facet of the word. You can see the visible differences in demeanour; how he walks, how he speaks, how he presents himself. No longer is he the insecure boy whoâs uncertain of his abilities, following other people into battlesâheâs become the leader, continuing the fight against The Empire under overwhelming odds. When I finished the game, I didnât particularly love what they did with his character, but upon thinking about it a lot more, and connecting the dots between story beats and how his arc is influenced by them⌠Oh yeah, this is an exceptionally well-woven tale about loneliness, the all-consuming darkness within, and perseverance during what is considered the bleakest point in Star Wars history. Itâs a really hard thing to take this inherently grand and expansive universe about big glowing swords, and ground it in such a humanistic way while never losing what made it special in the first place: heart. And I donât think weâve gotten anything quite like it since Return of the Jediâor you could even argue more recently, with Clone Wars S7. What other lightsaber-themed Star Wars projects have been this human, while still being good? Iâm struggling to think of any, because itâs relatively unprecedented. And I love that Survivor managed to achieve something so intrinsic and special to the Star Wars franchiseâwhile current Star Wars (in movie and TV form) lag behind in that regard. Itâs a substantial accomplishment in and of itself.
âJust trying to survive.â
âArenât we all?â
In typical Respawn fashion, this opening hour is impeccably crafted; showcasing spectacle (through Coruscantâs striking and delightfully-dystopian atmosphere), characters, storyâand managing to build up and link all its surrounding pieces perfectly. We see the world, and how itâs changed within these short five years. And we see the peopleâboth new and old, and how theyâve changed within these short five years. A nightmare, and desperateârespectively. The underbelly of Coruscant has never been a kind place, but in these trying times, itâs gotten even more deplorable. Thereâs a strong presence of propaganda plastered all over the city; from billboards detailing Cal as a terrorist, to recordings of Senator Daho Sejan talking about rebels âthreateningâ homes and jeopardizing The Empireâs success. Their ruthlessness has only escalated. Citizens being forced to leave their shops and homes, and getting beat to the ground because of innocent curiosity. Not only that, but the overall quantity of Stormtroopers has increased. This links in with combat (but Iâll talk about that when I get to it). And this is because weâre further in The Empireâs rule, they have more resourcesâmore people willing to serve them; Cal addresses this later on in the story when he talks about all his endeavours and how he hasnât made a dent in The Empireâs mission to colonize other planets, which further propels his negative feelings of anger and frustration. He loses so many people⌠while not accomplishing anything in return. One of the new characters we meet is Bode. Heâs a ârebelâ fighter, in it for his daughterâbut hey, credits never hurt. The Empire took his wifeâhis daughterâs mom from him; leaving a husband a widower⌠and a daughter a half-orphan. They continue to take âmore every dayâ. Cal unknowingly assumes he means other peopleâs loved onesânot quite⌠Bode is referring to himselfâlosing himself to the dark side each and every day, battling his own demons, under the guise of doing it for Kata (his daughter). This proves that no matter how long you survive The Empire⌠they kill you eventually. Physically or mentally. This perfectly sets up Survivor's tone, both through the story and gameplay departments. I was amazed at how well it captured the feeling of pure hopelessness. Weâre constantly at a disadvantage due to The Empireâs sheer numbers, and this never lets up throughout the entire game. Survivor wants you to be overwhelmed, it wants you to feel the pressure that Cal himself is feeling every day of his life. And the way in which it places you in his shoes is expertly constructed and deserves more praise. But Iâll move on to the actual story now! The reason Cal is on Coruscant is because he needs important information out of the Senator, so heâs staged his âcaptureâ as a way to get closer to him. And a little side note: The whole âprisonerâ thing doesnât make any sense after you know the twist. Why were Calâs friends giving him weird looks on the ship when there was no one else there? What about the punch? The comments about propaganda? All of these things are clearly for dramatic effect, but retrospectivelyâthey make no sense. After being brought to the Senator, we get a little glimpse at Calâs state of mind. The Senator asks where the rest of the Jedi are, Cal responds with âItâs just meâ in a way that shook me to my very core. Cameron Monoghanâs performance here (and in the rest of the game) is breathtaking, you can hear the deep sorrow in his voiceâthe pain of his loneliness and loss. The voice of someone so desperate to find his place in the galaxy, his peopleâmasked by arrogance, under the facade of confidence (and yeah, I genuinely believe heâs arrogant, at least partiallyâsince heâs shown to judge people for living a quiet life outside of conflict). His master. Cere, Greez, Merrin. His comrades. All gone. Why does he continue to fight? If being alone is all that comes from it? Heâs desperately trying to hold on to the idea that all of his struggles will result in something positive for the galaxy, but that isnât true⌠he knows that he hasnât contributed much of anything throughout the last five years, and deep down⌠he knows that thereâs no point in continuing the fight. And I think thereâs a high chance of this being his arc throughout the next game. The idea that itâs okay not to continue the fight, itâs okay to not think of other people all the time⌠itâs okay to prioritize yourself and your happiness. Heâs not obligated to fight just because he can. And I think thatâs beautiful. This is exemplified even more when The Ninth Sister shows up and kills all of his new friends, he becomes enragedâvery clearly tapping into the dark side. He ignores Bode and chases after her, with the intention of revengeâdespite being able to run away. This is something the Jedi arenât supposed to do. Theyâre not supposed to give in to their negative feelings and pursue revenge. And this moment was when it finally clicked for me. This is when I understood what his journey would be throughout the game⌠that heâll face the dark side. Which⌠surprisingly hearkens back to Fallen Order when Cere said: âEvery Jedi faces the dark sideâ. Itâs a natural evolution of his character, heâs at the point now where he needs to overcome his feelingsâor even embrace them. Itâs an interesting topic to talk about, because when I think of the Jedi Orderâs values; abstaining from emotion and companionship, only using the force for knowledge and defense, amongst plenty of other things. Cal spits in the face of all of these teachings. Heâs shown to feel every possible emotion there is, and heâs not shy about sharing them with peopleâboth positively and negatively. He pursues Merrin romantically, he knows that he wants companionship and willingly embraces that. He definitely uses the force for more than defenseâin fact, he uses it in a demeaning manner multiple times⌠(as he should in those specific circumstances). Point is, heâs barely a Jedi. He doesnât follow principles, at all. And this links in with a really interesting question which is⌠why should he? The Order is gone. Why should he uphold arbitrary values that no longer serve anyoneâor himself? This is reinforced through countless scenes in the gameâbut especially through the scene(s) when he has the opportunity to not kill someone, yet does it anyway because keeping them alive is a risk that heâs not willing to takeâwhich genuinely reminded me of TCW Anakin at times⌠Itâs insanely cool to me how much of a 180° Cal took as a character. He has such a deeper and more distinct personality, and some genuine grit now. Heâs actually⌠likeable? Heâs a⌠good fucking character. I actually enjoy playing as him! Itâs the bare minimumâhonestly, but I never felt that way in Fallen Order. I never cared about him that much, and I love that Iâm now looking forward to his next cutscene or moment, itâs a breath of fresh air. Going back to Calâs use of the dark side. I noticed a good bit of symbolic storytelling when Cal jumped onto a Purge Trooperâs ship and used the force to steer it closer to the ground. That is literally The Second Sisterâs move⌠she used that against The Mantis in the first game. And I might be looking too deep into this, it might not even be intentional; but itâs a look at an affinity between the two. Not only does it show his progress with the force, but also that heâs driving closer and closer to that dark path, utilizing techniques that he saw an Inquisitor use (itâs reminiscent of Ezra, Anakin, even Reyâsort of). I love this so much, it compliments his character in a subtle yet noticeable way, and effectively conveys his past, present, and future all in one moment. And this leads me into the first boss battle of the game (which is pretty spectacular in quite a few ways).
Now, the boss fights are still not anything mechanically mind-blowing. Theyâre mostly the same as in the first gameâslightly better, but only because it feels like thereâs more of them, and because theyâre thematically deeper. And Iâm thankful that the game doesnât force me to repeat one of them four separate times! Usually only two or three, which is still better than Fallen Order! Theyâre also spread out in an even manner, which makes them feel like a natural part of the gameplay loop as opposed to something that happens on occasion for very specific or grand moments. And I kinda like that? A lot actually. I know most people donât, as it results in the boss fights feeling less âspecialâ, or like theyâre glorified enemiesâand while that certainly can be true, I honestly take no issue with it. Itâs important to note that The Ninth Sisterâs fight serves as a tutorial (which further reinforces Calâs power level) but also that itâs more about the thematics as opposed to the fight itself. Itâs not a challenging one, even on the hardest difficulty (which is what I played this entire game on). Her moves are telegraphed well, as always, but the thing that stood out the most to me was the ending of the fight. Itâs a look at an Inquisitor that canât help herself, Calâwhile cold and still in his movementsâvery blatantly gives her a chance to surrender and walk away, whereas Masana (her name, as revealed by Cal) is pacing back and forth, grunting⌠feeling instead of thinking. Itâs impulse vs thought. And I thought that was a simple yet⌠elegant way to showcase the differences between the twoâand how that bridge might close as the game progresses. Itâs not unexpected that she charges forward and Cal is forced to strike her down, resulting in a⌠decapitation⌠as music swells over the scene with a sinister undertone, hinting at a potentially darker future for Cal. Itâs moments like these that make me appreciate Survivor that much more. And this pretty much marks the end of our time on Coruscant (until later on in the game when you can come back). And like I said, this opening section is in-tune with Fallen Order because of how phenomenally well crafted it is for all the reasons I just went overâbut unlike Fallen Order, more than a few moments actually manage to live up to it. The result of escaping is taking some major damage to The Mantis, which leads us to the Koboh systemâcoincidentally where Greez is located⌠but only after Cal watches a recording of him and his old crew. Keep in mind, Cal just watched four of his friends die right in front of him, going to Koboh is a desperate call for helpâhe needs his friends backâhis family back. He feels alone in a way that is almost deafeningâin a way only his family can lessenâbut Iâm getting too ahead of myself, so let's dial it back to the planet itself.
Koboh. Oh man⌠I have so many mixed feelings, itâs not even funny. Koboh is an interesting one. Itâs a very interesting planet. I donât mean interesting in the way of its contentsâalthough that too! I mean interesting with how much of a center-player it is. This is the part where they really broke off from Fallen Orderâs style; in which they had four fully explorable planetsâeach around the same sizeâif not varying to slight degrees. But here? The only planets similar to those are Koboh and Jedha, the rest are all glorified story levels. And when I say itâs a center-player, Iâm talking about how everything revolves around this one planet; the characters all reside inside of it (eventually), itâs bound to the story very closely, all of the puzzles and most of the âside contentâ is also located here. Itâs basically a hub of sorts, the place that you return to after every mission to talk to NPCâs, purchase items, upgrade your garden, etc. And Iâm a bit bummed about that? It makes the game lose some of those nostalgic planet-hopping/space adventure vibes. Not that you canât still do that⌠but it never feels like Iâm going on this grand-expansive journey spanning a wide array of cultures and environments, like the first game did. If anything, itâs pretty streamlined. And I have a feeling many people will say⌠âBut Koboh has so much variety! Thereâs practically four planets within itselfâ, and while I can understand that pointâit doesnât at all change what I just said. In fact, that actually adds to my next point. Yes, Koboh has a lot of variety. The environments range from desolate rocky plains, to densely vegetated jungles, groggy swamps, sleek imperial/separatist bases, deep dark caves filled with monsters of many kinds, and much more. But itâs almost⌠too much? Itâs almost like having all of these wildly different biomes integrated into one planet makes it lack a real identity, which is something I canât say at all about any of the planets in the previous game. And that is the real crux of Koboh. The exploration within isnât not fun, because it fairly is, but I canât help but sigh whenever the game forces me to come back to it. Not to mentionâwith its open world-ly size, exploration can often become stale due to the amount of random junk you have to collect. Thereâs 30 seeds in each mini-section! Plus 10+ treasure! And 10 chests! And then also 10 databanks! And if youâre an idiot like me who didnât find out about the map upgrades you can find in the world until late post-game, then youâll just be mindlessly running around looking for sparkles on the ground (signifying loot). In my defense though, the game never told me about those upgrades⌠so, fuck you game. And to add onto the point of Koboh being a weak planet, itâs a bit boringâvisually I mean. This might just be my unwarranted hate for barren environments speaking, but god! So many rocks, and cliffs, and dirt, and whatever the fuck! Itâs not interesting, I donât want to look at it. Itâs not visually compelling. I feel like Anakin in Attack of the Clones when he was talking about sand, except in my case itâs dirt! Itâs fucking everywhere. Koboh is along the lines of being my least favourite âfull-sizedâ planet in the Star Wars Jedi franchise; beating out Dathomir by quite a lot, but it doesnât have the sauce! It really doesnât. I might be completely alone in saying this, because Iâve seen literally nobody else bring it up. My issue with the lack of âspace adventureâ vibes is one of Survivorâs biggest flaws. I want to make that clear since this took a really negative turn. I still really like the game! Iâm merely describing one of my least favourite aspects of it. This issue is exacerbated by every planet in the game. Coruscant is greatâfor what it is, but itâs still a small, glorified story level (including some lower and higher levels wouldâve been a great way to make it bigger). The Shattered Moon Base isâagain, a linear story level. Nova Garonâanother story level! Tanalorrâdoesnât count, itâs literally a straight line towards the final boss of the game. So in conclusion, itâs only Koboh and Jedha here. Kobohâas Iâve mentioned, I donât really like. Jedha on the other hand is a fantastic planet, but thatâs it! I only like one planet in Survivor. So it definitely suffers from a plain selection of planets. All of this is a weak link to an otherwise fantastic game. Fast travel has been added though, and that makes getting around Koboh (and every location) more convenient, which is a huge time-saver.
So, naturally, the first thing I noticed was the upgrade in visuals! More specifically, Cal. Holy. Fucking. Shit. His model looks infinitely better than it did in Fallen Order. Infinitely. Itâs not even close. I donât think Iâll ever be able to go back, I really donât. He looks like a real person nowâas opposed to the borderline constipated NPC that he once was. In Fallen Order I could never get behind how his face movedâor his expressions⌠but now I buy it, all of it. You can see each individual strand of hair on his head, his slight eye twitchesâcomplimented by that beautiful bright blue color (this seems to be controversial since they apparently change on a whim), itâs more believable. He looked very cartoon-y in Fallen Order in a way that I donât think was ever intentional? It was uncanny. The visuals in general have improved a shit ton; textures, lighting, environments, density, foliage, particle effects, etc. As they obviously should given the timeframe between this game and Fallen Order; which even at the time of its release looked outdated in a way that most games released that year didnât. Whereas here, I can confidently say itâs amongst some of the most gorgeous games of the year, and weâve had some real stunners. Itâs lost some of that âunreal lookâ to it, where a lot of the assets looked like they were placed haphazardly in the worldâlike you could literally see where they dragged and dropped certain pipes, or walls, or whatever. It was a really hard thing to ignore if you looked closely enough, and I canât understate how happy I was to see that it lost all of that ugliness and actually felt like a real game, and not a failed attempt at a tech demo. But, with it came a downside. Iâm certain there was somewhat of an expectation to make the game more cinematicâfollowing its story and what they wanted to convey within it. The result of that is a 30FPS cap on cutscenes with an aspect ratio change. Iâm not sure I like this. There are moments when it looks okayâand is able to be aesthetically appealingâwhile being immersive, and I imagine it works even better when youâre playing it in fidelity mode. But I wasnât. So going from 60FPS to 30 in a millisecond was jarring, and at times didnât even look like 30? I donât know if it was my game acting up⌠as Iâm sure thatâs likely given its fucking state. Not to even mention how any time it transitioned from cutscene to gameplay had my Cal floating above ground? Only returning to normal after a few seconds or when I started to move⌠So itâs safe to say the intended effect of immersiveness wasnât conveyed very well, and the opposite was actually a lot more common! Such a shame. Iâand a lot of people, probably, wouldâve appreciated an option to keep the game at 60FPS at all times, alongside removing the black barsâalthough that one isnât necessary, like at allâitâs whatever. Wouldâve been nice to have the option though. And since I wonât get another chance to mention this, I have to say it now. I noticed an annoying design flaw. Whenever youâre at a shop and decide to preview an item, itâs in hologram form. Which means that you canât accurately see the item that you want to purchaseâwhich is, you know, the very point of a preview? Just something I found a little strange, and Iâm not entirely sure how thatâs something that you get wrong⌠But speaking of things that are wrong! (this is heavily exaggerated⌠I was really desperate for a segue).
My thoughts on the combat in the previous game was that; it was a fairly fun and engagingâalbeit jankyâsystem that didnât have much depth, was mostly focused on parrying/defense with no combos, which often left it feeling repetitive and boring, but that it ultimately managed to retain its fun factor due to excellent enemy placement. Oh and let's not forget its biggest downfall: the force meter. I felt like it alienated both sides of the combat system, since it drained upon using the force and also heavy lightsaber attacks. This made it impossible to use both (since the meter was so limited), and so you had to pick and choose which one was more important to you (I respect if you like this, I did not). So coming back to this game. Almost every problem I had with Fallen Orderâs combat system has been completely resolved, although unfortunatelyâdue to them adding a bunch of new thingsâtheyâve made new problems. So yeah, while everything feels more responsive⌠and generally better, while thereâs more variety, while thereâs more stances and more force attacks, and while you donât lose any of your previous abilities when starting Survivor (Iâm so fucking thankful for this, what a bafflingly genius idea); Survivorâs rebuttal is, doing little to nothing with that variety, doing little to nothing with those new stances, and doing little to nothing with those new force attacks. It adds so much, yet so little. But, letâs break all of these things down a little more. So, in terms of variety. Survivor has five stances; single, double, dual wield, blaster, and crossguardâpreviously only having single and double. Survivor has a bunch of new force attacks; push, pull, lift, slam, confuse, and slow (relegated to a special attack now, as opposed to a regular one)âpreviously only having push, pull, and slow. Thereâs even perks now, emphasizing the player to customize their own build. And not to forget all of the attacks and abilities within those categoriesâthanks to the multiple, massive-sprawling skill trees. And oh boy is there a lot of upgrades in that fucking tree⌠but therein lies the problem. Thereâs a lot of one-off moves. You can get all of these abilities, but have no way of linking them togetherâof using them in tandem with each other to create unique and interesting combos. And so it results in the combat loop feeling extremely simple and surface level. There's no room for any creativity or a sense of freedomâit never feels like the player is unique in their playstyle, besides the two chosen stancesâwhich letâs be honest⌠makes close to zero difference in how you actually play the game. My personal way of fixing this issue would be to give the player a weapon wheel (or using a combination of buttons for a quicker way) to select any stance they want at any given momentânot only that, but also allowing them to link stances together. Make it so the player can transition from one to another via a button press, which could further link into dynamic combos and a wider array of moves. Respawn could even design enemy variety around this mechanicâhaving certain enemies be impenetrable to specific stances, giving combat that extra layer of depth, which would make the player think a lot more, but then againâthat would make the game a lot less accessible; so it really depends on who you ask. Personally, I wouldâve been down for this, but I can also understand someoneâs hesitancy.
And remember when I said that enemy quantity links in with combat? Well, this is the part where I talk about that. Enemy quantity has increased a considerable amount. Back in Fallen Order, there was only ever⌠five or six at once I wanna say? Maybe a couple more during end game. But in Survivor? 8+ is the norm. This makes combat more continuous since you have to keep track ofâand manage so many different enemies at once. And because of this, the fights go on for a lot longer. Sadly, itâs a bit of a double-edged sword. Because of the increased quantity, I ended up getting stunlocked more than Iâd like. So, thereâs two sides to this; oneâas Iâve just mentioned, the enemy quantity. On the hardest difficulty, attacks fly at you at insane speedsâand when thereâs eight (if not more) enemies attacking you at once⌠itâs a bit hard to keep track of whatâs what. Youâll be getting attacked by; multiple rockets, melee troopers/robots, annoying AOEâs, and even more attacks that I havenât mentioned. Point is, itâs a lot. You canât possibly counter every single attack, because the game simply doesnât allow for it. And two, you canât cancel animations (unless youâre dual wielding, which is why itâs easily the best stance). This is a huge deal. Since it limits your freedom of approach. Youâll be in the middle of an attack, and wonât be able to do anything about the enemy that you see coming from behind or your side. This leads the combat to being all about timing. And not even in a fun way, more like a âyou have to keep dodging and rolling so you can find the perfect openingâ type of way. Me even saying that is a huge understatement. Itâs more like thatâx20. There were so many instances where I kept dodging because attacking would get me killed in one hitâbecause I canât fucking cancel my attacks! (The double rancor fight was especially aggravating because of this⌠like you literally canât do anything). But coming back to my general point. Even if you did attack, youâd get potentially stunlocked into multiple enemy combos. This is the problem. I donât know what else to say, other than the fact that it's annoying. It's an annoying part of the combat loop. And I feel like the only way to solve this issue would be to play on a lower difficulty so that enemy aggression decreases, or to⌠âget goodââwhich I think I can say, that⌠I kind of am? This is part of the reason why I couldnât be bothered to use any stances other than dual and blaster; since those two have the most control and flexibility. And all of this links in with the fact that normal enemies are a lot harder than bosses, which⌠you know, is inherently weird since that defeats the very purpose of a boss? Not sure how I feel about that, itâs neither a negative or a positive. But taking all of this into accountâitâs an inconsistent system, so when you do get those moments of pure exhilarationâthose moments of pure skillâwhen youâre able to take everyone down in an effective and satisfying manner, is when this game makes me FEEL like Batmaâa badass Jedi! In its peak form, thereâs nothing like it.
Getting into the visual aspect of combat though⌠ehhhh. Donât get me wrong, itâs improved a lotâthere are many finisher animations that are substantially more violent and brutalâreflecting Calâs mindset and skill level. But I also wish there was more of them for every stance, as opposed to Cal switching back to single during many of the finishers. This is when I started to realize just how⌠boring? Calâs fighting style is. His animations arenât anything specialâmostly focused on slow swings. The dual stance is especially evident of this. Itâs so stiff, it doesnât look dynamic enough. I hate to compare two vastly different games, but Starkiller in The Force Unleashed had a much cooler move set with his stance. It felt faster, discernible, and had this perfect sheen of visual badass-ery that always made it look satisfying. Cal doesnât have that, which is a big shame. I want to see more swirls. I want to see smooth and continuous attacks. I want to see a combat style that fits a fully fledged Jedi Knight/Master (in the next game). I am however glad to say that⌠dismemberment has made its way into the game. Fucking. Finally. Goddamn it⌠itâs cool as hell, itâs so gratifying. Although! I really hate to complain so much (I donât), but itâs still not violent enough⌠heads donât roll like they did in The Force Unleashed and itâs nowhere near as dynamic as it should be. Sometimes, arms and legs come off when the lightsaber doesn't even hit near the arms and legs⌠and thatâs sorta clunky? And maybe Iâm asking for too much (I definitely am), but itâd be rad as hell if you could cut entire bodies in half. I feel like that would genuinely work in the next game given Calâs descent into the dark side.
And with all of this being said⌠I still enjoyed the combat.
Traversal has also gotten its fair share of improvements. Itâs taken the form of a less tightly orchestrated DOOM Eternal, which I knowâis a very strange comparison. Maybe itâs because I recently-ish played that? I mean it has your pole swings, and your grapple points, and your dashes, and your challenge arenas that force you to utilize all of those movement mechanics at once. And I feel like thatâs not the most common combination of things youâd find in a game like this. But it certainly feels better. Itâs more responsive. Itâs more complex and thought provokingâsince youâre forced to make split-second decisions in many instancesâand if failed could lose you two/three minutes of progress (when youâre climbing a structure), which Fallen Order didnât have much of. Since the planets (Koboh and Jedha) are generally bigger, youâre given mounts (I love these big fuckers so much). Not only do they allow you to travel through the world faster, they also open the door to a bunch of creatively designed puzzles; like using the height of a Spamel, the jump of a Nekko, or a Relterâs glide for specific collectables. And I like the effect this has on exploration. Itâs a lot better than Fallen Order. You can do a lot of things in unique waysââmake your own solutionâ type-stuff. This is only possible because invisible walls arenât too common (at least in my experience), meaning you can do things the way developers didnât intend. I myselfâon many occasions, cheesed collectibles by using a Nekko when I wasnât supposed to, or used Relterâs to glide to places that I wasnât supposed to go to. It was really captivating, it gives the game that extra layer of freedom and immersive-ness. When it comes to complaints⌠a big complaint I had with Fallen Order was Calâs shit-induced running animation⌠and uh, itâs better, it's definitely better. But still not great⌠it looks like heâs 50% less likely to shit his pants, but that still leaves 50%, so it still looks like heâs going to shit his pants. Make a new animation Respawn, fucking please. I also wish the animations flowed into each other better; I need more momentum, I want to feel like an actual Jedi in the way that I move. I know itâs wrong to expect Spider-Man 2 levels of polish and fluidity, but itâs always frustrating going from a pole swing into a grapple point and watching Cal pause in mid-air for a millisecond before continuing. Itâs a minor thing, but something thatâs ever so slightly noticeable, and it sours the experience by a bit. If Spider-Man 2 is like Spider-Man 2, then Survivor is more like Marvelâs Avengers.
I was blown away by how deep and robust the customization was in Survivor. Theyâve kicked it up a notchâand it was already fantastic in Fallen Order! It canât be understated, this is some ofâif not the best customization in a third person action adventure game, ever. Itâs that good. Thereâs an abundance of components. You can customize your lightsaberâand all of its pieces, the polish of those pieces, the material, the angle of the vents, and the color. Even your blaster and all of its pieces. BD-1 gets the same treatment, you can now customize all of his individual partsâand again, the colors, the polish. And not only all of that, but Cal can now be fully customized; including his hair, beard, shirt, jacket, and pants. There are so many fucking options. You can now create the Cal that you want to create. He can be your Cal. Which is such a huge part of involving the player in this world; you can tailor everything to specific parts of the story, you can create an arc for himâin the way of his look. I canât explain how plainly fucking cool that is⌠I can see people spending hours on the customization aloneâI mean, I know I did. Now⌠Iâm not saying there arenât issues with it, or things that they could do to elevate it even further in the next game⌠because there are. For one, I donât like the obsession with keeping customization items aligned within the storyâs context⌠like how the reason they didnât have any Jedi robes in Fallen Order was because they didnât want Cal to stand out in the storyâbecause heâs obviously in hiding, and to that I say⌠who the fuck cares? Why limit what you can include in the game because it doesnât adhere to the storyâs rules. I think there should absolutely be full-on Jedi robes in these games because thatâs primarily what the Jedi wore. And thatâs something that still isnât present in this game, which is a big shame (imagine putting on Sith robes during the ending when Cal stands before a sunrise, how awesome would that be?). They took out Mantis customizationâand even though it was barebones in the first game, it was something that I appreciated. I suppose the implication wouldâve been to expand on it, so if they couldnât make that work in time then itâs perfectly understandable. I have some suggestions for how they couldâve innovated even further; being able to customize the color of each saber, like you could in The Force Unleashed II. Or even the type of saber? As in; smooth and stable, unstable (Kylo Renâs), swirly, thick (prequels), thin (originals), etc. These are the only routes they could really take in the next game.
Going back to Koboh and how itâs center-stage within Survivor. The side content, thereâs a lot of it. Iâve already gone over the typical treasure, chests, databanks, etc. There are various High Republic tombs that you can find throughout the planet. The whole reason these existâapart from giving that era and its characters more depthâis to give the player puzzles to solve. Which Survivor absolutely nails. One of my big complaints from Fallen Order was that the puzzles were dreadfully boring, felt ham-fistedâand on top of that, werenât ample in their amount. These issues were completely resolved; theyâre not boring (as thereâs more moving pieces to considerâmore mechanics to think about, most of which were given to BD-1 to actively involve him in the gameplay), the game commits to them as theyâre an integral part of the gameplay experience, and there's also more than plentyâbut not too manyâwalking that line perfectly. Some of them even temporarily stumped me, which is an oddly nice feeling because you can tell Respawn put a lot of effort into them. They all have this BotW element where it feels like you can complete them in creative waysâthereâs obviously the intended way, but you can think outside the box and do it in a few different approaches. Donât get me wrong, itâs not like Tears of the Kingdom level of puzzle-solving freedom⌠like at all, but itâs somewhere in the same field⌠somewhereâitâs like a very, very, very distant cousin in that regard. Activities called fragmented memories are implementedâacting as either combat or movement challenges. These are rifts from God of War (2018)... This franchise canât help but take tiny bits out of each popular game they come acrossâitâs not that big of a deal, just something I continue to find very funny. Iâm excited to see what other acclaimed games they âtake inspirationâ from for the third game. The movement-based fragmented memories are fun. I like the concept of specifically designed challenge arenas taking every mechanic the game has been teaching the player up until that point, only to jumble them up into this weird hodgepodgeâand dump them all out into this one tightly-knit level asking the player to overcome the challenge. Itâs a shame theyâre so easy, and that there arenât more of them. I wish Respawn werenât so afraid to go all outâto design more challenging⌠challenges. But not the combat ones, please! Those are plenty challenging. Almost too much? Bordering on unfair. Some of them are too tedious and gimmicky. Like two fucking rancors? Are you kidding me? That is plain and simpleâa setup. Their animations are telegraphed weirdly, and the way in which they have aimlock for some of their attacks is infuriating. Iâm proud of myself for beating them within an hour, on the hardest difficulty no less⌠I honestly consider that an achievement.
Most of the other side content comes in the form of Ramblers Reach. Which contains a cantina called Pyloonâs Saloonâowned by Greez. This is what I meant when I said Koboh acts as a hub. This is a fairly creative way to give the world and the people within it more depth. You can recruit all sorts of people and creatures from other planets into the saloon, usually by completing a little âquestâ for them⌠or by talking, sometimes? Itâs not anything special. But by the end of the game you can expect the place to be absolutely filled to the brim with a cast of mediocre personalities. Thereâs a DJ, a bounty hunter, a fisherman, a gardener, amongst plenty of others. The town itself passively adds to the world, but I wish there was more emphasis placed on actually developing and building upon it. Maybe something similar to Assassins Creed 2 wouldâve given the base aspect that extra push to becoming something more innovative and investing; because as it is here, it feels more like an afterthoughtâa shallow pond, in what otherwise couldâve been a deep ocean. Imagine the town, firstly introduced as a desolate, dirty, run-down place; transforming into a lived-in, polished and clean homeâthrough a money management system. Iâm not saying it has to be some otherworldly deep mechanic, something along the lines of Monteriggioni in AC2 wouldâve been fine, giving the game some of that cause and effect. There are however plenty of minigames and activities within the saloon, so Iâll highlight some of my favorites/interesting ones. Firstly, my favourite: holotactic. It basically serves as Dejarikâwhich is the game Chewbacca plays in A New Hope. Youâre faced with several opponents on the board, which you then have to defeat by carefully âbuyingâ your own team using a limited number of points, comprised of enemies from the base game. And this minigame isnât hard, like at all⌠especially when you figure out the best enemy to use, which is the Hammer & Missiles Droid. Once I figured that out, every match was over in seconds; good balancing is missing big time⌠but it still manages to be a fun way to spend an hour to win all the matches. The farming activity isnât one I like, but I can see the potential it has with the variety in plant life. Certain players can probably make their gardens look all colorful and unique, and thatâs very cool! But itâs not for me. And finally, the bounties! I like the idea of Cal being a huge target in this era, so if that takes shape in bounty hunter formâIâm down. But again⌠these arenât hard fights, if anything theyâre all easily defeatable. And thatâs even more evident when you consider that most of them are reskins of each other. All of the side content in Survivor is very half-assed. But I did love the moment when you had to go through a horde of them, in-universeâCal is literally demolishing loads of these bounty hunters with two or three swings. It further adds to how much heâs grown. And obviously the Boba Fett cameo was awesome, since you get to talk to one of the bestâmost interesting bounty hunters in all of Star Wars. Does it add much? Not really. But I think Respawn have earned their one little cameoâŚ
Any other âside contentâ is shown through NPC rumors. Iâve seen videos of people saying theyâre a big fan of this system. And I honestly fucking hate it? Okay, that was a bit harsh, but itâs literally useless? These rumors act as nothing more than mouthpieces from the developers to inform the player that they havenât explored a certain part of the mapâwhich is obvious even without them! Just look on the holomap and you can see all the undiscovered sections. These arenât side quests, theyâre not dedicated set pieces, theyâre an excuse to make you talk to a bunch of lifeless, annoying NPCâs, and to incentivize exploration. You can âmeetâ people in the world, and theyâll tell you they saw something in a certain part of the mapânow, you can go there⌠but itâs not going to be any different than if you were to go there without talking to that NPC. It does nothing, I found this to be such a shallow aspect. And to make it even worse, the dialogue isnât good. Itâs generic, low effort, and sounds similar to those NPCâs in the LEGO games. Even Cameron Monaghan sounds like he doesnât want to be there; heâs so monotone and awkwardâwhich taints his otherwise brilliant performance. And thereâs another useless mechanic here that persists throughout the entire game, which are the mind confusion dialogue options. I know the point is to ground you in Calâs headspace, to make you aware that he can indeed do those things, but letting the player choose between two options does nothingâit changes nothing. Itâs very surface level and has no benefit at all to being in the game. They couldâve had those moments integrated into cutscenes for the main story, or removed them entirely. Itâs like a weird attempt at an RPG⌠which they completely failed atâexpectedly, because theyâre not even trying.
I know most of this review has been me going through various mechanics and gameplay elements. But I want to talk more about the story now that Iâve spoken about pretty much everything else in the game. And to actually preface this. I wonât be going through the story bit by bit like I did in my Fallen Order review, because thereâs too much to dissect hereâand if I were to do that⌠this review would probably be around 20,000 wordsâwhich is a bit much to me⌠and I donât want to sound like a wikipedia plot summary more than I probably already have. So Iâll mainly be talking about very specific moments, charactersâmostly, the planets/locations you uncover through the story, and the ending/act three as a whole.
So a big part of this game is the High Republic storyline, which is about 75%âif not more, of the story, and naturally, thereâs quite a few characters involved in that part of the game. If youâre not familiar, The High Republic is an era in Star Wars that was set during the golden age of The Republic, meaning The Jedi Order was at its peakâand because of that, they were a lot more focused on spreading out throughout the galaxy as opposed to war or any major conflicts. And for more context, I love The High Republic, along with The Old RepublicâIâve never read any comics or books surrounding those eras, but my love for them mostly comes from the various characters Iâve seen in the games, along with videos Iâve watchedâand obviously itâs cool worldbuilding, so thereâs that. But the way this era takes form in the story of Survivor is a bit weird, to say the least. Firstly, itâs strange how Greez coincidentally happens to settle down on the one planet housing this whole High Republic mystery. Usually, coincidences donât bother me that much, as I know theyâre intrinsic to games, and to any medium, really. But itâs something I found funny, since all the events in the game wouldnât have happened if he never landed on this one planet. More importantly, none of it is really necessary⌠for the story to make sense? You could replace Dagen with a random modern day Jedi and itâd play out almost exactly the same. It feels like The High Republic aspect was nothing more than a marketing stunt for the trailers, so that Star Wars fans would get all excited because âTheyâre finally doing something with The High Republic!â. Iâm not saying this was the definitive reason it was included in the game, as Iâm sure thatâs not true⌠but Iâm saying it feels like thatâs the case; as the weight and severity of the situation is hardly ever brought up by Cal or any of the characters, it lacks focus and depthâthus failing to create a meaningful purpose to be in the game, and it doesnât help that the characters within that part of the story are completely forgotten about after the â mark. Which is easily the gameâs worst creative decision. Itâs baffling to me that Survivor bothers to build these characters up for the majority of the game, only to kill them off in such a nonchalant way in order to focus on a much weaker villainâwhich is surprising because they were both already boring as fuck!
The two characters Iâm referring to are Dagen and Rayvis. These two suck. Rayvisâisnât as awful, he shares a few scenes with Cal and their back and forth is always entertaining to watch, not to mention his whole âwarriorâs deathâ schtick, which is sort of reminiscent of Kraven in Spider-Man 2. The caricature of a fierce warrior wanting to go out in their own rightâdefeated by someone they deem worthy is always a fascinating way to deconstruct a villain, as long as theyâre⌠constructed first. Sadly every time Iâve encountered one of these (twice), theyâre a very small piece of the puzzle that isnât given anywhere near the amount of attention they deserve. Wouldnât it be refreshing if Rayvis was the main villain, maybe? I wouldâve preferred that, it wouldâve been something unique as opposed to another Jedi turned bad, because itâs been done three times now⌠in this franchise alone⌠which consists of two games. Like⌠dude? Itâs not exactly the most original idea ever conceived, or even remotely close to that. And I get that it creates a parallel between Cal and Dagen, but is that really worth the predictability and trope-iness of it all? Not to me. I like that his final scene with Cal gives us yet another execution. These moments are always compelling in the way theyâre framed. The final strikeâshot like a classic samurai movie with Cal holding his stance for a few seconds after the kill. And this one was quite literally a request. I mean sureâRayvis attacked, but he knew that the fight was over, and that slight moment of hesitationâultimately followed by certainty from Calâright before cutting his head off signifies something colder about him. And since this moment is very obstructed because of the age rating, the music does all the heavy liftingâtelling the player how theyâre supposed to feel⌠Shocked. Unnerved. Worried? This is clearly taking a toll on Cal. And heâs about to do it a couple more times! Only getting more and more indifferent to the action each time. Dagen on the other hand⌠is much worse. Him and Rayvis share a lot in common. And by that, I mean theyâre both not given enough screen time along with being severely underdeveloped villains. But itâs a more serious issue with Dagen considering heâs supposed to be the main villain, as opposed to Rayvis who was a pawn of sorts. My biggest issue with Dagen is that heâs so disconnected from Cal. They share no chemistryâor many scenes for that matter. They donât have a developed connectionâhence, devoid of any substance. I wish more writers understood that conflict comes from characters, not plot. I wish they understood that you have to create and develop a direct connection between the protagonist and the antagonist. You canât just make them share a single scene and then off they go! No. I need more there. I need more of a reason to care. Do they think I care about Tanalorr? I donât. What I care about is Cal. What I care about is his connection to Dagen and how that makes him feel, and vice versa. How does Cal feel about finding a Jediâwho are all extinctâturn to the dark side right in front of him? Does he feel defeated? Is he affected? Thatâs one of his own, someone he could potentially connect withârelate with, since they both share similar ideals, and Survivor does nothing with that connection. The game presents no themes between the two except that theyâre both succumbing to the dark side (likely not even intentional). Itâs boring. And then heâs killed off during the second third of the game and completely forgotten about, never to be mentioned again (maybe once?). Itâs such a lackluster ending to the supposed main villain of the story. But oh well! At least we got to see his kyber crystal bleed! And while thatâs cool and allâsince weâve never seen something like that in a mainstream Star Wars projectâit really shows where their priorities were⌠Survivor has a serious villain problem, which continues to persist with Bode in the third act, but Iâll talk about that later.
âThere is beauty in emptiness.â
By this point Jedha (the planet from Rogue One) wouldâve already been a fully explorable planet. And I⌠honestly love it? It might be my favourite planet in the whole franchise⌠I know! I know! What kind of drugs did I fuckinâ take to say something so outlandish and blasphemous??? Well, none, actually. I honestly, whole-heartedly, just absolutely adore this planet. And I know what I said earlier about hating barren environments⌠but Jedha feels different to me. Maybe itâs the vast emptiness that helps it stand out? Maybe itâs because thatâs almost all that it isâgiving it an actual identity⌠Iâm not saying there isnât anything of value, because thereâs plenty of memorable places to explore; tombs, ancient temples, and a plethora of caves, but it manages to intertwine those sections around that vast emptiness so well, whereas Koboh really doesnât. Itâs visually stunning too; with windswept locales, expansive-never-ending vistas, dunesâcreating this perfect encapsulation of everything a desert location has to offer. And I also like sand⌠But I generally had a much better time with the game once leaving Koboh. The story bits pertaining to this planet are always a sight to behold, reserved for those grander momentsâof pure spectacle, thus becoming more engaging and fun. Iâd say thereâs two great examples of this. First, that huge escape leading into a mecha-crab-kaiju âfightâ whilst flying around using Merrinâs weird teleportation abilities. Itâs like I was back in God of War! (I love the little reference to Episode IV when Merrin kisses Cal, and he asks âWas that for luck?â... Itâs a coolâalbeit disturbing reference if you know the context⌠I even caught the Episode III reference when Cal said âLetâs take the high groundâ on Koboh. (These moments had me going like this). But the kaiju scene? Oh man, big improvement over Fallen Order. Like I said earlier, this game has gone above and beyond in terms of graphical fidelityâmeaning I could actually enjoy the scene without getting distracted by its uncanny-ness; the bird scene from Fallen Order is still seared into my brain from how abysmal it looked. The second example is that whole invasion segment. Going from a speeder chase, to a character-switch, to a boss fight with Darth fucking Vader. Thereâs so much variety in this small chunk of game. The catalyst that makes all of these events take place is Bodeâs betrayal. Heâs revealed to be working for The Empire, and itâs definitely a bit lackluster. I had it spoiled for me, so maybe thatâs why? His character didnât matter to me; his relationship with Cal up until this point was the very typical buddy-buddy, sarcastic, bromance thingâand it came off as very generic stuff. I will say that I really like his stance after heâs revealed to be a force user (shouldnât Cal or Cere have sensed him though? I donât know if Bode was strong enough to mask his presence, especially around Cere and Cordova), he gave off some major Starkiller vibes. He kills Cordovaâwho I also donât give a single shit aboutâand actually, youâll find thatâs a common theme between me and most of the characters in this franchise. I donât think anyone apart from Cal is developed at all, or they areâbut in very non-naturalistic, forced ways, that make it very hard for me to be empathetic towards them. Playing as Cere was a really fun segment, itâs a nice change of pace since sheâs drastically different from Cal in a lot of exciting ways. Sheâs much stronger, so mowing through hordes of enemies while bringing down entire ships onto the ground has never been as satisfying as it was here. And that moment leading into a boss fight with Vader was tenseâalthough again, it was spoiled for me, so I saw it coming. I liked the fight, but it was a much more straightforward way of involving him in the story as opposed to how they did it in Fallen Order. They obviously wanted Cereâs death to make senseâso the only one strong enough to defeat her would of course be Vader, but the way in which it was done was plain, and underwhelming since I donât care about her. I absolutely love how Cal gets a force echo of her deathâas she dies in his arms⌠like fuck. I didnât feel much, because againâthe characters in this franchise arenât that important to me, but Cameron Monoghanâs performance here definitely made it feel more powerfulâeven though the score completely overshadowed it. I think it wouldâve been more impactful with some better sound-mixing, or if they made it a quiet scene with his cries being the only audible sound. This momentâbut done right, is the opening scene of the game. The overly dramatic music was dope.
Funnily enough, I was going to write an entire paragraph on The Shattered Moon Base, but I have no notes for this one. This really hearkens back to what I said about Survivor having a different style of exploration/level design. The Shattered Moon is basically a story level, thatâs all it really is. It has the basics; great visualsâwith a distinct styleâthatâs not present in any of the other planets, some good platforming areas, and a few off-the-beaten paths that you can explore for cosmetics/upgrades. But itâs not a large place at all, and is certainly one of the weaker locations in the game. They couldâve done something with the gravity aspect, I imagine that would change up gameplay drasticallyâmaking it stand out among the rest of the planets. As it is here though, itâs more of the same and doesnât offer anything new in terms of gameplayâI mean, this is where you get the cross guard stance so thereâs that? But thatâs not anything worthwhile.
Nova Garon is the next location that you go to after Bodeâs betrayal. Yet again, itâs another story levelâthis time inside of a crystalized asteroid? Thatâs cool as hell, itâs a shame however that itâs another base-type location, which Iâve already explored to a ridiculous degree on other planets. So, again, itâs not anything new⌠but the story elements more than make up for it. This is where Calâs dark side comes into playâwhere he really embraces it. Thereâs a moment where Cal tells a commander to turn off the base alarm, and he responds with âOr what? Youâre a Jedi. I know what youâre capable of. And what youâre notâ. Iâm reciting this because itâs interesting how mistaken the commander really is⌠I love the attempt he makes to shoot him, only for Cal to effortlessly toss his blaster to the side, and to point his own blaster at him. To anyone else, this might just look like a threatening gesture to show that heâll shoot him⌠but in truth, Jedi donât use blasters⌠so that line from Denvik (the commander) juxtaposes who Cal is supposed to be, with who he actually is in the current moment. I thought that was a very subtle but nice touch to further emphasize how far from The OrderâmentallyâCal really is. This is also where Cal gets a new special abilityâwhich is basically force slow but powered with the dark side. And it replaces a lot of his moves and animations which is a great way to differentiate him from the light (cough something I wish Spider-Man 2 did cough). Heâs visibly more aggressive; opting for lunge attacks and precise sweep-swings, force attacks are more devastatingâforce push causes more damage and pushes much further (still doesnât disintegrate enemies like it did in The Force Unleashedâthis isnât a complaint, I just find it weird how differently these games depict the force), and force pull⌠now acts as force crushânot on humans, obviouslyâbut on those huge droids that were treated as mini-bosses. Thatâs right, you pick them up and straight up crush them (similar to Luke in the S2 finale of The Mandalorian), leaving them looking like a scrunched up piece of paper. Thatâs so insanely badass. Not to mention how the confuse ability now kills weak minded enemies⌠Cal literally agonizes their minds resulting in death. That is⌠messed up⌠and I love it! Even the meditation spot background color changes from blue to red; and interestingly enough, it never changes backâeven at the end of the game, further showing that Calâs feelings are unresolved and will be a huge factor in the third game.
The final story level and planet that you can âexploreâ is Tanalorr. Itâs very still and peacefulâcomplimenting that desire of having a home and being content, not worrying about war and conflict, something Cal desperately needs in his life right now. Light pinks and blues and purplesâblending, working in tandem to create an image of serenity and beauty; with leaves swirling around in the air. Itâs like this idyllic and mesmerizing painting resembling hope and pure tranquility. I love the colors a lot. An absolutely stunning and brilliant showcase of what Respawn can create within a planetâvisually, but also how those visuals can translate to a really powerful message and story. And I think thatâs sort of missing with most of the other locations in the game. Like I implied earlier, you canât explore this planet. Itâs a straight line towards the final boss of the game. And oh my god is that final boss hard. I donât know why I struggled with him so much, but Bode was easily the hardest boss in the game. I interpreted Bodeâs death as the final push Cal needed to really break. I think killing Bode utterly broke himâand I think heâs going to be reassembling those pieces over the course of the next game. Itâs that moment of realizationâCal realizing⌠âI need to kill himâ. I mean of course, Cal gives him every possible chance to surrenderâeven after everything Bode has doneâafter he indirectly killed Cere. And for Cal to offer him a hand is a testament to how strong-willed he is. But it isnât enough⌠Bode was never going to recover, he was too far gone, and Cal knew that as soon as he pointed that blaster at him. Keep in mind, Bodeâs weapons were gone; his lightsaber was thrown away and his blaster wasnât working⌠so he wasnât a threat, and Cal knew that⌠he knew that! And still took the shot. Not once⌠twice. The first shot was merely to disarm him (in the way of making sure he stays down so as to not try anything), as he then glances at Merrin for a second, before⌠pulling the trigger again. Almost as if he was seeking approval? Almost as if he was taking one last look at the person he loves before he becomes someone heâs not proud of. Survivor does such a brilliant job with the little things. I love those small unspoken moments when you can tell what a character is feeling without needing mindless exposition (something I wish modern Star Wars understood). He even looks defeated after he does it. He looks like Anakin when he cut Mace Winduâs arm off. Stumbling, in disbelief of what heâs done. After this, Cal and the crew take Kata with them, hinting at a potential parallel between her and Calâdealing with the dark sideâas her father did die right in front of her. Maybe thatâll create an interesting dynamic between the two in the next game (God of War vibes???). I also loved another little moment; when Merrin is talking with Kata in The Mantis, Cal enters the shipâonly⌠from the shadows, as music swells with an extremely sinister undertone that made me realize how fucked up Cal will probably be in the third game⌠you love to see it.
âWe will continue your legacy, Cere. We will build something that can outlast the Empire, I promise you that. I promise. But Iâm scared. I almost lost myself. I donât know if Iâm ready. I donât know if Iâm ready for what comes next.â
The funeral scene is stunning. A timelapse of dawn, while Cal contemplates his past and future decisions, along with that fucking spectacularly orchestrated score⌠oh my god, please listen to this! âThrough Darknessâ... what an absolutely perfect name. I love the few notes you can hear towards the end of the track that are taken straight from Imperial MarchâI hate to sound like a broken record, but you know what that means..! And listen to the rest of the soundtrack too⌠all of it is some of the most breathtaking music Iâve ever heard across all of Star Wars. Itâs something really special, and gives John Williams a run for his money. Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab did a phenomenal job.
So in conclusion⌠I did not like Bode as the final villain. He felt weak, and I wasnât investedâapart from how it affected Cal. The evil side of him was introduced way too late, and it felt like the game was rushing towards the ending during the last hour. I strongly believe that either Rayvis or Dagen shouldâve been the main and only villains. But apart from that, Survivor was a really good game! It had some weak links; such as the characters, most of the planets/locations, minor kinks with combat and exploration⌠and with plenty of technical issues that soured the experience by⌠quite a fucking lot, obviously. But overall? I had a really fun time and Iâm eagerly anticipating the third game. I'm begging for Respawn to release it in a good state though. Please.
My heart goes out to Rick the Door Technician⌠we didnât deserve him.
(This isnât a part of the review). So if youâve read this farâfirst of all, thank you, I hope you got something from it, but you also mightâve noticed that this review was a bit shit? There are a few reasons for that. So after finishing the game, I kinda sat on it for about two weeksâand during that time I lost a lot of motivation to write and express my thoughts in generalâbut more specifically about this game, since I was having personal issues. And then I decided to start it, but I almost forced myself to start it? So it might feel aimless a lot of the time. And it might be really, really, really simple. I tried! But I also pretty much gave up on it halfway through, and then still forced myself to finish it because I had already put so much time into it. I was burnt out because this review was the only thing I was doing every day (in regards to playing games/writing game reviews), but Iâm definitely going to start playing more games after this one! And writing more reviews! And releasing them at a better pace too! So yeah, Iâm not exactly proud of this one. The structure is all over the place, too much of it reads like a plot synopsis (which I hate), and I also feel like I didnât have much to say about certain aspects in Survivor which is why it might sometimes read like Iâm bored (during the â point). But yeah next up will be a review on Uncharted 2! Itâll be a short/medium-ish one too since I donât think Uncharted 2 is the most complicated game of all time or anything, and hopefully thatâll end up being good.
Playtime: 55.3 hours
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