I’ve been playing Star Wars Jedi Survivor for six to seven hours. I’m surprised that I’m already a third of the way through. I’m only on the third planet Jedah and it feels like it’s just getting started. So far, it feels like more Jedi Fallen Order, which itself didn’t have a lot of new ideas gameplay wise. Funny thing is it’s a game that’s really easy to play. Everything just works and there’s nothing complicated to do. However, that also makes gameplay fairly shallow and basic.
The first full planet you play on Koboh felt padded and took way too long to finish. Often, the game had you going the long way around just to open a shortcut that just cuts that out rather than weaving a section of the map from 30 minutes closer to you. When I started feeling like I was ready for the forest array section to end, I was only about halfway through. This game definitely feels designed from the Top Down and the level design so far really reflects that. It feels like the designers felt like they wanted to do more rather than refine or improve.
Speaking of, the combat feels even more dissonant than ever. I’ve never liked the Dark Souls combat style for a Star Wars game because it doesn’t fit someone like a Jedi, who is this powerful warrior who can take out most monsters and definitely Stormtroopers with little effort. It makes sense for a Tarnished, who is this defeated person who can barely swing a sword, but not a space samurai.
Add also that the combat is Souls-like lite and that Cal in this game is more powerful than he was in Jedi Fallen Order and quite frankly, it kind of makes fighting too easy and superfluous. It does make sense lore wise and where Cal is as a Jedi to be this powerful but mechanically, it’s the definition of ludonarrative dissonance. I would’ve preferred then moving to something akin to God of War or Devil May Cry’s combat, especially for the sequel, as it would narratively show Cal’s increase in power and skill.
At least the story so far is pretty good. It’s not amazing, but it’s well acted and the new objective concerning an unknown part of the galaxy is intriguing enough. I feel the time skip without giving a more clearer picture of what happened to the team earlier on is an issue, especially if you didn’t play the first game. I know the game has a story summary in the main menu but that doesn’t give you enough context to where the team is. Hell, I don’t have enough context to what happened to the team now and I’m a third through the game!
I’ll mention again that the game is really easy to play and as a result, I plan on 100% the game but as of right now, I’m just kind of playing it on autopilot. I’m not super engaged, I’m not blown away, and I’m not hating my time with it. I’m just going through the motions and I’m getting positive results. Also, I haven’t gotten any bad bugs but when you go into kill animations, the character models don’t know where to go. As a result, I’ve seen a lot of floating dead monsters.
Hey Colorwind! 