Survivor’ Fans Before You Buy The Game

I’m in the middle of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Respawn’s excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and while I’m not quite ready to post a review, I do want to post a short warning about the game.

In its current state, Jedi: Survivor is a performance disaster. I know there is a big patch coming at launch that might fix the myriad bugs and glitches plaguing the game, but before you spend your hard-earned cash—maybe noticing the game’s solid 86/100 score on Metacritic—you should be aware that as of right now, it’s a buggy mess.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the game and I think with some TLC from Respawn, it’s going to be great. It’s just not great right now. In so many ways, this is a huge improvement from Fallen Order. The platforming is incredible, making Uncharted’s climbing feel tame and half-baked by comparison. You’ll climb, zipline, double-jump, wall-run and puzzle your way through some seriously incredible levels.

And then a cut-scene will come along and after it plays your frame-rate will drop to the teens. Big fights also often result in major frame drops. In one thirty-minute period my game crashed twice, and because there’s only saves at bonfires, er, meditation points, each time I had to redo everything I had just accomplished, which included several cut-scenes, some platforming and a bunch of fighting. Pretty frustrating!

The story of Cal Kestis and his gang of rebels and outcasts is terrific, and feels more fleshed-out this time around, with a lot of optional side-quests, tons of NPCs to talk to, and a more interesting plot that dives into some of the lore and history of the High Republic period. Combat is loads of fun also, with five stances to choose from that you pick up along the way: Single-Blade, Dual-Wielding, Double-Bladed, Blaster Stance (which includes a single lightsaber) and Cross-Guard, which is like Kylo Ren’s blade and plays like a heavy bastard sword. You also have various mounts to ride, including a Star Wars version of the Chocobo!

Basically everything about the first game is expanded and improved upon except for the performance, which is a giant leap backward. I’m also a little sad that there aren’t more planets to explore, since that was such a draw in the first game, but the many different levels on Koboh and elsewhere are very fun and well-designed, and when the game isn’t crashing or bugging out, it’s loads of fun and a great new addition to the Star Wars universe.

Just buyer beware: I’d hold off buying until the game is patched up and the kinks are worked out. I’m playing on PC (Steam) but I’ve heard similar performance issues are affecting consoles as well. I have a very powerful gaming PC that runs everything I throw at it, also, so this isn’t a horsepower problem. The game will run fine for stretches and then it’s like it just unravels.

I’ll update this post when the day-one patch comes out, so stay tuned. Are you planning on getting this game? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.

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