After years of waiting, the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is just around the corner. On April 28, we finally get to roam again with Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) and BD-1 through galaxies far away from here. WANT editor Dunke van Boekel, on the other hand, got a chance to get a feel for what this new Star Wars game has in store, which he is more than happy to tell you about.
My first playthrough of Jedi: Fallen Order was over two days after the game came out, but I can tell it was one of many. On several occasions, I completely rehashed the story of former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, so the urge for the sequel was high. Now I was able to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for three hours, and interesting revelations came out of that.
Jedi: Survivor is familiar, but bigger
When I wrote an article a while ago about games to play in preparation for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, God of War: Ragnarök came up. Compared to that game, Jedi: Survivor immediately enlarges the scale you are used to from the first part.
The preview I was presented with takes place an hour after the start of the game and showed Cal and BD-1 landing on the original planet Koboh in a broken Mantis (the ship you use to move between planets). Your goal? Fix the ship. But as you’re exploring the planet, you encounter dangers that affect the trajectory of your journey. There seems to be a cool story coming up about how the main characters deal with a battle that seems unwinnable.
Coincidentally, Greez Dritus, the pilot of the Mantis and good friend of Cal from Fallen Order, can also be found on the planet. The four-armed gambler has opened a cantina there in the village of Rambler’s Reach with a hilarious robot named MXNK-6 (Monk). As such, this location is somewhat the “heart” of the game. The cantina and Rambler’s Reach contain a number of NPCs who give you side-quests, or sell certain cosmetics. By the way, these NPCs are also spread all over the map, not just the village. Life in the brewery!
Star Wars collectibles galore
The settlement and stores are also expanded when you send NPCs from the world to the village. For example, you can find a small fisherman to maintain the fish tank in the cantina. Then when you encounter fish during your travels, you can bring them there.
Personalization has therefore expanded considerably. Where you could find ponchos, skins and parts for your lightsaber in Fallen Order, you can now design your character much more specifically. New hairstyles, beards and clothing let you make Cal look the way you want. Even BD-1’s cute little head is customizable, and almost everything has a set of colors you can change. You’ll become the hippest Jedi in the Star Wars universe.
The chests and Force Echoes from the previous game are not gone either. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was full of paths to secret enhancements in this preview by Koboh alone. Although to find these you will have to face some dangers.
Brawling may not really be part of being a Jedi, but…
The Dual Wield stance was not in Fallen Order due to a lack of time, I was told. But in Jedi: Survivor, the lightsaber style allows for a fairly aggressive play style. Indeed, instead of a stronger “heavy “attack, you can go into a meditative state at the touch of a button, allowing Cal to parry enemies’ attacks automatically. And it just looks really cool, running around like that with two lightsabers.
There are two more stances that we were able to see, but didn’t get to play with. The Crossguard stance (For a lightsaber similar to Kylo Ren’s) deals an awful lot of damage, but it takes a while before you actually deliver the blow. With the Blaster stance, Cal has a lightsaber in one hand, and a blaster in the other. This way you can also attack enemies that are far away.
In terms of new Force-abilities, we were able to see at least one, namely Force Confusion. With this you can cause enemies to attack their allies for a moment, instead of you. Very handy when you’re in a pinch.
Special modifications in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
As in its predecessor, Cal in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has access to an expanded skill-tree that improves his skills in the Force, lightsabers and survival. From what I’ve been able to see, there aren’t too many abilities in there that you could also unlock in Fallen Order, so it’s not like the Jedi has “forgotten” much between games.
A new addition in terms of upgrades are perks. Throughout the world you can find these perks, after which you can select some that make certain of Cal’s powers stronger. You have a limited number of slots for these, so you may have to switch some at times if a particular perk gives you an advantage.
It looks like traveling through the worlds will also be a lot smoother. For example, you can now (finally) fast-travel between meditation points and Cal now has help from the Ascension Cable (grappling hook) and animals to ride on in addition to Force acrobatics. BD-1 also has a new feature, as the droid puppy also functions as a magnifying glass thanks to the BD Visor, allowing you to mark interesting locations (think Sheikah slate in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild).
So what can we expect from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?
So everything I’ve seen in these three hours with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor points to the game being larger in scale than its predecessor, which can be seen in both the game world full of NPCs and the combat and amount of upgrades. The amount of detail while customizing Cal and BD-1, as well as in the world set an image that I hope is carried through throughout the game.
That the gameplay has been expanded and improved seems obvious at the moment. Still, there are some surprises, such as the companions. What is more mysterious about Jedi: Survivor is the story. The things we already know and have seen are incredibly intriguing and point to a unique Star Wars story, but it still really remains to wait for the full release until we can go all in on that.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be released April 28 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.