Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Multi)
By: EA
AFTER 11 movies, countless TV series and over 100 games, Star Wars is cool again. We've torn down the Jar Jar statues, Andor won last year’s streaming, and even the games are on the up, with 2019’s Fallen Order delivering a proton torpedo of Jedi wish-fulfilment right up your exhaust port.
Set between the events of Episodes III and IV, this was arguably one of the best Star Wars games ever made, despite its hero. Round these parts, a red-headed rebel republican called Cal is the stuff of murals. But in a galaxy far, far away, the star of Fallen Order, Cal Kestis, was so bland he made Luke look like Han.
Granted, as a ginger he had no soul, but the sequel's attempts to sexify Cal with facial hair just make him look like the manager of a microbrewery.
Boring lead aside, the mega-budgeted sequel has had fans’ midichlorians trembling with excitement, even though it released with more bugs than a Wookie's jockstrap.
Once again mixing Dark Souls’ combat with Uncharted’s cinematic exploration, Survivor continues the adventures of a Jedi padawan who survived Order 66 only to be thrust back into a fight to save the future of the Order.
The sequel sees Cal forced to crash-land on a backwater planet, stumbling into more rip-roaring adventures as he brutalises droids and Stormtroopers with his cute robot BD-1 in tow. The dusty planet Koboh is at the heart of its open-world vibe – and though it boasts fewer explorable planets than the original, they’re hewn in dazzling detail and bustling with life.
As a card-carrying Jedi Knight, Cal has a new bag of tricks to learn along the way, with new stances, Force-fuelled skills and even the ability to charm animals into being, erm, mounted. Like Uncharted or God of War with Star Wars trimmings, you’ll zipline and grapple around dense, maze-like levels, uncovering parts and cosmetics.
Truth be told, it’s odd to find a chest in a space cave containing a new beard.
There’s a good 20 hours here if you rinse the story (double that for completists) and navigating its levels is thankfully a breeze with a much-improved holomap.
Combat receives the biggest overhaul, with five lightsaber stances to master, including Kylo Ren’s Crossguard. And while one of the biggest complaints about the original was endlessly deflecting enemy lasers as you stood knee-deep in dropped blasters, here you can finally fire off a gun.
Of course, it all looks fantastic, glistening with the polish of Disney's streaming output, right down to those signature Star Wars scene wipes. Alas, the game is crippled by a Sith-load of glitches and frame-rate issues, and on PS5 is just about playable if you favour a solid frame-rate over visuals.
It may be a few updates away from glory, but Jedi Survivor still has enough heart, derring do and pew-pew action to let you feel like a Star Wars action figure for 20 hours - albeit a ginger one.
