Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, was released on 28 April 2023. The action-adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment and Published by Electronic Arts is one of the eagerly anticipated games of 2023.
Unlike Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order which was in development from 2014 until its release in 2019, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor only took 3 years to make. What is even more fascinating is that the development happened during the COVID-19 pandemic—about half the time it takes to make big titles today. Bloomberg called it a “miracle in modern video-game development”.
Apart from the short time it took to make the game, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a couple of standout features that some gamers find unusual in modern-day gaming. Arguably the biggest was the lack of microtransactions and the fact that the game is only playable in single-player.
The game director Stig Asmussen was quick to dismiss any idea that the development of the game was miraculous. Instead, he attributed it to the dedication and hard work of the team. According to Asmussen, planning the schedule was easier because it was a sequel.
“To be fair, it was three-and-a-half years.”
Stig Asmussen
Since its release, the reviews of the game have been majorly favorable, except for the performance issues and outsized day 1 patch. Gamers have been quick to point out some of the performance flaws of the game. The release of the day one patch further confirms the troubling bugs that shipped with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor started on the wrong foot
If you are already excited about playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, that excitement may be dampened by the day one update that the game got across PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. The announcement came through EA Star Wars Twitter handle two days before the game’s release.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s day one patch is nothing like most gamers have seen before. Some players that already pre-loaded the game on Steam reported that the size of the update was up to 128 GB. IGN reported that their day one PC update was 46.5 GB which was still a lot.
The updates for those that preloaded the game on Xbox Series and PS5 were believed to be remarkably smaller. However, there are indications that more updates may be released in the coming weeks. The experience is even worse for those that bought their game on disc.
According to IGN, those that purchased the disc will need to download additional content. This is because the original size of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor far exceeds the maximum 100 GB that a Blu-ray disc can contain. The base install size of the Xbox Series X is 134 GB while that of PS5 is 147.9 GB.
The remaining data must be downloaded. Although Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a single-player game, the need to download additional content simply means that it cannot be played without internet access. However, after the download of the mandatory content, the game can be played offline.
The need for additional download is either printed as “download required” on the disc pack in some regions or added as part of the terms and conditions on the back like in the UK version where it reads “Internet connection required to download mandatory content updates required to play the game”.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor feels like an extension of Fallen Order
What got players excited about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was that it picked up from where its predecessor stopped. It was basically more of the first game—more customizations, more puzzles, more combat approach, more enemies, and more storytelling—with meaningful improvements and advances.
What is even more fascinating is that Cal Kestis returned with lightsaber tricks and all the Force powers, meaning that players will not miss everything they have worked hard to gain in Fallen Order or be forced to go back and play the previous game. So, from the get-go, players feel powerful.
Some reviewers rated the combat and dueling high. However, what I found jarring was the way the use of the Force power felt more like a trick rather than a combat skill. Most enemies can easily be pushed off the cliff. Like Callisto Protocol, it dampens the combat experience.
The game tries to make up for it with five stance choices for players to choose from including Cross-Guard, Blaster Stance, Double-Bladed, Dual-Wielding, and Single-Blade. Basically, everything from the first game is expanded upon.
The majority of the criticisms point to performance flaws
Erik Kain, a senior Forbes contributor called Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in its current state “a performance disaster”. Kain was one of the players that got early access to the game before the day one patch. Firstly, there is a big issue with the frame rate. Some gamers reported frame rates dropping to tens after cutscenes.
While I enjoyed playing the game, I had two instances where the game crashed and I had to redo a bunch of stuff I had already completed. That was pretty frustrating. Hopefully, all that will be fixed by the day one patch.
The problem appears to be worse on PC with some players reporting that their RTX 3080 couldn’t handle the game. However, some players reported steady 30fps in most areas of the game using a PC with NVIDIA RTX 3090 graphics card.
In the opening scene of the game, I also noticed that the characters didn’t walk smoothly around corners. These subtle nuances robbed the shine off what would have otherwise been a great sequel to an already great game. On Steam, the game has “Mostly Negative” review ratings. Only 29% of the reviews at the time of writing were positive.
What I admire about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is how the story of Kestis and his rebel gang and outcasts feel more fleshed out. There are also lots of side-quests, lots of NPCs to talk to, and other interesting plot twists. When you are not struggling with frame drops and bugs, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is fun to play.
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