Star Wars Jedi Survivor: Amazing Improvements Shrouded Behind An Unoptimised Mess

Back in 2019, a new Star Wars IP was released to all platforms called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It saw players delve into the era of Order 66, where a Jedi named Cal Kestis survives the extinction of the Jedi. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of game Fallen Order was. However, it took elements of action-adventure, and loot exploration and was inspired by soul-like games. With overwhelming reception from the community, a sequel game was a definite. Incomes the 2023 sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, centred around Cal once again but now expanded in many areas. So far these expansions and the improvements from the first game have left fans overly pleased. The problem is that the fans that say this are in the minority as most people cannot play the game in its entirety, let alone for a few hours.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released with primary problems with its PC port. Although these problems were the worst, consoles had problems too. Find out about the controversial release week of Jedi Survivor.

Game Overview

“Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” is an action-adventure video game set in the Star Wars universe. It was developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game takes place shortly after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Players assume the role of Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Padawan who survived the Jedi Purge.

As Cal, players must navigate their way through a variety of environments while utilizing his Jedi abilities, including combat with a lightsaber and use of the Force. Along the way, Cal is joined by a team of companions who aid him in his journey, each with their unique abilities and personalities.

The game features a non-linear structure, allowing players to explore different planets in any order they choose, each with its unique challenges and secrets to uncover. Subsequently, as players progress through the game, they can upgrade Cal’s abilities and weapons, allowing for more advanced combat tactics and exploration.

The story is driven by the player’s interactions with characters and the decisions they make throughout the game. This leads to multiple possible endings. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor delivers a compelling single-player experience that immerses players in the Star Wars universe. Additionally, this comes with stunning visuals, engaging gameplay, and a deep exploration of the themes of survival.

Improvements and Expansion

Environments

Although Survivor uses the same multi-planet system that the first game had, each planet is crafted in a more complex way. From the get-go, it is clear to see that the world has been expanded to an open world. Evidently, the first game thrived from its linear layout, but the open-world expansion of the sequel comes with its merit.

Combat

Jedi Survivor has now introduced a mechanic called Stances. This allows for the inclusion of several new lightsaber variants. For example; Crossquardf (similar to Kylo Ren) and Blaster/lightsaber duo. Each stance has different combat mechanics and special moves which enhances variability in gameplay.

Players will also experience new force techniques and an upgraded skill tree which will help to take down every droid in their sights.

Companions

Both Star Wars Jedi games thrive on their story and the characters in them. Survivor expands on this idea by introducing companions who will fight for your cause. From the very beginning of the game, you are shown this mechanic. It will allow you to order attacks from the companion that might make your battle easier to win.

On the story side, there is yet again a rich cast of characters that will help immerse you in the world of Star Wars.

Customisation

One critique many fans had of the first game was the lack of customisation. It’s true the player could pick up items from the world, but the customisation would be minimal.

Jedi Survivor allows the player to customise several things. This includes; the way Cal and BD look, lightsaber appearance, stance combinations and so much more.

Puzzles/Exploration

Although the first game had great puzzles and exploration, Survivor does it better due to the expansion of the world. Expect many elaborate puzzles which challenge the player coupled with the exploration around every corner

Technical Problems

That’s all well and good, but these points become meaningless if the majority of players cannot experience them.

Early previews and reviewers got hands-on with the day zero version of the game. For fans who couldn’t play yet, the overwhelmingly positive reviews that came flooding through unquestionably caused anticipation to skyrocket. However, the problem with the majority of game reviewers is that they play on consoles. Inherently, this is not a bad thing, however with the increase in dire PC ports, the reviews can come off as wide of the mark.

As of recent, we have seen some of the worst PC ports to come out of the industry. Games such as The Last Of Us Part 1 and Callisto Protocol were released to PC players in a horrendous state. Unfortunately, this seems to have become a common pattern now with the release of Jedi: Survivor, which in some ways is the most technically hindered game of the lot.

Jedi Surivor’s problem is optimisation. The game suffers from several issues such as stuttering, frame rate, pixilation blur and a lack of support. Some fans have even experienced constant crashing with no crash report, leaving fans to wonder what the problem is here. This questioning leads down a rabbit hole of different players experiencing different things, each with different capabilities and hardware. PC ports are a fickle thing as each person has different PC specs and hardware, so solutions won’t always work for everyone in need.

Around 4 days after the release, the first of the supposed many patches rolled through. Over a two-day period, both the PC and Console ports were improved. The PC got a vague patch note labelling the patch as having “Performance improvements for non-raytraced rendering”. Unsurprisingly, this patch caused more problems for several fans stated that problems that were already there got even worse, and new problems had now sprouted. As of right now, no new patches have been released, however many fans have been able to reach the end and are now talking about new game+. Undeniably though, there is still a wide range of fans who are still experiencing problems within a few hours of the story.

Here are a few things that can help your game:

Repair game files and/or verify game files
Run as Administrator
Update graphics driver
Set game to High Priority

Although each experience is different, in some cases the player may have to wait for more patches to surface, a consequence of PC volatility.

There is a silver lining to this whole situation thankfully. Alongside the release of Jedi: Survivor, another game was released called Redfall. A big game for Microsoft has been reviewed bombed with negative critique. In summary, Redfall lacks substances and gameplay that you would expect from a $70 dollar price tag. Redfall also came with its fair share of technical issues, however, these issues do not surmount to the amount Survivor has. Even though these technical issues can be fixed, the gameplay substance is a bigger issue and will put off new players even if Redfall runs smoothly. Survivor does not have this problem. Amongst the complaints of technical issues, Survivor is flooded with positive praise for how it improved from the last game. It has amazing combat, customisation, exploration and a rich story. And so, in the likely scenario that Survivor’s technical issues get patched out, the players are left with an amazing game to explore.

How about you? How’s your experience with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor? We’d love to hear from you.

Other things you might want to know:

Has Jedi survivor been fixed yet?

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has released one patch so far for both PC and Consoles and so it primarily depends on each person. Overall, the game is still in need of many more technical patches.