2022 was a relatively quite year where major new releases are concerned- not totally lacking, of course, but not as densely packed as many would have wanted. 2023, on the other hand, is shaping up to be an absolute monster of a year. We’re less than two months into the year right now, and we’ve already had a number of mammoth releases- and this is only the beginning. Right up until the end of the year, it looks like there’s going to be plenty of gargantuan new releases to look forward to- and one in particular that many have had their eye on for a while is coming up not long from now.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was officially announced only a few months ago, and it’s only in recent weeks that Respawn Entertainment and EA have kicked the game’s marketing into gear, and yet there’s no doubt that there’s immense hype and anticipation surrounding it. Of course, until you get your hands on a game and experience it for yourself, you can never truly tell if it’s going to live up to expectations, but based on everything that we’ve seen of it so far, it does seem like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is shaping up to be one of 2023’s best and biggest releases. And there’s more than a few reasons for that.
The most obvious one is the plain and simple fact that this is a Star Wars game, and a new game based on one of the biggest and most successful media properties in the world is bound to attract plenty of attention. There’s also no denying that the games based on licensed properties are bigger than they have ever been and are enjoying critical and commercial success on a level that they’ve never managed to hit on the past- at least on a consistent basis. And that does make sense, when you think about it. With new games – especially of the AAA variety – requiring increasingly bigger investments of both time and money and each new title becoming a riskier proposition for publishers and developers as a result, it’s not surprising that companies are choosing to fall back on established brands and properties that have massive, global appeal.
But to say that the Star Wars license is the only reason Jedi: Survivor is generating the kind of buzz it’s generating would frankly be a disservice to the work Respawn Entertainment is going- and the work it already did with its predecessor. 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a dream come true for many fans of the property who’d been desperate for a well-made AAA Jedi game. No, it wasn’t perfect – no game ever is – but from its story to its combat, from its traversal mechanics to its structure and level design, the game excelled and impressed in more ways than one.
And Jedi: Survivor seems to be doing everything that you’d want the sequel to an excellent yet imperfect game to do- building on its predecessor’s foundations, polishing the rough edges, and honing in on its biggest strengths. Respawn Entertainment has revealed quite a bit when it comes to the sequel’s gameplay, and it’s abundantly clear that the developer is smartly choosing to bolster the core formula’s greatest strengths by adding new features both big and small that allow them to flourish even more than they did in Fallen Order.
Take the combat, for instance. Fallen Order was lauded for fulfilling the Jedi fantasy of millions when it launched less than four years ago, delivering an excellent blend of Lightsaber duels and Force powers, and Jedi: Survivor is looking to crank that up to eleven. One of the best examples of that are the new combat stances, with five of them being on offer for players to choose from, each coming with unique attributes and specific strengths and weaknesses. Whether you want to come at foes with heavy, slow attacks that do a lot of damage or with fast and agile strikes that make for better blocking and dodging ability, or even a fighting style that allows for more range courtesy of a blaster in one hand and a saber in the other, Jedi: Survivor’s combat stances are looking to provide options. Very smartly, it’s looking to build on the strong foundations of its predecessor’s combat by injecting more variety and greater player agency into proceedings.
Beyond the combat, the game also seems to be making key improvements to the exploration aspect, which was another major pillar of Fallen Order’s core gameplay loop. Respawn Entertainment is promising much larger worlds that will be much more densely packed with things to do, both optional and otherwise, with much greater detail being promised in every environment you visit. Add to that the addition of new traversal options – including mounts – and it becomes clear that the sequel really is looking to be bigger and better than Fallen Order in several ways. Specifically where the planets we’ll be visiting are concerned, we haven’t seen too much of what Jedi: Survivor will have on offer on this front with the exception of the planet of Koboh, but if what we have seen is representative of what the entire game will have on offer, then it does look like we’ll be in for an experience that will deliver much more compelling exploration.
Crucially, it also looks like Respawn is directly addressing a lot of criticisms or demands that players have had after playing Fallen Order. The lack of a fast travel system was something that bugged a great many people in the original game, but fast travel has been confirmed for Jedi: Survivor. Many players were disappointed that you couldn’t dismember human enemies in Fallen Order, despite the fact that you were slicing through their bodies with a Lightsaber, but that isn’t going to be the case in the sequel. Fallen Order’s cosmetic customization options were criticized by some for being too bland and uninteresting, but Respawn is promising a much greater and much more interesting range of options with the upcoming game.
Something else that shouldn’t be overlooked is the fact that Jedi: Survivor is launching as a current-gen only title. While most major new releases over the last couple of years have been cross-gen games, Respawn Entertainment has decided to stick exclusively with current-gen hardware, and we’re more than a little curious to see what benefits that will bring, in terms of both visuals, technical accomplishments, and game design. And speaking of technical accomplishments- Fallen Order was quite a rough game, from a technical perspective, when it first launched, so the hope is that its sequel will be avoiding those same issues right off the bat, rather than needing post-launch updates to apply the needed polish.
Clearly, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has all the elements in place to make for an unforgettable game- if it can continue to tell a compelling Star Wars story around well-realized characters the way its predecessor did, if it can expand and improve upon its gameplay formula with all of the mechanical enhancements its promising, if it can properly leverage the much more powerful hardware of he PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Yes, that’s a lot of ifs, and no game is ever guaranteed to get so many ifs right- but a developer as talented as Respawn Entertainment is bound to inspire confidence, especially given how well it did with its first ever Star Wars outing.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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