Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023)

I was eagerly awaiting the release of this game because I enjoyed the first one so much. The mechanics, the story, the beautiful graphics. And, I mean come on, being a badass Jedi wielding a lightsaber and using all kinds of Force tactics? Pretty freakin' awesome.

This game had all of that, but I feel it didn't deliver. Maybe it was because the first one was something we didn't have and this one, well, we knew what to expect so there wasn't any "wow" factor. I dunno.

It WAS great, however, to start the game with pretty much all the abilities you ended the last game with. I also enjoyed the new stances (and using a blaster as well). But starting in the fourth or fifth chapter, it really started to feel like a grind - especially at the end. Just wave after wave of the same ol' same ol'. I also appreciated the ending (no spoilers), which was a nice touch. The dialogue, character development and story arch were all solid as well.

I guess the thing that bothered my most was some of the gameplay got REALLY frustrating - especially traversing large areas in the air. It seemed a lot more clunky than the first game and some of the challenges were just ridiculous. Look, I do enjoy having to figure things out, but sometimes where to go next just wasn't intuitive. I don't expect a big green arrow saying "this way," but some areas I was just lost on where to go (and ended up accidentally backtracking more than once). The other gripe I had was that later in the game there weren't enough save points, so one misstep and I'd have to go through 15 min of fighting the same foes again and again.

All in all, it IS a good game and I'm glad I played it. Bun unlike the first one, I have no desire to finish the side missions or get all the collectables. I know it's near impossible to recreate the awesomeness of a first game, and I guess that's what I felt. It just left me wanting more and I was glad when it was over.

But I must admit, that it's pretty disappointing if you evaluate it as AAA quality game.

I'm pretty sad with the current state of things in the game industry, where game release is always forced to make a quick buck and move along. I believe, that this game could be much better, at least technically.

Pros: sound design and music. It really gives you at least glimpses of this Star Wars movie feel.

Cons: The absence of a challenge is the main one for me except for the mentioned technical issues. Some main bosses were pretty nice, but I'd say I expected more challenge from some optional areas, like Bounty Hunters (similarly to God of War valkyries etc).

Of COURSE Respawn drops a major performance update the day after I finish Jedi Survivor. Of Course they do. XD Are we just at a point now where we should wait 6 months after a game launches to buy it? Because this "release and fix it later" shit it really getting ridiculous.

Here's the patch notes:

*Patch 7 Details - September 5

Patch 7 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arrives today for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S.

Here are the fixes you can expect with this patch:

This patch introduces several performance-related improvements* on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S including:
    Performance mode has been completely reworked to substantially improve player experience.
        A number of GPU and CPU optimizations – along with disabling Ray Tracing – has resulted in a better player experience, including a solid 60 FPS in Performance mode.
    Quality Mode has also received optimizations to help reduce FPS fluctuation and introduce other visual improvements.

Variable Refresh Rate support added for PS5.
Additional performance & optimization improvements for PC, including DLSS support.
Save system tweaks to help prevent save game corruption.
Fixed issues where players could not retrieve their XP after dying under certain circumstances.
Various crash fixes.
Various bug fixes & improvements across all platforms, including fixes for cloth, lighting, and UI.

Note: Cinematics in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on console are locked to 30 frames per second.*

Another weekend, another weekend with Jedi Survivor. This game is too big, man. Like part of that is my fault - the best part of the game is exploration, and while most of that is optional, it's where most of the fun is at for me. But I think I'm at a point now where I'm ready to bee-line it and finish the plot.

It's funny though because - and this is spoilers for the last quarter of the game - I fucking KNEW Bode was a traitor from the first cutscenes dude appeared in. Seriously, nobody questioned why the Empire kept showing up when he was around? And how he made it out of every scrape unscathed? Like I'm surprised he turned out to be a... Sith? Fallen Jedi? Idk. But holy shit, this guy had traitor written all over him, and I legit groaned when he turned coat.

Technical problems persist, and they just keep getting worse. If you leave the game in a suspended state and resume without quitting out and rebooted, the game lags and hangs like a motherfucker. This is a problem, because I have never had this happen on any other OS5 or XBSX game.

The game also has this quirk that seems to be endemic to the Frostbite engine, where inputs are held in a queue. This will take some explanation. Say you try to jump, block, attack and heal in rapid succession, but you are interrupted by an enemy attack. Which will happen constantly. Sometimes, these queued up actions will be cleared upon interrupt, and sometimes they will execute in rapid succession when the game allows inputs again. This was a problem in Apex Legends as well, but it's far, far more prevalent here. So what happens is, you'll be fighting, you'll be blindsided by an off-screen attack that takes half your health, and instead of getting a heal off when you hit up on the D-Pad, the game will cause Cal to jump or attack or do some other bullshit that's not healing... And you die to the next hit. It's not so bad in the main game, but during the optional super bosses, it is INFURIATING. Especially when dude ignores your dodge roll or heal in fights that require split-second timing.

Like the game is still really good, despite all my bitching. I really do like it. But there's such a fundamental lack of polish on so many key components of gameplay that the game really should have trimmed back on sheer size to focus on the fundamentals.

I spent basically all of my free time this weekend playing this game, and while I do really enjoy it, the technical problems are really hurting my enjoyment. (Played on Series X).

The big one was losing 40 minutes of progress after falling into the floor with no way to die or escape. Funniest shit though, it gave me the achievement for X amount of time with feet off the ground. I had two crashes to the home menu, and one freeze where the game did not quick resume (just stayed on a black screen). I had the game soft lock during the VR monster combat game when my monster fell through the game board. This also included some funnier glitches where an AT-ST's feet kept stomping on the ground after it died, where jumping into a wind draft blew me through the walls of the level and into the void, and another where a large enemy kept ragdolling for a good 5 minutes, slowly rolling along the map and stopping in front of some guy's shack.

And it's a shame too, because there is SO much good about this game. One boss fight in particular on Jedha, where you fight that giant excavator while hopping through what are very obviously Wraith portals imported from Apex Legends, HOLY SHIT. Like that whole segment was some of the best gaming I've ever had. The exploration is great, and the combat is fun. The open world game design has enough dense spaces to make you want to explore and find new loot boxes and upgrades sprinkled around the world maps. The puzzle chambers are well-designed and visually breathtaking in a way that makes BOTW's grey copy/paste trials look like a joke.

This is a great game, but it's so very obviously not ready for release. I have loved everything Respawn has made since Titanfall 2 (not you, Medal of Honour VR), but between the rampant cheating in Apex and the poor technical state of this, I'm genuinely concerned about the level of quality control at Respawn and EA. It's made me unlikely to buy any of their games at launch going forward.

I got this one for an absolute steal at $40CDN (it's $90 new still), but as much as I'm loving it so far... The performance issues on Series X are BAD. Quality mode runs sub-30 and has uneven frame pacing. Performance mode seems to run moooostly 60, dipping down to like 30 when the screen gets busy.

But what kills me is the screen tearing in the top quarter of the screen. It only seems to happen in big, open areas, but MAN is it distracting. It's legitimately hurting my eyes. Turning off motion blur noticeably improves performance, and I hate motion blur so that don't arse me none. But it's just weird to play with graphics settings on a console game.

Kinda disappointing that a full-priced $90 game would run so poorly though. I would happily take a drop in quality for stable performance and no screen tearing. And on a machine as powerful as the Series X, it's pretty unacceptable.

I don't know if its age, limited time or finally reaching the limitations of ability but...the frog boss in Jedi: Survivor is BEATING MY ASS. Each flailing attempt, Cal is slammed into the mud so hard he's coughing up tadpoles.

I am playing on grand master, so its no real surprise but I feel like I've never picked up a controller before. My evenings intent to have down time, after working during the weekend, left me spiritually sickened that I'm wasting it.

And to think, I had the hubris to even buy Elden Ring?!

~ old man noises ~