Often, you enjoy a game and wish for a sequel, a sequel you get, but it turns out to be nothing more than nostalgia farming and a ‘do the bare minimum, the name will sell’ type of game. To my great pleasure and relief, I can say that Jedi Survivor is nothing like that. In fact, the first game feels like a budget-limited demo compared to this. The scope, gameplay, story, and everything are considerably bigger and better. It is really nice to see a game get a bigger budget than its predecessor and proceed to use it for more content, weapons, mini-games, events, NPCs, and an overall better experience.
As for the performance, the game runs alright now, though it could have been better… and it’s worth noting that this game supports modern upscalers, which greatly help.
Now, I was never called a defeatist, not sure if it is a real term even, but it is apparent from the first hour that Cal’s work in the last game, and everything he has done since, is but a drop in the Empire’s goblet. Its ripples don’t even reach the cup’s rim, let alone shake the hand holding it, Vader’s mighty hand.
Cal, however, insists that the only path forward is that of the resistance, a respectable and most courageous, but foolish one, and for it Cal pays, and others do too…
Tormented between his Order’s teachings and ways, again, a most courageous and respectable stand, and between his newfound love and newly forged friendships, and all that is at stake now. Cal also remembers that from the very start of his resistance, it had cost him friends and it had risked his life countless times, but he is not deterred still.
In that tornado of hesitation and uncertainty, Cal is lost, doing side quests, chasing errands, playing space-chess, and recovering decades-old Order relics, each promising and echoing a voice in his head, leading him to believe that: “Now this will help defeat the Empire!…” Can it, though?
In his wallow, Cal ends up fighting a completely different battle, and this should neither surprise nor be considered a spoiler, for his efforts do not even dent the Empire’s reign. In fact, most of the vast galaxy’s citizens don’t even know about him or about his perilous journey or what he wants or dreams for the galaxy and for them. So the only thing left to ask is: when will Cal realize that it is time to stop? And that this is a futile battle?
I can only hope we can get answers in another sequel, for this was a really fun game with a lot to do and see and a very good story that deserves a further telling, and its Cal deserves peace, of which he was robbed since he was a child.
