Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

[portico]

When it comes to video games, I am easy. I don't demand much of them. I like to play games with strong storylines and puzzles, mostly don't care about combat, and will cheat at them at the drop of a hat. I have no ego when it comes to video games. Easy. So it's strange to be in this position but the new Star Wars game was...bad. It was bad. I loved playing it but it was also a bad game. 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came out at the end of 2019 and I played it in a rush, determined to get through it before my grad school classes began at the beginning of 2020. As it turned out, I didn't need to hurry. It was a slim game which escorted you along, giving you the illusion of choice (i.e. as in the order in which you visited planets) but was only really playable if you took the expected route. Instead of the dozens of findable collectibles some games contain, Fallen Order allowed you to discover 6 plant species. That was it. I didn't mind. I was in a hurry, and the cast of the game was great. I replayed it last year, and enjoyed it even more when I could take my time. So, I was exited to play the sequel.



Here are the ways in which Jedi: Survivor improves on its predecessor: 

• Much larger!
• More looks for Cal
• More puzzles
• You can pet and interact with sooooo many creatures
• Huge cast of charming and interesting side characters
• Wider variety of lightsaber stances
• Wider variety of items to collect
• Actual side-quests
• Plot has nothing to do with other things happening in Star Wars properties (afaik)
• You get to plant a rooftop garden!

The story, however...is bad! When you are introduced to Dagan Gerra, darksider from hundreds of years ago, it seems like it's going to be something different! and interesting! He's trying to get to this....place! That's...special! It's never made very clear why this place is special and why being cut off from it by the Jedi Council made Dagan go cuckoo bananas, but it is, and it did. And then Cal decides that he needs to go after this place also. Why? Unclear. Towards the end, they formulate a plan to use it as a hiding spot for those on the run from the empire (which I do like as a way around the lack of force-users at the beginning of A New Hope vs. the number we've got now thanks to the many Star Wars medias. They're on the other side of this wormhole thing! They're all very happy!), and that makes sense, but much of the game has already occurred at that point, and Cal + Co. have been undertaking big things which simply do not make sense.

I am a person who, as stated, really does not demand much from games. I am capable of suspending so much disbelief! Yet repeatedly I thought "Why am I doing this?" and "Why are these people here?" while playing Jedi: Survivor. And honestly, I was okay with it. I was having fun! I was helping my pal Skoova Stev catch rare fish and listening to his life's story! I was getting ex-smuggler Moran's tale of woe and thinking it might be nice if he and Cal kissed! I was talking to Mosey, and Caij, and Monk, and all the other good folks who I had convinced to spend their time in my friend's bar! I was listening to tunes spun by the EDM droid! BD-1 was there! It was lovely and I liked it very much.



Until the betrayal which was telegraphed in the first act of the game finally occurred and Darth Vader showed up.

(I like Darth Vader. I think he's a great villain in 3 movies.)

Betrayal?, you may ask, Darth Vader? What happened to Dagan Gerra? Great question! He died in the second act.

So. Weird way to plot a game! 

The end of the game feels like there are no stakes. It flirts with the idea of Cal going dark, but you don't believe it, and rightly so. I would have liked to see the gang start on the project of helping folks escape to the special place on the other side of the wormhole if that was the plan, but it doesn't happen. You're genuinely left with the feeling that nothing really happened. The bounty hunter sidequest feels like it has more consequence than the main plot of the game.

Anyway! Bad game! Loved playing it! Will play it again!