Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has the tricky task of following up the excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from 2019. Fortunately, there’s not much longer to wait to see what’s in store for Cal’s follow-up adventure.
Just when we thought we’d seen it all by way of Star Wars games, Respawn hits it out of the park with one of the best single-player video games to ever use the license in 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Prior to this point EA had been missing the mark with ill-judged loot boxes in multiplayer shooter Star Wars Battlefront 2, so getting to play as a Jedi on the run felt liberating and was truly cinematic. Cal Kestis is soon set to return in the sequel, which looks a lot more ambitious.
There’s been several story and gameplay trailers released in the lead up to launch that helps illustrate what we can expect from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Everything shown so far demonstrates a sequel that knows where exactly to iterate without losing the essence of what made the first game so cool and refreshing. If you’re unsure about what’s in store by the time Star Wars Jedi: Survivor releases, we’ve gathered up all the most important information in one place.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor release date
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be released on 28 April, 2023 for PC and all major console platforms.
The original Star Wars Jedi: Survivor release date was March 17, 2023, as announced during last year’s The Game Awards. However, Respawn made the difficult decision to delay it at the end of January, explaining in a Tweet that it needed time to improve on “bug fixes to enhance performance, stability, polish, and most importantly, the player experience.” Less than a month out from release, there’s no sight of another delay coming up. It’s all systems go for Friday, April 28.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor platforms
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will exclusively be released on current-gen consoles and PC. That means players will only be able to play Cal’s follow-up adventure on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. This marks a huge difference when compared to the last game, which initially launched on last-gen PlayStation and Xbox platforms before receiving a patch providing an improved resolution and framerate on current-gen systems seven months later.
Sticking to just PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in the console space means that the sequel will be able to take full advantage of the current-gen hardware to potentially be the prettiest game on both platforms yet. Visuals are expected to be pushed within the PC gaming space too, as the system requirements – as detailed on EA’s website – shows that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will eat up a whopping 155GB of storage space. There’s still no word on how large the file size for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S version of the game will be.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gameplay
The first Star Wars Jedi game lets players unleash the full power of the force with a generous suite of powers that included Force Pull, Force Push and Leap. This is in addition to the ability to wield your lightsaber as a standard single saber or double-handed. Trailers and comments from Respawn Entertainment so far reveal gameplay mechanics in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor that are far more in-depth, by comparison. But fortunately, unlike a lot of other AAA sequels, Cal will start off not having to relearn the same powers.
Cal is a more experienced fighter in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and therefore it makes sense that he is capable of more. Game director Stig Amussen explained in an interview with Game Informer that he will have access to five lightsaber stances that are “fully realised” this time around, indicating that combat opportunities against enemies will be plentiful. In addition to the stances available in the first game, Cal can now wield a lightsaber in each hand when wanting to cover ground and attack fast, while his new crossguard stance can be used for heavy, up-close attacks that are more powerful.
Gunplay didn’t factor into Cal’s previous adventure, but that changes for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Because in addition to shooting enemies away from afar, Cal can combine weapons to hold a blaster in one hand and a lightsaber in the other. This is easily one of the biggest changes to combat when compared to its predecessor.
In terms of getting around, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor promises to be a lot less restricted. Cal can now ride creatures to explore planets faster, for instance, and Amussen has also confirmed that fast travel has been implemented after fans and critics took note of the drawbacks that came with the last game’s Metroidvania-style exploration. Locations on planets are still very much interconnected, but the option is there to get around via mounts, fast travel points and the rideable zip wires that return.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor story
The story of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will pick up roughly five years after the events of the last game, following Cal Kestis’ journey after surviving the Jedi purge laid down by the Emperor’s infamous Order 66. Cal himself hues closer to the status of Jedi Knight as opposed to Padawan, finding himself on the run after continuing his efforts to take down the Empire’s cruel regime. In the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor story trailer, Cal even expounds how “fear and mistrust rule the galaxy”.
The trailer also indicates that the crew of the Stinger Mantis are separated, at least towards the beginning of the game, with Cal operating on his own. Merrin, Greez and Cere all are confirmed to appear in the sequel, but it’s clearly been a long time since they last saw each other judging by the way Greez and Cal are shown briefly embracing. BD-1, Cal’s trusty little droid companion, is also returning of course.
The teaser trailer shows a former enemy of Cal’s wielding his lightsaber at one point, indicating that he and the Pau’an senator have some sort of shady shared history. Then there’s the heavily teased character in the bacta tank, who has stayed unnamed so far but will seemingly play an important role in the story’s main throughline. Could he be the key to helping Cal and crew stop the Empire? Probably not, seeing as that honour is held by Luke Skywalker, but Cal’s efforts in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will no doubt help.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: pre-orders and editions
Being one of the biggest AAA EA games of the year, you can bet your bottom dollar that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has multiple different editions up for pre-order. There are two different Star Wars Jedi: Survivor editions available to pre-order right now: the Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Standard Edition
The Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Standard Edition is a lot more exciting than it sounds, retailing for £69.99 / $69.99 / AU$109.95. Purchasing this edition will get you what’s called the Jedi Survival pack, which comes with a cosmetic skin inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi and some other goodies. Here’s a full breakdown of what’s included:
Jedi Survival cosmetic pack:
- Hermit cosmetic outfit
- Hermit lightsaber set
- Hermit combustion blaster set
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Deluxe Edition
The Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Deluxe Edition gets you the same Jedi Survival cosmetic pack included in the Standard Edition but also an additional two cosmetic packs for £89.99 / $89.99 / AU$139.95. These are the Galactic Hero cosmetic pack and New Hero cosmetic pack. Here’s what they consist of:
Galactic Hero cosmetic pack:
- Scoundrel cosmetic outfit
- Rugged BD-1 skin
- DL-44 blaster set
New Hero cosmetic pack:
- Rebel Hero cosmetic outfit
- BD-Astro BD-1 skin
- Rebel Hero lightsaber set
There are no differences found in the content depending on whether you buy the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Standard Edition and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Deluxe Edition digitally or physically. Pre-ordering doesn’t see you net these bonuses either.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor character customisation
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order featured a bit of character customisation, but it was mainly limited to ponchos, different colour schemes for BD-1 and of course Cal’s lightsaber. Game director Stig Amussun even admitted to Xbox Wire that customisation was “kind of an afterthought” added late into development. The sequel looks to have significantly stepped up this aspect of the game, thankfully, with Cal himself being much more customisable this time around. Now you can fully customise not just Cal’s clothes – including jackets, shirts and pants – but also his hair style and certain facial features.
Such additions should make this follow-up Jedi adventure feel much more personal, by comparison. There’s a generous number of colourways included for both BD-1 and Cal too – though the exact amount is not known. Lightsaber customisation options also return with hilts, blade colours, switches and more all tweakable to a far larger degree. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor looks to be a far more customisable adventure than the first in almost every aspect – and not just because Cal can have a beard now. Infinite ponchos are a thing of the past.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor planets and locations
Any Star Wars game is only as good as the planets you can visit, right? Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order only has five in total, of various sizes, but Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ups its game in this regard again by featuring seven large planets. The main one featured in the marketing so far is Kobah, which according to VGC serves as a hub world of sorts with NPCs, and side quests to undertake. Also discussed is the fact that planets will be larger than before, being comparable to realms you might see in God of War and God of War Raganarok.
There are few other planets that have been confirmed so far by name, but trailers tease a range of terrain types. Kobah itself looks like a mixture of desert and forest, while a glimpsed cinematic shows Cal brooding over an industrial metropolis planet that doesn’t look too dissimilar to Coruscant. Another location we see Cal fighting through is an imperial fighter base, evident by the appearance of dark troopers and storm troopers. From everything we’ve seen so far, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor shouldn’t suffer from a lack of location variety.
