Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - A Great Game Held Back by Performance Issues

If you loved Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, you will want to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel that offers more action, exploration, customization and unfortunately performance issues.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released this week on April 28th, 2023, and is the game of the week, mainly because it was many people's most anticipated game, including ours. Jedi: Survivor is such a fun game to play it is hard to put down. I get compelled by the combat in the game, exploring the planets available to us and experiencing the story and new characters. Throughout our time playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, we've dealt with some performance issues and weird glitches that would sometimes take us out of the immersion.

Engaging Combat

They improved so much with the combat in Jedi: Survivor. It feels so satisfying to fight with new enemies, and with the new lightsaber stances and force powers, a person can control a fight in many ways. It took me a while to get used to, and I am still learning new things about using all of the abilities with the lightsaber and force powers. Regular enemies like the Bedlam Raiders can get you killed if you don't know what you're doing at first.

But then bosses like the Rancor can make the combat feel so intense! I died around ten times fighting the Rancor, but it felt so satisfying after defeating it, and I ended up unlocking my first perk! The combat is challenging, enjoyable, brutal, and realistic, as you can see the effects of your lightsaber slashes on your foes. I do love the accessibility options as well, from being able to turn on or off options like dismemberment, Arachnophobia safe mode, and navigation assistance. Respawn did its best to include many options so that people could enjoy the game in their way.

Exploration and Discovery

The worlds in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is so beautiful! Especially on the first planet, there's a lot to take in: the birds flying, Bogling's running around the land (which you can pet!), and enemies interacting with the world. I love it when I go around and the droids are talking with either themselves or to the other droids or Bedlam Raiders. It's also cool to see them fighting the native species there, like Skritons, and seeing that makes me feel like the world is alive. I appreciate that we can talk to the people around in the towns where we can search for rumors, find secret items, and more.

Some puzzles pop up from time to time, like one on the planet Koboh you would use a Roller Mine to destroy walls so you can go to the place you need to reach. I also love that you can go and hop around the land with double jumping, wall-running, and using the grapple hook. It does remind me of Tomb Raider at times when I go climb around. You can sometimes use your force powers to grab ropes, break down doors, and more.

Performance Issues

However, the game has its challenges. I am playing on PS5 and originally wanted to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on the performance mode setting. At first, things were fine, but like 30 minutes in, I saw a lot of frame rate dips/fluctuations. It would suck because it would cause my screen to tear. I was out of luck because I don't have a monitor or TV where my PS5 can do the VRR setting. So, I decided to play the game in quality mode, which was alright compared to performance mode, but it took some time to get used to it.

On Quality Mode, the resolution did look better and less blurry. I am happy that the framerate was much more stable, and I didn't have to deal with the screen tearing, but it did dip a couple of times, but it wasn't as bad as a performance mode. At least I am lucky to be playing the game, including people playing on Xbox Series X|S. But I have seen that people on PC can't even play the game on the lowest settings! I have seen people like SomeOrdinaryGamers and others online having strong graphics cards and CPUs struggling to run the game on the lowest settings, which is unreal.

The game suffers from screen tearing, fluctuating frame rates, pop-in textures, glitches, bugs, and crashes. It sucks that these issues are here because they can ruin the immersion and enjoyment of the game, especially during intense moments or cutscenes. I'm not too happy about the fact that this game is being brought down by its performance issues because there are so many good things about this game that a lot of people can't experience because of those issues.

I hope soon these issues get fixed. EA/Respawn released a statement on Twitter about knowing about the problems and hoping to get it quickly fixed, especially on PC. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is another AAA game to be dealing with a release like this, and I hope it lessens when more games are released because it will make me not buy games on release anymore.