Since the day Respawn Entertainment announced Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the developer has tried to hammer the point home that the highly anticipated sequel is improving upon its predecessor in nearly every way possible, and from what we’ve seen of it so far, in terms of story, gameplay, and more, it certainly seems to be living up to those promises.
In a recent interview with VGC, the developers reiterated that point once again, with principal UI visual designer Daanish Syed saying, “I think Jedi: Survivor is just an expansion of Fallen Order in every possible way. In terms of the story and gameplay exploration, everything that we did and established in that game, it’s blown out to the extreme.”
Lead producer Paul Hatfield went on to offer more insight, saying that at the outset of the sequel’s development, Respawn Entertainment’s goal was to ramp things up in every aspect of the experience, whereas with Fallen Order, the focus had been more on establishing a foundation.
“Starting out the project, Stig (Asmussen, director of Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor) was very clear about the pillars that are important for the game,” Hatfield said. “For the first game, it was more about the team mastering what we set out to do and building the team from scratch. We were learning and building the game as we went.
“So for the second game, it was like, ‘okay, we learned a million things, we’ve heard so much feedback, we have internal feedback and player feedback. Let’s put that all together and put a bow on it for the second go around.'”
The improvements that Jedi: Survivor is looking to make on its predecessor have been demonstrated in several ways, from its inclusion of five combat stances and greater enemy variety to new traversal options and new gameplay activities. Meanwhile, Respawn is also promising much larger and more detailed maps for players to explore and a darker and more nuanced story than the first game, while more granular but frequently requested improvements like the addition of fast travel have also been confirmed. And, of course, there are plenty of technical upgrades for players to look forward to as well.
Recently, the developer also confirmed that Jedi: Survivor will feature a new “Jedi Padawan” difficulty level to better bridge the gap between Story Mode and Jedi Knight difficulty.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is set to launch on April 28 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
