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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023)
A Great Sequel to A Great Game
Fair Warning! This Review May Contain Spoilers for Both Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023)!
I am a huge Star Wars fan, I have watched every major film, animated show, live action show excluding Andor (2022) and Star Wars: Resistance (2018). I have also played quite a few Star Wars games in my life from classics such as Star Wars: Battlefront (2004), Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005), and Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005). To current games like EA's Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), and now Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023). So you could say I have been a fan of Galaxy Far Far Away, for a Long Long Time.
Now into the main review. I recently purchased the game on Steam just two days before its release, as I was quite excited for the sequel. The game ran poorly on my PC, now this may be due to my system just not fitting the right requirements for the game, but I have heard that other PC users have also experienced frame loss, loss of textures, etc.
So I rebought the game on my PS5 and played the game in full there. Now with the mix of the time I put into both platforms I have pretty much thirty hours of game time played. Six of the thirty hours would be counted as already playing the same parts for a while. The game's story is said to be thirty hours long. I played on the base difficulty the game throws at you from the get go being Jedi Knight of five optional difficulties being Story Mode, Jedi Padawan, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master, and Jedi Grand Master.
On my PS5 after finishing the story it said I had twenty-four hours of playtime in total. Which means that it took me twenty-three hours at most to do the story, as I spent nearly a whole hour trying to kill the horrid boss Spawn Of Oggdo. Yes Oggdo Boggdo's Son (as the name implies) makes an appearance into the game, as is quite a difficult and annoying boss to fight for those who aren't yet mastered in the lightsaber arts. Like me...
The story is great, absolutely is just *chef's kiss* of a story, from returning characters such as Greeze, Merrin, and Cere, to newly appearing characters like Dagan Gera, Bode, Monk, Caij, and more!
The first game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had eight locations in the game that the player was introduced / got to go to, that list being (in order of story) Bracca, Bogano, Zeffo, Kashyyyk, Ordo Eris, Dathomir, Ilum, and Nur. Mind you that the main locations that are more explorable with actual things to find are Bogano, Zeffo, Kashyyyk, Dathomir, and Ilum. Whereas Bracca, Ordo Eris, and Nur are mainly tied to storytelling with no real freedom for the player to explore as these locations are linear. Now one thing that was certainly fun was being a Jedi surviving as best as possible while still getting to explore more of the galaxy. One thing that more people like me wished was to have even more to explore with these locations, and even to return to some like Bracca which is the scrapyard planet of the Galaxy, as it was introduced in the game that Cal Kestis the Jedi you portray as in the first installment has been hiding out on Bracca helping breaking down the various ships, tanks, and other military vehicles from both sides of The Clone Wars. How fun would it be to have Cal need to return there for something that ties into his quest.
However, we only get six locations in the sequel and unlike Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order all locations are only accessible in a specific order of importance to the plot. Whereas in the first installment you had the option to go to Dathomir as soon as you got to Bogano and were ready to head back out into the galaxy. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's locations are Coruscant, Koboh, Jedha, Shattered Moon (The Shattered Moon of Koboh), Nova Garon, and Tanalorr. Just as the predecessor, not all locations are explorable, meaning as really only Tanalorr the endgame location isn't really anything special, considering its importance to the plot, especially for the type of planet it is. As once you reach the final mission on Tanalorr and complete it you can look back at the holomap and see that Tanalorr is probably going to be the first location for everyone to fully explore as there are no collectibles, secrets, or fun things to do as it is only designed for the final quest.
Speaking of the fact we are two locations less of what the predecessor has, it seems that a reason for that might be because of just how big and explorable Koboh and Jedha really are. It is quite funny to think that Coruscant, the planet-wide city that delves several levels below its top city layer, is actually smaller in exploration than planets like Koboh or the desert planet of Jedha. Some of you who have not gotten to play the game yet or are still having just that small difficulty of connecting on where you remember Jedha from, Jedha was introduced in the film Star Wars: Rogue One (2016), you know the planet that has Saw Gerrera, where we got to meet Chirrut, Baze, and the Imperial Pilot Bohdi.
I do find it quite upsetting that there aren't as many locations you can go to and that Koboh and Jedha are the only two that have the most exploration out of all six that have any exploration at all. Regardless of this there are a variety of things you can do in the whole of exploration, lots of collecting to do. From collecting four different types of things for vendors, where you can purchase a variety of perks, cosmetics for Cal's clothes and weaponry, or even BD-1. You can also collect fish and seeds for a garden. No you don't get to go fishing yourself, but you get to meet a hearty fisherman named Skooba Stev who tells you his woes and fascinating tales of fishing!
While on the planet of Koboh your main goal is to get to Greeze's Cantina Pyloon's Saloon, named after Greeze's Great Grandmother which will be the main base for Cal and the gang. Which is where it will house the variety of other characters you can meet along the way and tell them to head to the Saloon. Koboh is not only the second planet you venture to, but also offers some familiar face plates. Yes the Separatists are on Koboh, you get to run into B1 Battle Droids, B2 Super Battle Droids, Droidekas, Magna Guards, and Commando Droids. As they have been reprogrammed to work for the local raider group the Bedlam Raiders.
Now the story is fantastic, so fantastic I don't want to give off too many spoilers, especially big moments. A quick summary of the plot is that it has to do with some ancient two century old technology from the High Republic days dealing with a secret. But all in all the story had me laughing, crying, scared, and hot headed. As it does have a variety of ups and downs.
In conclusion Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023) is a fantastic sequel, and is a recommended play for anyone who wishes to delve back into the boots of Jedi Knight Cal Kestis. I rate it a good 8/10 for a variety of great reasons, and in this review you can see some of why I love it and why I dislike some aspects. Of course if I were to list even more this review will continue on for a longer time, but that is okay. Because it is not to the point that makes the game unplayable.
The Last of Us: Left Behind (2023)
Left Behind - Done Right
The Last of Us as a series has been fantastic so far. I have yet to review the show in full as at least the first season is not yet fully out and complete. However what I can do is review the episodes individually, and I'd like to start with The Last of Us: Left Behind.
The Last of Us: Left Behind was initially released for the game The Last of Us (2013) a year later in 2014 as downloadable content otherwise known as DLC or what could be more considered as an expansion. As it expanded on Ellie and her past, her young teen love, and what happened between them, but also a way to show us how she was bitten in the first place.
The episode followed the same story, but obviously with ever so small differences here and there. One of the other arching aspects of the the Expansion is that is also follows Ellie in a mall searching for medical supplies for Joel. In total it was expected that players could finish The Last of Us: Left Behind Expansion in a little over two full hours. Now the episode comes in at one hour, two minutes, and fifty-three seconds. Without the end credit basically from when it cuts to black the episode's run time comes to fifty-five minutes and fifty seconds.
Considering how much you are getting of the Expansion compared to a basic fifty-five minute episode that still covers Ellie finding some sort of medical supplies for Joel, and getting her backstory with Riley this was actually shorter in comparison. They also told both stories in a way that works for Ellie's current point in the story with Joel. Joel being injured and needs help. However they used the scenery of another mall to coincide with Ellie's first journey in a mall with Riley. Whereas in this episode I saw as how Ellie lost the one thing she loved most, and was afraid of losing another person she lost. So she replayed her last loss in her head while worrying for Joel.
With that out of the way the episode did a great job at still hitting some beats from the Expansion to this episode. I don't recall Ellie getting excited from escalators in the game, so I believe that was a slight addition, but the merry-go-round was still very similar. In the episode we get to see just how dangerous one lonely infected can be to anyone especially two young teens when caught off guard.
The story between Riley and Ellie is a very important aspect to Ellie and who she is, why she is very reluctant to trust people. Why she was also very hot headed towards anyone really. It may not have a lot to do with getting Joel and Ellie further along their search of The Fireflies, but granted neither did the Expansion. Which is fine, because not every episode has to drive the plot forward several skips. Now granted along the way there has been quite a bit of sections from the game that are just not present in the series.
For example when getting to Tommy Joel and Ellie are greeted by an obstruction, the obstruction being a dam, they have to cross the dam, and there isn't a straightforward path for them to take. This entire sequence was never in the show, and that is fine. Obviously for a nine episode season I expect quite a few differences.
Yet at the end of the day this episode did a wonderful job focusing on Ellie's past, and how she fell in love, got bit to find out she is immune, and how she lost perhaps the love of her life. Both Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid did a wonderful job capturing the essence of both characters while still putting a small spin on them to fit them to who they are as the actor playing them without deviating so much from the source material. From Ellie's child like discovery of escalators, to her questioning the purpose of lingerie, to enjoying simple rides like a merry-go-round and just have fun in a Halloween store like most people do. The duo actresses did a fantastic job of capturing the excitement of experiencing these things as kids, and friends.