Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor continues Cal Kestis's story several years after the events of the first game, finding him a tired, battle-hardened knight who no longer has illusions about how easily the Empire can be resisted. Combat draws on the schooling the soulslike genre has taught players: parrying at just the right moment, stamina management, and bosses whose attacks you have to learn. New this time are combat stances — a double-bladed lightsaber, a lightsaber paired with a blaster, a cross-guard stance, and more — that can be switched between to build your own style. Exploring the planets is metroidvania in the truest sense: new abilities open up previously inaccessible paths, and it pays off to go back.

On Xbox Series X|S, the game offers a visual mode including ray tracing as well as a mode favoring smoother performance. Its launch was plagued by performance issues, especially on PC, and subsequent updates focused specifically on stability; on consoles, the situation improved significantly during the first few months. Visually, it's one of the most beautiful games in the entire Star Wars universe — the planet Koboh, with its rocky massifs, dusty little town, and sunsets, feels like a place you could actually live. The sound design uses the series' iconic motifs but doesn't rely on them blindly; its own orchestral themes keep the tension up even away from familiar territory.

Reception was mostly very good, with praise going especially to the characters' growth, the broadened combat system, and a far bolder world structure compared to the first game. Reservations were aimed at its technical state at launch and at the occasional emptiness of large areas. Its influence shows in how licensed action games began drifting away from corridors and toward interconnected worlds with gradual unlocking. Today, after patches, Jedi: Survivor is one of the best reasons to pick up a Star Wars game on Xbox Series X|S, even for players who've only followed the films casually.