Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is getting closer and closer to release, and as that happens, developer Respawn Entertainment is giving us more tidbits about the game. Most recently, director Stig Asmussen gave some details about world navigation, along with the combat system and the long-awaited addition of dismemberment for enemies.
The previous Star Wars Jedi game, Fallen Order, operated on a sort of Metroidvania-esque system, with players being able to roam between planets and unlocking new areas as they got new abilities, along with various collectibles to search for on the planets themselves.
However, some players gave feedback that the areas were too difficult to navigate through, with various climbing spots, tunnels, and more. According to Asmussen, the new game has a wide variety of tools for players to work with to make navigating the different worlds we’ll be visiting easier.
“There’s huge improvements in terms of clarity and of being able to add markers. BD-1 has binoculars now as well that allows you to scan the environment and drop beacon points. There’s just a lot more legibility in general regarding where you need to go next. Lots of lessons learned here and areas we wanted to improve upon.”
Along with a revamped movement system is a revamped combat system. To help illustrate that Cal is now much more in tune with the Force and more experienced as a Jedi, Respawn has changed the combat system to have multiple forms.
Unlike the switch between one lightsaber and a double-bladed one in the last game, Cal can now use a single blade, two blades, dual-wielding, being able to use a crossguard lightsaber, or…you can just pull an Indiana Jones and shoot the enemies down. Each of these stances can be good for certain players, making you able to tailor Cal more to your style.
“It’s easily the biggest improvement [to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor], in that you can now carry five stances and they each have a unique personality. There’s a kind of synergy that we have the way that we’re constructing the enemies in the game that some stances might be able to reveal exploits faster against some enemies than another one. But to be clear, you can take down any enemy with any stance.”
Along with the new combat system, the lightsaber is now much more dangerous. While many enemies have things that can block it, requiring you to break their stance a-la From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there are just as many enemies that are also one-hit kills, though there are still many that aren’t. Respawn also finally got the greenlight to do dismemberment in the game, so you’ll now be able to chop off body parts.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and PC on April 28.
