Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had no issues wearing its influences proudly on its sleeve. While the game's core concept borrowed a few details from past Star Wars stories like Jedi Knight, its combat was inspired by Dark Souls and other FromSoftware titles, and its level design was influenced by the Metroidvania genre. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order brought all of these elements together to create a compelling AAA Star Wars video game fans had never seen before. And rather than run away from those influences, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor chooses to embrace them instead.
By all accounts, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a return to the classic sequel formula of old, where the next entry doesn't try and reinvent the wheel, but instead chooses to improve upon all of the aspects that its predecessor did well in the first place. In that regard, Jedi: Survivor features more fluid and responsive Soulslike combat, has a deeper and more rewarding Metroidvania level design, and takes fan expectations of Star Wars lore and character arcs and flips them on their head to produce an even more compelling story. But if there's one Fallen Order influence that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has embraced even more than the rest, it's Uncharted.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Continues to Double Down on its Uncharted Influences
One of the biggest points of comparison, when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released, was between it and the Uncharted franchise, and it's pretty easy to see why. A lot of Jedi: Fallen Order's moment-to-moment gameplay involves the player climbing up various environments and obstacles, and leaping off to grab ledges on the other side of an abyss. Naturally, this both looks and feels very Uncharted-like, with Fallen Order using similar climbing animations and climbing mechanics.
Another big example used in many fans' comparisons between the two games was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order's use of highly cinematic gameplay set pieces. While Fallen Order had its fair share of compelling cinematics, thankfully the majority of its most exciting set pieces were saved for actual gameplay moments, and a lot of them felt right at home in an Uncharted game. Most infamously, Jedi: Fallen Order used a lot of long slides, requiring the player to leap off at the end while the camera panned around in slow-motion and everything blew up around them. A very similar sequence has appeared throughout Uncharted's history, from the very first entry all the way up to Uncharted Lost Legacy's final train set piece.
But rather than try and tone down its Uncharted influences, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has instead decided to embrace them fully, making the game feel even more like Uncharted than ever before, but in a good way. Jedi: Survivor features much more platforming than was ever present in Fallen Order, but rather than simple climbing, swinging, and jumping mechanics, Jedi: Survivor offers a little more player freedom in how they approach these platforming challenges, with a lot more tools at their disposal as well. During the course of the game, players will unlock an Ascension Cable grappling hook that makes Jedi: Survivor's platforming feel immediately more rewarding than its predecessor's, and paired with the Air Dash Force ability learned later on, it only gets better.
But by far the biggest way Star Wars Jedi: Survivor doubles down on its Uncharted influences is through the game's settings and story. A good half of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's story missions see players exploring underground caves, tombs, and ancient High Republic structures, all in search of mysterious artifacts. Of course, the motivations behind Cal Kestis' journey differ wildly from Nathan Drake's, but the general feel of Uncharted's secret settings definitely seeps into Jedi: Survivor's first half.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released on April 28, 2023, and is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
