Play or play not, there is no buy.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is one of my favourite games from 2023—and it also received our pick for best adventure last year. It’s leaps and bounds above Fallen Order, offering a really solid space romp that blends Sekiro-adjacent soulslike combat with a heavier lean into action-adventure. That makes it even more of a shame that it launched in a terrible state on PC.
After nose-diving to ‘mostly negative’ Steam reviews as a result of some understandable backlash, EA even admitted that it wasn’t “performing to our standards for a percentage of PC players”. The ensuing patches have helped, but that initial bombshell of an entrance was enough for plenty to get their Steam refunds in early, and I can’t say I blame them. That black mark still lingers today, with overall reviews sitting at “Mixed” despite “Mostly Positive” recent score.
If you’re one of those players, the good news is you’ve got an alternative option to buying the dang thing: PC Game Pass. As per the Xbox website, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be coming to EA Play, which means it’s coming to PC Game Pass too: “Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Game Pass PC members receive EA Play with their Game Pass subscription.” Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be arriving on Game Pass later this week, April 25.
Granted, if you veered away from the game to demand better PC ports with a vote from your wallet, this isn’t a squeaky-clean way to do so. Developers are compensated by Microsoft for having their games on Game Pass through various schemes, and I’m confident EA isn’t offering a game under a year old for “free” out of charity. Business is business.
Still, if you already have an active subscription, this represents a good opportunity to try the game out and see if the performance has become acceptable, and it won’t cost you a cent more than you’re already paying. If you’re willing to let bygones be bygones, I’d personally heartily recommend it.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is just a really dang good game, especially after almost a full year of patches. I was playing on a bit of a clunker back in 2023, so I was already having bad framerates from the outset—and the open zones of Koboh were especially gnarly, tanking me to framerates in the low double-digits while Cal’s glorious mullet became a shiny, waxy mess from some desperately-employed upscaling efforts.
Despite all that suffering, I still had a good time parkouring through a galaxy far, far away like I was the Prince of Persia with space magic, and it’s one of a few games to’ve pulled an audible ‘no way’ from me via a double-whammy plot twist. If you can stomach paying a delayed tithe to EA after the game’s initially-terrible performance, it’s absolutely still worth it.
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