After months of accurate reports, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was finally officially announced with a cryptic teaser trailer. It didn’t come with much information about the game, but Game Director Stig Asmussen recently gave more insight on the sequel and specifically spoke to how the game will take advantage of the new hardware, while also hinting at some gameplay changes, too.
Asmussen talked about Survivor on the official Star Wars website. After going over some of the elements of the first game, he was prompted about how Respawn Entertainment was utilizing the power of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, as it — like Electronic Arts’ Dead Space remake — is not coming to the previous batch of consoles. Asmussen then talked highly about the lighting and how it will be a big time saver for the studio.
“So I think the biggest thing is ray tracing, or lighting,” said Asmussen. “That’s allowing us to do real-time lighting, all the time, at a fidelity that’s well beyond anything that we’ve ever produced before. Since it’s real-time, we get to see the changes as we tweak the lights — immediately, essentially. That means that we have more time to polish, that means that we can iterate more, and we can get better results that feel more filmic.”
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He then transitioned to the solid-state drives in the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S and how they will also make development a little easier, a luxury he probably wishes he had during all his years creating multiple God of War titles that strived to make load-free experiences before such fast drives were as prevalent. Asmussen also then teased that the studio was looking at the PS5’s DualSense and its haptic feedback, but didn’t give any specifics.
“Beyond that, we have these blazing fast drives on these consoles that are allowing us to load tons of content really quickly,” he continued. “I’ve always worked on streaming games — games that don’t have load screens. The fact that these consoles have such fast storage has made it even easier. Those are probably the two biggest benefits. PlayStation 5 has some really interesting haptics on their controller that we’re digging into, and it’s just an easier process in general.”
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Asmussen also gave some hints about Survivor‘s gameplay. He talked about features that were left on the cutting room floor from the first game that he wanted to put in the sequel like “more stances for combat.” Fallen Order‘s combat was likened to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, given its reliance on parries. But, while it remains to be seen how it will play out in the game, adding more stances seems like it could be somewhat like Nioh, another soulslike game, which has stances that change the protagonist’s speed and power. Asmussen didn’t spill anything else about the gameplay, so more concrete details will likely come in the future.
There are still plenty of parts of the game that lack details. Asmussen spoke vaguely about the more vibrant worlds, the direction he wants to take the characters, and the darker tone of the narrative, but was hesitant to divulge much else beyond those generalities. However, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor isn’t launching until sometime in 2023, meaning there’s still plenty of time for those details to come out.
