LOS ANGELES — “Star Wars” in 2023 is sprawling, a franchise with numerous animated and live-action streaming series, books and theme park lands. I suspect that most fans who are interested in the brand pick and choose their spots, rather than try to keep up with it all. My favorite element of “Star Wars” these days is the one that’s in a physical space — Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park. It’s a place to wander, explore and play, and a reminder that the original films created not just a new American myth but a world we wanted to get lost in.
Perhaps, then, it makes sense that I’ve taken so highly to “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor,” the latest large-scale video game from Sherman Oaks-based studio Respawn Entertainment. It’s also “Star Wars” at its most comfortable and old-fashioned, in the best way possible. Arriving at a time when series such as “Andor” and “The Mandalorian” are attempting to push “Star Wars” beyond its familiar slate of characters and stories, “Survivor” taps into a mix of action adventure, hokiness and light spirituality that can make even the largest and silliest of “Star Wars” tales feel somewhat personal.
“Survivor” is a love letter to the Jedi, those mystical yet superpowered beings who have often stood at opposite ends of the franchise’s moral compass. If “The Mandalorian” and, especially “Andor,” have shown us “Star Wars” can get along just fine without a preoccupation with the Jedi and their Force powers, “Survivor” shows us why Jedi stories matter. This is an action game — and an awfully challenging one, depending on how you adjust the difficulty settings — in which one’s relationship to the devotional lies at its heart. In a franchise that often relies on save-the-galaxy heroics, Jedi Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) is starting to wonder if he should be after something more akin to a work-life balance.
Set after the events of the prequel trilogy but before those of “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” — broadly speaking, an era explored in “Andor” — Kestis is a Jedi on the run. In the first game, 2019’s “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,” Kestis set out to rebuild the Jedi, a mission we know wouldn’t be a resounding success due to the events of the films and series set after it. Here, he’s still working for the budding rebellion and still seeking to preserve the Jedi, but is also starting to grapple with broader existential questions. It’s a game about external expectations placed on us, seeking to ask what it even means to be a Jedi and where we place our faith.