Jedi: Survivor’s Sequel Can Already Learn a Thing or Two from Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s sequel hasn’t been revealed yet as it’s likely still in early development. If its huge cliffhanger on Tanalorr with Kata Akuna being adopted into Cal Kestis and the Stinger Mantis crew’s found family wasn’t enough to guarantee a third game, however, one was also quietly confirmed earlier this year. It’s unknown if the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be the final installment of a trilogy or if Respawn wishes to defy that Star Wars storytelling trope, but it’ll be interesting to see how much gameplay is iterated on or changed in this upcoming entry.

Unless more Star Wars Jedi games are being planned it wouldn’t make much sense for Respawn to debut a bunch of new systems. This wouldn’t be completely out of the ordinary for a third and final installment of a franchise, though, since Rocksteady chose to end its Batman: Arkham trilogy with a functional Batmobile. Either way, unique gameplay could surely help in making a third Star Wars Jedi game distinct and modeling a stealth feature after the one in Star Wars Outlaws could be its ticket to greatness without having to forsake its Frankenstein’s monster of a genre amalgamation with Soulslike and action-adventure/platformer roots.

Star Wars Outlaws’ Stealth Wouldn’t Be Out of Place in Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi Franchise

Ubisoft obviously knows its way around open-world stealth thanks to its storied history with Assassin’s Creed and so those characteristics should presumably be favorable despite how formulaic they might turn out to be in Star Wars Outlaws. Massive never developed an Assassin’s Creed game, to be fair, but the stealth it’s shown thus far seems competent and properly representative of Kay Vess’ capabilities as a morally ambiguous scoundrel.

Stealth in an action-adventure game is best when it’s a valid and rewarding option rather than the only option, and the mechanics Star Wars Outlaws grants players in stealth gives it the impression that players can use violent means to achieve their goals whether they need to stick a blaster in someone’s face or knock them unconscious from behind without ever being discovered. What’s more intriguing, however, is how Kay can direct her merqaal companion Nix to interact with the environment unseen.

It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see Cal direct his droid companion BD-1 in the same way, even if such a feature would be an identical copy-and-paste of Star Wars Outlaws. Otherwise, crouching and sneaking could be even more exhilarating in a Star Wars Jedi: Survivor sequel since players would presumably be able to take unsuspecting enemies out by igniting Cal’s lightsaber into their backs.

Why Stealth is Unlikely Now in Star Wars Jedi’s Future

Even if Star Wars Jedi was going to feature stealth, its most salient ship would have already sailed. Stealth would’ve been poignant in Fallen Order when Cal was purposefully hiding from the Empire and even though he’s a known refugee in Survivor it still would’ve been neat to see how stealth tactics could be implemented when a full-on assault may have been undesirable.

To introduce stealth now could seem like a regression of Cal’s character because he’s become outspoken about his plight and went through an arc in
Fallen Order
where he confessed to BD-1 that he doesn’t want to live in hiding anymore since that’s no way for a Jedi to live.

Still, that shouldn’t mean he needs to walk down his enemies with a lightsaber brandished and hope for the best. Instead, employing stealth could allow for gameplay the series hasn’t seen yet, which would be particularly nuanced and profound if he was being hunted by Inquisitors and forced into hiding with the Stinger Mantis crew again.