Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

aka: Guerra nas Estrelas: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II: O Cavaleiro Jedi, Star Wars: Jedi Knight
Moby ID: 372
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Description official descriptions

Kyle Katarn, a former mercenary and now an ally of the rebels, discovers that he is in fact a Jedi, and is on a quest to find his lightsaber and learn the techniques of the Force. The evil Sith lord Jerec, who was responsible for the death of Kyle's father, is on a quest of his own, searching a mythical place called Valley of the Jedi, where his dark powers could be unleashed. Will Kyle be able to stop Jerec and become a true Jedi without falling to the dark side?

Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II is a sequel to Dark Forces. The game is set in the Star Wars universe and its events occur after those depicted in the movie Return of the Jedi (Episode VI). Primarily a first-person 3D shooter, the game also allows the player to switch to third-person perspective. Kyle can use blasters and rifles to take care of his enemies, and later in the game he will also be able to fight enemies with a lightsaber.

There are three kinds of Force powers Kyle may use in the game: light, dark and neutral. Light powers are mostly used for healing purposes; dark powers involve violent actions such as choking enemies or hurling objects at them; neutral powers enhance Kyle's speed and jumping ability. There are fourteen Force powers altogether; if the player chooses to develop only one type of powers throughout the game, a bonus power can be gained. Completing levels rewards the player with stars, which can be allocated to enhance the powers.

The game has a branching storyline with different endings, and the player's decisions can lead Kyle to the light as well as the dark side (for example, killing innocents will add "dark points" to Kyle's score). The game features video sequences with live actors as cutscenes.

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Credits (Windows version)

235 People (195 developers, 40 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 140 ratings with 17 reviews)

Decent Follow-up to Dark Forces

The Good
Jedi Knight was more than eagerly anticipated by "Dark Forces" fans- I took the day off when it was released and ended up beating it in around 34 hours. The lightsaber action was new and very fun, and the levels were large and challenging. The true 3D engine was stable, and the introduction of FMV (done better than it was in "Rebel Assault II") was very cool.

The Bad
Unfortunately, Jedi Knight's art was sorely lacking I thought. Some of the levels are painfully bland, with repeating rock and concrete textures. The designers put in too much lighting as well, defeating the gritty, commando-style of the early levels and of "Dark Forces". Finally, though lightsaber combat was very cool, it was generally too rushed and frenzied to get any kind of cinematic experience out of it.

The Bottom Line
I actually didn't like this game as much as "Dark Forces". The bland levels really were the killer for me. I was hoping the sequel in the Dark Forces line would be "Stormtrooper" (kind of like "TIE Fighter" following "X-Wing"). But it's still a great action game with a good story, better than average full-motion video, and plenty of replay value online.

Windows · by Jason Musgrave (72) · 2003

A great game if you a Star Wars fan...

The Good
The game in itself deserved all the awards granted to it when it was released.

The Graphics - although 3 years old - are impressive and give you the sense of being on Nar Shaddaa or any other Star Wars Locale. Nicely rendered backgrounds and explosions help the game along.

John Williams. The name alone means that LucasArts was smart enough to put REAL soundtracks from the movies into the game, and not just MIDI recreations of them. The weapons fire, the whine of Tie Bombers and Crunching sound of AT-ST's walking around give the game that much more "authentic" atmosphere than most 3D-shooters.

The gameplay is excellent compared to Doom, Quake and other "Pre Half-life" shooters out there. Consequences were suffered if you shot innocents, mostly in the fact you would grow toward the Dark Side of the Force.

The Bad
The Control is weird. Even though the game is completely customizable, I like a game that is easy to get into, and doesn't take a day of learning where each button is that controls something. Jedi Knight has TOO many options and clunky INITIAL keyboard layout.

The AI at times is either really stupid, or so good you can't beat it. The Stupid is mostly against cannon fodder like Stormtroopers and Tusken raiders, while when you are in the variuos lightsaber duels, it is very difficult to play the game. First of all the AI is hard, but most importantly, you automatically switch to a 3rd person Tomb-Raider like view for Lightsaber duels. And for me that is very hard to play in.

The Bottom Line
An excellent 3D shooter for SW fans, and for non Fans alike. Just be prepared for some long Lightsaber duels.

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2006

A horrible sequel

The Good
I'm a big Star Wars fan, and the game has a very visible Star Wars atmosphere, that's a big plus for me. And the stunt of adding real life cutscenes is an admirable one (though the end result is sort of a mix of bad and good). The music is of course fantastic, they used the music from the films anyway. And the end cutscene if you end the game the "bad" way is fantastic.

That's where the good things end.

The Bad
The game's boring. As an FPS it's awful. You don't feel like you're moving a human being, run a bit to the left and you're suddenly already to the wall. You feel like you're sliding with incredible speed, it's just unrealistic and it ruins a great deal of the fun (not there was any to start with). The gameplay consists mainly of running like a madman around your dumb enemies and shoot them. The only challenge is the aiming, and there's no element of tactic or anything. It's just utterly boring.

On other sides, the game's got a very bad storyline, doesn't come close at all to Star Wars films, the graphics is simply ugly, and well, I could go on forever.

The Bottom Line
It's bad. Only buy it if you're hardcore Star Wars and want everything Star Wars. Do not buy it if you loved the prequel (Dark Forces), which had some flaws, but was at least very fun.

Windows · by Kate Jones (416) · 2001

[ View all 17 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Comic

A comic book version was based on the plot of Jedi Knight.

Cut content

An early version of Jedi Knight featured an extra weapon not included in the final game, the "Tusken Prod". Several magazines have printed screenshots featuring this weapon on sneak previews and scoops of the game, though it is unknown why the weapon never made it to the final game.

There was also a screenshots of a "speeder level" where Kyle Katarn got onto a large speeder and could fly it around. For whatever reason, the speeder was phased out of the final game, and its model is not used anywhere as furniture or as decoration in any level.

Development

  • According to early interviews before the game was released, all of the character models and art in "Jedi Knight" were created prior to any live-action filming. This is why the model of Kyle Katarn does not have a beard like the actor does, and why many other models don't match very well to their FMV counterparts.
  • According to some rumors at the time of development and release, LucasArts contacted Lucasfilm and George Lucas directly over the effects of a lightsaber when submerged in water.
  • According to the US PC Gamer issue of October 2001, Justin R. Chin stated in a interview that he would receive constant criticism of his game design during each project evaluation meeting. He chose to ignore most of the criticism and stick with his design.

German version

The predecessor Dark Forces of 1995 has been banned in Germany and may only be sold to adults. In order to avoid a similar ban for Jedi Knight, the German version of the game doesn't mention the subtitle Dark Forces II.

Inspiration

Justin R. Chin, like George Lucas, researched ancient Asian history and culture for inspiration. The arch-enemy, Jerec, is apparently blind. In some Japanese folklore and myths, blind warriors are oft-times the most deadly, because it is the weakest sense (in warrior theory).

Mods

As of 2007, this game still has a active fan group that modifies it. For example, there is a new mod for this game called Jedi Knight Enhanced, which updates all the games models to "Quake III era", making it more appealing. The mod can be found here and is about 40 megs big. Make sure you read the installation instructions carefully.

There is also an ongoing project, which updates all the original games textures, and it can be found here.

Music

The music heard in the game is taken directly from the original Star Wars trilogy film soundtracks, performed by London Symphony Orchestra. It's included on the game CDs as Red Book Audio which means that the game CDs can be listened to in an ordinary CD player (be sure to skip the first track, though!).

References

  • In level 5 there's a secret that lets you encounter Max (the rabbit from Sam & Max Hit the Road.) If you let him out of the house, he will go on a shooting spree killing everyone from civilians to stormtroopers.... to you. And with what appears to a remote control too!
  • On Level 9 (Fuel Station Launch) do a 180 spin while jumping from the platform onto the ship at the end of the level (you can't turn once you've landed on the ship). The retracting platform has the face of Max tiled on the edge facing you.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 1998 (Issue #164) - Game of the Year
    • February 2002 (Issue #211) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #41 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #7 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
    • April 2005 - #21 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1998 - Best Action Game in 1997
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1998 – Best First-Person Shooter in 1997

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Alexander Schaefer, Emepol, Jason Musgrave, Kalirion, Mu77etOfDeath, naula, PCGamer77, Scott Monster, Simon Michelmore and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • Jedi Knight Dot Com
    A general overview of the Star Wars universe, but also includes a section with all Star Wars games by Lucas Arts.
  • Jedi Knight Editing Hub
    Everything about editing the original Jedi Knight game.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 372
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Additional contributors: MAT, Swordmaster, Unicorn Lynx, naula, Duduzets, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added November 3, 1999. Last modified March 8, 2024.