Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

The Good
There are many good elements faithful to the Dark Forces series, including a decent variety of weapons, large and numerous levels, objectives to follow, a plethora of Empire enemies to gun down, well-hidden secrets, Force powers, some lightsaber fights, and of course Kyle Katarn himself. The innovative storyline draws you like a Force Pull to play the next level after the next, just so you can get more of that intriguing experience. After the first few levels of running and gunning, it feels rewarding to be a Jedi again. And as a Jedi, it feels so satisfying to slice the Reborn Sith in those dramatic slow motion moments. I’m not sure Force Grip and Force Lightning are in line with the Jedi way, but there you have it.

Adding to the impressive arsenal, you get a few nifty little gadgets such as miniature droids. And there are times when you get to actually be a droid to access places Kyle cannot. And while you have opportunities to fight AT-STs, there is a level where you can actually commandeer a couple of them. Every level has its own gimmicks, one of them being stealth if you could even call it that since you’ll end up killing enemies to progress anyway. Help from NPCs is welcome and does even the odds.

The Bad
While many of the controls are standard, the ability to lean left and right with the Use key is useless, because you can’t shoot while in this mode. It’s better to use the third-person perspective for a better view. The running and jumping feels very floaty and not in a good way. Often you’ll find yourself stumbling before you can make a successful Force Jump, leading to more unfair deaths than Anakin did to his victims. Falls are going to be your number one enemy throughout the game. Those problems were not abundant in the original Dark Forces, in which you had better movement control. The worst element in the game is the level that requires you to swim in zero-gravity which is such a broken mechanic that keeps getting Kyle killed.

And speaking of broken, the shooting in this game often works against you because when enemies move, you’ll miss a lot, a big problem if you’re accustomed to hitscan guns. And there are times when you fire while you’re up close to the enemy, but the shots don’t seem to connect, as if they are phasing through. If all else fails, just stick to using your lightsaber. And you’d better learn how to use the thermal detonators properly, because you’ll blow yourself up if you tap the right-mouse button too lightly. Lastly the Light Amplification Goggles are pretty useless due to the obscurity of your field of vision and running out of battery power relatively quickly. The Night Vision Goggles from Dark Forces were heaps better.

The levels themselves are not perfect. The action they pack is fine, but the real issue is some of the puzzle elements, which often put first time players in multiple “Where the heck do I go?” situations, because you need to perform very specific actions to progress with little in the way of clues on exactly what to do. These elements may work in a Lucasarts adventure game like Maniac Mansion, but this attempt to make the game more interesting, it doesn’t work in the same way a tomb Raider does. And with the number of hazards and ambushing enemies that keep hurting you, you’re going to slam the Force Heal power quite a bit, which hurts the fun factor. And I almost forgot the most obvious problem, you can’t skip cutscenes or even the end credits, adding to wasted time.

The Bottom Line
While the gameplay runs okay for most of the game, the physics have a lot to be desired. The combat mechanics and gadgets from Dark Forces weren’t very well emulated as they could have been. Even being faithful to the Star Wars lore and packed with the desired amount of action, it does feel like Lucasarts was trying too hard to make this game good. It shows through the numerous and differing levels. And in regards to baffling puzzles, if I wanted that in a game, I would have picked a point-and-click Star Wars adventure game, which sadly does not exist. One way or another, you’ll adapt to the game and learn to love it, especially if you like shooters and Star Wars. Battling the Empire and Sith never gets dull, so enjoy from start to finish.

The Good
The best part of the game is definitely the light saber and the force powers. They are implemented much better than in the first game. By the last part you will pretty much forget about all the guns and just have fun finding new ways to take out the enemy. My favorite was the force jumping high and then force pulling the troopers up in the air. The game does a great job of making you feel like a Jedi Knight. The movement and third person camera is allot like Heretic 2 and makes controlling your character when using the light saber very easy.

The Bad
The two problems I had with the game was some of the level design(mainly the first few), and some of the puzzles. Without the force powers and light saber the game plays like a standard shooter in the first part with some average at best levels that you can wander around for awhile. I don't mind non-linear design but when your planted in a big level with no idea where to go and are forced to just guess where the panel or key you need is. It can get annoying at times. There were a few puzzles that were very annoying. In particular one with a moving pipe that can be almost impossible to figure out unless your in the right place at the right time.

The Bottom Line
Overall a very good shooter set in the Star Wars universe that enhances the standard gameplay with a very good implementation of the light saber and force powers. Some poor level design and annoying puzzles, but still a definite buy for any SW or FPS shooter fan.

The Good
My hats off to the developers for taking great inspiration from the preceding Jedi Knight game. The immense structures were breathtaking and stylish. The sound was without issues and the graphics were top notch.

The Light saber play was really fun. A great feature to add upon in the game, adding challenge and specialized attacks. I took special pleasure in whipping my light saber through a crowd of storm troopers, watching as they literally fell to pieces.

I really liked the story. It felt slightly contrived, but not so strained to break the feeling of being in the Star Wars Universe.

And driving the Walker was very cool...

The Bad
The numerous jumping puzzles that required a fair amount of keyboard agility created some annoying play.

I was less than crazy about the jungle level and I really didn't like the underground training level either. The starting levels were slow and really tough.

The Bottom Line
Its too cool to set aside because of a couple rough areas. A great sequel. A lot of saber action...