Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy

The Good
First off, the graphics are very good. You can even see the stubble on Kyle's face. Secondly, I love the way that people can make their own skins and maps easily. The online multiplayer is very good, but it's better with a mod such as JA+ and Xmod. I love the dual saber option especially. Ah, good old backslash...

The Bad
The single player is the most boring thing I've ever played. There are no addictive weapons, the force is weak, and pretty much the whole premise sucks. Secondly, on multiplayer, it's brought out the worst in people. The option to "lame kill" has attracted more than a few (killing while someone is away from keyboard or chatting). And "clans" have completely made this game into a dictatorship; the clan administrators can change any option they want for the server, such as which type of saber style does more damage. They are forgetting it is supposed to be a fun game where people can respectfully play together and admit defeat without calling their prey "n00bs."

The Bottom Line
If you buy this game, think twice before entering a clan. 8/10

The Good
The lightsaber is cool. A couple new force powers and improved ways of using old ones. Using the 3 different kind of sabers and the 5 or so colors is cool. You go to a bunch of different planets. The music and voices is ok. You can choose your force powers. You can choose the missions to some extent.

The Bad
First, choosing "Light or "Dark" force powers has ABSOLUTELY no bearing on the game. Get all "dark" powers and you can stay on the light side. Max-out on "light" and you can turn to the dark side. The force powers are very unbalanced. Grip lets you choke guys like Darth Vader and throw them around. This allows you to barely use your lightsaber and just throw stormtroopers and dark jedi down cliffs or into lava. The game can be extremely easy. Stormtroopers are sit there firing lamely at you while you block their shots. Dark Jedi will, if you fight them, then just get a short distance away, turn off their lightsaber (!?) and sit there, allowing you to shoot at them and\or recharge your force and health. The toughest part of a game is finding where to go and not falling off a cliff. The levels are linear and boring. No civilians or anyone else. For no apparent reason, thugs or other non-empire guys will attack you. Also, I don't think street (or roof?) thugs on Coruscant should have powerful weapons like the disruptor rifle and thermal detonators while the supposed powerful storm troopers just have blasters and the occasional repeater and "metal gun". The story is ridiculous. Something about resurrecting a ancient sith lord using force energy stored in a scepter "sucked-up" from places with lots of force. Since the people trying to bring the sith lord back to life are evil, why not use the power on themselves. After all, even Darth Vader made an offer to Luke to help him overthrow the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back. In the beginning of the game, you get to "customize" your character, choosing species, looks, etc. However, this weirdly has no effect what so-ever. No change in abilities or anything else. Same voices even!!! All the missions are described as meet with this and talk with this, etc. But that never happens. You are always ambushed, or the guy you were supposed to talk to gets killed and almost every level is fundamentally the same. The game also offers almost nothing about your character's past or anything. You just slash your way through a seemingly endless supply of the same 7 or so different types of enemies. The "basic" force powers, speed, push, pull, and sense, unlike what you here in the training mission, are rarely used for anything. You don't really need to push any switches etc. this brings up the worst problem, the lack of depth. You won't go through a city, getting stuff to trade with other people or interact with anyone in a non-linear basis. The galaxy is nearly lifeless. it seems that the entire galaxy has either your allies, or mercenaries, dark jedi, stormtroopers etc. out to kill you. Boba Fett is in one of the missions. Normally, this would be a good thing, but they totally make him more of a nuisance then anything else. Mostly, he will just fire bursts of laser fire as you deflect them back, hitting him with his own fire. Occasionally, he will use his flamethrower or missile launcher, but not enough to show him to be a deadly assassin. Finally, absolutely no puzzles!!! If your not hacking and slashing through enemies, wandering from room to room, you're putting your cross hair over everything to see if it can be affected by the force.

The Bottom Line
If you are a die hard Star Wars fan, wait a couple of years for the price to get down to ten bucks. if not, avoid it, as it is a complete waste of money. (I spent 50 bucks on it and learned the hard way)

The Good
It's the StarWars universe with all its little details, sounds and characters, and every once in a while it feels good to ignite that lightsaber and bring justice to the galaxy. The graphics are great, especially regarding the rusty Quake-3-engine. The sound effects and score are on a high level. The level design is interesting, moody and diverse. The controls are easy to learn and the light saber duels are fast and furious. Its way better than JK:Outcast because it doesn't have the awful jump sequences and boring "puzzles".

The Bad
The story can be a bit lame and hacked together sometimes, its more a detective novel than a truly enthousiastic StarWars action adventure. As in JK:Outcast, there is not a lot of "life" in the levels, so they can look a bit artificial at times. The choice between light and dark side isn't really given.

The Bottom Line
Years after the demise of the Empire, there are still planets and systems where the dark side of the force is strong, and where huge armies of the emperors troops hide. Kyle Katarn, the Jedi Knight, has become a Master at the Jedi Academy that Luke Skywalker has found on Yavin. You are a young, promising Jedi padawan who just starts his study at the academy, when a new menace arises and threatens the still fragile structure of the New Republic.The remnants of the Empire ally with the remaining Sith to form a deadly alliance that could bring the young republic down...can the few courageous Jedi around Master Skywalker stand against this dark army...?

Jedi Academy is the best StarWars first person game hands down. The graphics are great and the universe is true to the movies. Like in the first Jedi Knight game, You have a limited control on how to augment Your "forces".Some a given and can not be altered, some can be increased every once in a while, thus making the replay value better than in JK:Outcast. The forces are spectacular as ever, and the way You can combine the saber and the force powers are fascinating and fun. Its always cool when You are beeing attacked by the sith apprentices, because in some levels, You can use the "Force Push" to throw them over a cliff, and when they come jumping at You, You can stop them in mid-air and push them back so they fall into the endless pit, that way You can avoid some of the saber duels. Additionally, for those who are skilled, there are quite some interesting acrobatic tricks like running on walls, flic-flacs, salto backwards, salto forwards, its very rewarding and the controls are not too hard to master. The game has its dull moments, and weak AI, but when You are starting to do a salto backwards, hit the enemy in mid-air, add a combo that kills three in a row and end this with a force push, You really feel like a Jedi. Kudos to Raven, in this version they really put the Jedi acrobatics as seen in Episode 1 and 2 to shine, and the game will be fun even when You are replaying fights, because You can always try some new combinations. Sure, story-wise and from character development its not KOTOR, but it doesn't want to be that, its a good, fun, easy to access StarWars-action-game with bags full of atmosphere and great action scenes.