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Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy

Moby ID: 10374
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Description official descriptions

Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy is the sequel to Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast. The player is cast as Jaden Korr, a padawan at the Jedi Academy taught by Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn. Both the character and his lightsaber are to be created at the beginning of the game. Throughout the game, the player will acquire several force powers and weapons, such as lightning and the Tenlos Disruptor Rifle. As he progresses through the different missions, he may be seduced by the dark side of the Force...

Spellings

  • スター・ウォーズ ジェダイナイト:ジェダイアカデミー - Japanese spelling
  • 杰迪武士:杰迪学院 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

207 People (185 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 54 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 88 ratings with 10 reviews)

Expands on the best bits of its predecessor

The Good
This game takes all the fun parts from Jedi Knight II and expands on them. For example, in JK2 the lightsaber combat was a strong feature but you didn't receive your lightsaber until halfway through the game. This made replaying the game tedious. However, in Jedi Academy you have your lightsaber from the first level. In Jedi Academy there are more force abilities to learn but you will never have enough points to become a master at all so you can customize your character by becoming a specialist at some or have a little of everything. The lightsaber combat has been enhanced with the addition of two more saber styles: dual sabers and saber staff.

The Bad
Level design is very linear, but not lacking in variety. Graphics have not been enhanced and still use the Quake III engine which looks dated. Audio is what we've come to expect from Star Wars. The classic soundtrack still repeats. The voice work is good for the cut scenes but enemy taunts a repetitive and sometimes don't make much sense - especially if you've just effortlessly slaughtered their friends and they're still telling you "You are weak". Enemy AI is very lacking, even on more difficult levels a force grip and push over a ledge is good enough to dispatch most of your enemies.

The Bottom Line
Fans of the Star Wars and the Jedi Knight series will be pleased with this unambitious release. Those who were hoping for something more than a rehash will be disappointed.

Windows · by Cyberzed (51) · 2003

Star Wars games should be more than this

The Good
There are a few good things about this game. The lightsaber fights are the best part, but do not really take skill because you can just swing your blade randomly and kill the enemy jedi. The weapons are almost the same as outcasts, save you get 2 or 3 new ones. As a first-person shooter, it doesn't exel, but is alright.

The Bad
The horrible plot line, bad lip synching, bad movies, and useless force powers will make this game feel like a bad interlude, than a good follow up to outcast. The levels on this game feel more like mini levels as you could easily beat them in 5 minutes. Also, you'll have to level a completely useless force power just to get by one stupid level. It is just annoying.

The Bottom Line
This game is simply pathetic when compared to Knights of the Old Republic, and you'll beat it the first day, but it isn't bad for ten bucks.

Windows · by Jester236 (34) · 2004

The new lightsabers don't make up for the terrible plot, cutscenes and voice acting.

The Good
Since it uses the same engine as Jedi Knight 2, you know what to expect from this game graphics-wise. This is a good or bad thing, I suppose. Certainly the graphics are dated, but hell, they RUN on my computer, so that's a good thing in my book.

New lightsabers! If there's one thing to sell this game, it's the new lightsaber tricks, which are certainly cool. Two lightsabers, a saberstaff, new special moves, combined with force powers and slow-motion "finishing moves" -- it makes for some memorable battles, and more than once I quick-loaded back just to replay a fight, even if I beat it flawlessly the first time.

The hoverbike levels were actually pretty awesome.

The Bad
Unfortunately, "two new lightsabers" is about all this game has going for it. Everything else is abysmal. Don't even mention the plot in this game, because it's about the worst I've seen in any computer game in recent memory.

The first disappointment I found was that, unlike every previous Dark Forces game, you're not playing Kyle Katarn. Instead, you're some student in a Jedi Acadamy who quickly (VERY quickly) rises to the title of Jedi through fight after fight after fight. The fights are cool, don't get me wrong...but it doesn't make any sense toward the plot.

You're given five missions, and then a plot mission. Rinse. Repeat. And with every of those five missions, your task involves something like, "Go talk to this guy," only, in every case, you'll not only NOT "talk to this guy", but you'll find that you were -- gasp -- ambushed by a hundred lightsaber-wielding goons.

At the end you get a choice between choosing the light path or the dark path, but the outcome is pretty much the same. At least, it was for me. If you choose the light path, you fight alongside other studen jedis -- unless the morons get in the way of your lightsaber and you accidentally cut one up, in which they all turn against you. And heck, that's even funner. That's essentially the dark path, as well. Same level, same thing, only you fight other jedis as well as bad guys.

The cutscenes are awful. Animation is awkward and just plain bad. And the voice acting certainly doesn't make up for it. Especially annoying is the voice of a fellow student who turns on you, which is also pretty obvious from the first time you meet him.

Your character has absolutely no depth to him at all. You know nothing of his past, you know not why he's becoming a jedi, you don't know anything. And you don't need to, I guess, because your task is just to go in and kill everything and beat the game. Don't expect anything from this game other than an arcade hack 'n slash, because that's all it amounts to.

Also what I found disappointing was that you start with a lightsaber. I loved how in Jedi Knight 2, the first half of the game you are without it. It was like playing two games -- a Star Wars first-person shooter, and then a lightsaber-swingin' third-person hack 'n slash. Unlike many people, I didn't mind the first half at all. In fact, I may have enjoyed it more than the second. But Jedi knight 2 was an awesome game. Jedi Acadamy is NOT.

The Bottom Line
It's Jedi knight 2 without the cream in the middle. It's shiny on the outside but completely hollow within. The new lightsaber stuff almost makes up for it, as long as you're not expecting anything more than what it delivers.

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2003

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

Manual error (pg 30): the DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol (the default blaster) does have an ammo type: the Blaster Pack and the alternate attack (charging the blaster for a powerful shot) does work in the single player game.

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Related Sites +

  • Clan Mod
    A Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Multiplayer Modification. On these forums you can chat with developers of different mods who are helping to compile this mod.
  • Graduate Summa Cum Lightsaber
    An Apple Games article about the Macintosh version of Jedi Academy, with commentary being provided by Producer Brett Tosti (December, 2003).

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 10374
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by James Kirk.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. Xbox One added by Kennyannydenny. Xbox added by Kabushi. PlayStation 4 added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Terrence Bosky, Unicorn Lynx, Jacob Fliss, Zeppin, Rik Hideto.

Game added September 21, 2003. Last modified February 13, 2024.