Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

The Good
The gameplay, while unrealistic, even beyond the star wars norm, (think quake 2 running speed), is very satisfying and fun, shooting stormtroopers and imperial officers never gets old. The AI is much better than other games of the time as well, although it doesn't really do much, it follows you around corners to attack you, but that's about it. The graphics have aged a lot since the game's release, but the art style is very Star Wars, which helps the game's atmosphere, although it is not good at portraying organic environments. The strongest point of the entire game, however, is the levels. The levels are truly massive in scope. In one level, you infiltrate an enormous imperial tower. In another level you run along the top of that same tower, dodging Tie-Bombers trying to bomb you (seriously), while looking for a way to escape. In yet another level, you have to explore a giant tanker ship, while it is falling to the bottom of a Canyon, with low gravity effects, malfunctioning machinery, and everything, to find your ship, and escape before the tanker hits the valley floor and explodes. In a word; Awesome. The boss fights are also very well done, with imaginative and inspired bosses, with some unexpected abilities. Finding out how to kill these bosses can be a pain though, as the difficulty is pretty high as well.

The Bad
The force powers. This was the first time force powers were introduced into a first-person perspective game, although they weren't introduced as well as I had hoped. I personally was hoping for a hotkey system, similar to Jedi Knight 2. Switching between powers one at a time is too cumbersome. The level design can get confusing, and finding out where to go can take a while, and having several types of items to find doesn't help, three types of keys, and wrenches etc.

The Bottom Line
A great Star Wars shooter with a great story (to game standards), fun Jedi combat, and epic level design.

The Good
A seriously done FPS with a lot of things both SW and FPS fans would have expected to see after the renowned Dark Forces. The music included is in audio cd quality and feels like a classical Star Wars stuff all the way, from wandering planets and imperial bases to bar themes. Furthermore, since it actually is recorded as audio cd, you can listen to the soundtrack on your hi-fi. Sort of to be expected after Outlaws. The game spans across two discs, and features real actors and quite a nice sum of FMVs. Acting is really good (well, nothing more or less than you would expect from a Star Wars universe) and the whole bunch of cinematics serve great purpose to lead on the story... which, this time branches and is able to get you two different endings. As known from the prequel, Kyle was a mercenary who sided with the Rebels after finding out the truth behind his father's death. In this game, his character takes a whole new step forward and as much as you start with a regular blast 'em all tactic, you reach a point of getting a lightsaber and eventually becoming a Jedi Knight (hence the title, duh). Aforementioned story branch refers to whether you'll follow the path of light or darkness. Hint in being able to make the dark side prevail is not to upgrade your powers as you get them, but to leave some updates for when the dark powers will become available. This game is a decent sequel and propels a fine story that would probably beat all those movies if this game was ever made into one.

The Bad
Being the first SW title to have lightsaber battles is commendable, but they are all too crappy to enjoy them. They are sometimes too hard and don't feel like anything worth the title of a "Jedi".

It takes about five or six long levels until you get to see your first Stormtrooper. I must say I was looking forward seeing one ever since the game's start, and started to believe LucasArts forgot to add them at all. Of course, afterwards you can't get enough of them, but it was annoying to leave you without a hint of them appearing. And since there was Darth Vader in a prequel, would be cool to see him in this game as well, especially since neither prequel nor sequel features live actors anymore. This game has a historical value and could be considered even greater classic than Dark Forces, but it can become annoying at the moments.

The Bottom Line
With lots of levels and a fine replayability rate, this game guarantees you the first truest experience as a Jedi that no other Star Wars title to date offered. Furthermore, it's more than just fine asset to the trilogy of this First-Person Shooter and will fall no behind the feeling of going through a Star Wars movie. A FPS games are not to be dealt with the story via ingame cutscenes, they are to be what th name implies, shooters, and the story is best followed via long array of cutscenes in between the missions.

The Good
There's no point in arguing that the basic idea of the game is total coolness. I mean, Star Wars FPS WITH Force powers and a light saber?? Sign me up please!!! After all, that was pretty much the only thing missing on Dark Forces, and if you add to that a true 3d engine then we are officially on the jazz.

A brand new storyline introduces you to a series of action-packed and very well laid out levels based on the original Star Wars trilogy sets where you'll once again duke it out with all the patented Star Wars baddies. The weapons are practically the same that were found on Dark Forces, but with added graphical glamour.

The force powers work remarkably well in the game's context and there's a touch of a slight rpg angle what with the force powers being related to how much exploring you do in the world. And... well, I could go babbling on good stuff about in here, but for brevity's sake, just picture Dark Forces with less anal level designs, better graphics, john william's original score (played directly from redbook audio on the cds!) as well as plenty of Star Wars patented sounds and designs, and the force!

The Bad
Though there's a lot to like in Jedi Knight, there's also a lot of wrong things in it, mainly dealing with gameplay mechanics. The game's biggest selling point is of course, the chance to brandish a lightsaber, and it is precissely here that the game blows it. When it comes to lightsaber fights the game really comes appart, since the collision detection between the swords is poorly realized and you simply go at it smashing all the buttons you can and praying that you hit and don't get hit. A more comprehensive fighting aproach would have helped the game in this area, as it is now it merely makes the fights a series of annoying affairs that come up everynow and then between the "real game".

Furthermore the graphics engine is not that good, and when it comes to lightsabers it fails to portray both their laser-like look and that great tracing effect that is part of it's trademark... the result is that you feel more like if you were holding oversized chemical lights, (you know... those that you bend, shake and "voila") instead of the famed lightsabers. This is however the tip of the iceberg when it comes to graphics, the engine is fast and all, but the character models and surroundings in general show a level of blockiness of incredible proportions, and remember that Quake 2 was around when this baby showed up!

The rpg-touch is a nice addition, but is completely off-key. As another reviewer noted, What the hell does finding secret rooms have to do with the force?? A more rpg-dedicated aproach (or at least one that made sense) would have been apreciated but guess no cookie for us this time.

Finally, the production values for the game are a mixed bag, there are a lot of effects and neat stuff on the cutscenes to make it look and feel like the real Star Wars, but when it comes to the acting it looks like all the money ran out, because it is truly hideous. The guy that plays your character, Kyle, is especially painful to watch, and it truly hurts the game since the storyline isn't strong enough to carry the game on it's own. And since we are on that subject, I found the story to be quite wussy at moments, especially since your character goes from hard-boiled mercenary to simpleminded Luke Skywalker wanna-be in the course of the game...not a cool idea.

The Bottom Line
For sheer fps fun this is a game that delivers in all accounts with great levels, action and gameplay gimmicks in the form of the force powers. For Star Wars emulation however, it almost but not quite reaches the goals it aims for. Until a definitive lighsaber-oriented game is released this is what we have, but for as good as it is, it's still a far cry from the "real" thing.