Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

The Good
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (JKII), is the latest first-person shooter from Lucasarts Entertainment, developed by the folks at Raven Software (the guys responsible for Star Trek:Elite Force)

You play as Kyle Katarn, the roguish hero from Dark Forces and Dark Forces:Jedi Knight. Kyle has abandoned the force and the ways of the Jedi, and along with Jan Ors, have kept the location of the Valley of the Jedi secret and safe.

As you progress through the first couple of levels, you meet up the antagonist of the game, Desann, a power hungry Dark Jedi and plain old bad guy. Desann captures Jan and kills, her and Kyle goes to the Valley of the Jedi to be infused with the force.

Along the way you meet new enemies, some old friends (think Bespin), and get whisked along by the plot... more on that later.

There are 4 levels of play in the single player game. Padawan (beginner), Jedi, Jedi Knight and Jedi Master.

The graphics on JKII are by far some of the best looking graphics I've seen in a game engine. The Quake 3 Arena engine is used to create incredible looking venues to fight and explore in. From Nar Shaada (from Jedi Knight) to Yavin (where the Jedi Academy is based), the game look unbelievable.

The coolest graphics, though, are the lightsaber duels. Throughout the game, you duel with various rogue Jedi, and the lightsaber duels are fast and furious. Much like the duel with Darth Maul/Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace. The lightsabers glow and spark when they clash, and when the lightsabers lock together the sparking glow is unreal. If you defeat you opponent in a duel, the game goes into a Matrix-style 360 rotation. Really cool effect.

The control scheme is standard first person shooter fare, with the exception of lightsaber dueling. Raven Software did their homework with this one. Using both the attack button and the WASD keys for movement, you control various attacks. It's very intuitive, and you actually leave yourself open to attacks if you don't control the lightsaber correctly.

The sound might be standard John Williams fare, but the lightsaber effects are outstanding. Again, Raven Software really did a great job on this.

Relearning your Jedi powers is done very good in this game. Unlike Jedi Knight (where you were given points to distribute), you learn them automatically as you go, and the further along in the game you go, the stronger your powers become. And when you go to the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, Luke Skywalker puts you through the Jedi Trials. It's a cool way to learn you powers and then have you use them in appropriate situations in the Trials. As you go through the trials, Jedi Holocrons (learning devices) give you access to your powers. For example, when you grab the Force Speed power, you enter a room where you must step on a plate and 5 sets of doors open. Then you must use Force Speed to run through the open doors before they close. It's a logical way to work them into the game and the plot of the story.

And although I don't play a lot of multiplayer games, the multiplayer half of JKII is done very well. There are 7 different games to play: Free for All, Holocron Free for All, Jedi Master, Duel, Team Free for All, Capture the Flag, and Capture the Ysalamiri. Most of the games are standard FPS fare, with the exception of Duel, Holocron FFA, and Jedi Master.

Holocron FFA is the same as FFA, but you don't have any force powers to start with. The powers are scattered around the arenas, and you pick them up in battle.

Jedi Master in intriguing. All players start out with standard weapons, and no lightsaber. ONE lightsaber is placed somewhere in the arena, and whoever picks that up is the Jedi Master. The Master is then imbued with all Force powers at 3rd rank, and can only use the lightsaber. When the Master is defeated, the lightsaber is tossed away, and whoever picks up the lightsaber is the new Jedi Master.

Duel mode is the epiphany of JKII. Up to 16 players are logged on to the server, but only 2 players are active at a time (with the others as spectators). The two players duel it out, until one is defeated. The victor respawns (with full health), and one of the spectators then steps up and tries to defeat the other player. I think it's a cool way to see a lightsaber duel.

And if you are like me and don't really care of online gaming (although I really think game will change my opinion on that), you can play up to 16 bots on your machine at once. I play at Padawan level, and It's fairly difficult. The bots are fairly agile and they use Force Powers to their advantage.

The Bad
As much as I LOVE dueling with lightsabers in this game (it's SO much better than Jedi Knight), I do have a few complaints.

The plot of the story is good, but I've read a similar plot in the book "I, Jedi", by Michael Stackpole (a worthy read if you like Star Wars books). So while I enjoy the plot of the story, it really isn't that original.

The level layout, while very detailed, is very confusing. I don't often resort to walkthroughs unless I'm REALLY stuck, but some of the levels I was wandering around looking for the "way out" to the next level - so I downloaded a walkthrough in order to get through the level.. The levels are huge, which is good, but can get tiresome after a while.

Two Words... Rodian Snipers. I can't begin to count how many times I was playing through the Nar Shaada level - I'd walk out of the cantina, and ZAP! I'm sorry, but that seems a little to one-sided if you ask me. I'd get sniped in the head by a Rodian Sniper that you really can't see unless you know he's there in advance. And because of that....

I really don't like that fact that you have to save EVERY time you clear a room or a corridor. It's a pain in the ass to go through part of a level, open a door and get you ass handed to you on a plate. Although you are supposed to be a Jedi, running blindly into a room is not an option in most cases. You really have to save a lot in the game, and to me that's unnecessary.

And one other thing really irks me. It seems that most of the levels are designed around the fact that you are really high up. Like Bespin - the cloud city, or Nar Shaada, the smuggler's hideout. Or the reactor core of a Installation. There is a lot of trial and error when it comes to jumping and finding out where you can and cannot jump to.

The Bottom Line
JKII is a fantastic foray into George Lucas' little universe he created. Although frustrating as hell in some areas, and downright confusing in others, I think that the OVERALL package is great. A worthy addition to any Star Wars fans gaming library.

And watch out for those Rodian Snipers. :)

The Good
STORY: You play Kyle Katarn - a former imperial officer, turned mercenary, turned jedi and has now abandoned the force after falling to the dark side. So he's now a mercenary. He's teaming up with Jan Ors - his partner - and doing work for the New Republic. On a mission to an supposedly abandoned imperial base - that turns out to be full of imperials, Kyle gets swept up in a interesting plot that will force him to take up his lightsaber again.

MENU LAYOUT A spinning Jedi Outcast logo done in chrome reflects light in the right hand corner while the menu is written in Star Wars font - the type they use for the main title. Apart from that there are these clouds that have been stretched towards the logo. - It's pretty bare - but ok to look at. Holding your mouse over a menu item gives you a description of what it does on the bottom.

CONTROLS The default layout has all the items and so mapped - though their locations on the keyboard are questionable.

GRAPHICS Utilising the ageing Quake 3 engine Raven has done their magic again with another one of ID's gaming engines. The enemies are very detailed - right down to them all having four fingers and one thumb. The Stormtroopers look like they are off the movies and other alien races are bristling with detail. They've even made Luke Skywalker look pretty close to his movie counterpart. The weapons are nicely made as well - the stormtrooper rifle now looks correct - unlike in JK - and the newer weapons keep to the Star Wars universe pretty well. The Textures are huge - twice as large as Quake 3's. So there's lots of detail here. Bump mapping has not been placed in this game. Though some of the textures suffer from very obvious repeating and that kinda lets down the immersiveness of the game. Laser effects are just off the movie - with each laser having it's own light source and all. And who cannot forget the venerable lightsaber. It now looks like it's from the movie with its motion glows and all. Perfect. The animations in the game are.... Interesting. What I don't like is the fact that the lip sync is a bit off and the models all seem to be showing their teeth too frequently. Overall great care has been placed in the animations, from Stormtroopers falling over, then getting up, to the amazing acrobatics that the Jedis get up to. All have been motion captured well and show an amazing level of detail and realism. The weapon animations are a bit lacking most notable is the thermal detonator - it has no throw animation! It just falls out of your hand resulting in major damage and on some case death. This game also Utilises GHOUL - the accurate hit placement system. This means hit a stormtrooper in the arm and they react to this. The same goes to when you slice off their hand with the saber - they clutch their stump screaming, as they slowly die - nice one. Lightning is done really well too - it's just like in the movies with it splaying over the target. Also they have done a good job with the binoculars - they look just like in the movie.

SOUND From lightsaber hums to droid beeps, all the classic Star Wars sounds have been implemented here. And all sound really good. Though it does get a bit repetitive with the same weapon sounds over and over again. The sounds of computers beeping and so forth are also well done as are the door sounds. Voicing is another lukewarm area. Some of the voicing is good - most notably Billy Dee Williams repriseing his role as Lando Calrissian - with his charm still there. The impersonators for Luke Skywaker is pretty good as with the Mon Mothma impersonator. The leads are reasonably well too. And a couple of the bosses seem to have been gifted with a Darth Vader like voice. But apart from that overall the voicing is good enough. Though the 3P0ish droid sounds very not like 3P0. What is also interesting to hear is the Stormtroopers chat on about their lives, weapons and so forth - some conversations are pretty funny.

GAMEPLAY This is a mixed bag. Firstly the weapons are not that interesting. A lot of focus has been placed on the lightsaber so it shines as the jewel of this game because it is an offensive and defensive weapon as well as having an long range attack with "Force Saber Throw" The Bryer pistol you start off with is slow and unwieldily - a bit too slow if you ask me. But the charge up shot kinda makes up for this. The Stormtrooper rifles is fairly accurate at close ranges - but don’t go expecting you'll be able to pick off people from a fair distance. Its secondary rate of fire turns it into a machine gun of some sort. The disruptor rifle is the sniper rifle of this game - and it seems to have found it's way into the hands of every Rodian this side of Tatooine. It is very weak but has a charge up function that disintegrates the target - a bit too Trek if you ask me. The Wookie Bowcaster returns from the JK - the same as ever - which is a pity as it is generally ignored. The heavy repeater is your heavy machine gun. Fast and brutal - with a very large secondary fire splash damage attack. The EMP gun is very useful against anything robotic - like turrets and probe droids. But that all it seems to do. Pretty disappointing. The Flechette is the game's shotgun - firing little hot balls of metal everywhere. It also has a secondary mine function that is annoying to encounter. The Portable missile launcher is fast and underpowered - it takes a few hits to destroy a robot with this thing. The levels in this game are also interesting - some areas are chock full of detail - others are just square rooms. The areas that you are on are represented well - from the rainy well-detailed swamps of Yavin to the large curvy buildings of Bespin. Some areas - mainly outdoors do chug in fps slowdown - but overall they maintain a good Star Wars feel. Though the design of them is questionable - most levels loop back on them and you do find yourself getting lost on a few occasions. Other levels are pretty linear - especially the At-St level near the end. But the locations are diverse - from large reactors - to a carbon-freezing chamber to the Jedi Academy on Yavin. Nar Shaddar makes a return from JK. Whilst the levels are pretty good by themselves - the tasks or puzzles surrounding them are not. Most of the puzzles you are made to do are done with very little clues to how you do them. While security cameras give you hints to where to go - getting there is another task all together. You often feel lost and resort to running around for half an hour. I realised that Raven wants you to actually observe the environment and keep an eye out for subtle changes or things like explosive barrels or switches that are the key to the puzzle. Saber fighting is where the game really shines. You have three different styles of lightsaber stances, each with their own different combos and power. So the lowest level has you swinging like there's no tomorrow while the highest setting has the sword swing like it's a heavy broad sword. The battles are very cinematic. The game captures the dramatic fights of The Phantom Menace very well; the animations are fast, fluid and look damn cool. Another great feature is the Saber Lock. In the original JK the saber fights were pretty dull because there were lots of times when you and your opponent both hit each other. They have fixed this by making it so when the Sabers connect they are pushed against each other - it is then a fight to see who can overpower each other. This usually results in the loser being knocked to the ground. The saber battles take place in many different environments. From the top of sprawling catwalks, to dense jungles and even in between fatal laser beams where you have almost no foot room to navigate. The gunfights are still action packed with you being very outnumbered, just like in the movies. The missions are very varied - always full of action and never are tiering Multiplayer is launched from a seperate icon - this was probally so that it could be protected against cheats or something. Multiplayer has Death Match and Capture the flag - it also has "Kill the fool with the Yasalamari" This means that when even someone has this lizard they are unable to use the force and are unnefected by others useing it. "Jedi Master" is where the lightsaber is somewhere on the map and who ever gets it is the Jedi Master with full force powers and all. The players must then hunt down the Jedi Master and kill him. "Holocron" is where you must runaround and capture force powers - either from the ground or off dead foes. The force power boxes spin around you telling people what powers you have. All these games can be played by bots, and the bots are smart at it as well, each have their own personalitys such as favorite weapons and who they team up with. Overall this game has lots of great moments in it, it's packed with great sound and animations and is an instant classic.

The Bad
The puzzles were the biggest let down. Although Raven did try and make it so that you had to observe, it all narrowed down to the puzzles not having enough clues to tell you how to work them out. Also some of the multiplayer force powers were a little lax. Mainy force drain which took away force power and health. As well as lightning which is just a little too powerful.

The Bottom Line
A great game for all Star Wars fans. Chock full of authenticy and fun - this is one wild ride. Plus the Darth Maul saber cheat in MP is really cool

The Good
Following the decent "Jedi Knight" and its expansion, "Jedi Outcast" returns the "Dark Forces" line (if it is indeed part of it- it is referred to as a sequel to "Jedi Knight" instead of "Dark Forces") to greatness! The graphics in this game blew me away (when they are turned up to maximum). The shadows are exceptional, and the fluidity and life-like motion of the character models is amazing. The storyline is top-notch and kept me enthralled throughout the entire thing. The level design was truly exceptional with a "Star Wars" feel that surpasses even "Dark Forces". The world feels alive and used, and new in other places. The cinematics, rendered in-game, are excellent with this engine, and the voice talent is all top-notch. Modelling the principles- Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade, after the actors who played them in the FMV cinematics of "Jedi Knight" was a welcome touch. Finally- the lightsaber battles in this game are beyond anything accomplished in any game. The original "Jedi Knight" or even "Die by the Sword" have nothing on the excitement and cinematic thrill that comes with each and every lightsaber battle in this game.

The Bad
There are still no speeder levels, walking AT-ATs, or other "massive" vehicles or monsters. Granted, "speeder" missions are generally restricted to other Star Wars games, but a level or two of it would have been nice. I really thought that Kyle should have the ability to hold onto ledges as well- like "Tomb Raider" and other games. I say this because of the extensive use of that tactic we have seen in Star Wars movies- like Luke Skywalker's ledge-grab and rebound over the Sarlacc Pit in "Return of the Jedi", or Obi-Wan Kenobi's lifesaving grab and Force-jump & flip up to defeat Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace". Although FULL of "nice little touches", this is one little touch I would have particularly loved.

The Bottom Line
A must-have for Star Wars fans, or anyone interested in the best combination of cinematics and first-person "you are there"-type gaming. The world is alive, and the threats are breathtaking.