Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

The Good
Sooo many things.. but the best is that the guy you're controlling, Kyle Katarn, is a Jedi. And what does that mean? Well, you can smite your foes with light saber, grip them with Force or just disarm them by grabbing their guns with Force. Not from the beginning though, where the game is just a typical 3D-shooter with fantastic score. Multiplayer is very well done, all the extra characters you can download.. Light saber duels rock!

The Bad
Jerec. He just hasn't got what it takes to be a Dark Jedi. But Maw was cool. Yeah, and no blood in this game.

The Bottom Line
When I got this game in my P133 three years ago I went nuts. First Dark Forces was nothing special. Just a Star Wars 3D-shooter. But this... to be a Jedi. To learn the way of Jedi. And Dark Side. It's just like in the movies. If you choose the Dark Side, you will quickly learn many destructive powers and become a strong Jedi, but in the end, you see where it leads. I almost felt pity for Katarn when I saw the Dark Side ending clip. Graphics are reasonable for todays standards and blah blah... for tech side. Multiplayer is great. After I had completed first level of the game, I went online and challenged some master Jedi. First, he killed me every time. By guns. So I proposed a light saber duel. He accepted. I pulled out my saber, and so did he. But when I was about to swing the first time, he jumped over me with force jump and hit me on back. Ouch.. But after you learn how to take advantage of the Force, you will succeed in scoring more and more kills. I have played only two multiplayers better than Jedi Knight, Diablo and Counter-Strike. And that is something.

The Good
Where are all the FPS gamers, giving credit where credit is due? Jedi Knight was THE First Person Shooter to own at the time, Star Wars fan or not. It excels, like Dark Forces, in level design, though the 3D engine here allowed for a definite increase in geometrical detail. Vast environments also helped achieve that epic Star Wars quality. The battles were exciting, in no small part thanks to most weapons being beam based (we're talking Slow beams, as in cinematic ones), so you could dodge and leap to avoid fire, and had to lead your targets, as opposed to just laying the cursor over them and squeezing. Great music, as always.

The Bad
They took the wrong path by deciding to film the story, instead of portraying it with animation or story book style. It doesn't sit well with the graphical style of the game, and also suffers from mediocre acting and not good enough integration of video and computer graphics. The script was also quite boring. So, don't play it for the story.

its also a pity they allowed for saving everywhere, and designed the levels in light of that decision. As a result, instead of the concentrated, tense challenges that were the Dark Forces levels, which were designed to be playable without saving, we got levels designed on the quicksave/quickload principle.

The Bottom Line
I don't know how it stands up today, but it was a blast to play in 1997, even for a jaded FPS player

The Good
I was immediately impressed with Jedi Knight when the opening cut-scene led directly into the first level. Each level flowed into the next one and while the surrounding story was a little weak, I really enjoyed the intermeshing personal story set against the larger Doomsday scenario.

This game inspired a sense of wonder. Have you ever played a game and just stopped to look around? The levels are immense, complicated, and utilize John Williams' triumphant score. One of the best levels involves attempting to get to an escape pod as the ship you're in plummets downward.

Most of the same enemies are back from the original game- Stormtroopers, Gamorrean Guards, etc. There is also a cadre of evil Jedi which leads to impressive lightsaber duels. Fighting of foes with the lightsaber is incredibly satisfying and one of the best touches comes from deflecting laser blasts. At first you can only deflect a few shots, but eventually you can kill enemies with their own weapons.

Finally, this game was very challenging. Taking on a pack of Stormtroopers is easy, but an AT-ST? Two evil Jedi at once? Dodging a Tie Bomber? Thank you for including in-game saves!

The Bad
Graphics: Graphically this game was far ahead of its predecessor, textures and settings were great. I didn't really care for the character models though. The polygon structures used made the characters seem too distorted. This is mostly a quibble though, Blood which came out the same year had far worse graphics.

Force Powers: Okay, Force Powers work well in the game and look really cool, but I felt that the power-up system linked to finding secret areas diminished the Force. I mean Yoda never said, "Powerful Jedi Vader is. Found, he has, many secrets."

The Story: The awesome looking cut-scenes make up for the bad acting, but the story is pretty weak. I think a more dynamic implementation of the choice between Dark and Light would have improved the game. The branching storyline (more of a fork in the road) has little significance as far as gameplay.

The Bottom Line
Has a great personality and is fun at parties.