Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

The Good
The original 'Dark Forces' was a superior 'Doom' clone, and although 'Jedi Knight' was too late to jump on the 'Quake' bandwagon it's still a superior first-person shooter (this time, with a multiplayer mode as well). At the time, people were ecstatic that you finally got to use a light sabre, and although it's not the most effective weapon in the game, it's great fun stalking around darkened corridors, slashing the attractively-rendered Stormtroopers and cutting the legs off scout walkers. It has lots of Lucasarts 'nice touches' - power droids that go 'gonk', a static AT-AT, and a clever force system that encourages you to hunt for secret areas, and although the graphics are now quite dated, the levels have a great sense of scale, and some seriously huge drops.

There's a decent selection of useful weapons, the various force abilities are great fun to use ('force grip', for example, allows you to choke your opponents), and you can choose to be a villain, too.

Almost best of all, the music is taken directly from the film score, and you can listen to it on its own.

The Bad
Nowadays the graphics are a bit blocky, but they run extremely quickly and at a high resolution. Levels one and two are extremely attractive, but the effect is spoiled by the organic level three, which has lots of blocky trees and doesn't work at all. The gameplay balance is generally good, but some of the boss creatures are unfairly hard. And without advanced warning, it's not at all obvious how to defeat the villain. That said, the only serious deficiency is a lack of character - our hero has a beard but is otherwise bland, whilst the villains are a dull bunch.

The Bottom Line
A superior first-person shooter that has aged gracefully, and has plenty of 'Star Wars' atmosphere.

The Good
This game had some excellent features. The graphics were excellent for their time, the level design was INCREDIBLE. The cutscenes portrayed what you needed them to very nicely and ran relatively stable on my machine.

The Bad
A few things weren't right about this game though, such as sometimes, the cursor would only show up every few seconds, forcing me to guess where I was by the sounds and click when I think I am there. The acting in the cutscenes was pretty good, but I didn't like the mix of live action and cg graphics, it just seems a bit too hokey for me. Those were the only gripes I had with this game.

The Bottom Line
Overall, this game is an excellent example of what game developers can do with the first person shooter genre if they put their minds to it. It is incredibly well put together, the levels fit quite well with the game, and multiplayer is excellent, if not a bit laggy. The use of force powers was well done, and added a new level of exploration to the game. Despite its (few) problems, this game is beautiful, and is a must-have for any person who even considers himself a light computer gamer.

The Good
Use the Force, Kyle!

The Bad
Lots of ideas that hit just a bit wide of the mark, kinda like stormtrooper fire.

The Bottom Line
Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II came at an exciting time, when first person shooters were beginning to switch from pseudo-3D/sprite based engines to fully 3D ones. It was also a follow up to the original Dark Forces, which had been a very hot item just a couple of years earlier. Naturally, expectations were high for this game.

From a purely technical viewpoint, the game did not disappoint. It had very good for the time full-3D visuals and it came with excellent Star Wars themes sound effects and soundtrack. The moment you started up the game, it was instant immersion into the Star Wars universe. Still, it's worth mentioning that, seen today, the graphics haven't aged well. 3D games of the era have very blocky modelling and some of the textures can seem positively rubbish. There's one level in particular in Dark Forces II that must have the ugliest grass texture I've ever seen in any (hardware accelerated) game. However this is to be expected in a game of this vintage, so you pretty much go in knowing it's not going to be a visual extravaganza. And, let's face it, graphics aren't why you play a 1997 first person shooter.

Fortunately, in the sound department it mostly holds up well and it's everything you would expect from a Star Wars themed game. The cinematics are also well crafted and, even today, some scenes look quite spectacular. However the modern gamer might have to get used to the fact they combine CGI with FMV elements using real actors instead of animated characters. And speaking of actors... the acting, while not terrible, can be pretty bad at times, so be prepared for some cheese. Ultimately, I guess it all comes down to a matter of personal taste.

In terms of gameplay, the really big thing in Dark Forces II is that it was the first Star Wars game to feature lightsaber combat. While today it may not seem that big a thing, in its day this thing alone must have sold a great deal of copies. The game also gives you the ability to change your alignment (light or dark side) and once that happens there are alternate cutscenes and two different endings. The inclusion of Force Powers was also a big addition and I'm sure lot of fans were eager to try out some 'Jedi tricks'. More importantly, some of these Force Powers are essential if you want to advance through the game.

The selection of weapons is very similar to the one from Dark Forces and some of these weapons have alternate modes of fire. The game also attempts a more modern approach to grenade mechanics, though it falls short of making them truly useful from a tactical perspective. As you progress, the lightsaber becomes a truly potent weapon; not only that you become capable of deflecting multiple incoming projectiles, you can also deflect many of them right back at your enemies. It's quite possible (not to mention entertaining) to kill an enemy using his own weapons' fire against him. On the other hand, the lightsaber doesn't look very lightsaber-y. I guess the early 3D engine wasn't really up to the task of replicating the look lightsabers had in the films. Hit detection is also a bit iffy when it comes to melee attacks.

As far as the level design goes, some of the levels are massive; you get large open areas or long winding tunnels leading you through all sorts of interesting locations, some more familiar than others. The size alone can give the game a certain epic feel. Also, Force Powers have been integrated into the level design and, as I've already mentioned, you will need to use some of them in order to accomplish certain tasks. It also often features little puzzles that can be quite rewarding to solve. It's not all great though. Some levels really do feel like they are needlessly long. Others can get frustrating due to the relatively imprecise controls, which complicate navigation. This is especially true for jumping which is absolutely essential in certain locations. Speaking of which, I'd say the default control scheme isn't terribly good, but fortunately it's a problem easily solved. Unlike it's predecessor, Dark Forces II allows you to remap actions to whatever set-up you like.

The enemy AI isn't the smartest thing you've ever seen in a computer game and it does have a few bugs. Sometimes enemies will try to come straight at you, getting stuck in the process behind an object/wall and ignoring the fact there's a less direct way of actually getting to you. Ah, pathfinding, the bane of many a game programmer. On occasion you'll also notice that, although you've left their field of view, they're still shooting in the direction they last saw you in. Enemies also tend to try and shoot you through doors or force fields, obviously to no avail.

A small gripe: during the game you earn points that you can assign to the various Force Powers in order to make them more potent. The problems is that, as far as I can tell, the number of points you get is dependent on the number of secrets (secret areas) you discover in the game. I know this game is from an era when finding secrets was still a very big element of FPS gameplay, but it just doesn't make any sense in the context. The Force isn't supposed to work that way and it spoils the immersion a little bit. I guess you could look at it from the different point of view and say that it's a game that rewards the compulsive explorer in you.

Another thing of note is that the game is quite mod-able. You can replace original assets with better textures or higher poly characters, for example. Despite its age there's still a loyal community around the game, which is fortunate seeing how some modern gamers might have trouble running this game with hardware acceleration. Thanks to the community, this is a problem that has been solved. There's even an unofficial patch which, it's my understanding, fixes certain issues that weren't resolved by the original devs themselves.

All in all, while the story might not be particularly impressive, nor original, the game itself and the quality of the cutscenes keep you interested in the developing narrative. Oh, and Kyle Katarn, the protagonist, has got to be one of the most beloved characters in the Expanded Universe. More importantly, it's a fun game to play and killing stormtroopers is a real blast (terrible pun, sorry). So if you're a bit of a Star Wars geek, like me, or you're just interested in having fun with a first person shooter from the 'old guard', you should definitely pick this game up.

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
The game in itself deserved all the awards granted to it when it was released.

The Graphics - although 3 years old - are impressive and give you the sense of being on Nar Shaddaa or any other Star Wars Locale. Nicely rendered backgrounds and explosions help the game along.

John Williams. The name alone means that LucasArts was smart enough to put REAL soundtracks from the movies into the game, and not just MIDI recreations of them. The weapons fire, the whine of Tie Bombers and Crunching sound of AT-ST's walking around give the game that much more "authentic" atmosphere than most 3D-shooters.

The gameplay is excellent compared to Doom, Quake and other "Pre Half-life" shooters out there. Consequences were suffered if you shot innocents, mostly in the fact you would grow toward the Dark Side of the Force.

The Bad
The Control is weird. Even though the game is completely customizable, I like a game that is easy to get into, and doesn't take a day of learning where each button is that controls something. Jedi Knight has TOO many options and clunky INITIAL keyboard layout.

The AI at times is either really stupid, or so good you can't beat it. The Stupid is mostly against cannon fodder like Stormtroopers and Tusken raiders, while when you are in the variuos lightsaber duels, it is very difficult to play the game. First of all the AI is hard, but most importantly, you automatically switch to a 3rd person Tomb-Raider like view for Lightsaber duels. And for me that is very hard to play in.

The Bottom Line
An excellent 3D shooter for SW fans, and for non Fans alike. Just be prepared for some long Lightsaber duels.

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.

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.

The Good
Jedi Knight was more than eagerly anticipated by "Dark Forces" fans- I took the day off when it was released and ended up beating it in around 34 hours. The lightsaber action was new and very fun, and the levels were large and challenging. The true 3D engine was stable, and the introduction of FMV (done better than it was in "Rebel Assault II") was very cool.

The Bad
Unfortunately, Jedi Knight's art was sorely lacking I thought. Some of the levels are painfully bland, with repeating rock and concrete textures. The designers put in too much lighting as well, defeating the gritty, commando-style of the early levels and of "Dark Forces". Finally, though lightsaber combat was very cool, it was generally too rushed and frenzied to get any kind of cinematic experience out of it.

The Bottom Line
I actually didn't like this game as much as "Dark Forces". The bland levels really were the killer for me. I was hoping the sequel in the Dark Forces line would be "Stormtrooper" (kind of like "TIE Fighter" following "X-Wing"). But it's still a great action game with a good story, better than average full-motion video, and plenty of replay value online.

The Good
Back in 1995, when the term "Doom Clone" was stuck onto every single shooter to show up, LucasArts decided to do something different. The result was the original Dark Forces, a first person shooter set in the Star Wars universe. It sold well for two reasons: For one, LucasArts successfully completed its goal of doing something different and shaking off the title of "Doom clone" by featuring a more in depth story than most shooters, objective based missions (Which were actually new at the time.) and advanced puzzles. Secondly, it was fricken' Star Wars! What Star Wars geek doesn't want to pick up a blaster and shove a boot up the Empires ass (Or vice-verse in the Battlefront series) and save the galaxy?

So LucasArts decided once again to do something different with the sequel, Jedi Knight. The biggest advancement being, well, the force of course! Jedi Knight was ahead of its time, having some features that are commonplace now but unique then; like the morality system which allows players to sway to either the dark side or light side of the forces and gain powers accordingly based on their Dark or Light orientation. Sound familiar? inFamous maybe? Well, Jedi Knight did it 12 years earlier. Also considering it was the first game to put a Lightsabre in your hand, that's also saying something.

The multiplayer was one of the best aspects of this game. I have tons of memories in multiplayer. Lightsabre battles were intense and up close and personal, and stunning your enemy and then grabbing them with force choke was always a memorable experience. Sadly it no longer exists, but the multiplayer was awesome back in the heyday.

The game sounds good. Despite a distinct lack of much music, the game sounds just like a true Star Wars film. Everything sounds right and you'll recognize the various inhabitants of the universe by the sounds they make before you even see them.

The controls are very good. It's easy to control your character and automatically switch to any weapon or force power you want, and you can use them in tandem with ease. The game's jumping ability is also one of the more realistic jumping mechanics, you really feel like you are jumping and it can instill a sense of vertigo sometimes.

The Bad
Sadly, as groundbreaking as it was in 1997 the game simply doesn't hold up for me, and even in '97 it had some glaring flaws. For one, the graphics are terrible and I'm talking by '97 standards too. Character models are funky, jagged, jittery and just downright poor. There are some "OK" world textures, but for the most part you'll see too much Imperial gray and when outside the game uses one of the most embarrassing and terrible grass textures ever seen. In fact, Dark Forces had better outdoor textures the only difference being you can accelerate JK so you don't get as much pixelation.

The AI is dumb. I mean Doom dumb. They basically just charge in or stand in a spot shooting aimlessly. There were several times that a scripted enemy above me shot at a pre-determined location to try and hit me, and when I ran away rather than track me it kept firing at the designated spot, even when I came up behind it and poked it hoping it'd turn around.

On retrospect, the level design is very poor. I made note of this back then but felt the gameplay made up for it, but compared to its successors and other games of its kind now a days even the gameplay is feeling weak and it feels more like "Diet Force-lite" rather than really wielding the force. The level designs are obtuse, long, drab, uninspired and confusing.

The dark/light side thing is also shallower than advertised, and once again feels weak compared to what we have these days. When you have points to spend, you can dump them into dark side powers but stay on the light side granted you never use the powers for evil and have at least one light side skill. It doesn't really affect the game itself, it affects the story more than anything with alternate cutscenes later on and two different endings, though even that doesn't matter because the dark side ending is non-canonical within the rest of the JK series.

Speaking of the story, the story is fairly lame. It doesn't help that there are long, drawn out, boring live action cutscenes with awful CG effects and even worse actors. FMV has never been good, but this ranks as some of the worst, which is a shame considering the rich Star Wars universe. The characters are forgettable and annoying the game relies to much on cliche. Here's a summary, and you'll probably recall at least 10,000 other stories with this: A man's father dies, and receives a message after his death telling him to go back home and find something. Meanwhile the evil power that killed his family is seeking out some mysterious power that may or may not exist and you have to stop them. Yeah, we've heard this one before. About 20 billion times.

The Bottom Line
Don't get me wrong; Jedi Knight is a classic and deserves to be remembered and acknowledged. It was ahead of its time and for the time, it was mind blowing. But it's an example of a game that when stacked up against modern standards can't hold up at all; the reason that its predecessor still holds up is tight level design and the gameplay is simple and base enough that improvements on that specific design philosophy would be marginal at best so it can still be fun to play due to its simplicity. Jedi Knight, however, is an instance of a game that brought so many new things to the table that when another game improved on those things, it was hard to go back to the old stuff.

I have fond memories of the game and it has its place in history but I can't recommend it after its vastly superior sequels and other games improving on its formula.

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
The Star Wars setting with full 3D FPS gameplay. Very fun, and it makes good use of the lightsaber as a melee weapon, which makes it more favorable than melee weapons in 'other' games, like a shovel and wrench in System Shock 2 and Quake. The storyline is excellent, and made me think of how much potential more games like this have but unfortunately, the latest SW games have been horrible, with the exception of Pod Racer. All other weapons, locations, enemies, etc can be compared to the movies, too. Anyway, if you see it cheap buy it; you can't call yourself a PC Gamer without it.

The Bad
Nothing, I love this game.

The Bottom Line
Star Wars third person/FPS action goodness.

The Good
- This is the first FPS I ever "played" (I actually beat) - Groovy Graphics - Use of the lightsaber - Multiplayer

The Bad
- the lack of gerbils

The Bottom Line
- Pretty Damn Good

The Good
It was nice being a jedi, for a bit. The lightsaber weapon is fun. Enemy AI is better than many early 3d shooters. Some of the mission goals were original. Unfortunatly, that's about all.

The Bad
So many things are bad in this game. Let's start with the voice acting-- there are occassional good clips, but the rest is flat and basically 'awful'. The acting in the cutscenes is so miserable, I can't really explain it; you have to see it to believe it.

The automap is a nightmare to use; it attempted to be something like Daggerfall's 3d automap, I think; it's hard to tell because when you can actually tell where you are, you have no idea which way is up or down, and why the rotate buttons make the map turn three-sixty in half a second.

The levels are ridiculously frustrating and their layout often makes no sense at all-- while most maps in plot-based first person shooters have semi-decent excuses for why you can't go anywhere but where you want to go, Jedi Knight dosen't even really try. There are just mysterious walls blocking you off all over.

Oh, I said plot... ouch. The plot is so terribly, painfuly horrible, I almost cried. It all begins because Our Hero is off to avenge his father! Yes, it's the ultimate cliché, but they didn't even bother to give it any original twists in this game. I never finished it, because I knew I would do something horrible to my computer that I'd badly regret if I heard the android-actor who plays Our Hero intone 'You killed my father!' in one of the cutscenes, but I have heard from friends who braved the game how it ended, and it's just as cliché as the rest of the game. I have read some Star Wars novels, and I know how horribly written, typo-plagued, and plot-deprived most of them are, but nothing prepared me for this plot.

The force powers are also terribly unbalanced. Some are utilities, like Force Jump, which are easy and neccessary. The others are useless and you never use them throughout your entire play time. And the others are overpowered and once you get them, you breeze through the next several levels.

Although nothing could really have raised this game's enjoyability to a 5/10 with me, I might have given it a 4 1/2 if only there had been something good to save it. But the one paragraph at the top of this review says it all. Nothing else is good in this game.

The Bottom Line
Jedi Knight is basically a shooter that gets it all wrong. I would not recommend buying this game even if you are a Star Wars fan. Dark Forces remains fun, if unoriginal, with a much better plot and much more replayability. I would recommend it or Jedi Knight II over this title any day.

The Good
Vengance for your fathers death. Sound like a cheesy storyline? Nope, oddly. The story goes from |"get my fathers killer" to "save the universe AND kill my fathers assain" Now is it cheesy, yes. But that isnt the case when you motive the story with extermly progreesive gameplay, cool guns, difficult puzzles and level map challages and boss fights.

Force powers, (Use the force, Luke) are also a nice element to gameplay as you can kill mercilessly and then amplify that with Dark force powers: Lightning , Throw , Crush and Destructon (or in order: Shock your ass, Toss your ass off a cliff, Break your pencil neck , and im a nuke, everything in 20 feet of me dies.), or stay light and prevent the civilans from being killed by using: Healing, persuasian, blinding, and absorbion (or in order: "Heal yourself" , "Im invisible", "Don't need a flashbang ,I got this", and "Use the force, i'll take it!").

The Boss Fights are the most original fights in any game i've seen so far. In most FPS title i've played what's the boss stratgey? Duck, dodge, shoot, wait until he quit firing his special weapon and run with all barrels firing, Quit when there are Two smokeing barrels and you're the only one left standing. In Jedi Knights, the strageys are different for differnet for each boss, especially Goroc and Pic.

The Bad
The graphics are older than Dick Clark, everything looks like legos.

Stumbling during boss fights to get a upper hand on things with your powers ("Ass shocker or grip? I've got 0.56 secons to decide)

Most of the gameplay puzzle are classic, but hella sure not classy, "find the key and/or wrench puzzles.

The Bottom Line
All the story-driven Star Wars action your can handle, without the X-Wings.

The Good
I'm a big Star Wars fan, and the game has a very visible Star Wars atmosphere, that's a big plus for me. And the stunt of adding real life cutscenes is an admirable one (though the end result is sort of a mix of bad and good). The music is of course fantastic, they used the music from the films anyway. And the end cutscene if you end the game the "bad" way is fantastic.

That's where the good things end.

The Bad
The game's boring. As an FPS it's awful. You don't feel like you're moving a human being, run a bit to the left and you're suddenly already to the wall. You feel like you're sliding with incredible speed, it's just unrealistic and it ruins a great deal of the fun (not there was any to start with). The gameplay consists mainly of running like a madman around your dumb enemies and shoot them. The only challenge is the aiming, and there's no element of tactic or anything. It's just utterly boring.

On other sides, the game's got a very bad storyline, doesn't come close at all to Star Wars films, the graphics is simply ugly, and well, I could go on forever.

The Bottom Line
It's bad. Only buy it if you're hardcore Star Wars and want everything Star Wars. Do not buy it if you loved the prequel (Dark Forces), which had some flaws, but was at least very fun.