Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II

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.