Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy

I must have been living in a cave for the last year or so because I didn't even know this game was being developed until a week before it was released. D'oh! Ah well, at least it meant that I didn't have to wait months and months for the release.

Anyway, down to business. Jedi Academy is the latest release in the 'Jedi Knight'; series and brings back the famous Kyle Katarn, hero of all the previous Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. Katarn has become a Jedi Master and now trains Jedi Initiates at the Academy on the moon of Yavin-4. You may remember this place from the first movie; a nice, green and foresty moon with tall, ancient buildings dotted around the many jungles, a tiny rebel base, bustling with activity and a great big Death Star in orbit around it getting ready to blow the fook out of it. Since the destruction of the second Death Star above Endor, Luke Skywalker has been trying to find a nice quiet place where he can train Jedi to take on the role of Protectors of the Galaxy.

The game itself is a lot like the previous games and if you are familiar with them then you won't have a problem getting to grips with it. The game design has been improved and tweaked here and there to improve the playing experience. However, unlike all the previous games, you do not get to play as Kyle Katarn. The game is played from the perspective of one of Kyle's students. One of the new aspects to the game is that it allows you to create your own character and appearance. There are several different races to choose from and you also get to choose what type of lightsabre you wish to wield and what colour the blade will be. The lightsabres on offer range from the standard 'single blade'; sabre to 'dual wield sabres'; and, finally, the 'sabre staff'; (as wielded by Darth Maul). There is also the option to change the hilt of your lightsabre and there are about a dozen different hilts to choose from. The character selection is purely cosmetic and there are no advantages to choosing one race over another which is a bit of a shame but this was never designed to be an RPG. Your choice of lightsabre unlocks different styles for your character to use in combat. Sabre styles are another new addition to the game and they are very welcome as well! In the previous games you could only swing your blade in different modes, fast, medium or heavy, which changed the speed of attack and the amount of damage you could do. Now you can use various styles and combos to dispatch your enemies with great speed which is extremely handy when you are facing down 2-3 lightsabre totting enemies. My personal favourite is using the force to pull someone towards you and thrusting the lightsabre out to impale them on it. Rah! The moves themselves are very easy to pull off in combat unlike other style based games where having only two arms is a huge disadvantage. They also add some flare to the combat instead of running around in circles, hitting the fire button, and hoping to slash your enemy into little bits before he does the same to you.

The Force power system in use is pretty much the same as the one used in Outcast with a few minor changes. You start off the game with minor abilities in the basic 'neutral'; force powers; pull, push, sense and speed. As you are promoted from Jedi Initiate to Apprentice and, finally, Knight you are given some extra power in each of these base skills. There are also 8 other powers available to you. There are four Light side powers and four Dark side powers. As you complete a mission you are given a point to invest in any of these skills that you choose. This leads to an odd situation where, after the third mission, you have the ability to throttle someone using the force and smash him around the room like a rag doll in a manner that would impress Darth Vader yet, strangely, you are barely able to pull a weapon out of someone’s hands. This is not so much a problem in itself but it does feel strange and a tad illogical. Light side powers tend to be defensive. For example, you gain the ability to absorb Force based attacks, reduce the damage dealt by weapons, to heal yourself when not in combat and the infamous Jedi Mind Trick (these aren’t the droids you are looking for). Naturally, the Dark Side gives you more destructive powers. For example, you can drain the life out of someone (very cool), hurl devastating bolts of lightening at them (like the Emperor in RotJ), infuse yourself with Dark Side energy to become stronger and faster and, of course, the Dark Grip (my favourite)! You are not restricted to following one path or the other and you can pick and mix your powers as you see fit. I choose a balanced approach with my powers and had a mixture of Dark and Light powers.

The game is built on the Quake 3 engine which is getting on a bit these days but it is still more than up to the task. The game ran very smoothly on my PC with full effects and I didn’t notice any stuttering at all. The graphics themselves are nice to look at but I guess they aren't 'OMGWTFUBER'; by today's standards although they are still pretty good and get the job done. The effects during lightsabre fights are really atmospheric and really make the game worth playing.

One of the issues with the previous game that I totally hated was the fact that you had to spend the first 3-4 hours of play time running around with no force powers trying to shoot your way through the enemy ranks. This was insanely boring. This has been fixed in Jedi Academy! Woo! You start the game en route to the Jedi Academy with a lightsabre that you have made by yourself (convenient) and the first mission of the game involves hacking down Storm Troopers and 'wait for it';a Dark Force user with a lightsabre! Hurrah!! A lot of the missions involve hacking and slashing your way through thousands of Imperials and Bounty Hunters as well as the occasional Dark Force wielder. This can get quite repetitive after a while. You can alleviate the boredom somewhat by using the force to dispatch your foes in fiendish ways which is always good fun. Some of my favourites include throttling them and then smashing them around the room till they crumple, using the Grip to hold them in front of me as a body shield (mwahaha) and using the force to push them off cliffs or tall buildings!! There is also the ability to jump on various vehicles during the game, such as a Tauntaun, an AT-ST and one of those zoomy bike things they had in Return of the Jedi (swoops, I believe they are called). However, the controls for the vehicles aren’t very responsive and I was quite glad to be done with those levels.

The single player game is fairly short and a determined player could probably finish it in around 10 hours. Towards the end of the game you are given the choice to either follow the dark side or light side and, depending on your decision, you will be able to play out a different ending to the game. This, along with the various Force power combinations and Sabre selections, means that there is quite a lot of replayability left in the game. I would like to go back and try the game using only the Light Side powers but then following the path to the Dark Side to see what the alternative ending is. However, this would mean replaying the game with my undeveloped force powers. It can get quite tedious.

Fortunately there is a multiplayer option available and it is really quite good. There are a variety of different modes of play available, including Team Deathmatch, Standard Deathmatch, Duels (lightsabres only), Capture the Flag and Siege. There are always servers available to play on and the lightsabre duels are always good fun to have a mess around on for 5-10 minutes if you are bored.

I really enjoyed playing this game. I am glad that they cut down on the amount of shooting you have to do in the initial stage of the game because it gets really boring after a while. The graphics may not have improved since the last game and I know a lot of people who have moaned and whined about this but I really don't think it matters. The graphics are still good and they are extremely fluid on most PCs which is more important to me than drop dead awesome graphics that stutter and lag when ever there are more than 5 players on-screen.
The game itself has a fair amount of replayability but having to start from scratch with wimpy abilities might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Of course, there are plenty of cheats available to give you all the force powers you want so you could always do that. ~wink wink~

James Coghlan