There 2 major problems with this game!
1) Its too damn addictive!
2) Its reawakened my desires to perfect the Jedi mind trick!
For those of you who have never played any of the other Dark Forces games I will bring you up to speed on the events that have so far transpired. It is 8 years since the fall of the Empire at the hands of teddy bears and the empire is getting the snot kicked out of it by the New Republic. The survivors have called themselves the Remnant and are constantly scheming to regain control of the galaxy.
You play Kyle Katarn, a mercenary who does the occasional odd job for the New Republic. In the previous game Kyle discovered his Jedi heritage and trained to become a Jedi and in doing so discovered an Imperial plot to invade the Valley of the Jedi which contained 'unimaginable power'! In his fight to protect the valley from the dark Jedi that were trying to invade the place he came very close to dark side himself! After he had protected the secrets of the Valley he renounced the force, got rid of his lightsabre and went back to his mercenary ways as a normal dude! What a Muppet!!
Anyhow, muppetry aside, Kyle has been doing very well for himself and he and his partner, Jan Orrs, continue their fight against the Imperials. When the game starts we find Kyle and Jan investigating an Imperial sighting on a non-descript planet in the middle of nowhere. Naturally the planet is swarming with nasty stormtroopers armed to the teeth with blaster rifles and Kyle and Jan end up butchering the entire Imperial population on the planet. As you do…
The first few levels of the game are basically shoot, shoot, shoot, pick up key, shoot, shoot, use key, jump over gap, etc. etc. ad nauseum! It is very dull! The level designs are fairly linear but they can get very confusing at times as you need to go back and forth a lot. There is also an element of puzzle solving but it is very basic and even the most novice of novices could solve them. It basically involves finding key cards and entering codes in the right order. How very original!
After about the fourth level events unfold in such a way that Kyle is forced to pick up his lightsabre and don the mantle of a Jedi Knight once more! Waahey! From that point on the game develops its biggest fault; addiction! I think I must have spent 9 straight hours playing it on the second day that I got it! Once you start to develop your Jedi powers the game becomes completely different and you can have hours of fun pulling guns away from your enemies or just pushing them off cliffs! Initially the only powers you are able to access are Pull, Push, Speed and Jump.
As the game progresses you get access to another three powers; Lightening, Grip and Heal. If you get bored with the tedium of blasting your enemies with blasters or slicing them into sushi with your lightsabre then you can fry them a la emperor style with arcs of lightening emanating from your fingertips or in true Darth Vader style choke the life out of them. When you develop the choke technique to its fullest extent you are able to lift people up and smash them into walls, use them as a body shield all the while choking the life out of them! Fantastic!!
Visually the game is amazing! Even as I write this review I am thinking of the epic lightsabre battles I was having with the dark Jedi and drooling! The sight of the sabres clashing and sparks flying everywhere was truly astounding! Unlike Jedi Knight, this game has oodles of dark Jedi and so it lays the scene for some truly amazing battles. When you are a fully fledged Jedi the standard storm troopers don't really pose much of a problem for you except when they attack in large numbers. It is the dark Jedi that you really have to watch out for because they have similar abilities as you and they are not afraid to use them.
The single player storyline is quite in-depth and the missions are all very long and complex but I completed the game in just over 3 days it may take up to a week for the average, not completely obsessive player. The replayability of the game is not particularly high. The game is very linear in terms of storyline and there is no way to stray from the script. I also found it tricky to start from the beginning again after tasting the sweet delights of slicing up the enemy with my glow stick!
But worry ye not, for it also has a very good multiplayer mode so there is still some life left in the game even after you have finished it. The multiplayer mode comes with AI bots so that you can practice your Jedi skills on the computer before progressing to the real thing on the internet against real people! There are plenty of options to try out in the multiplayer mode, including Capture the Flag, Duel and Jedi Master! All of them are good fun to play and the ability to be a fully fledged Jedi Master with lightsabre adds a unique twist to the game play and makes it completely different to any other online game around at the moment.
Jedi Knight is a lot of fun and I can easily recommend it to anyone. Even though the game gives a bad first impression with the lack lustre first levels it more than makes up for it with the rest of the game as soon as you become a Jedi. There are plenty of weapons available for you to blast your way through the level but to be honest I probably didn't use half of them as I was having far too much fun with my lightsabre and force powers. For the more sadistically inclined amongst you there is a cheat available which will allow you to realistically slice and dice your opponents.
Lucasarts are quite famous for making fairly safe games with minimal gore, especially after some weirdo was discovered with an 'emperor style' chair that he made from human skulls and bones. Raven, the co-creators of the game, are on the opposite side of the road with gore fest games such as Soldier of Fortune under their belt which displayed so much graphic violence that it had to be given an 18 certificate.
This game has a lot to offer the player; the graphics are great, the sounds are very atmospheric and the storyline has great depth. The designers have done their best to make you feel immersed in the star wars universe and they have succeeded beyond all my expectations! In the later levels I was being attacked by a storm trooper armed with a rocket launcher…my health was pretty low and I figured that I was about to go to the great Jedi bar in the sky when I had a cunning thought; I used my force push on the rockets he was firing at me and sent the rockets flying straight back to him!! Hurrah!! At another point in the game I found myself getting my butt handed to me by a dark Jedi!
This was before I learnt all the delicate intricacies involved with lightsabre fighting and as a result the guy was creaming me. I used my force grip and picked the bugger up off the floor, smashed him into a few walls and after about thirty seconds or so he finally gave up the ghost and slumped to the floor! Hurrah!! Its moments like this that makes a game great and Jedi Knight 2 is full of them! Go and buy it now!!
James Coghlan
