by I have a confession. I hate Star Wars. It’s got two of my least favorite things–being in space and science fiction. Admittedly, it’s hard to have science fiction without being in space, but there you have it. However, I live in a place we like to call “reality” and Star Wars is such an oppressively pervasive part of our reality that I have not been able to live my life apart from endless consumption of its media. I’ve played its games, I’ve watched its movies, I’ve read its books. During my childhood, I heard whispers on the edge of nerd-dom of a game called “Jedi Knight.”
“You can choose to be good or evil!”
“You can kill almost any character in the game! You can use a light saber and guns!”
“You can get force powers and force choke people or light powers and move at super speeds!”
Intrigued, I have long wanted to try this “Jedi Knight” series but never had the opportunity to do so. Now, over 10 years later, I get the chance to dive into what was promised to be a good experience. It better be, because I’ll say it again in different words. Star Wars sucks!
DARK FORCES – Tier 3
We don’t always get to choose our roots. Our origins aren’t always flashy. Maybe we grow up to become successful, but our childhood was fraught with rubbish. Maybe it’s not Lucas Art’s fault. Then again, maybe it totally is. Dark Forces is a good game done bad. Quickly put, it’s a game that tries to do far too much with too little. Expanding on that, it is a game with absolutely massive maps but terrible methods and controls for traveling through them. It is a game with lofty scale but not the optimization to bring it to life. It is an adventure filled with secrets, treasures and discoveries but their sweet reward is ruined by the sandpaper slide that it takes to get there.
Dark Forces is the tale of a smuggler-turned-good who eventually turns Jedi. For all intents and purposes, it’s a first-person shooter but the controls suck, the game feels laggy and the graphics are often an eyesore. Walk 10 feet away from an enemy and they look like a really bad MS Paint drawing. Walk 100 feet away and they become a nearly unrecognizable garble of pixels. Dark Forces would have been a great game if it simply ran better. There is one surprisingly commendable piece of the game though–the voice acting. It’s fantastic. In spite of being a DOS game, enemies chatter amongst themselves or in alarm when fighting. The audio quality is also surprisingly clear for its time. Lastly, the actors deliver their lines with professional quality. Other than that, if you aren’t nostalgic about this game, it’s like being raked over nails. It’s too old, too messy and too difficult to know how to progress in a level to be any fun. Tier 3 sadly, but I respect it for being the series’ foundation.
STAR WARS JEDI KNIGHT: DARK FORCES II – Tier 1
AaaaAAARRRRGH SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP
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SWJK:DFII is much better game over the original Dark Forces. The combat, movement, level design, pacing, clarity and mood have all been significantly improved. Most of this has been accomplished through the switch from pixels to polygons, much less “floaty lag,” better controls and a faster-moving engine. Level design is open but clear–the path forward isn’t as heavily obscured as it was before, behind things like confusing switches that open doors half-way across the map. At the same time, there are still secrets containing goodies for those who want to explore.
The story picks up with our hero from DF, Kyle, who is looking to avenge the murder of his father. True to the time period it came out in, all the cutscenes have been built with FMV and real actors. Lucasarts didn’t do too shabby on it either, although some of the scenes, line delivery and acting are a bit hammy.
This game has two endings depending on how much of a jerk you are and if you use light or dark force powers. This makes it one of the first (if not the first) Star Wars game where you can choose to go over to the Dark Side, something that would become an expected staple of nearly every Star Wars role playing game in the future.
More than anything, this is just a solid FPS from its era, that happens to also give you magical (Force) powers. You zoom around at a million miles per hour, gun down anything that moves and vacuum up health, ammo and upgrades. The game has a nice level of difficulty and a bit of tactical skill as well, even on the early levels. Early on, I was confused as to why I was constantly running out of bullets, even when I started actually trying to aim. That’s when I realized that the Storm Trooper blaster consumed 2 units of energy per shot, but did relatively the same amount of damage as the Bryar Pistol, which only consumed 1 unit of energy per shot. The trade-off was that the Trooper blaster shot much faster. This required me to tactically switch between the two weapons on the fly as needed–the pistol if I was fighting from a distance where I was likely to miss and take longer between shots as I aimed, and the blaster if I was in the thick of 3 or 4 enemies and needed to lay them all out quickly.
Maybe Tier 1 is a bit high for this title, but I can’t help it–it really is just a fun game. To it’s credit, it seems to have just the right amount of everything without dragging on. Just enough cut-scene length to provide motivation for what we’re doing. Clever enemy placement that keeps things interesting without getting tiresome. Large levels that are fun without being Labyrinthine. That and the Chara in me needs the Dark Side ending.
STAR WARS JEDI KNIGHT: MYSTERIES OF THE SITH – Tier 3
So… apparently, for no reason whatsoever, this game decides to save its screenshots as .PCX files instead of .PNGs like it’s predecessor… and like any SANELY MADE PROGRAM WOULD. So, while I can import the .PCX’s into my image editor just fine, they decide for some reason to import at… 579 x 435 pixels. So I apologize, I will include some screenshots but they will look like, as we in the intellectual world like to call, caca.
Mysteries of the Sith is an expansion for Dark Forces II. It’s an expansion that has made me sit back, ponder a bit and try to answer the question, “Has there ever been a good expansion pack for anything?” Baldur’s Gate II’s expansion pack sort of sucked, and was the sloppy conclusion to what was supposed to have been a third game. Star Craft (original)’s expansion back was fantastic from a mechanical/multiplayer standpoint, but the campaign was lackluster and completely lacked the spirit of its base game. Castlevania Lord of Shadows had a awesome main game which was then marred by a really awkward set of expansion levels at the end. I know that somewhere out there, there have to some kind of good expansion packs but… I’m struggling right now to think of any.
I know he’s holding a bomb, but if you use your imagination, it looks like he’s eating a chocolate bar.
Mysteries of the Sith just feels like an excuse to sell something quickly made utilizing a large quantity of assets and engine-work whose monetary resources had already been funneled into. I think it speaks loudly that Metacritic gave the base game a 91%, whereas Gamerankings gave the expansion a 75.60%. Gone are the exciting cut scenes, replaced instead by barely pre-rendered scenes using the horrendously blocky in-game models. Gone is the fun level design and clever enemy placement, replaced instead with boring hallways and identical landscapes filled with enemies that simply walk at you. Gone is the sense of agency within your actions as instead of doing exciting things like escaping a double-cross or hunting down the robot that betrayed you, we’re challenged to complete the most mundane, McGuffin, generic 101 tasks that you are given in every game where the devs need the player to do something to make the game longer but don’t actually have anything meaningful to give the player to do. I’m talking, “Go open that door!” “Turn on the power!” “Go to that place and talk to that guy!” It no longer feels like exploration. It just feels like a chore list.
These guys were literally so blandly and badly placed, that the AI saw fit to have them all bunch up and walk into a wall instead of through the door, 3 feet to their right. This might be a bit more forgivable, except that this same landscape outcropping was used in at least 3 other locations on the map. The same. Exact. One.
Look, I know that this probably had a fraction of the budget of the base game. I know it probably had a fraction of the people working on it. I’m not saying that the people working on it didn’t try their best to make a decent expansion. The question remains though, is if you’re setting up for the creation a Tier 3 game that is more or less identical to the first one but has less quality, less design, less resources and is overall going to be a lower value product, why even bother choosing to make it at all? Oh wait, that’s right. Money.
STAR WARS JEDI KNIGHT II: JEDI OUTCAST – Tier 2
I know its dark but can you see it? What is that resolution!?!?
Okay, this game is very solid and I think me rating it Tier 2 in comparison to Dark Forces II’s Tier 1 may reveal a bit of my bias towards older game’s design. But can I take just a moment to discuss something very confusing? Counting Dark Forces II’s expansion as a title, this is the fourth game in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series. We of course started out with Dark Forces itself and then moved on to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. The third title didn’t have a number, and that’s understandable since it built out from DFII. HOWEVER, this game is called… Jedi Knight II, followed by the Jedi Outcast sub-title. Does that make this Dark Forces 3? Or is this actually the sequel to the sequel of Dark Forces? I mean, if Jedi Knight was the sub-title for Dark Forces II, and this is Jedi Knight II, are they saying that it’s Dark Forces II… II? The complexity is deep.
Anyway, we pick back up with Kyle again as he’s going to some… place to kill some… people. Or something. I don’t know–it would probably make more sense if I finished the other games. The game starts out on some planet and we need to gun our way through another army of Storm Troopers to get to our objective. Visually, this feels a lot like the original Dark Forces, except that it’s actually good. The level design does tend to wind around a bit and the puzzles are harder than DFII (basically there are puzzles again but still very simple) but the core concepts from the previous three games have been improved and expanded in wholesome ways.
Lets get some of the ugly out of the way. Kyle is a Jedi and you may have pushed him down the Dark Side in previous titles. Unfortunately if you did, Light is the canon path he takes, so if you want to be evil, you’ll have to rack up those baby-eater points again. Second, in spite of being a seasoned Jedi at this point, Kyle still thinks its cool to go down on a mission with nothing but his Bryar Blaster again, leaving his light saber in the shop. And his arsenal of other weapons in his gun safe. And he spent the last however many years between this game and the last huffing spray paint so that he could forget all of his force powers again. Of course mechanically speaking, this is how the progression of a game should be (there would be no fun if they gave you all the toys at once) but it does make you wonder. Lastly, the lighting is dark. The screenshots make it look worse than it actually was (I was able to ramp up the gamma a bit but they weren’t reflected in the screenshots) but at times it does feel like the world is cast in an eternal shadow.
All these problems are easily overlooked when you look at what the game has added. Familiar weapons now have alternate firing modes, which adds to the mechanical complexity of the shootouts, which are the main bread and butter of all of these games in spite of Jedis not traditionally relying on blasters for combat. AI has been significantly improved compared to previous titles. Storm Troopers now… move. In ways that aren’t “I’m charging right at you.” They’ll run around and strafe if you engage them. They’ll run to seek cover if they’re in trouble. They don’t clump up and walk into walls anymore. They might even regroup if they are stranded, although that might have just been clever scripting for a few of the generals.
I… died here. Kyle is not actually kissing the floor and doing a handstand at the same time.
Storm Troopers now die in hilarious ways like they do in the movies–by jumping backwards or flipping and spinning around when they take the final blow. The physics of it is just fun (if a bit morbid). It feels great to barge into a room filled with the white armored curs and unload your gun, watching them all fly back or trip at weird angles. Lastly, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, we no longer rely on FMV, but in-game models and they finally look somewhat decent. Even for a game that’s 15 years old, the Troopers look like Troopers and even the non-armored humans look pretty decent, avoiding uncanny valley to respectable degree.
I think this is another solid release for the series. It plays smooth, visuals are nice and mechanics feel solid–not to mention that the level design is back to not sucking, compared to Mysteries of the Sith. It’s even fairly difficult–if you’re not aiming properly and running the blaster rifle on automatic, you’ll burn through your bullets far too quickly to be useful. However, if you’re diligent in your exploration and keep an eye out for them, you’ll find ammo packs hidden on shelves and behind boxes, so that you’re allowed to recover from what feel like a fair number of mistakes. Maybe not most revolutionary game in the world, Jedi Knight II hammers down solid FPS style that’s worth trying out, especially if you’re one of those people who like Star Wars. I guess those kind of people exist. Somewhere.
STAR WARS JEDI KNIGHT: JEDI ACADEMY – Tier 2
Hrm… I can create my own Jedi and I can be an alien? Go on, I’m listening…
Jedi Academy is a mold breaker, and it sacrificed some things to get there. There’s not really a way to explore this without breaking it down piece-by-piece, so lets get to it.
AaaaAAARRRRGH SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP SHUDDUP
Okay, so to start out, Academy is the first game in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series where you get to create your own character and play as someone who isn’t Kyle. Sadly, there are a vast number of improvements that are begging to be added to the character creator. There are 6 models to choose from, but two of them are human (male/female) and then the other two are four distinct alien races, two female and two male. So, if you want to play as a male Zabrak, you’re out of luck and so on. While each model comes with 4 outfits, there’s almost no customization beyond this. You can’t change skin color, hair, facial features, body type or (as mentioned) gender. What might be worse (or hilarious) is that you can’t change the voice either. There are only two voices in the game–male and female, so even though I played as a bright green Rodian I spoke in English like an American Hollywood movie star.
Academy is also the first game where you don’t embark on a series of missions in a linear order. I get the feeling that you have to hit all the missions eventually but getting to choose them is fun and adds breathing room to the claustrophobia of being tied the linear rails of an unending plot cycle of missions. The missions themselves are also rather varied and provide short segmented micro adventures to go off on. Their length combined their varied location makes each mission feel fun and fresh. Sometimes you’ve got a party with you, sometimes you’re alone. My favorite was one where you landed on a sand planet (not Tatooine) and essentially had to fight the Graboids from Tremors. Sure enough, instead of a mission based around gun fights and throwing switches, it was an entirely open level where you played “don’t step on the lava” only the lava was sand and the sand was filled with giant worms that eat you.
You run into a lot of familiar faces as well. There’s Kyle for starters, but also most of the original cast of Star Wars such as Chewbacca, Luke, or even C-3PO… the latter of whom I may have cut in half… make an appearance. I also blew up R2-D2. Hey, I’m only taking Force Drain and Force Lightning Powers for a reason people.
Tightness of control was sacrificed a bit in the design of this new title. This tends to make gameplay suffer some as you are asked to do more platforming in Academy than previous titles. I think the problem would be alleviated if you had more control over your jump trajectory while you’re in the air and if the environment itself was made to be just a tad larger. You eventually get used to it but early on, several platforms that were necessary to traverse in order to continue the game had me clipping on boxes or ceilings as I tried to simply jump a few feet to land on their tiny surface. Lastly, AI and combat complexity in general has been dialed back in comparison to Jedi Knight II, which is disappointing. Enemies are a lot dumber and tend to just stand still and shoot at you… maybe. Sometimes they just sort of stare at you. Ammo feels a lot more plentiful and the need to conserve ammunition is gone. Likewise, the accuracy and power of the weapons have been increased as well, making things a lot more point-and-click. It’s not entirely skill-less, but it did lead to me just picking my flavor of death for my enemies. Point-in-case–force drain everything that moves and isn’t made of metal.
By the end though, I’m not disappointed in Academy because is trying something new and interesting. Letting you build your character and choose their force powers and weapon loadouts for missions is fun and lets you feel like you’ve really created your own character to go along on an adventure with some of the “bigs” from the Star Wars universe. As this was a new system, the room for improvement is more obvious but that’s to be expected. While I would have liked a bit more mechanical complexity, the ease of play did keep the game moving at a good pace and let me “play” at being a Jedi instead of fretting about which mechanical choice of death was most effective for my enemy. In spite of its shortcomings, I’ve rated this at Tier 2–I’d certainly rather a company try new things and need to improve them instead of hashing out the same exact thing over and over again.
