Jedi Outcast is a huge leap forward for the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series, as it is the game that introduces the iconic lightsaber combat system. It also continues the story of Kyle Katarn and further explores the post-ROTJ era. It is great to see the new Jedi Academy (no pun intended).

The game almost feels like it is intended to be another entry point to the series, because at the start Kyle has given up his lightsaber and force powers. The player starts with just blasters and will likely not use the third person camera until around halfway through the game.

Combat is very strange, it feels like shots are programmed to miss half the time. I would use the full-auto on the E-11 point-blank on stormtroopers and only like 1/4 of the shots would hit, in spite of my crosshair being red the whole time and the gun essentially in the enemy's face. It leads to a lot of frustrating encounters where you swear you're dead on target and doing no damage. The combat does improve dramatically once a lightsaber and improved force powers are acquired, but the lightsaber has its own set of frustrations. The range of the lightsaber is shorter than it appears, oftentimes you will need to be touching an enemy to actually hit them, and even then you will watch your lightsaber go through someone only for no damage to occur. I'm not sure if it is due to hitboxes or hit detection or range, etc. That being said, when saber combat is firing on all cylinders against other lightsaber users, it is thrilling.

Puzzles can remain a bit cryptic and frustrating, particularly the navigational challenges where a hidden grate or ledge is the path forward, or you need to destroy a piece of scenery with no indication that it is even destructible. I needed to use a guide at times to progress.

In terms of story, it feels like a EU side story, with cameos from some movie characters and locations most fans will know of. I would have liked more variety in terms of enemies, the Imperial Remnant only have 3-4 varieties of stormtrooper and officers. There are a handful of alien thugs as well, but that's it. Thankfully lightsaber enemies shake things up quite a bit. Locations also feel a bit samey toward the end, you spend a lot of time in various grey Imperial ships and installations, it can feel monotonous.

Overall I would put either this game or Jedi Knight I as my favorite so far. I enjoyed the story of Jedi Knight I more, but the lightsaber combat in this game is so strong it is difficult to decide.

I'm reviewing the Switch version but I do have it on Gamecube. But GameCube version is GARBAGE. Makes the Catina level almost unplayable with how low the distance is.

The game is decent but it's a hard sob. It gets easier once you get the lightsaber, but conversely, the first level you get to use it is the hardest level in the game. The level design is just dickish. Snipers everywhere, narrow jumps, limited health pick ups. The levels without the lightsaber are also dumb hard.

But you also have save files and can load in whenever you want. So it's challenging but you have no reason not to advance. You'll eventually get there.

Not one of the best Star Wars games, but not bad overall.

Sloppier and more sluggish to play than the first Jedi Knight, but with a more coherent story, which I appreciate. Perhaps the shift from boomer-shooter era speed to the more measured, post-Halo pace of play wore down this franchise more than I expected.

(I really don't appreciate how Jan gets shortchanged just to give Kyle motivation, but I also have grown fond of her despite the fact that she doesn't really get much of a character in these games anyway. Maybe I should read an EU comic or novel or something to be satisfied, but by that point, we've already tacitly acknowledged the game has failed in this regard.)