Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, of the highly acclaimed Jedi Knight series, allows players to take on the role of a new student eager to learn the ways of the Force from Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Interact with famous Star Wars characters in many classic Star Wars locations as you face the ultimate choice: fight for good and freedom on the light side, or follow the path of power and evil to the dark side.
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I have finally reached the end of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series. This is tied with Dark Forces II as my favorite of the series.
The story of Jedi Academy is very simple, but provides the player with the opportunity to create their own Jedi OC. The options are fairly limited, but there is some variety in species and clothing, which is unexpected for a game of this type. Of course you get to create your own lightsaber as well. The game does away with the following Kyle Katarn from level to level in favor of giving the player the role of a Jedi student. The overall plot is actually quite fun involving a Sith/Dark Jedi cult attempting to revive a Sith to take over the galaxy. It can be very cheesy, but that only adds to the space adventure romp.
Gameplay has been changed quite dramatically. For the moment to moment gameplay, things feel much more refined than in Jedi Outcast: aiming is less wonky and hit detection feels better. Now you start with a lightsaber, so there are really only a handful of moments in which you will pull out a blaster or explosives. The saber combat has been expanded, with more moves and different saber types. I can confidently say that I understand why this game's lightsaber combat is so revered, and with the lightsaber enemies becoming extremely common (multiple per level), you get ample opportunity to get into intense duels. That being said, where Jedi Outcast ended up being quite challenging even on the Jedi/Normal difficulty, Jedi Outcast seems to have had its difficulty reduced. I found myself very rarely dying or even being worried about my health, whereas previous games had me constantly on edge or even stuck at points.
The structure is quite interesting, gone are the long sequential levels of the previous four games. Instead you are given batches of missions that can be completed in any order, each being 10-15 minutes in length on average. From the galaxy map you get to pick a location and get a small text description and briefing from other characters. Mission objectives have great variety from a short item collection mission, to deactivating bombs, to a prison escape. All of this reinforces the idea of being a Jedi asked to solve the problems of local governments and the New Republic. The shortening of the missions also means that there are more or less no puzzles and no down-time, you are always moving forward. This can also contribute to the game feeling a bit easy and even mindless at times. In some ways I liked not getting stuck looking for a tiny hole to progress through, but in other ways it lead to a bit of monotony.
If you have to play one Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game, I would probably recommend this one. The saber combat has not been matched by any other star wars game to date.
The story of Jedi Academy is very simple, but provides the player with the opportunity to create their own Jedi OC. The options are fairly limited, but there is some variety in species and clothing, which is unexpected for a game of this type. Of course you get to create your own lightsaber as well. The game does away with the following Kyle Katarn from level to level in favor of giving the player the role of a Jedi student. The overall plot is actually quite fun involving a Sith/Dark Jedi cult attempting to revive a Sith to take over the galaxy. It can be very cheesy, but that only adds to the space adventure romp.
Gameplay has been changed quite dramatically. For the moment to moment gameplay, things feel much more refined than in Jedi Outcast: aiming is less wonky and hit detection feels better. Now you start with a lightsaber, so there are really only a handful of moments in which you will pull out a blaster or explosives. The saber combat has been expanded, with more moves and different saber types. I can confidently say that I understand why this game's lightsaber combat is so revered, and with the lightsaber enemies becoming extremely common (multiple per level), you get ample opportunity to get into intense duels. That being said, where Jedi Outcast ended up being quite challenging even on the Jedi/Normal difficulty, Jedi Outcast seems to have had its difficulty reduced. I found myself very rarely dying or even being worried about my health, whereas previous games had me constantly on edge or even stuck at points.
The structure is quite interesting, gone are the long sequential levels of the previous four games. Instead you are given batches of missions that can be completed in any order, each being 10-15 minutes in length on average. From the galaxy map you get to pick a location and get a small text description and briefing from other characters. Mission objectives have great variety from a short item collection mission, to deactivating bombs, to a prison escape. All of this reinforces the idea of being a Jedi asked to solve the problems of local governments and the New Republic. The shortening of the missions also means that there are more or less no puzzles and no down-time, you are always moving forward. This can also contribute to the game feeling a bit easy and even mindless at times. In some ways I liked not getting stuck looking for a tiny hole to progress through, but in other ways it lead to a bit of monotony.
If you have to play one Dark Forces/Jedi Knight game, I would probably recommend this one. The saber combat has not been matched by any other star wars game to date.
Steam Verification: Unsupported
Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy runs perfectly on the steam deck, no frame or graphical issues. However because it is unsupported you will have to create your own controls or use one from the community. I used a community made one.
Overall game feels great, highly recommend for Steam Deck!
Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy runs perfectly on the steam deck, no frame or graphical issues. However because it is unsupported you will have to create your own controls or use one from the community. I used a community made one.
Overall game feels great, highly recommend for Steam Deck!
Good game with deep combat system and some story.
It is fun, yeah a bit clunky sometimes, but really fun, I think it has one of if not the best lightsaber combat any Star Wars game has ever had.
im a jedi !
Excusing the fact that I did save scum my entire way through the game on Jedi difficulty, the game itself is actually very fun to play.
Although I do believe that the lightsaber combat can be a bit clunky, I did really enjoy it and understand why people refer to this as the best lightsaber combat a Star Wars game has to offer even if my only other Star Wars combat experience is Lego Star Wars and Battlefront 2. That being said, I did find some of the fights frustrating. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that I chose a single lightsaber over the double sided saber ot having 2 as this may have made the game a bit easier, or maybe it's just the difficulty I chose or regrettably, I suck at the game.
The music is all of the licensed Star Wars music so naturally it gets a 10/10 from me, I love it all. The graphics are ps2 era so I don't really mind as graphics do not effect how I grade a game unless it makes the game unplayable in some way, I don't believe any game from the PS2 era can have that effect though.
I really like the map design in this game. It forces you (no pun intended) to think about how to actually progress using the force abilities the game gives to you, most of which I don't think I made great use of like 'Absorb', 'Protect', or 'Sense' all being light side abilities. Force lightning wasn't great but I don't think I maxed it out. Force choking however, is really fun and really useful when maxed out as you can lift people up and drop them anywhere. This is particularly good when on any high landing with big drops at the side. The AI don't allow you to do this any time you want though so you can't just abuse it which is again a good thing.
I got the Light Side ending of the game. I don't know what difference it made to the story as I don't know what happens in the Dark Side ending and I don't know if I will do a Dark Side playthrough but, I assumed that because after every few stages, the game gives you an ability to either boost or acquire, light side and dark. So I figured that whatever abilities you had more of would result in what ending you get but towards the end of the game, there's an important boss battle that seems to be the time where you actually choose which to do but I can't say for certain.
Overall a fun game with aspects that seem to make it frustrating for me as a player without having to constantly save, if this wasn't an issue I reckon this would get the full 5 stars but I can't tell if it's just a misunderstanding of the combat, a skill issue or something else. That said, I'd still recommend it to any Star Wars fan.
Although I do believe that the lightsaber combat can be a bit clunky, I did really enjoy it and understand why people refer to this as the best lightsaber combat a Star Wars game has to offer even if my only other Star Wars combat experience is Lego Star Wars and Battlefront 2. That being said, I did find some of the fights frustrating. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that I chose a single lightsaber over the double sided saber ot having 2 as this may have made the game a bit easier, or maybe it's just the difficulty I chose or regrettably, I suck at the game.
The music is all of the licensed Star Wars music so naturally it gets a 10/10 from me, I love it all. The graphics are ps2 era so I don't really mind as graphics do not effect how I grade a game unless it makes the game unplayable in some way, I don't believe any game from the PS2 era can have that effect though.
I really like the map design in this game. It forces you (no pun intended) to think about how to actually progress using the force abilities the game gives to you, most of which I don't think I made great use of like 'Absorb', 'Protect', or 'Sense' all being light side abilities. Force lightning wasn't great but I don't think I maxed it out. Force choking however, is really fun and really useful when maxed out as you can lift people up and drop them anywhere. This is particularly good when on any high landing with big drops at the side. The AI don't allow you to do this any time you want though so you can't just abuse it which is again a good thing.
I got the Light Side ending of the game. I don't know what difference it made to the story as I don't know what happens in the Dark Side ending and I don't know if I will do a Dark Side playthrough but, I assumed that because after every few stages, the game gives you an ability to either boost or acquire, light side and dark. So I figured that whatever abilities you had more of would result in what ending you get but towards the end of the game, there's an important boss battle that seems to be the time where you actually choose which to do but I can't say for certain.
Overall a fun game with aspects that seem to make it frustrating for me as a player without having to constantly save, if this wasn't an issue I reckon this would get the full 5 stars but I can't tell if it's just a misunderstanding of the combat, a skill issue or something else. That said, I'd still recommend it to any Star Wars fan.