Recently revisited this game for the story, mods, and multiplayer. Dare I say perfect? I'm biased. The gunplay is fun, Saber combat is fluid, and feels real. Characters are full of personality, and animations are expressive for an older title. My favorite details in the single player are all the conversations you hear between imperials and whatnot if you wait before rushing into combat. From a stormtrooper that travels between the stages in the game, to the wanna-be TIE pilot aboard the Doomgiver, the world feels alive, and all adds up to an amazing experience. If you haven't played, I recommend you give it a try, 100%

As far as gameplay for the Jedi Knight series, this might be the more difficult one. Near the beginning the weapons are altered from Dark Forces and Dark Forces 2 to be less effective (no longer can you spam the storm trooper rifle until the enemies are dead) as well as all your force powers/light saber is gone. When the light saber returns, the game becomes more enjoyable. I still have the same complaints as the previous entries where it's a bit difficult to figure out how to solve certain puzzles, because the visuals. It makes it much harder since this game does not have a map like the previous two games, so I had to look up where to go several more times that I'd like. I did like the fan service stuff with some characters making an appearance, and the story was pretty decent.

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.

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.

Pretty solid. Fun levels, noticeable graphical improvement over JK: Dark Forces II (though the lip synching is pretty bad here).

I think in terms of singleplayer campaign, this one beats out Jedi Academy in terms of progression and level design, though the combat doesn't quite feel as polished as JK: Dark Forces II, other than the lightsabers and force powers.

Some of the art direction felt a bit off to me, like the Disruptor, the Repeater, and some of the robots. Didn't quite hit the Star Wars aesthetic, in my opinion, but it's a minor nitpick.

Безумное говно. Лвл-дизайн - это неочевидность лвл-дизайна Half-Life, помноженная на 10. Здравомыслием определить, как продвинуться дальше по уровню просто невозможно. Такое ощущение, будто разработчики не понимали, что делали игру для людей. Соваться сюда без гайдов нужно только оставив надежду на прохождение игры позади. Шутер сосёт. Стрельба посредственна. Импакта от лазерных пукалок нет. Тут есть баллистика, но как она работает разобраться сложно. Такое чувство, что рандомно. Противники - это болванчики, которыми пытаются засыпать игрока насмерть в каждой комнате и которые способны за километр снести персонажу пол ХП. На 3 уровне вообще локация обширная и палят абсолютно со всех сторон. В том числе сверху и снизу. Ситуация абсурдна. На этом уровне я и дропнул игру. Хотя мог затерпеть спокойно, пройти до конца, но не сдюжил. Мельком оценил световой меч и сейчас это серьёзно не смотрится, конечно. Если бы прошёл игру полностью, возможно мнение об игре было бы более положительным.

Where it Shines:
Lightsaber Battles - 10/10
Nostalgia - 10/10

The Good:
This game, in it's hayday, was an incomparable experience. If you ever wanted to know what it felt like to be a Jedi, this was the game. All thanks to the online play and very well balanced and nuanced lightsaber dueling system, this game made me feel like a Jedi. If you never had the pleasure of playing this when it came out, it basically was go online>get your ass kicked> join a clan> become a padawan and train under a jedi master>become a jedi master>train a padawan.
If you were a part of any half decent clan, you would play in tournaments, have constant duels in your servers, train, and just all around have a great time.

The Bad:
I mean, it hasn't aged well. The campaign probably is still fun, but the game is a ghost town as it's been 25 years since it came out. All the servers are basically dead and filled with bots.

Summary:
If you could enter a time machine and play this game in the early 2000's you'd understand just how amazing and unique and experience it was to play. No other SW game has ever managed to recreate that feeling, except for it's sequel. It's not worth playing today, but it remains one of my favourite games of all time and has a special place in my heart.

****note on my ratings:
half ⭐: hot trash garbage
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
half star ratings between those mean it's slightly better or worse than stated in this list.
*

Likely the weakest entry into the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series I've played thus far. Lots of boring environments and frustrating obstacles. Wasn't keen on the lightsaber combat either, never felt like I was getting the hang of it and wished that I could use a blaster to dispatch the Dark Jedi enemies.

Story wise it was quite weak. Undoing the ending of Dark Forces II to reset Kyle Katarn's character. Ultimately nothing of real consequence occurs and we end up not much further forward than we were at the beginning of the game. I'm not usually fussed about a game's story but compared to the creativity of the prior game, I expected more.

I also missed the original actors for Kyle and Jan that were in Dark Forces II, they had much more personality than their replacements in this game. Billy Dee Williams was good though.

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.)