jedi knight is certainly a game
dark forces was one of the best star wars games, and even one of the best first person shooters of all time, but does this one live up to its legendary predecessor? well not quite. its a game that really shows its age and could do with... maybe not a remake, but certainly a remaster, something nightdive could do. little things here and there would go a long way to improving this game, mostly in the controls department. you get so many weapons, along with items and force abilities and you need to either have specialized hotkeys for each one, or scroll through them one by one, along with keys to use each category. you cant even use the mouse wheel to scroll through weapons in the base game (theres a fan patch but for some reason it didnt work for me so i was stuck using q and e to swap like a SAVAGE), and good luck remembering which key does what. it's legitimately a crippling flaw of the game and honestly trying to go through everything you have in the heat of a gunfight just bogsthe game down so much. i ended up never really using my explosives (half the weapons you get are explosives) because of just how situational they are and by the time i manage to get the right thing out, the enemies have already scattered.i end up using the same 2 weapons the entire game
beyond the weapon problem, the game also leans more on the "where the fuck do i go" and "how the fuck was i supposed to notice that lever without this guide telling me about it" end of the late 90s fps spectrum. theres always going to be at least one moment in the level where youre just completely lost and wondering if youre even in the right area. theres some cool and interesting levels in here thankfully, but beyond a couple of levels with cool visuals, the actual level design seems rather uninspired
as for bosses... well they all force you to use lightsabers and... they all kinda suck. some are ridiculously easy, and others you'll spend like 8 minutes on dying over and over again because you just cant hit them with the lightsaber. its a jank mechanic that just never feels right, i feel like the cooldown between swings is far too long and it ends up making the combat feel delayed and sluggish, and this is at its worst in the final boss fight
there were also some annoying inconveniences like DIALOGUE BEING TIED TO SOUND EFFECTS DESPITE THE SFX BEING STUPIDLY LOUDER THAN THE DIALOGUE WHY DO OLD GAMES DO THIS?! i could barely even understand what was going on in the story because of how much of a mess the audio was.
oh yeah theres also force abilities... i only ever used jump because guns seemed more practical than the offensive ones. pull seemed useless. i couldnt use light side abilities because i went dark side for killing innocent people and droids. and i didnt even bother with getting speed or whatever the other one was.
honestly its not a bad game but... it doesnt live up to the first
dark forces was one of the best star wars games, and even one of the best first person shooters of all time, but does this one live up to its legendary predecessor? well not quite. its a game that really shows its age and could do with... maybe not a remake, but certainly a remaster, something nightdive could do. little things here and there would go a long way to improving this game, mostly in the controls department. you get so many weapons, along with items and force abilities and you need to either have specialized hotkeys for each one, or scroll through them one by one, along with keys to use each category. you cant even use the mouse wheel to scroll through weapons in the base game (theres a fan patch but for some reason it didnt work for me so i was stuck using q and e to swap like a SAVAGE), and good luck remembering which key does what. it's legitimately a crippling flaw of the game and honestly trying to go through everything you have in the heat of a gunfight just bogsthe game down so much. i ended up never really using my explosives (half the weapons you get are explosives) because of just how situational they are and by the time i manage to get the right thing out, the enemies have already scattered.i end up using the same 2 weapons the entire game
beyond the weapon problem, the game also leans more on the "where the fuck do i go" and "how the fuck was i supposed to notice that lever without this guide telling me about it" end of the late 90s fps spectrum. theres always going to be at least one moment in the level where youre just completely lost and wondering if youre even in the right area. theres some cool and interesting levels in here thankfully, but beyond a couple of levels with cool visuals, the actual level design seems rather uninspired
as for bosses... well they all force you to use lightsabers and... they all kinda suck. some are ridiculously easy, and others you'll spend like 8 minutes on dying over and over again because you just cant hit them with the lightsaber. its a jank mechanic that just never feels right, i feel like the cooldown between swings is far too long and it ends up making the combat feel delayed and sluggish, and this is at its worst in the final boss fight
there were also some annoying inconveniences like DIALOGUE BEING TIED TO SOUND EFFECTS DESPITE THE SFX BEING STUPIDLY LOUDER THAN THE DIALOGUE WHY DO OLD GAMES DO THIS?! i could barely even understand what was going on in the story because of how much of a mess the audio was.
oh yeah theres also force abilities... i only ever used jump because guns seemed more practical than the offensive ones. pull seemed useless. i couldnt use light side abilities because i went dark side for killing innocent people and droids. and i didnt even bother with getting speed or whatever the other one was.
honestly its not a bad game but... it doesnt live up to the first