The desire to replay and review this game came about due to two fairly distinct reasons. The first was that I’ve repeatedly seen it in bargain bins around the place for around ten bucks or so, which immediately attracts the eye of a poor bastard such as myself; the second, rather more personal reason, is the fact that a group of mates over at iPGN have decided that they want to play Jedi Knight 2 again. Full of fond memories of late night lightsaber duels with angry 13 year olds, I searched high and low through my voluminous games collection hunting for the discs.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find them, so instead I’ve been forced to review the game’s redheaded step-child: Jedi Academy. For those who are curious, the discs for JA were inside my Deus Ex 2: Invisible War box; don’t ask where Invisible War was, I really have no idea. Maybe in the attic…?
Coming back from that tangent, I don’t want you to think that my referring to JA as the bastard son of Jedi Outcast is an insult; far from it! JK2 was a superb game, blending FPS, third-person melee, and a decent storyline in quite a fantastic way, and JA is still quite a bit of fun too.
Unlike the previous games in the series, JA was focused on a player-designed protagonist; gender, appearance, force powers, and lightsaber fighting styles can all be customised to the heart’s content, and it’s pretty cool to finally get to be a blue-skinned Twi’lek with a purple-bladed lightsaber-staff (ala Darth Maul), which I know is a dream of every Star Wars fan-boy out there (don’t be insulted, I’ve read all the EU books myself).
The game itself is structured into several standalone missions, many of which are not essential to completing the game. Interestingly, the missions often vary wildly in scope; some are epic in length and difficulty, while others are shorter affairs that focus more on one style of gameplay, like piloting a vehicle or duelling numerous Dark Jedi. While there’s the very occasional dud on offer here, most of them are built just right to maximise your enjoyment.
The best thing about the new mission structure is that it works well. Sure, it’s unlikely that you’ll actually choose not to play a mission (why would you?), but it’s cool that you can pick and choose which order to play them in, and this freedom combined with the character customisation makes the game a much more personal affair. The storyline itself is a bit hackneyed and not very authentic to the established Star Wars lore, but it is nonetheless a bit of fun and serves as a convenient excuse to cut more Stormtroopers in half.
And cutting the Stormies in half is still a great deal of fun; the close-combat mechanics are very well executed, with numerous lightsaber combos and force powers leading to some epic fights (especially against other Jedi), especially with the one-hit-kill nature inherent to wielding giant laser swords. This is even better in multiplayer, where human combatants will exploit every nuance of the versatile combat system in the hopes of making you cry into your keyboard.
It’s a good thing that the combat system is so much fun, because graphically the Quake III engine has not aged well at all; I guess that may be a plus with those of you with older systems, but to people that can play Crysis at max settings, well let’s just say the results are not going to impress; this is particularly apparent during the cutscenes, where the bland storyline, somewhat poor voice acting, and ugly appearance will all combine to make you wince.
Still, the gameplay itself hasn’t aged badly, especially considering that there hasn’t exactly been a plethora of close-quarters combat first person/third person Star Wars hybrids on the market. It’s funny then that, despite offering a much greater emphasis on lightsaber fighting, the multiplayer mode for Jedi Academy never really reached the popularity that JK2 enjoyed. Some people claimed that the different fighting styles and force powers were unbalanced, but I honestly never really noticed any problems, and I found the distinct lack of people firing rocket launchers into the middle of an ongoing melee (as was common in JK2) to be a rather nice change of pace.
In fact, barring the slightly crappy storyline, JA is pretty much a superior experience to JK2 in every way. While the graphics aren’t looking too great, the game itself still has a great deal to recommend it, especially at such a low price. It can be a challenge to find servers these days (although they are still around), but it is well worth the effort of hunting one down once you’ve played through the single player. There’s plenty of fun to be had here, and a deep experience for those that are willing to put the effort in; plus, the only other chance you’ll get to swing a lightsaber these days is in the Lego Star Wars games or in the backyard with your equally nerdy friends.
How I would have rated it on release: 8/10 (A terrific Star Wars-based game with robust single- and multiplayer modes, and some reasonably deep combat mechanics)
How I would rate it now: 7/10 (A little bit older, a great deal uglier; even so, the gaming experience on offer here stands up very well, and the multiplayer is still a great deal of fun, albeit it can be difficult to get game these days)
- Tim Sweeney
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