I find for my entertainment no match for a good blaster, which is as good a point as any to make the jump to light speed, start proper on this review and stop with half-baked Star Wars puns. Thankfully not everything has changed so drastically, certainly not in the Jedi Knight universe: Kyle Katarn. His pilot Jan has stuck by him through thick and thin and, most importantly of all. It is on one such assignment that the game begins, throwing you into action as soon as you turn the first corner.
It's certainly different to the approach we are used to these days, where typically we are treated to a good ten minutes of tension building. The level of intelligence demonstrated by the stormtroopers and the various other Star Wars creatures you meet soon after is distinctly average: they either stand still or run towards you, and because the weapons for the most part are slow firing, it only takes a few minutes to realise that all you need to do to avoid losing valuable health is to employ the old circle-strafe tactic and duck behind a wall if the numbers are too great.
Chancing across a couple of scout walkers does little to improve things - just jump on a laser cannon platform and blow them away.
Thankfully the graphics, sound and animation throughout the game itself are fantastic, perhaps not as impressive as Wolfenstein or Medal Of Honor, but damn fine all the same.
Particularly noteworthy however are the animations, which are many and varied and on a par with Max Payne in many respects. And then you realise the show has yet to really begin. From being only mildly entertained you are suddenly gripped. Suddenly everything changes: You find your lack of faith disturbing.
You search your feelings and where there was emptiness you gradually see your destiny unfold. Having given up the life of a Jedi Knight, you realise you must re-learn the ways of the Force and the second your lightsaber arrives in your hand is the exact point that Jedi Knight II is transformed from a mediocre first-person shooter to an immensely pleasurable action adventure.
Had the game continued in the same vein as it started it would have been mightily disappointing, yet once you get the lightsaber and string a couple of moves and Force powers together, the game is no longer a simple shooter, for by selecting the Jedi weapon of choice the game automatically switches to a third-person perspective. Nothing new there, the original had a manual option to do the same, but here it feels infinitely more polished and natural.
You also occasionally meet up with friendly guards and even team up with Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker for brief moments of intense action. There is one mission in particular that sticks in the mind, a small portion of which sees you escorting a droid across an open ramp raked by laser fire and pitted with trip mines.
If the droid survives it will open the doors for you. The way stealth has been handled is rather underwhelming, not that it is impossible to play the game in such a way, just that it never becomes necessary to do so unless you play the game on the hardest difficulty setting. When you acquire the Force power to heal yourself, you can just hunker down after a firefight and press the required key and wait for your health to max out and continue on your way.
As you can probably tell by now, we actually rather like Jedi Knight II. To our eternal shame we did have doubts, especially since from start to finish JKII has only been in development for about 18 months. In places it shows, the levels are sometimes too big and the way out from them too well hidden.
At times you'll be literally bashing your head against the wall trying to jump across a chasm, only to chance across a hidden grate in another room. But even though the game is incredibly frustrating, it is also very rewarding: the dissatisfaction of the first few levels is definitely made up for when you get your lightsaber; as the puzzles get harder; as you meet more characters and then as the story opens up. Plus, to make up for the predictable and sometimes static Al, the game throws the enemy at you in even greater numbers and gives you more ingenious ways to kill them off.
Following the simple principal that you must reward people for their efforts, Jedi Knight II pays out so very, very handsomely. Far more so than its predecessor, the sequel manages to capture the essence of what makes Star Wars such an exciting and mindless matinee adventure. Not only has Raven done the original game justice, they have by some unseen force bettered it. It is simply a fantastic game that is great entertainment.
After a generation of disappointment, Star Wars fans were given a new hope with the emergence of the excellent Galactic Battlegrounds.
Of the 11 weapons on offer, Graham keenly informs us that the lightsabre excites him the most. However, the control has been kept simple. You will also be able to throw the sabre at enemies, then use the Force to pull it back, and use it to cut open gates, open passages, etc.
Sounds like a dumper truckload of thought has gone into the weapons, but what about the vehicles? Bye then. After cancelling Obi-Wan late last year, the chances of a sequel to Jedi Knight seemed thin. However, while at E3, we found Obi-Wan alive and well and happily living on Xbox.
So, rather than Ben Kenobi, we again get to control Kyle Katarn. All Reviews:. Popular user-defined tags for this product:. Is this game relevant to you? Sign In or Open in Steam. Languages :. English and 4 more. Publisher: LucasArts , Lucasfilm , Disney. Franchise: Star Wars. Share Embed. Read Critic Reviews. Add to Cart. Bundle info. Add to Account. View Community Hub. As Kyle Katarn, agent of the New Republic, use your Lightsaber and the full power of the Force to combat a new evil plaguing the galaxy.
Choose wisely from an arsenal of 13 weapons including disruptor rifle, thermal detonators, trip mines and Wookiee bowcaster.
The site is non-commercial and we are not able to check all user posts. Size: If you come across it, the password is: online-fix. Related By Tags Games: Tomb raider 1. Small Town Robot. Moto Racer 3. Starcom: Nexus. They're not terribly smart, but neither were they in the movies. Jedi Knight II's real saving grace is the multiplayer experience, which simply allows you to have fun by battling other players in lightsaber duels or free-for-all deathmatches.
The variety of options and gameplay types is almost overwhelming, but that's a good thing. And even if you don't have a net connection, just playing against CPU-controlled bots makes for an enjoyable time. Using a modified version of the Quake III engine, developer Raven Software has brought the sights and sounds of the Star Wars universe to life with great care. The sound is usually the best part of a Star Wars game, and here it's no exception.
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