Thursday, March 7, 2013

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002) Review



Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
is the third game in what I personally call "the Kyle Katarn saga" or "the sequel trilogy" and is probably the best out of all three(Dark Forces, Dark Forces 2, Jedi Outcast) Kyle games. Unlike its predecessors, it uses advanced, very beautiful graphics for the game. There are numerous limitations from the nearly RPG-like Dark Forces 2 though such as a far lesser amount of Force powers and stuff.
But let's get to the story: Some years after the events of the Dark Forces 2 expansion pack(Mysteries of the Sith), Kyle is no longer a Jedi. However, when a Dark Jedi called Desann kills Jan, he returns to the Valley of the Jedi, starts regaining his Force powers and his never-seen-before blue lightsaber and begins to chase Desann and his minions all over the galaxy.
This is the last JK game to concentrate on Kyle Katarn, the final one called Jedi Academy actually focused on his apprentice so let's enjoy it while we can.
Kyle is once again noticeably older but still wears his traditional costume. His hair is getting gray and his skills aren't nearly as wide as they were in the second game, yet he retains his normal awesomeness by taking down countless Shadowtroopers(Dark Trooper rip-offs with lightsabers and Force powers), a giant Imperial ship, even more countless Dark Jedi and, judging by his fighting style, a guy more powerful than Palpatine.

However, this game does show the creators' lack of originality in some cases. Several of the events in the game seem to be copied from previous stories. Here's an example: General Mohc/Admiral Fyyar designs a new type of soldiers called Dark Troopers/Shadowtroopers with black armor. Eventually, Kyle has to showdown with the General/Admiral who is wearing a supersuit based on the troopers he invented. And he has to blow up the General/Admiral's ship, the Arc Hammer/Doomgiver.

Too similar to be a coincidence. Also, the Quake III engine introduced a number of certain... disqualities in the game. Let's just say it made it kinda less real than the previous games were, a little less interactive.

But it looks magnificient. I really love the look, I do. Keeping up with the tradition that Nar Shaddaa has to be in every Kyle Katarn game, we do have three levels on it. The game is long, enjoyable and much more clever than the sequel ever was. Too bad the Raven's Claw doesn't look as awesome as the Moldy Crow did, though.
With the Quake III engine, we also get some real neat cheats such as NPC spawning. Hell, we could probably remake the Star Wars movie JK-style.
The Force Powers have been entirely re-done and are much more incorporated into the game than they were in DF2 where they were more of a bonus than a necessity and didn't really feel as part of the character. Too bad we've lost most of them though. In this game, there are about 7 Force powers though we had like 20 in the previous one.

So... that's JKO for you. It's a real fun FPS, a real SW experience as a TPS and.
Play and you'll feel POWER. UNLIMITED POWER.

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