Jedi Knight Review

I remember when I first played Dark Forces. The first one. I played the first level, blasting commandos away, and my dad said "It's the same as Doom!" But I loved it. Sure, it had the Doom style, it hadthe Star Wars attitude and storyline. I knew there would be a sequel. And sure enough, Lucasarts delivers. When Jedi Knight came out, I had to get it. I asked my parents several times to get it for Christmas. And they came through for me. I got it for Christmas of 1997 and played in the next day, I could see that this game was far superior to Dark Forces 1.

The graphics blew Dark Forces 1 away! The cutscenes were excellent and the game graphics were a masterpiece. But besides the graphics, there were many more better things too. The levels were much better. In Dark Forces 1, you were in one spot and then in a totally different spot. In this, you may stay in one play for a few levels, then move on. And the cutscenes show exactly why you are there. Another thing I really liked were the characters. I was happy to see that people that were in the Star Wars movies were not in this liked the first one. Characters like Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Mon Mothma and Krix Nadine. Not that I don't like these characters, but I think the game was better when the characters were brand new and all made up. I was glad that Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors were back, and the Dark Jedis are great. These seven evil agents of the Force are excellent and dangerous foes that are worthy of the Star Wars universe.

One thing I said when I first heard that Jedi Knight was coming out was "I hope they don't make Katarn a Jedi." I was sure that he'd be better off as a regular fighter. Then I played Jedi Knight with Katarn as a Jedi and I was proven wrong. Katarn was an excellent Jedi and the game was great. I loved the lightsaber battles, using the lightsaber against common enemies like Stormtroopers, the Jedi Powers, and how you can choose to go with the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force. The weapons in general were better too. Not only were they an improvement from the original weapons, but the enemies used them too, which you don't seen in Dark Forces 1. One more great thing has to do with the booklet and enemy descriptions. In Dark Forces, Ree-Yees were a common enemy. But even one was referred to as Ree-Yess. Ree-Yees was a single person, one single Gran. There were many of this enemy, so they should have referred to them as their alien race name, which was Gran. Lucasarts corrected their mistake in Jedi Knight with such enemies as Rodians, Trandoshans and Grans.

I was obviously very happy with Jedi Knight. It is a great game. There weren't many things I think were wrong with it. But there were some things I thought could have been added. For example, when you run into a landed TIE Bomber, AT-AT or Imperial Shuttle, I thought you should be able to destroy in while using a gun such as the Rail Detonator, but you couldn't, no matter where or how many times you shot it. Another thing that was wrong is that a person who has been blown up looks as though he died just as someone who was shot has. The only time it was different otherwise was when an arm got cut off with the lightsaber. Nevertheless, Jedi Knight is one of my favorite Lucasarts games.

If I was to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, I'd probably give this game a 4 and a half. Keep up the good work, Lucasarts! Let's all hope a Dark Forces 3 is on the way with our old friends Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors!

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