Firstly, if you don't enjoy Star Wars, and cringe at the thought of this silly Force business then I doubt this will be for you so don’t bother reading on. Those who have even an inclining of Sci-Fi love inside you, then this is enough to turn you into a big fan overnight!
The game is set after the last Star Wars film, the Return of the Jedi. Darth Vader is dead, Luke Skywalker (unfortunately) runs the Jedi Academy, and the New Republic now rule the galaxy. However, the Empire is still around, plotting for one day reclaiming the galaxy once again. This group is known as the Remnant, and includes a few dark Jedi and other evil types. One such bad dude is Desann, who plans on creating an army of dark Jedi, and learning the secrets of a special temple with awesome power. This is where your character comes in.
Kyle Kartarn found this special temple that Desann wants in the original Jedi Knight game, but has kept its location a secret, and has since turned his back on the powers of the force. It doesn’t take a genius to realize how the story progresses from that.
The force is not with you
When you first begin the game you have no force powers, and the game is centered on you doing missions for the New Republic. Only about a third through the game does it develop so you have to use force powers once again.
The first third of the game is therefore a lot weaker than the other two thirds, but is still good fun despite the highly negative remarks made by some reviewers. Ok, so it's not as strong as the rest of the game, but it is a alright introduction into the game. When you get your force powers however, you also get your trusty light saber, and then the REAL fun begins.
Unlike the original though, you can't choose what force powers you want and you can’t choose to be a good or a dark jedi. The powers are just given to you by default as you progress. A shame, for a good deal of entertainment came from defining a character that best suited your needs (i.e. for me that would mean pumping up the dark force powers).
An apprentice must look after his lightsaber… Ooer!!
When you get the lightsabre, in combination with getting your force powers, then the game picks up. Fighting hordes of bad guys just using that one weapon alone quickly becomes the default, and the other weapons get almost totally forgotten about. Ideally they should have given you the other weapons in the early missions, then finally given you the lightsabre. Because the other weapons become redundant in a matter of moments.
The lightsaber I can't make my mind up on. In all the previews in PC magazines I read, it was stated that “Lightsabers would be fairly complex, thus allowing more diverse gameplay than simple hack and slash” and “Only players who are persistant will learn how to use the weapon properly”. God knows what happened, as any ape which can hold a button down for an extended period will be a master jedi.
You see their isn’t much skill involved. Just hold down the attack button and move around and Kyle does the rest.
It’s a double edged sword (or lightsaber should that be? Arf Arf!) as this simplicity means quick pick up and play (which is good for multiplayer) but also means saber fights can become nothing but charging forward with button held, then stepping back when you are successful to avoid a return strike. Sometimes you wonder if a Severance style of combat would have been better? In some cases yes, as more moves would have been available, but also no as combat would have been a lot slowly paced which wouldn’t have gone well with the Star Wars theme. Hard to say really.
Criticism aside it still is great fun. The force powers you have complement lightsaber duels almost perfectly, giving the illusion that combat is highly strategic, yet in actual fact is fairly simple.
I can’t remember when I had so much fun on multiplayer, where the lightsaber duels really shine through.
You cheater!
Basically, Multiplayer is brilliant. I’ve had no slow down, little trouble finding games on the server, and little difficulty joining games. It is so simple to find a game with large amounts (or small, if you like) of games players that suits your needs. I usually play on the Free-For-All with lightsabers and force powers only.
One thing I will mention are the people you meet on the games. While 9/10 players are REALLY good fun to play with, you always get at least one who moans his/her arse off. Who claims moves being use against him/her are “Cheating”. I often go out of my way to remind them that “If the developers included it in the game, then it’s not cheating”.
My tactic, which is great for pissing off these moaners, is to death grip them, move them over a pit, and force push them to oblivion. LOL. Then they moan and cry out that its “pathetic”, “cheating”, or “dishonourable”. How is it? I am a dark Jedi, those are MY force powers. Why shouldn’t I be able to use the force powers that I’ve chosen? Morons…
So please don’t end up being like these fools. And if you do see them moaning about stuff like that, do me a favour and put them in their place. Thanks. :-)
