Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"Sure, there aren't enough missions for one's taste, and not enough of the best parts, but are there ever...? Overall this is an admirable addition to the Star Wars franchise of games. If it isn't 'perfect,' well...maybe next time."

---from the review

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Star Wars: 

Jedi Knight Academy

Click picture to order this game (PC/windows version)

A Techtite Review

How hard is it to create a game, where Luke Skywalker teaches you to become a Jedi...? The answer is found within Jedi Academy; a game that is far from flawed, yet far from perfect. This is not as big of a disappointment as, say, Enter the Matrix, and yet the overall game is not quite the sequel to Jedi Knight Outcast we all had hoped for. Though hey; you get to join the Jedi Academy! Quit your whining!

The good news is that this is, much like Outcast, a Star Wars game set in the correct time frame: after the movies! Luke Skywalker is now on the Yavin moon (remember the rebel base in the first film...?), which he has refitted into a Jedi Academy for the New Republic. You are the newest recruit to the Jedi order. Your Jedi master will be Kyle Kataarn (from Outcast, as well as Dark Forces 1 and 2.). It is up to you to help bring the Jedi back to the glory they once had, as defenders of the peace throughout the galaxy. That's a cool layout for a Jedi game, and it pays off very well.

As you'd expect, not only are the Jedi being brought back; someone, somehow is bringing back the Sith as well. The who and how to this mystery is the whole story behind the single player game missions, and will continue throughout your Jedi "training." You go to various missions on alternate planets as the story progresses, leading to confrontations with the occasional Sith, and the inevitable "big bad" Sith, concluding the game. Fans of Outcast will particularly like the "Big Bad", since this was The Villain Who Got Away...or am I revealing too much?

Missions are rag-tag in nature, in that aside from the core story about the Sith, there is no "link" between them. This is actually good news, because no one mission needs to look even slightly similar to the others. This leads to at least 15 totally different levels. In one (seen in the demo), you must slowly use "force jump" to get down to an ancient Jedi tomb before some Sith wannabes raid what's hidden there. In another, you're up against none other than Boba Fett (yay!), dodging his missiles while trying to blow up illegal armories he's protecting. In yet another mission, you're up against Tusken Raiders; in another, you're up against a genetically enhanced Rancor. The list could go on for many pages...and it's all classic Star Wars. It's also surprisingly diverse; so much so, a mission disk (or downloadable missions) could be made for this game, very easily. Please...?

Much like the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight games preceding it, you can use regular laser weapons, as well as your light saber. However, you want to know about your light saber's uses the most, right? Well, that's where this game shines. You begin with the saber of your choice --color and hilt are both selectable-- and in time, you can "upgrade" your saber to be either a standard one-saber deal, a double-edged saber (a la Darth Maul), or you can even hold two light sabers at once! Such light saber battles are totally cool, especially when fighting a Sith, which always leads to a cool slo-mo of their downward spiral, a la Max Payne. It's one thing to see someone fall after being shot down by Max Payne; it's another thing entirely to see them slowly slain by your saber, and then falling to their doom. Cool...!

Force powers are as they always have been in Jedi Knight games. If you like how LucasArts has been dealing with "The Force" you'll be happy yet again; if you dislike the constant flaws, the flaws are still there. In other words: yes, Jedi ask not for adventure nor excitement. However, why do The Sith get to do cool things like lighting tricks and picking up enemies in mid-air, yet Jedi can do little more than heal their own wounds? On the other hand: yes, much like other Jedi games, you can choose between a Sith path or a Jedi one, leading to alternate final battles. However this is still frustrating when attempting to be a good guy and you keep getting strangled or lighting attacked. Yes, it's all part of strategy in game survival but still...you know what I mean. The road for a Jedi is a rough one, indeed...

Gripes? Let's start with the "mission arc" the game's box implies, where missions can be chosen by you, not the game. This is not entirely true. Although the game itself implies you can go to any mission you like, in any order, in the long run you must go to all missions, in order to gain enough force knowledge to easily defeat the Big Bad in the end. Personally, I would've preferred a larger re-play possibility, with maybe twice as many missions, with only half of them playable in any one game's story arc (this is something I've seen only in underdog cult hits like Darkstone, and I've yet to see elsewhere; why...?). In short; replay value is once again a limitation, as it is in any typical first person shooter (or "first person saber," as it were). Unless you intentionally skip a mission or two, there are no new missions to play after the single player story ends. Yes, there's multiplayer to enjoy thereafter, but still...

Other gripes are actually cool moments, too short lived. Only two missions in the single-player storyline have you fighting alongside a fellow Jedi (Kataarn). Given how cool it is to see two Jedi against two (or more!) Sith, this was indeed a cool moment too rarely seen. Likewise for the moment you finally get to use a dual or double-edge saber combo, which happens a bit too late in the game for comfort; by the time you have two sabers, it's too close to the end of the game to enjoy your super-saber as much as you'd hope. Yes, there's multiplayer; but still...

All told there is still a lot to admire about Jedi Academy. There are multiple Sith to fight, multiple force powers, multiple character types, faces, and clothing options (both male and female), and best of all, multiple sabers to choose from. Sure, there aren't enough missions for one's taste, and not enough of the best parts, but are there ever...? Overall this is an admirable addition to the Star Wars franchise of games. If it isn't "perfect," well...maybe next time. 

---Techtite