Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC)

In Jedi Academy you play as Jaden, apprentice to Kyle Katarn, our hero from Jedi Outcast. An enemy from the past starts accumulating force energy using an ancient artifact, and fearing for the consequences the new Jedi are sent out to investigate. The game allows you choose which missions to take, weapons to carry and force powers to develop. In time, and as the game progresses, you can learn new lightsaber combat styles and can even construct your own double-bladed saber-staff (or fight with two sabers at once). This game allows all the character options that players have been crying out for, and no player can go through the game without a feeling of smug satisfaction at the progress of his character - because it's your character, not someone else's. So why is this not a perfect game?

Well, reasons given by the previously mentioned review are basically: old game engine, problems with graphics when the action takes place in large areas, superfluous weaponry and moronic AI. I would like to debunk these accusations a bit because at least three out of four are unfair.

Firstly, this game uses exactly the same graphics as Jedi Outcast. This is a plus, because if you can run Jedi Outcast you can run Jedi Academy too, and I can't see any owner of Jedi Outcast not wanting this title (that's how good it was). Secondly, the game will only slow down if you shove the graphics' resolution too far, and why on earth would you want to? In the middle of hurried saber-combat there's not a lot of time for sight-seeing, and in any case who is actually going to need such a hi-res setup? Thirdly, how you choose to use weapons is entirely a matter of skill and style. It's called gameplay. There are some weapons that are still very useful even at later levels. Catch a reborn standing on a ledge, unawares, and a handy shot from a rocket launcher can knock him off the precipice (saving you the need to actually fight him). Nothing can block a shot from the sniper rifle. And the concussion rifle is almost unstoppable. If you can't see the advantages of kit like this, you must be severely lacking in imagination.

But the comment about the AI is true, I'm afraid. Although you could argue that you are almost invincible once you get decent saber defence abilities, the stormtroopers really are dumb. Their accuracy is pathetic (fairly consistent with the films then) and while you get the odd Dark Trooper thrown in now and then or the occasional heavy weapon trooper, it's mostly a matter of deciding whether to smash them into the wall, push them off ledges, use a mind trick or just walk up to them and cut them into little pieces. I'd suggest that you crank up the difficulty for a real fight now and then.

So, overall I reckon this is worth a good 84% as a game, and four stars on this site. It's just that it feels more like an expansion pack than a freshly developed game in itself, and the AI really needs a tune-up. A patch or update from Lucasarts with improved AI and a few more single-player skins would not go amiss.

Later on in the single player game you get to choose whether you'll be a Jedi or a Dark Jedi which has a dramatic effect on the closing levels and the ending of the game. Like I said, the game has a good mix of linear and freeform gameplay.

The multiplayer has kept me hooked for far too long. The amount of mods, custom characters, new levels and other fan made downloads is almost on the same scale as the original Quake 3. Want to play as Master Chief (from Halo) or Spiderman with a lightsaber? Just download the custom models and you can. Some people play Jedi Academy multiplayer for the saber duels, some for capture the flag or team based free for alls and some people play it to play out the role of a character. The amount mods and custom additions to the game means that you can have hours of fun just trying to get your team mates to dance the 'YMCA' in synch with you.

If you want a single player game which has a good replay value (thanks to the freeform/linear style) and grants a large dosage of cinematic events (saber locks, defeating swarms of troopers with your saber, fighting dark jedi on top of a speeding hover train through a windswept metropolis etc) then you should think about getting Jedi Academy. If you want to play a multiplayer game in which you don't have to shoot everything that moves and requires a little more thinking and even some role playing now and then, you should also think about getting Jedi Academy.

There are some bad points to Jedi Academy though; only a few but they should be mentioned anyway. The menus are annoying, it seems like a minor point but they really are irritating. Sometimes people find ways to exploit the dual saber and staff saber (like the one Darth Maul used) styles and it can be difficult to beat them when they just flail at you. The graphics and sound aren't top notch, like I said the game is dated, but with a good processor (2GB) and graphics card (128MB) you can put every graphic and sound option to the max and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played; if you don't have the latest and greatest hardware it doesn't really matter because you can play the game anyway (the specs are pretty low since it uses an older game engine). And the AI is a bit dumb, sometimes dark jedi kill themselves by jumping off cliffs and the like (though you do end up laughing your head off when this happens) but these are all minor flaws in a fun game I find myself installing and playing through again and again.