Rating: Summary: Cozi-Cozi (Italian for so-so) Review: I've long been a fan of Dark Forces and the Jedi Knight series, however, the latest rendition just didn't float my boat the way the others did. Here's the good and the bad of it...(of note, I'm assuming the potential buyer has played one of the aforementioned titles)The good: The graphics are terrific, assuming your system can handle it, and the locales demonstrate the traditional grandness that most Star Wars games are known for. As always, most levels do a terrific job of adding to my fear of heights. Well done. Levels range from ice to lava planets, with a slew of local characters to boot, including a great Rancor level (remember Jabba the Hut's huge pet?) The ability to ride speeder bikes and tauntauns was a welcome treat. (The bikes were definitely more fun.) More could have been done with both, but still, a new style of gameplay, however short, is always appreciated. The addition of multiple light sabor choices (one sabor, dual sabors, or double-edged sabor, like Darth Maul) was smart, although I didn't see much tactical advantage to any one style. The fun more or less came from the visuals of each choice. Also, Lucasarts smartly added a few "combo-moves," if you will, that do add to the fun of the actual fighting. Lastly, custom making your character is always a sure way to bring you into the game further. You can choose from multiple races, clothes, sabor hilts and colors, etc. Moving on... The bad: If you're going to custom-make your character, it'd be nice to have choices that actually impact gameplay. Whether you choose to be human or some other race has no bearing on the story, fighting styles, etc. The overall game just didn't have the oomph the last one (Jedi Outcast) did. At the end of Outcast, I was truly absorbed in the story. Not so in Academy. It really felt to me like Lucasarts wanted to get another game out quickly, putting less time into the orginality of it. In the earlier games you could generally count on a few situations to scare you out of your seat somehow. Honestly, I can't think of one level that threw me for a loop. Every room had either a few bad jedis, a few bad stormtroopers, or a few bad bounty-hunters. You could pretty much count on it. Nothing really jumped out at you. Oh well. On top of that, the length of the game leaves a little to be desired. I probably got around 10-12 hours out of it before completing it. I'm pretty sure Outcast took a bit longer. Bottom line: I waited until the price came down, so this was worth it to me. The game's not bad, it just didn't impress me as being anything more than an add-on of sorts. If you love the other games in this series, you'll probably like this.
Rating: Summary: Jedi Outcast Jedi Knight II Review: Jedi Outcast great game for the PC Developed by Raven Software who made ''Star Trek Elite Force'' and publshed by LucasArts, Jedi Outcast is one of the best Star Wars games I've played in a while. It has elements from the original movies that make it great: Stormtroopers, lightsabers, the force and most important it's very entertaining. It's the sequel to ''Jedi Knight'' which I only played briefly and deals with Kyle Katarn, a former Jedi Knight called back into action to fight the Evil Side of the force. Seeing as I got this game at a fraction of what the console versions cost, I was not disappointed with Jedi Outcast at all Graphics 9: The graphics in this game are top-notch, some critics complained that it wasn't good enough but in my epinion they are. Raven software has developed amazing 3d world and levels and characters that are incredibly realistic. Most of the 3d polygon created character move along with no trouble whatesover and the fact that they used ''Quake 3 Engine'' in this game basically made everything from textures to lightning effects that much smoother. To top it off ''Raven Software'' added several good cutscenes and animations to different action sequences (such as the different ways you can literally kill your enemy from lightsaber to using the Force). Sound 9: Sound too was awesome. You start the game with the familiar Star Wars theme opening and from there are treated to fairly well made soundtracks through the game. The characters themselves are not dumb and speechless either. Almost everyone you encounter through Stormtroopers through your partner Jan-Ors talks using digitized voicing and many of them will come with different phrases and punchlines in different scenarios. Challenge and Gameplay 8: Well here is another area where the game shines. The Gameplay is simple, however, one big complaint I had was using the keyboard and mouse to play through the game. The mouse and keyboard with PC Games is becoming almost obselete with games being calibrated and programming for Pc joysticks and Gamepads so why couldn't Jedi Outcast have been already programmed with this in mind I'll never know. Luckily though I believe you can play with the Gamepad and joystick provided your Joystick is compatible, so my advice is try it and see it. (I have 2 pc Gamepads, just in case if one doesn't work , the other one will). Back to the controls they are simple, and when are you making a huge game like this you better have great controls. Using the arrow keys and keys on the keyboard (or the mouse), you can manuvuer Kyle with ease and switch between different weapons easily. Also you have special keys (depending on how you have the keyboard configured, on mine it's E and Control Key) to open doors, use items and etc. You can adjust all the controls in the main menu. You have really 2 main weapons here: The Force and Lightsaber. Just like in the movies, you can slice and dice enemies at will and you can even deflect enemy fire which is really cool (This has programmed into many Star Wars games already but it's cool that programmers had the brains to keep it in). So you can use both these weapons and destroy the Evil Empire to your hearts content. Multiplayer 7: Jedi Outcast has a significant number of Multiplayer options that will keep fans of the game interested long after they beat the game. They are multiple modes of play and matches that you can play with people over the internet or against a friend. Artificial Intelligence 7: The AI for Jedi Outcast is pretty good. Enemy stormtroopers and Sith troopers seem dumb and force, but attacking in packs, they will give you a beating, and many of them are smart enough to duck and pick their spots in order to get to you. So the AI is not the horribly done garbage where you can basically kill the computer without a fight, no it's great here. Replay Value 9: As so you can see there is enough going on Jedi Outcast to keep you playing for a long, long time. besides the single player missions, you have the Multiplayer levels which can be very fun. PC Requirements: Depending on what machine you have, this are the minimum requirements to play the game (at least on my machine): *400-500 mhz processor *DirectX *A good 3d Graphics card *500-900 megabytes of Hard Drive space Both LucasArts and Raven Software have done a great job here. Lucky for George Lucas and company that if the Star Wars movies aren't as good as fans hope at least the games, rise up to everyone's expectations. Happy Gaming!!!!
Rating: Summary: One parent's plea Review: I write this more as an innocent bystander than anything else. I am not particularly into hack-and-slash games, but the resident 10-year-old thinks it is the last word in entertainment, at least for this week. As far as I can see, it largely consists of run run run, jump jump, slash slash slash, run run, jump, slash slash, run run, shoot shoot, use your funky Force powers from time to time, run run run run, jump. Woo hoo. If that's your cup of tea, more power to you. However, for we poor saps who happen to be stuck in the same room with the urchin playing this game, the experience can be pretty miserable. To start off, the dialogue is just absolutely god-awful, melodramatic crap. I don't know if the game designers are trying to be faithful to the movie franchise, but please stop it. Nobody will ever confuse the diaglogue in the Star Wars movies with Casablanca. Please, try to improve on this in future efforts. Also, why do all of the male characters sound like they are doing bad Clint Eastwood imitations? It just drives me crazy to listen to this stuff. I keep waiting for Jaden or Kyle to say, "Do you feel lucky, punk?" I guess you are trying to emphasize the characters' manliness (god knows some of these pimple-faced gamers need to live vicariously through these characters), but it only adds to the overall cheesiness of the production. Finally, try and make it a little more challenging. The aforementioned 10-year-old, playing maybe an hour per day, was able to get through this game in maybe 2 weeks. This is the same 10-year-old who was hard-pressed this weekend to tell us if the sun rises in the east or the west. This is not encouraging, and for those of us who shelled out depressingly large sums of money for this game, we would like to see the youngsters a little more challenged.
Rating: Summary: This game is very impressive! Review: I love playing with this beacause you can make your own character and there are more and harder to beat enemies! Your character's name is Jaden Korr and the first mission is to save Rosh and make your way to the academy. I don't know why Lucasarts made Rosh let out a training droid in the second level. Your first Tier missions are Tatooine, Tatooine again, Bakura, Beenji and Corellia. I don't know the maps in the second Tier mission yet. My favorite mission in the Tier missions is the Corellia mission beacause your outside a cargo tram and you shouldn't fall! The mercs(mercenaries) and cultists almost look the same! I hope you all love this game!
Rating: Summary: Outcast expansion...but fun! Review: Jedi Academy is a great game. Eventhough it uses the same graphics engine as outcast the detail didn't disappoint me. It is almost exactly the same to outcast except you can customize your jedi, choose your beginning weapons, customize your lightsaber, and choose the order or your missions. Only two new weapons were added: the heavy blaster and concussion rifle (very cool by the way). No great or amazing improvements EXCEPT for multiplayer which is excellent. Once you beat the extremely short first player missions it's great to duel against real people instead of the really unintelligent AI. My favorite improvement though is definately going to be SIEGE mode in multiplayer. It's awesome to make your way through the opponenets' base with different types of fighters. EX: demolitions, heavy weps., jedi. To sum it all up, the game is similar to what an outcast expansion would be like but it still has enough changes to be its own game.
Rating: Summary: The PC game of the games! Review: This is one of the coolest games I have had! First you play as Kyle Katarn without a lightsaber and in the "Yavin_Trial" level you get a lightsaber! You fight stormtroopers, imperials, turrets, sentrys, probes, crabs, Weequays, Rodians, Grans, Reborns, Tavion, shadowtroopers, Galak and the hardest to beat, Desann! The maps where you go are Kejim_post, Kejim_base, Artus_mine, Artus_detention, Artus_topside, Valley, Yavin_temple, yavin_trial, Ns_streets, Ns_hideout, Ns_Starpad, Bespin_undercity, Bespin_streets, Bespin_platform, Cairn_bay, Cairn_assembly, Cairn_reactor, Cairn_dock1, Doom_detention, Doom_shields, Yavin_swamp, Yavin_canyon, Yavin_courtyard and Yavin_final. Desann is the most powerful enemy in the game that you will never get to grip him. Well Galak in his forcefield armor is a little hard to beat like Desann, you can't grip them.
Rating: Summary: I WANT IT! Review: I WANT THIS GAME SO BAD! I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! I MUST GET THIS GAME! I MUST HAVE THE FORCE! MUST HAVE! HELP! MUST GET GAME! AAAHHHHHHHH!
Rating: Summary: Great game for any Star Wars fan. Review: Great story line. You can chose what kind of Jedi character you want to be, and if you want to chose the Jedi way or go to the Dark Side later in the game. Great effects. You can also play online. I highly suggest this game.
Rating: Summary: too easy, no depth, too short, buy Outcast instead! Review: I love lucasart games, but i'm afraid they crashed and burned on Jedi Academy. The levels are extremely short, and the game was way too easy. Let me give you an example. You've played Jedi Outcast, right? Take the first reborn you meet on the padawan difficulty setting, and that's how hard the Dark Jedi's are on the Jedi Master difficulty setting of Academy. Many times i've killed jedi's before they've even ignited their lightsabers. Pure luck if that happens on Outcast. As for the levels, if you have indeed played Outcast, imagine the level where you acquire your lightsaber. Often times that's the maximum size of the levels in academy. It took me approximately 30 hours to complete Outcast. It took about 7 to complete academy. The one thing I liked about academy, and yet was dissapointed in Outcast, was that you choose your destiny, be it dark side or light. But Lucasarts made the turning point far too close to the end of the game. And the turning point is optional, as opposed to the morality bar in Dark Forces II. I thought that this destroyed the potential dynamics of Academy. If I had it my way, you would either be seduced by the Dark side, or stay on the light side, according to your previous choices. This is only my personal oppinion however, some people might like it that way. While I don't hold it against Lucasarts, they made their fair share of mistakes in this game. I would recommend this game only for someone just getting into video games. Otherwise, don't waste your time. If you haven't played Jedi Outcast, buy it instead, regardless of the price. It's worth it. In fact, if my house burnt down today, with all my games, I would gladly pay $60.00 for the game, even though I've completed it. If you have played it, play it again on Jedi Master. I garantee, it will be much more satisfying than playing Academy. I've been playing games for the majority of my life, and have never seen a better game than Outcast, and while it's still fun, i've never seen a more poorly planned game than Academy (no offense intended, Lucasarts, and I commend you on Outcast). If you are terrible at video games, this is a goody. While these attributes can be passed off as innocent mistakes, the story was very poorly done. With little or no depth, as opposed to the sensatiable twists, turns, and mysteries of Outcast. In short, life is too short to hold room for Academy. Buy Outcast if you haven't already. You won't regret your choice. You just might with Academy. Good Luck, and May the Force guide your choice. THE FORCE IS NOT A SHIELD TO PROTECT THE USELESS, BUT IS IN REALITY, A WEAPON TO EMPOWER THE WORTHY!-Lord Desaan
Rating: Summary: Sweet Dark Side Ending! Review: This game is terrific!There are only minor bugs but no graphical issues!The coolest ending is the Dark Side!He tells Sarris that she should CENSORED.You have to find out for yourself!
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