Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast

Rating:
Summary: best first person star wars shooter...could be better
Review: You've got to play it simply for the fact it's Star Wars. The story line is immersing, and the light saber battling functions are awesome. The levels are bigger and better than in the first Jedi Knight, much more detalied. Lucas Arts took care to add a lot of little goodies like funny banter between stormtroopers, sniper rifle mode, and new force powers like the Jedi Mind trick. Memorable charcters appear for the first time in this verson, unlike in past games where the story lines have focused soley on non-movie characters. But this time around we see Mon Mothma, Lando Calrissian, and Luke Skywalker.

What's bad? Well, I probably wouldn't feel this way had I not just finished playing Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, which I feel is the best first person shooter to date. So I couldn't help comparing the two games. Seeing what the developers were able to do with MOHAA I couldn't help but feel the graphics in Jedi Outcast are a little underdeveloped and blocky. The cut scenes were pretty uncinematic as well. The enemy AI is not what Lucas Arts had promised, though it has it's moments. Could have be a lot better. And my biggest gripe with the game is that it's HARD!! I finally gave up and downloaded a walkthrough and cheats from the net. I found many people on message boards who were having the exact same problmes--in the same areas--as me. When you get to the level with the mine cars you'll know what I'm talking about.

But in the end it is Star Wars, and shooting stormtroopers and Rodians will make anyone's day a whole lot brighter. Worth the money, but be prepared to be a little frustrated at first.

Rating:
Summary: ATTENTION ALL STAR WARS FANS: GO OUT AND BUY STAR WARS JEDI!
Review: Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is by far the best Star Wars Computer Game out there. I knew this was going to be a good one when LucasArts team up with Raven Software to make this game. Raven Software is one of the best Computer Game Developers out there right now. The graphics, the music, and the sound are unbelievable. I've only played the first level in the Single Player game so far, but from what I've seen and heard so far I was impressed. When I was playing this game, I thought I was in a Stars War movie. It was so much fun getting into blaster gun battles with my blaster rifle against the evil Galactic Empire Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers don't just come at you when they're fighting you. They actually team up against you and when the Stormtroopers can see they are losing a battle with you, the ones that are left still alive will actually run away from you and hide somewhere to try to ambush you. It reminded me of the blaster gun battles fought in the Star Wars movies. I can't wait to go through more levels in the game. I hope LucaArts teams up with Raven Software to make more Star Wars Computer Games in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Great Star Wars game for a change.
Review: Well, it's taken them years to make a game that's back on the par they set at X-Wing and TIE Fighter, but Lucasarts finally did it. If you are a Star Wars fan, a First Person Shooter fan, or both, get this game. It's definately a challenge from level 1, with puzzles being by no means simple throughout. The lightsaber fighting system is very well developed and complex enough to let you really have a duel. Moreover, the multiplayer is as good as CounterStrike. All in all, this is going to be the best Star Wars game until Knights of the Old Republic comes out. Definately a good buy.

Rating:
Summary: Best Game of 2002
Review: This is hands down the best Star Wars game of any type I have ever played! The graphics are awesome, and the lightsaber duels are incredible. I've been playing it nonstop for four days now and I can't get enough. The new weapons in the game are cool, but I find myself playing almost exclusively with the saber. As the game progresses, you are simply unstopable as you knock roomfulls of enemies around with the Force and chop them into bits. Raven's attention to detail is amazing, and I have yet to encounter a bug of any kind. What are you waiting for? Get it NOW!

Rating:
Summary: Great game
Review: I own the Collector's Edition of this game- and boy, am I glad that I got it. Along with the original Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, I also received a cool looking light-up lightsaber keychain.

As for the game itself- overall, it's a masterpiece. The gameplay is filled with fun lightsaber, guns and force power action. Yeah, the puzzles could be a bit more varied, but they're not that hard as others have claimed. The graphics- man, one of the smoothest that I have seen. The plot will keep driving you till the end. I haven't played MP over the net, but with bots- it's not so bad... Of course- the music and sound is top notch. With guess appearances by Lando (voiced by Billy Dee Williams himself!) and Luke (yeah, you get to fight along side them), this game really is top of the line.

Is it as revolutionary as Half-Life or Deus Ex? In short, no. But, it's pretty good in terms of capturing the movies and going just a little bit beyond.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the original
Review: I have spent 40 hours already playing the single player game and i still have a couple of levels left, so this is not by any means a short game. If you liked the original jedi knight you will love this. The action is much more exciting with fancy saber moves (hold the direction keys AFTER you swing)and acrobatics. The slow motion deaths are really cool, as are the evil jedi reborn that you fight. The force powers and weapons are much more useful and fun to play with in this game. The graphics rock, but only if you have a powerful system and a good video card. i have a geforce 2 and it looks great but with a 3 or 4 ti it would look much better, but it still looks twice as good as the original. if you have a slow machine you may want to hold off, i tried the lower settings which they recommend for the minimum requirement systems, and it looks like dark forces 1, real blocky. The only part of the game which i don't like are the cut scenes because the main character looks like a wimpy freak, i cringe when i have to watch those, kyle holds his lower lip down and bears his teeth all the time and you would think that at any minute he would start drooling or tear into the flesh of his hot little pilot friend. ok enough about that, it won't affect my rating because the action in this game is awesome. and i have only barely begun to touch the multiplayer games. the end

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first one... shockingly!
Review: I was (am) a huge fan of the first Jedi Knight (sorry, I begin recognition of the series here - Dark Forces was just bad), so my expectations were very high for Jedi Outcast. I rushed out to get it the day it was released, and, at first, was rather disappointed. For one thing, it seemed a *lot* harder than the previous game, and I wasn't very fond of having to work side-by-side with Jan Ors. However, as I got into it, I soon discovered how much better it is than the original was.

First, the single player keeps the great mix of action and adventure, with plenty of puzzles, beams, levers, buttons, and elevators to manipulate. The levels are as large or larger than the ones in JK. They also seem to be more thought-out: while the JK had a lot of very linear levels, this game seems to use areas of a level you've already been to once again in a different way. It's hard to describe, but it makes the experience appear to be much more "real."

And speaking of real, the graphics are much more realistic than the first game. Obviously, with 4 ½ years of technological improvement, they should be, but they really feel like you *are* in the Star Wars universe. Explosions are cleaner and better looking; the people you interact with (or against!) move much more realistically. My only complaint is that in the cut-scenes (which, thankfully, are Mysteries of the Sith style, instead of FMV sequences), the mouth movement is terrible. Not a very big deal, but annoying nonetheless.

Perhaps what really makes this game great is the multiplayer portion. This is leaps and bounds above JK's version. There are many new game types. Best of all, the inclusion of bots allows you to play by yourself if you aren't ready to test the waters with real opponents or if you just feel like chilling. With up to 32 players, the games can get pretty intense.

Force in this game works differently than in JK. First, the stars have been removed and been replaced with "levels." The higher the level, the cooler the effect and/or the less force it takes to pull it off. Second, the cost of improving from one level to the next is much greater. For multiplayer, you get a certain number of points to spend (more as you increase the level of Jedi). Level 1 of Force Jump may cost 1, but level 3 costs 8. This balances gameplay out by allowing you to have either a very well-rounded Jedi or one with a couple of "uber" abilities. In single player, you don't choose when or how much force power you get; you naturally progress throughout the levels. Unlike JK, in single player, Kyle will be good no matter what, but this won't prohibit you from using some "dark" powers. In multiplayer, the dichotomy is like that of JK; they removed the free ability to mix and match that MOTS featured and instead returned to purely "light" or "dark" Jedi.

Overall, I have immensely enjoyed playing Jedi Outcast, and I think with all of the Mods, Levels, and misc. add-ons players will undoubtedly make, this game will be playable for years to come. One late thing to note: I have been playing JO on a 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4 with 256 Megs of RAM, and I notice it slows my machine down /when I exit/. I have experienced no lagging in game and it loads levels quite quickly. Also, I am unable to alt tab correctly while in the game. Otherwise, everything works great. Happy Playing!

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable strictly from the genera perspective
Review: The star rating is just specifically related to the game play. It is a very enjoyable game and who doesn't love the Star Wars "Universe"? But overall the game falls short in the graphics category. I was expecting much more out of Lucas Arts / Raven than what was released. Blocky graphics, horrible looking cut scenes (as compared to Return to Castle Wolfenstein) and a targeting system that's tenuous at best. If I were to score based wholly on graphics, I'd have to give it 2 out of 5 stars.

Good game play, Jedi powers, a Lightsaber and a decent story line make up for the pedestrian graphics.

For those that are compelled to flame, I'm running a P4 1.6 GHz, 1GB RAM, with a GeForce3 AGP.

Rating:
Summary: The unbelivers are on the Dark Side!
Review: Don't listen to them! They're mad! It's the best game ever MADE! I have played many games and this is the BEST!... Just because some stupid magazine didn't like it, now everybodys against it! (actually not everybody, because there can onlybe two Sith at once, the rest of you unbelievers are just wimpy Dark Jedi) The Force powers are so awesome, the graphics are the most advanced yet, the moves (flips, rolls, wallwalking etc.) are amazing, the lightsaber combat is almost too real (thats not a bad thing, by the way, and you can actually THROW your lightsaber like a boomerang to kill your enemies) the AI is the best yet! There many other good things about the game but I can't type all day.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful game, but frequently EXTREMELY frustrating....
Review: First off, I must say that this is easily the best LucasArts game I've encountered, and playing in the Star Wars universe with superb graphics and a wonderful game engine is a joy. A lot of work was clearly put into the visual aspects of the game in particular, and I'd normally give it 5 stars for being one of the best first-person-shooters I've encountered, especially when using lightsabers and various aspects of the Force as a Jedi (push, speed, mind-tricks, etc.) are taken into account.

However, this is easily the most unnecessarily frustrating game I've played to date, and I don't think it was tested thoroughly. The amount of time spent backtracking through areas previously explored to find some box that wasn't shot enough times or some hidden button to press to affect something far later in gameplay is maddening. I can't tell you the number of times I've spent extreme periods of time to "find" something (or had to look through a "walkthrough") in order to progress, consistently saying "how the heck was I supposed to figure THAT out". Most games (e.g., Return to Castle Wolfenstein or Serious Sam: Second Encounter) will "shut off" areas no longer relevant, or keep crucial buttons and things somewhat near to where they relate. This one frequently doesn't do that.

This game is a must-play, especially if you're a Star Wars fan or someone who enjoys superb graphics work. It's lost two stars in my book for the unusually high frustration factor though, and I'd warn anyone playing it they're VERY likely to need to find an internet game-guide/walkthrough unless they like spending hours figuring things out by prolonged trial-and-error. If you have patience to spare, Jedi Outcast is a strong recommendation.