Jedi Knight series review. The Kyle Katarn series - Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.
Star Wars Dark Forces was released for DOS PC and Mac in 1995 and later ported to the PlayStation. Dark Forces introduces us to Kyle Katarn and his partner and pilot Jan Ors. After having successfully stolen the Death Star Plans, Kyle is again hired by the Alliance to infiltrate and disrupt an Imperial cell who are developing super battle droids known as Dark Troopers.
The Dark Forces PC game came out two years after Doom and was bemoaned on its release as being another “Doom Clone”. But in a lot of ways Dark Forces was more sophisticated than ID’s shooter.
Dark Forces made one hell of a splash, selling near enough a million copies over its lifetime, almost making it into the top ten selling PC games of the 90s. Dark Forces remains one of my all-time favourite Star Wars PC games and even today it’s impact is well-remembered.
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight followed in 1997. The PC FPS genre had changed considerably since Dark Forces and LucasArts was competing against ID’s Quake. Dark Forces 2 PC game supported hardware acceleration, one of the first engines using Direct3D.
Jedi Knight, the second game in the Jedi Knight PC game series sees Kyle picks up his first lightsaber. As the PC game goes on, Kyle develops Force powers which the player can upgrade between levels, from both sides of the Force. Dark Forces 2 has two endings, depending on whether the player chooses to focus on the Light or the Dark Side. The Jedi Knight PC game was tremendously well-received both for the single player and also the online multiplayer.
LucasArts followed Dark Forces II PC game with the full expansion, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith has some of the most significant crossovers with the EU; this is the only time Mara Jade appears as a playable character in a Star Wars game. In my review of the MotS PC game I said I actually preferred it to Jedi Knight, and it was fairly well received back in the day. The story is fantastic, and the way it weaves into the Expanded Universe is second to none.
The third PC game in the Jedi Knight PC game series is called Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Dropping Dark Forces totally, Jedi Knight 2’s development was outsourced to Raven Software. Powered by ID’s Quake III: Arena engine, Jedi Outcast’s lightsaber combat is what separated it from every other PC game. Jedi Knight 2 made it feel like you were controlling a more elegant weapon from a more civilised age. Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast features upgradeable Force powers, but this time Kyle’s powers unlock with no decision-making from the player. Easily the best story in any Star Wars PC game, Raven did a tremendous job of framing a flawed, human Jedi and voice actor Jeff Bennett delivers a great performance, Kyle’s anger always bubbling just below the surface.
Jedi Knight 2 was a PC game ported to Xbox and GameCube and smashed reviews on all formats. The best Star Wars game ever, the story and lightsaber combat is what gamers still rave about now.
LucasArts gave Raven one year to develop another game in the Jedi Knight PC game series, the sequel to Jedi Knight II. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy focused on customisation and player agency. Kyle Katarn teaches Jedi Academy’s protagonist Jaden Korr in the ways of the Force, and when Jaden discovers a new Sith cult is harvesting Dark Side energy from places like Hoth and The Valley of the Jedi, Katarn joins his protege on missions around the galaxy.
The player agency in Jedi Academy PC game sees players able to customise their look, choose from a variety of lightsaber styles as well as develop their own character over the series of the game. The ability to wield dual sabers or the saber staff for the first time blew a lot of gamers away and this keeps people coming back to the game even today. Jedi Academy is probably the most well-realised lightsaber game ever made. Nothing since has captured the variety and depth of gameplay that was on offer here. A fitting end to the Jedi Knight games series, it’s just a shame we’ve not seen any more of these Jedi PC games.
The Jedi Knight series of PC games survived the jumped to consoles, something which killed off other Star Wars PC game series.
The Jedi Knight games series remained one of the shining lights of the EU. This series of Star Wars PC games proved that a good story and the richness of the Star Wars universe was enough to make a great video game. The Jedi Knight PC games series is a great series of games, every game is recommended.
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"Star Song" and "Neon Skies " by Lee Rosevere are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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