Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast

Nine years ago you avenged your father’s death. Having grappled with the force
and almost falling to the dark side you gave up your role as a Jedi Knight, only
to realize recently that you’ll need to become one with the force once again.
You are Kyle Katarn. You’re back in the familiar settings of the Star
Wars universe in Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.
Be immersed in the familiar settings, and encounters areas you have yet to see.

Jedi Outcast was ported over to the Xbox from the already successful PC version,
and hopefully sets a new trend for the Xbox titles form the series, as the port
was done very well and Jedi Outcast is definitely the best Star Wars title available
on Microsoft’s Xbox console to date. Ready to feel one with the force again?

In Jedi
Knight II you are Kyle Katarn a man who is suspicious of the
force but wants to help the New Republic’s fight against the Remnants… Kyle
and his partner Jan Ors, whom he saved from the Empire, travel
in their ship on missions to thwart the Remnants’ uprising led by Admiral
Galac Fyyar. Fyyar was once a trusted weapons scientist who reported
directly to the Emperor, the collapse of the Empire did not change his experience
or his will to bond the force and technology together. You will be sent on various
missions throughout the galaxy, seeing familiar surroundings and faces that
you’ll remember and love, and sometimes hate. The main section of the game is
the single player mode, but Jedi Outcast also boast a substantial multiplayer
segment which we’ll cover later. The missions begin in the first person perspective,
where Kyle will utilize various weapons to defeat enemies such as Storm
Troopers and Imperial Soldiers.

The
setup and gameplay is familiar to many first person shooters on the Xbox console,
utilizing many of the more common controller schemes primarily used in the FPS
genre. An added bonus is the ability to pre-program the white and black buttons
for specific force powers or weapons. There are plenty of enemies to take down,
and tons of ways to make it seem different each time, as well as a large number
of switches and levers to push and pull in the correct sequence to progress
in the level. Some of the weapons at your disposal are the Bryar Blaster
Pistol, E-11 Blaster Rifle, Wookie Bowcaster,
and other items like thermal detonators. It’s not only action
oriented, but it allows you to use your brain a bit as well. As the missions
progress, Kyle will need to make use of the Force within himself that he re-learns
throughout his travels, in particular the use of the lightsaber!
Some of the Force powers that Kyle will use are Force Grip;
which allows you to choke someone from a distance, Jedi Mind Trick,
and Force Speed; that slows the world around you, giving you
the speed to perform incredibly lethal actions, as well as many more force powers.
Each force power has three levels that you will attain throughout the game.

While
the first person shooter missions are somewhat ‘been there, done that‘
quality, the game radically changes with the acquisition of the lightsaber.
While carrying the lightsaber, the game perspective switches to third person
view, and remarkably the control and transition is smooth and almost flawless.
Now it’s time to feel like a Jedi Knight, and you
really will feel more powerful as you become more acquainted with the many combat
styles and combinations the lightsaber has to offer. There are three combat
styles; medium, fast, and strong. Medium
is the classic style. Fast combat style is fast and efficient
but limited in range. The Strong style is powerful, and is
your best option when fighting a sole enemy wielding another lightsaber. Fighting
styles can be accessed through the heads up display and can quickly be changed
to suit the needs of the situation. There are plenty of special attacks to master,
some of which are stab backwards, forward lunge, flip forward and attack downward,
forward jump and downward hack, and lightsaber locking. Going through the levels
and hacking away with the lightsaber is an action blast, there’s
nothing better than slicing a Storm Trooper in half! Staying true
to the force, if your lightsaber is lost in the heat of battle, it will return
to you when in line of sight.

The
huge interactive environments are filled with tons of useless looking computer
boards and other relics from the Star Wars series, but you’ll need to keep a
close watch, as many of them will be needed to access different areas of the
game. In addition, there are pickups and converters scattered throughout the
levels which will revive your statistics and provide you with nifty new items
to use, such as night vision goggles, biotech bacta canisters,
battery packs, personal shield generators and more. Your
data pad can be accessed at any time and will give you vital inventory, force
power, weapon, and mission objectives at a glance.

The
single player game is quite lengthy and loads of fun, but when all is said and
done there’s still an impressive multiplayer section to keep you occupied within
the Jedi Arena Games. Multiplayer games include Free For All
(FFA), Holocron FFA, Jedi Master,
Team FFA, and Capture The Flag. All game types
are played split screen with up to two players and 14 customizable AI bots.
Unfortunately there is no system link or Xbox Live compatibility, a true shame
since the PC version had such a great multiplayer. By no means is the multiplayer
lacking, there are many options to set and different ways to customize the game.
You can be on the Dark Force or the Light Force, play weapon only or lightsaber
only games, and set limits for nearly everything.

The environments are huge and detailed very well, with all the
standards you’d expect to see in a top notch Star Wars game. LucasArts has been
at this for quite some time, and they’re getting better and better. You’ll see
all the familiar sights, detailed down to the writing on the walls. Weapon effects
are done well, most impressive are the animations of the lightsaber action,
which is very realistic. The character movement when wielding the lightsaber
seems a bit awkward at first, but as you become more skilled you’ll realize
it’s your own doing. For the most part the frame rate is steady, but there will
be a slight drag during some of the heavy combat scenes. Cut scene movies are
nowhere near where they belong, but you’ll probably just be clicking the A button
to skip back to the action anyhow.

Trying to bring back nostalgia in a big way. The sounds of the movie are incorporated
into the game very nicely, with a soundtrack that rises and falls with the climactic
situations you encounter. All of the weapon and lightsaber sounds are effective,
and the voice acting is right on target with the familiar sounds of Billy Dee
Williams and others. If your set up for surround sound it’s supported, so turn
up that volume.

As we stated before, the single player mode is long (approximately
25 levels) and tough at times, and will definitely give you the bang for
the buck. Being able to save at any point in the game is a plus, especially
in difficult areas. There are different difficulty settings as well; Padawan,
Jedi, Jedi Knight, and the most difficult Jedi Master. You can select levels
you’ve completed to replay, as well as view un lockable content such as player
profiles and movies. Add a solid multiplayer mode and you have a game that’ll
keep you playing for days. System link and Xbox Live would have been a real
bonus.

Overall
Score: 8.9/10 [Not an Average] Highly
Recommended

I’ve been a fan of the Star Wars Series for quite some
time . . . the original Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw in a movie
theater. I’m quite impressed by the nostalgia this title brings with it, and
the details and lengths the developer took to make it seem like you were acting
out the scenes of the big screen. Even if you’re not a fan of Star Wars, I would
still recommend you take a close look at Star Wars Jedi Outcast: Jedi
Knight II for it’s intense action in both first and third person perspective.

• Official Game Site
• LucasArts
• Raven Software
• Star Wars
• Star
  Wars Jedi Outcast Screenshots (Temporarily Unavailable, Sorry)
• Star
  Wars Jedi Outcast Hints and Cheats
• Buy
  Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast from Amazon.com

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