Stewart brings us another Friends of the Cast article, this time looking at the beloved and, sadly, last entry into the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy!
Jedi Academy was a game I never got around to playing back in 2002. I thought I would set my retro review sights on the third entry in the Jedi Knight series, but the outcome wasn’t looking good; a thirteen-year old game, which no one talks about, with its main focus on a gameplay style no game has replicated since?
I was expecting the worst…
But I am happy to say I was seriously impressed with how well this game has held up and now I wonder why there haven’t been any more additions to the series.
Building upon the framework set up by Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the main draw of the game comes from its lightsaber combat. The fighting system is a little strange at first as each swing is determined by a number of factors:
-Your character movement direction
-The direction you move your mouse while clicking to attack
-How long you hold down the click
It may seem a bit unintuitive at first, but ,once mastered, it is extremely rewarding.
Customisation is also a big focus of the game and there is a variety of lightsabers to choose from. Some choices are just cosmetic and some give the player new move sets. Single hilt, double blade, and dual wielding sabers combined with fighting stances determine the swings the player can use so there is some serious depth to the combat as well as its unique style.
This video game treats the lightsaber with the respect it deserves.
While nearly every Star Wars video game transforms the hyper deadly lightsaber into a glowing baseball bat used to continuously whack people with, Jedi Academy gets it right. Stormtrooper decapitations occur in one swipe of the blade. To be fair, some of the later enemies take a few hits to kill, but Jedi Academy at least tries to take the lightsaber seriously (I’m looking at you Force Unleashed…).
One thing I would say is that there is no way to test out the different combinations before you choose so you have to just go with what you think suits your fighting style.
There are also force powers which slowly upgrade through the course of the game, too. The only powers that I found useful, however, were healing and force speed (which incidentally slows down time…)
So the melee combat system has a lot of depth, but what if you are feeling a bit uncivilised?
The firearms in this game have got you covered. The shooting feels great, especially the standard issue imperial rifle. The weapons have real weight to them and sound punchy. All of the weapons have alternate fire modes which can change the dynamic of the weapon completely, so there is a lot of choice when facing enemies who are more susceptible to gunfire.
One of the things that also really impressed me was the diverse amount of environments that you visit through the game. There are some real deep cuts when it comes to locations and for a 13 year old game most of the environments hold up, especially with the amount of diversity. The Tundra environments really stand out and are a big highlight of the game. The game is broken up with story missions and filler missions; the filler missions are chosen from a level select screen between story missions. These are multiple choice, as four of the six missions are needed to be completed before progressing. The problem with this system, though, is that none of the filler missions can contain essential story information. You can choose not to complete them but this isn’t a problem as the main story is straight garbage, full of clichés and plot twists which can be seen a mile off but it is nice to interact with some EU characters.
A few of the missions contain speeder bike sections which the game really didn’t need to include but I’m glad they did! I don’t really know why the developers built fully controllable speeder bike sections but they are great. There is no Star Wars fan that wouldn’t think a Jedi riding a speeder with their blade ignited, leaving a scorched trail behind them isn’t cool.
Overall I would say this is a underrated game based on its combat mechanics alone. Everything else is just a bonus. With it being $10 on steam I would highly recommend trying this hidden gem out.
Let me know what you think of Jedi Academy and which game you would like me to review next in the comments section below.
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is available from Good Old Games as well as steam for digital download.