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Star Wars: Jedi Knight & The Mysteries of the Sith (PC CD)
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| Description:
Jedi Knight Mysteries of Sith caters to the farm boy in all of us by letting players grab a lightsaber and fight their way through the Star Wars universe from a first-person perspective. You slip into the boots of Jedi wannabe Kyle Katarn, guiding him through several adventures that should appeal to any Star Wars fan. (The two of you out there who don't care for Star Wars will just have to find another game to play.) Your Jedi powers grow as the game progresses, and players are free to commit acts which strengthen their ties to either the Dark or Light side of the Force. Once the commitment to good or evil is made, you lose all your Force powers from the opposing side but gain the ability to add more powerful tricks to your arsenal from the side you chose. All the neat stuff from the movies is there, like the Force pull that lets you disarm enemies, and Vader's sadistic favourite, the Force grip, for choking enemies from a distance. Other powers like Force jump give you greater mobility in the game, and all the Force powers add immensely to Jedi Knight's gameplay. The included Mysteries of Sith add-on picks up the adventure five years later. This time you get to play as both Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade, the female Jedi from Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire. This time around you must adhere to the Light side of the Force, but that doesn't make gameplay any less interesting. Success in these expansion missions require much more use of your Jedi powers than the original game, and actually having to think our way through problems in a first-person shooter (especially in the last few levels) was a refreshing change. Graphically, both games hold up well. Resolution can be cranked up to 1600 x 1200 if your video card is up to task. Although the environments you move through lack detail, the design is quite spectacular. Few games offer environments this massive or varied, and the familiar Star Wars architecture lend a great deal of atmosphere to the game. The movie tie-in also means that Jedi Knight has some of the best sound effects ever. From the hum of a lightsaber to the roar of a passing TIE bomber, everything is authentic and immediately recognisable. If you missed this game the first time around, don't make the same mistake with this bundle. --T Byrl Baker ==
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4/5 |
Kinda makes you feel nostalgic don't you think?
(August 05, 2006) |
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Before I got DF2 I bought Jedi Academy and then Jedi Knight 2. Both are fantastic games to play but it got me wondering what started it all in the first place and the closest I could get was DF2.
Being the high graphics technofreak that I am, I had forgotten that when DF2 was first released in 1998 (?) it was a superior FPS game at the time but just 8 years on many people, especially the younger generation would probably call this game 'Ancient Technology' or 'obsolete' compared to the games of today.
I admit when I brought the game I expected the graphics to be round about the same as JK2 and JA so playing it for the first time and seeing bright colours and very little in the way of Polygons (in the graphics industry thats basically a 'mesh' that helps build the character/scenery and the more polygons the mesh has the more detailed the character's features/building's detail will be) was very surprising and nostalgic in a sense. The last game I played that was similar in the way of graphics was Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force a few years back and if you compare DF2 and Elite Force with JK2/JA and Elite Force 2 you can see the staggering overhaul the graphics industry has had in less than a decade.
But because this game is old makes it all the more better to play it. True, nowadays, you either need to wear sunglasses or turn the brightness down on your monitor a little to play it properly but its still a good game. The drawbacks I see though is that sometimes you can get lost with the occassional confusion of which wall starts and which ends at times because alot of the features are the same colour. Nowadays designers add lighting to create the atmosphere and help you to see where you are but one has to remember that in 1998 this was in its infancy so you gotta use your brain alot more to find your way around.
So if you like the games of the 1990s or, if you're like me and you wanna see how technology has progressed in the last decade or so, then I'd strongly suggest buying the game...even if you need a pair of sunglasses just to play it ;) |
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5/5 |
One of the finest first person shooters ever made
(February 20, 2005) |
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Upon it's release in 1997, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 brought a truly epic feel into first person shooters that simply hadn't been possible before, and indeed was the first Star Wars game that felt like you were part of something big that wasn't just involved in flying star fighters. First of all, the graphics engine. The character models were not as refined as some other games at the time (Quake being an ideal example, or even Quake 2) but the animation was smooth and fluid and this brought enough life to the characters that the rather angular design didn't matter too much. Visual effects such as explosions and other animations, for the time were effective enough and still are, if lacking modern polish. However where the engine really shined was in the expansive nature of the level design. The levels were enormous, expansive. Incredible wide open areas, with intricate interior locations, all at a superb framerate (perhaps aided by the less than high polygon count on the models). Not until the Unreal engine was unleashed would this kind of epic size be experienced in a game, and even then, Unreal would push itself to run as well as Jedi Knight with such large designs. The sound design in the game is pure Star Wars, as you'd expect, and is quite solidly done, if not particularly groundbreaking. The voice acting is above average, and the main characters voices are provided by the actors featured in the games FMV sequences, which used real actors, a sure sign of an expensive production. and a rarity these days. The acting in these sequences is perhaps somewhat wooden and, of course, highly derivative of the original Star Wars films, but it's still immersive enough to gloss over these minor points and the story is fleshed out superbly. And the story. The games places you in control of Kyle Katarn, the ex-Imperial mercenary of the first Dark Forces game, and the beginning of the game sees Kyle trying to find out who murdered his father. The first three levels of the game don't feature lightsabers, or Jedi at all, so be patient. Through Kyle's quest we learn of a dark Jedi, Jerec, and his band of apprentices who intend to sieze the power contained within an ancient Jedi burial ground, and the connection it holds with Kyles father and ultimately, Kyle himself. Not to give too much away, but there are many locations to visit throughout the story, and some impressive (even today) set pieces and battles that will prove challenging even to experienced first person shooter veterans. Once the inevitable lightsaber is discovered, throughout the rest of the game you will amass points which can be allocated to force powers both light and/or dark side orientated. This affects the course of the game around half way into it as well, so there are two different endings. The gameplay is, overall, great fun, with a few annoying control issues on occasion and a slightly clunky physics system but this does not detract too much and is easy enough to adjust to. In summary, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a FPS classic, from the FPS golden age when sprites were first being eschewed in favour of polygonal characters and environments. Mysteries Of The Sith is a special 'mission pack' expansion for Jedi Knight that adds a substantial amount of new content to the game, with an all new story set around 5 years after the story in Jedi Knight has concluded. The introduction of several new weapons, force powers, enemies, environments and a new main (and controllable) character as well as significant graphics engine enhancements (Quake 2 styled coloured lighting) which add further vividness to the experience make this an essential selection, and one that will keep you occupied for some time. In a few words: challenging, essential, immersive and great fun. |
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5/5 |
BEST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!(if star wars crazy)
(October 10, 2004) |
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This is undoubtalby the best of all action/shooter/adventure star wars games, and in my opinion the best star wars game ever. The feel is sooo good, and authentic, and its incredible when you walk into a room full of imperial activity and the imperial march come thundering on. kyle katarn has some great quotes to. The story is cool aswell, and orinal and interesting. proper live action cut scenes really gets you intersted in the characters too. the levels are really well desinged, not too much veriaty in the gameplay its self, but plenty of exiting and varying mission objectives. and now with the amlmost equally good expansion pack, the mysteries of the sith, top value for money! so what if the graphics arn't that good, i still love it. |
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4/5 |
Due to an increase in hardware specs the levels were bigger
(February 06, 2004) |
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And then came JK:DF2 - 1998 - which was naturally superior to the first one in many ways and had that playability that made you play it more than once. Due to an increase in hardware specs the levels were bigger and the Star Wars feel was there this time. MOTS: 1998 - More of the same, a few more Light Saber battles and great multiplayer functionality. |
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5/5 |
Join me Luke Skywalker and together we can do our taxes
(August 17, 2003) |
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The best of the bunch has to be Jedi Knight dark forces 2. Great gameplay, great sound, its great online too. Do people still play these too online???? Mysteries of the sith is fantastic aswell you play as mara jade which is Kyle's trainee. The FMV in JKDF2 is fantastic you get to choose what path to follow a good one like Ghandi or a bad one like George Bush. Great classic games. Buy them you wont be dissapointed. |
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