With the bulk of the code already in place, technicalities aside, all Raven has to do is tweak the gameplay and create the Star Wars character models and scenery. Well mostly FPS. The only exception is the lightsaber - and what a shimmering beam of beauty it is too. To truly appreciate the splendour of this devastating tool, the third-person view is a must. If you thought the feel of the lightsaber in the first game was special, wait until you get your sweaty hands around this little number.
The showering display of sparks and amazing sound effects as lightsaber crashes upon lightsaber almost brings tears to your eyes. Equally impressive are the Jodis training at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4. As in JK, mastering your Force powers is imperative. There are 11 of them in total including mind trick, lightning, saber throw, heal and jump - all with three power-up levels.
Here, as you progress through the game, your Force powers increase naturally. Usually at the end of a level you are told which power has increased. Rather than just adding another star so that you can run a little faster or jump a little higher, each power-up level does something different. The Heal Force is a perfect example of this. You can only use first level heal while standing still; second level heal can be used whilst running and attacking though it heals over time; and third level heal acts instantly.
But once again, fans of the original JK will be worried that they have no influence whatsoever over the way their character develops. This was after all a popular feature of JK that added a very subtle, yet albeit distinct RPG slant to the game. In the multiplayer game the availability of Force powers as pick-ups means you can still develop your character the way you want.
And as an extra bonus, LAN and Internet players even get to choose the colour of their lightsaber. There is a practical use too; it provides online Jedis with a totally unique look. But what other weapons will we be treated to? As previously mentioned there are 12 in total including your standard blaster, a stun baton, a rather tasty crossbow, trusty old thermal detonators, a wicked laser rifle featuring an liber-powerful zoom, and a lethal disintegrate gun that does exactly that.
All these delights are played out over nine different environments ranging from space stations to vast outdoor levels. As you would expect, each one of these is painstakingly detailed and in homage to JK2s predecessor the sheer dramatic sense of size and space is utterly breathtaking. Controversy and disagreement will not be far away though.
Your lack of influence over the way Kyle develops will cause friction amongst the reviewing fraternity, and importing old levels from ancient games is another contentious issue. Roll on April. A long time ago in an office far, far away A lot has changed: Back then Duke Nukem Forever was just around the corner. Quake was the deathmatch game of choice and bad Star Wars games were as common as Sarlaac dung. We had a wookie for an editor. Mr Cursor was mounted on the wall freshly packed in carbonite and yours truly arrived a fresh-faced young padawan eager to learn the ways of the Force.
Now stuck-up. I find for my entertainment no match for a good blaster, which is as good a point as any to make the jump to light speed, start proper on this review and stop with half-baked Star Wars puns. Thankfully not everything has changed so drastically, certainly not in the Jedi Knight universe: Kyle Katarn. His pilot Jan has stuck by him through thick and thin and, most importantly of all. It is on one such assignment that the game begins, throwing you into action as soon as you turn the first corner.
It's certainly different to the approach we are used to these days, where typically we are treated to a good ten minutes of tension building.
The level of intelligence demonstrated by the stormtroopers and the various other Star Wars creatures you meet soon after is distinctly average: they either stand still or run towards you, and because the weapons for the most part are slow firing, it only takes a few minutes to realise that all you need to do to avoid losing valuable health is to employ the old circle-strafe tactic and duck behind a wall if the numbers are too great.
Chancing across a couple of scout walkers does little to improve things - just jump on a laser cannon platform and blow them away. Thankfully the graphics, sound and animation throughout the game itself are fantastic, perhaps not as impressive as Wolfenstein or Medal Of Honor, but damn fine all the same. Particularly noteworthy however are the animations, which are many and varied and on a par with Max Payne in many respects.
And then you realise the show has yet to really begin. From being only mildly entertained you are suddenly gripped. Suddenly everything changes: You find your lack of faith disturbing. You search your feelings and where there was emptiness you gradually see your destiny unfold. Having given up the life of a Jedi Knight, you realise you must re-learn the ways of the Force and the second your lightsaber arrives in your hand is the exact point that Jedi Knight II is transformed from a mediocre first-person shooter to an immensely pleasurable action adventure.
Had the game continued in the same vein as it started it would have been mightily disappointing, yet once you get the lightsaber and string a couple of moves and Force powers together, the game is no longer a simple shooter, for by selecting the Jedi weapon of choice the game automatically switches to a third-person perspective.
Nothing new there, the original had a manual option to do the same, but here it feels infinitely more polished and natural. You also occasionally meet up with friendly guards and even team up with Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker for brief moments of intense action.
There is one mission in particular that sticks in the mind, a small portion of which sees you escorting a droid across an open ramp raked by laser fire and pitted with trip mines. If the droid survives it will open the doors for you. The way stealth has been handled is rather underwhelming, not that it is impossible to play the game in such a way, just that it never becomes necessary to do so unless you play the game on the hardest difficulty setting.
When you acquire the Force power to heal yourself, you can just hunker down after a firefight and press the required key and wait for your health to max out and continue on your way. Once you get a lightsaber and start gaining Force powers, the single-player game becomes considerably more enjoyable, but, even then, many players may still be put off by the overabundance of puzzles, jumping, and switch-flipping.
On the plus side, enemy AI is set at just about the right level, so stormtroopers and other foes will duck, run around corners, or rush straight for you depending on the situation. They're not terribly smart, but neither were they in the movies.
Jedi Knight II's real saving grace is the multiplayer experience, which simply allows you to have fun by battling other players in lightsaber duels or free-for-all deathmatches. The variety of options and gameplay types is almost overwhelming, but that's a good thing. And even if you don't have a net connection, just playing against CPU-controlled bots makes for an enjoyable time. Using a modified version of the Quake III engine, developer Raven Software has brought the sights and sounds of the Star Wars universe to life with great care.
The sound is usually the best part of a Star Wars game, and here it's no exception. You can carry up to 9 types of lethal weapons at the same time. A feature of the project was non-linear pumping. Gaining an experience point, the gamer is given the opportunity to learn the skill of one of three branches: neutral, light and dark. Also, most of the serious decisions must be made by the player on his own. Kyle adheres to neutrality most of the time, but some situations will force him to choose his path along one of the sides of the Force..
During the passage, the player will visit many planets that are located at enormous distances between themselves, as well as several towns such as Nar Shaddaa and Barons Head. Most of the time the gamer spends on the planet of the Jedi - Ruusan. There it is necessary to find a special valley, which is the source of the Jedi's power.
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