Overview

Lately most of the Star Wars games given to us Xbox owners have been based in the air. Obi Wan was the only Star Wars game that up until now was not in the air and it was a big disappointment, because of very repetitive gameplay and poor level design. Will Jedi Knight 2 disappoint as well? Not at all!

Gameplay

Jedi Knight 2 originally released for the PC, and as well all know ports do not always mean good, but in this case the port works out fine. Jedi Knight 2 is strong on both sides of the table whether in the Single player action or the Multiplayer action you are bound to have a good time with both.

To start with the Single Player campaign mode, which has a storyline that all Star Wars fans can appreciate. You play as Kyle Katarn, a Jedi Knight who you will play through his last mission. One thing Jedi Knight 2 really did well was incorporating the Star Wars movies into the games, so you will notice some people and places from the movies, which always makes a game exciting.

Kyle is not some every day Joe when it comes to using the force. He is pretty handy with the Light Saber and isn’t a bad shot with the wide array of weapons he will encounter throughout the game.

For a big chunk of the beginning of the game you will be playing the game like a First Person Shooter, and after this the light saber will do you just fine. For the most part I really did not enjoy the first half of the game for several different reasons. First I really didn’t feel like a Star Wars game should be played like a shooter, it just didn’t capture the glory of Star Wars. The second major problem I had with the game’s gameplay was the level design. I found that several times throughout the game I had no idea where I was supposed to go. This really became a frustrating factor in the overall game.

Now to the good of the gameplay, which really saves the game from being a complete disaster. Two words - light saber. All I can say is Wow that is just a lot of fun. Even after running around with the saber for a long while it still feels special that you get to control the saber. There are also several different abilities you are given when you regain the force later on in the game that are just a lot of fun.

I actually found the multiplayer mode to be a lot more fun then the single player. You can duel it out with friends or even take your aggressions out on some bots. There are several different game types to choose from including Free for All, Team Free for All, Capture the Flag, and several other different game types that you and your buddies can play with.

A major factor that really helped Jedi Knight 2 was the control scheme. When playing the first portion of the game it is rather easy to get a hang of the first person shooter controls. The more difficult portion of the game is using the light saber. So it will take you some time to get used to it, but once you do you’re in for some great fun.

Graphics

Jedi Knight 2 is one of those games that look very visually impressive. At first glance you don’t seem to notice the amount of time that has gone into the game’s graphics, but play the game after a while and you’ll begin to appreciate its impressive visuals.

The character models have to be the best portion of the graphics. All the characters look very impressive and are very nicely detailed. The environment were not as heavily detailed as the character models but still nicely done.

The game can be played in the third and first person views. For the most part you will play in the first but when you do play in the third person view things seem to lose their clarity. So I normally liked the first person view for most cases, and only appreciated the third person view in certain cases.

LucasArts has always done well with the sound department, and Jedi Knight 2 is no exception. The easiest brilliance of the sound would definitely be the voice acting, which was just great to listen to. The sound effects are also nicely done and everything sounds exactly like you would hope it to.

Fun Factor

The fun factor in Jedi Knight was definitely the hardest portion of this review to do, because there are really some ups and downs to the game. It was really hard to get into the game at the beginning because it just didn’t feel like there was a lot of meaning to use it. The second reason why this game wouldn’t be fun was really the level design, which at times could really become frustrating. For the most part using the light saber helps make the game a lot more fun, and the multiplayer mode just gives the game a lot of replay value.

Overall

Jedi Knight overall was a very impressive game. The single player mode can be hard to get into but once you get into the portion of the game where you use the light saber the game is just a lot of fun. For all of you Star Wars fans this should be a definite pickup for all of you who have yet to get the PC version, because there is a lot of fun to be had here.