Well now, here we are, at the end of our epic (…) journey. The current last installment of the Jedi Knight franchise, and the last of our 4 part saga. Bit of an anti-climax, in truth, because though, in my opinion, it was an excellent game, I have to confess to having a quite major criticism of it. But I’m getting ahead of myself. From the top then. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (or Dark Forces 4, Jedi Knight 3, if we are going to be pedantic and inaccurate), was released in 2003, the same year as the unequalled Knights of the Old Republic, and though it couldn’t have been a more different game if it tried (well, it could have been a Racing simulator, or an RTS, but shut up), it was a very good year to be a Star Wars fan. Two games that stand up to the test of time excellently, both released within months of one another. Almost as though they were Jedi Twins. The same, despite their differences. Anyway. Building on the astronomical success of Jedi Outcast, the same studio, Raven Software, developed Jedi Academy, but controversially decided to deviate away from the usual Jedi Knight protagonist. Though Kyle Katarn, ex-Mercenary, ex-Jedi, ex-Mercenary again, now redeemed jedi and Academy Teacher (that’s quite a resume) features heavily in the story of Jedi Academy, like Mysteries of the Sith before it, he is only a secondary character, playing second fiddle to newbie, Jaden Korr, a male/female human/rodian/zabrak/kel dor (Jaden Korr’s exact biology was ambiguous until recently, as in game, the character was customisable. Other, spin off media has since legends-canonised the character as the rusty haired human male model. You know, the least interesting of all the permutations of the character), from Coruscant, who has been summoned to enrol at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Praxeum on the moon of Yavin 4, having created himself a lightsaber without any formal training or guidance. You also get to customise the look of that lightsaber’s colour and hilt, though if you are like me, you never use the stock hilts, as they just look too big and clunky for the player model. Oh, the glory of an enormous, still active modding community. It doesn’t take long for things to go sour for Jaden, whose shuttle is shot out of the sky by a magic, laser blasting sceptre, and after a brief trek through the critter strewn jungle, you discover a vaguely familiar woman (for anyone who played JK2, that is), leeching the Dark Side force energy from an obsidian temple. For any lore buffs out there, this temple is actually the Tomb of Exar Kun, long dead Dark Lord of the Sith, and one of many for whom the Jungle world became their non-final resting place. Rescued by Kyle, Luke and the rest of the new students, Jaden, and friend Rosh Penin, soon begin their training in the Jedi arts under Master Kyle, taking on missions for the Order as they train, whilst investigating the threat of the woman with the Sceptre. Not going into too much detail, as the story is excellent, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for any of you who have played JK2, but not JK:JA, it is definitely worth your time, so do it. It features fun new gameplay mechanics (double-bladed saberstaff, dual sabers, or Jar Kai as it is otherwise known, and the return of a rudimentary Force Alignment system), and the structure of the story has been vastly altered from JK2. Whereas the latter featured longer missions on individual planets, broken into sections, JK:JA features much smaller missions on a wider variety of planets and locations. Though, typically, there are two missions on Tatooine, because everyoneloves that dusty old rock, it also features such rarely seen delights as Corellia, Vjun, Byss (ish), a ruined and re-garrisoned Echo Base, Chandrila and Korriban. And yet. I have to profess, as much as I loved the game, for a variety of reasons, it was still difficult, when playing it so soon after it’s big brother, to escape the feeling that it is simply a very big reworking of Jedi Outcast. Sure, it featured cool new game mechanics. Sure, it featured new characters, new story, new cameos. Chewie. But, at the end of the day, it is difficult to get past the sensation that you are just playing, and, at the time, paying for (can’t really say that now, as it has come down dramatically in price, and I can now play it on a tablet…) a very big, well made expansion pack for JK2. It has the same engine, little improvement graphically, and the lightsaber duels, which were so excellent when playing as Kyle, can descend into something of a clusterfudge when two characters with multiple blades come face to face. Where Kyle’s duels flowed nicely and felt choreographed, the finesse is lost in Jedi Academy, replaced by something more akin to a double-bladed wrecking ball, cleaving through everything with a furious gusto. Which is great, for what it is, and I suppose a Light Sided Jedi really has no business wielding so ferocious a weapon as that. I’m likely just quibbling, and no one likes a quibbler. So, thoughts? Were you impressed with the thus far last huzzah of the Jedi Knight series? Or did you think that it could have gone out on more of a Kyle-flavoured note of crescendo? I do hear rumour of a Moddb project to create a “sequel” to the Dark Side ending of the game, with *spoiler alert!!!!!* Kyle journeying off to track down the fallen Jaden and the stolen Sceptre of Marka Ragnos. But last I saw, they were a long way off from a release date. Anyway, It has been fun reviewing our patron series, I hope you enjoyed yourself, and I await your comments with giddy abandon. Stay tuned for more exciting reminiscence in Star Wars in the near future. Going to give it a rest next week, as it is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for those in the know), and I’m attempting to 50000 words of a novel in a month. No small feat. Anyway, might have to review Super Bombad Racing now, to counter the fabness of these last few weeks. It can’t all be good, and without the utterly terrible, the good would not taste so sweet as it does. Master Ash MTFBWU
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:00:55 +0000
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