Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

"The Closest thing you'll get to being a Jedi."

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

Score: 9/10

With the third installment in the Jedi Knight series (4th if you count the original Dark Forces) the game has you playing a custom made character named Jaden Corr, instead of Kyle Katarn, who you played as in the three previous installments. The game allows you to pick from 8 different races and customize a male or female character (both with male and female voices provided). Unlike Jedi Knight 2, you start with a lightsaber in the beginning of the game and have the option of switching to a dual sabers (two in each hand) or saber staff (the infamous Darth Maul saber), complete with several color options.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward except in certain situations, where the painstaking puzzle of finding your next pathway comes up from Jedi Knight 2. Otherwise the game does what it is meant to do, that is whoop alien butt with your lightsaber. The gameplay is incredibly fun, besides the lightsaber there are your standard Star Wars themed weapons, such as Han Solo’s blaster, thermal detonators, trip mines, a sniper rifle, a flak cannon and others. The game progresses in a linear fashion, but you have the option of picking missions, after completing 4 out of 5 you will get the option of doing a main plot mission or continue the smaller missions. The main missions are much more difficult than the missions you get to pick. There is great variety among the missions themselves. One has you taking on a rancor; another has you jumping from cart to cart on a train. All in all the missions are very fun.

The more missions you do the more force points you get to spend on force powers. Both dark side powers and light side powers such as lightning, grip (choke), heal, and absorb. The neutral powers advance automatically. The weapons are very fun to use, but there is nothing quite like whooping some butt with the saber. The saber will be your primary weapon to use. The single saber comes with three different stances and the move set varies with the stance. The dual saber is very effective as you can throw it, unlike the saber staff which has kick as a secondary attack. Although you can switch the dual or staff saber into a single saber at your whim.

The graphics are good, not nearly as good as some of the graphic powerhouses such as Unreal 2, but it gets the job done. There is a great variety of locales to visit, and the visuals do not get in the way of the game, the in game animations are superb, it’s a great felling watching a body having been forced griped to death. But the cut scenes lack life and energy. The animations in the cut scenes (namely the facial animations) are poorly done.

The audio, which is compromised mostly of John Williams’ work, is very nice. The voice acting is excellent, each of the characters are great, Luke sounds like Luke, and Kyle has a gruff voice that fits his character. Both the female and male version of Jaden is very nice. The female voice is supplied by Jennifer Hale, the same actress who did Bastila’s voice work in Knights of the Old Republic.
The game has a very strong replay value do to its excellent multiplayer and variety of missions. Multiplayer mode comes with CTF, Free for all, team free for all, duel, power duel (two against one), and an objective based siege mode, which is incredibly addictive. Siege has you playing roles, such as scout, Jedi, or demolitions.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a very well done action game, which anyone with a remote interest in action games or star wars in general should check out. It’s worth at least forty dollars US. With this and Knights of the Old Republic out, Star wars or any video game fan should be happy.

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Replay: 9/10

This game is one of the best ways to kill some spare time. With some practice, players should be able to learn the nuances of the game and haul ass.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/03