Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

"Wow. Just Wow."

In all my life, I have never like computer FPS games. They always felt awkward. They never made sense. Until Jedi Academy. I was reluctant to get it for the PC. But I just couldn't wait for the Xbox release. And my god, was it worth it.

So, let's begin.

Graphics- 8/10: Well, nothing special here, but nothing wrong. I'd say its a step up from JKII, as I experienced a TON of slowdown on that game with too many bots. On this game I've seen HUGE amounts of players, and barely any slow down, if at all. For the most part, its good. A tad better than JKII.

Story- 8/10: Once, again, nothing amazing. There is a story, but its not some awesome one, although I do like what is there. Clearly the game was focused on multiplayer, but i can get to that later.

Basically, you are a rare type of person. You constructed a lightsaber without any type of Jedi supervision, and thus you've been accepted into the academy. You travel on missions, and the story will unfold on its own. '

Like I said, not much you can talk about without spoiling anything, but hey, it gets better.

Controls- 10/10: You can customize your own controls completely. Therefore, it WILL be perfect for you. No reason it should get any lower than a 10.

Sound- 9/10: Nothing special once again, but still pretty good. More variety, especially with tuskans and jawas.

Gameplay- 10/10: Absolutely amazing. I've never experienced ANYTHING better. The singleplayer includes some challenges, and multi is just a whole other world.

In singleplayer, you get to choose whichever missions you want to do, but they are in sets. One mission had me jumping around on a speeding train, and another making me evade a giant sand monster as I gathered parts to repair a ship. (The following tow COULD be found in the first fifteen minutes of actual gameplay).

You also eventually (for singleplayer) get to choose whether you use one saber, dual blades, or a double bladed saber. In multiplayer you get to choose this off the bat. In addition, you can customize what your character looks like.

In multiplayer, you will find some great challenges, and amazing players. At first I could barely keep up with some of them. Then I got better. And now I usually place in the top 5 out of 20 in most servers I go to.

Cheaters are usually a big concern in mutliplayer. But JA has features allowing players to vote to kick cheaters, and anyone who lame kills (force pushes you off of cliffs and the like) is usually hated and/or kicked. So don't worry about this.

Also, a nice quality in this game for multiplayer is that lightsabers tend to actually hit each other like real duels, especially when you get into better battles. Matches become more intense as your skills improve and you go against tougher players. It's incredibly fun. The best part is being a jawa (via code, but its just a model and skin, no actual cheats on him).

Overall: Very good game. I suggest you buy it if you don't mind it being on PC, but if you'd rather it be on console for whatever reason, then I'd definitely wait. But don't bother renting. It's worth more than that. Much more.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/03