Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

"The single best first-person Star Wars game on the PC. GET IT NOW !!"

FOREWORD

Hokay ... it's now 2004, and this game was released in 2003. A year on and it still ranks as the single most enjoyable Star Wars title on the PC in my opinion ... why ?? Read on ...

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

Star Wars Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Academy sees you take on the role of a trainee Jedi (you can customise your character as you see fit), learning the ways of the force and undertaking missions for the Academy to help train you in the use of your jedi powers, and ultimately choose your allegiance to either the light, or dark sides of the Force.

GRAPHICS - 9/10

Whilst there are a couple of instances where the game can appear ... a little blocky (as is so often the place with PC three-dimensional fully-interactive games, the graphics are, on the whole, EXTREMELY impressive. Some of the moves that you can do with your lightsaber are quite literally breathtaking the first time you do them, and you can leave your friends speechless when you start hacking your opponents to bits.

The choice of characters available are, GRAPHICALLY, quite varied (ranging from Rodians to Kel'Dor, Humans and Zabrak amongst others), and you can outfit them with different garbs and so on and so forth.

The levels are BIG and full of different types of enemies, so there is plenty of variety in the graphics on THAT level ... plus the levels themselves take place on different planets and in different settings, so again there are plenty of nice quirks to look at and enjoy.

SOUND - 8/10

Whilst the voice acting is good for the mostpart, there are a couple of things I don't like I must say ... for example, why when you choose the Rodian does he speak just exactly the same as any other male lead character ? ALL the other Rodians in the game speak their own tongue and have English sub-titles ... why not the lead if you choose him ??

Also there are a couple of instances when what the characters choose to say doesn't really fit in that well with action I feel ... "what the ..." is HARDLY a fitting response when a HUGE mutated Rancor beast drooling acid and eating Dark Jedi like kibbles is charging towards you in MY opinion ...

"HOLY F*CKING JEEEEEEZUS RUN YOUR @SSES OFF" might be a bit more like it ??? *blush*

Anyhow ... for the mostpart, as I say, the voice-acting and sounds are good. The sounds of the WEAPONS are really REALLY good - the same Stouker Concussion blast sound as has been used in other Star Wars games is present, and the swooshy swishy sounds of your lightsaber have all been given GREAT thought and attention - it even makes "proper" lightsaber sounds when it hits objects or strikes another lightsaber.

CONTROLS - 9/10

It's a PC game, so I won't lie to you - it's going to take a little while to get down with the control method - HOWEVER, ALL the controls in the game are fully customisable, and so you really have no excuse for not being able to come up with a control style that you like. I personally wind up playing using my left hand for movement and force powers, and my right hand on the mouse to look, jump and attack ... but maybe that's just me.

Once you have got a control method that works for you, you'll be sorted ;)

PLOT - 8/10

Actually rather good ! It's set some years after the Battle of Endor, so the plot is somewhat free-license ... but it fits in well with the Star Wars movies and concepts we know - there are plenty of planets you will have heard of if you're a Star Wars buff (or even if you're not !!), and the GENERAL plot is one that you will fall in with quite easily. Well thought out and well paced.

GAMEPLAY - 9/10

This game borders on being INSANELY good gameplay-wise. There are a great variety of weapons to choose from and they each have two functions, which promotes longevity and introduces both a sense of style when playing, and plenty of scope for trademark finishing moves ... you can also incorporate cheats, skins and mods into the game to enable you to play as characters that AREN'T available, or ones that you can download from the 'net ... you can even download a mod to enable you to play using a RED lightsaber (like all the bad boys) ... WOOHOO !! =D

REPLAY VALUE - 9/10

The ability to fully customise your own character, sink force points into whichever skills you choose, pick and build your own lightsaber, and see through the plot AND ultimately make the decision as to which side of the force you wish to fight for ? Is MORE than enough to keep you coming back time after time after time. Add to that a VERY very cool multi-player function, and you've got a game that's poised to keep you coming back loooooooooooooooooooooads.

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10

This is the single BEST Star Wars game available for the PC in my humble opinion ... or at least the single BEST Star Wars game where you can control a physical character as opposed to a vehicle like in the ALMIGHTY Tie Fighter series of games. I would DEFINITELY recommend it to ANYBODY that's a fan of the Star Wars genre, and ESPECIALLY the PC version as it's so easy to mod and customise.

OVERALL - 9/10 (This is NOT an average)

The best Star Wars game (where you control a character) available for the PC - pure and simple !

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* Choose your own character
* Customise your lightsaber
* Choose your force powers
* Choose which side of the force to fight for

MAIN BAD POINTS

* Only two voice-genders - i.e. human male and human female. The Twilek and Rodian at LEAST should have had their own voice-actors as well (for their main character positions).

SO SHOULD YOU GET IT ?

DEFFO. You should ALREADY have it - if you don't and you like the genre ? GET IT NOW !!!!! =D

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/04