Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

"Good solid Star Wars action!"

I don't review many games, usually because I can't be bothered, but in the case of this game, the reviews I read before buying it disagreed on so many things I just had to write my own so here it is...

Story 10/10
Jedi Outcast has a great story; it's really involving and better than most games of this type. I won't go into any details because the smallest thing can accidentally spoil a large portion of the plot. The game does follow the previous Jedi Knight for the PC, but experience with the first is not essential, I never played it and I could follow along with this quite well.

Graphics 8/10
A lot of gamers consider graphics to be a big sell point for games, and while the true hardcore among us don't feel this way, the majority really do, the graphics in Jedi Outcast for the GameCube aren't particularly incredible, but they aren't standard either. Obviously if you've played such visually impressive titles as TimeSplitters 2 and Metroid Prime you may feel disappointed with Jedi Outcast's visuals but they can sometimes be quite impressive too, (once you obtain your Lightsaber, the very next level can be quite impressive). The one area the graphics really are awful for anyone is the cut-scenes, for some reason they are all pre-rendered meaning that the video is blurry. It's not that bad though, as the cut-scenes are generally very short. Once you do get your Lightsaber, you'll notice great details such as leaving scorch marks in walls and such where your Lightsaber touches them. Lastly there is a problem with the gamma, but I'll get into that a little later on.

Sound 9/10
As with practically all Star Wars games the sound is excellent. Music, effects and for the most part voice go together really well (on the default volume settings the voices are occasionally drowned out by the music). There are lots of new tunes among classics such as the bar theme where Luke Skywalker met Han Solo. The only reason sound didn't get a ten is because of the multi-player, when you have 2 players and a bunch of bots shooting and hurling Lightsabers, the sound becomes nothing more than a constant fizzing, and you'll feel like turning the volume down.

Gameplay 7/10
For the most part, it handles well. The default settings for the control sticks are sluggish though, so you'd probably want to jack those up to almost full. The default control style is often difficult to master as well. I suggest changing it (there are many presets to choose from) until you get to the one which is basically Perfect Dark/Goldeneye's default scheme, where the stick moves forward/backward and looks left/right and the C-stick looks up and down and strafes. These settings will see the First Person Shooter parts of the game much easier to get the hang of, even if you have no experience with the above mentioned gaming greats. Once you get your Lightsaber though, the game’s controls make a lot more sense.

Another queer occurrence is that the manual ''strongly recommends'' the use of a Memory Card 251 as opposed to a 59. It doesn’t specify why, it does say a 59 will work, perhaps because you could barely fit two saves on a 59, Jedi Outcast is a whopping 27 block save (it saves not only settings, but your exact place, even weapon fire in levels). On the saving note still, saving often is essential, unfortunately dying is quite aggravating. Saving/loading not only takes quite a few seconds to do, but if you die, the level reloads entirely (the levels are preloaded and therefor take about 30-40 seconds on a loading screen) even if you were in the same place you saved when you died.

Now the games biggest problems, first the frame-rate. It's not so bad in solo usually, however in multiplayer the game can lower to what appears to be two or three frames per second at times, while many bots and two humans are in one big brawl all using Lightsabers, this really happens thankfully. Lastly, as I said in Graphics, the gamma is a major problem at times, especially in nighttime levels. The brightness for the game is, at times set so low you can't tell the difference between the floor and a bottomless pit. Granted that doesn’t occur in too many levels but when it does it can be very frustrating. It can easily be remedied by turning your TV's brightness up, however you'll want to turn it back down for levels where this problem doesn’t happen. Oddly enough playing the really dark levels when in the multiplayer mode doesn’t have the same problem.

Multiplayer 10/10
This is where the game really does shine, a load of levels, weaponry and computer controlled bots to selects. The bots personality can be customized to your skill and liking. You can have up to 2 humans and and 10 bots in a level at once but another human is not needed to access the multiplayer mode. There is nothing to describe a heated Lightsaber other than exhilarating and downright fun!

Lasting appeal 9/10
The game is a good 10 hours plus on the first run through, there are tons of hidden areas and four difficulty settings as well. The main feature that will keep you coming back is the multiplayer, it's a really good game in this aspect, I just wish you could have had more than two humans.

Rent or buy
If you are the type of fan who has to own every piece of Star Wars merchandise, loved the first Jedi Knight or can't handle not hurling Lightsabers at people any longer then buy, if you're unsure for any reason I suggest renting it first.

Phew, big review is all done, enjoy!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/02/03