Posted on: April 13, 2022
Hanglyman
Verified ownerGames: 444 Reviews: 141
Weakest of the Trilogy, But Still Great
Jedi Knight was very impressive when it first came out, a time when expanded universe novels and games were essentially the only Star Wars stuff out there besides the original movie trilogy. The plot is a little bare bones and a bunch of villains just appear with almost no backstory, but the live action cutscenes are still great, even if the acting is slightly off and the CGI elements are very obviously not part of the scene. The worst thing about JK is the in-game graphics, which have ugly, grainy textures and jagged polygons, similar to an early Playstation game. I highly recommend getting the Jedi Knight Remastered mod, easily installed via a simple exe, to bring the graphics up to a more bearable standard, closer to Jedi Knight 2. There are a few other flaws as well, such as cumbersome, hard-to-use and often ineffective Force powers, mines that immediately blow up in your face if you use their primary fire mode, and a heavy reliance on a lightsaber combat system that manages to be incredibly simple yet almost impossible to reliably attack or defend yourself with. But overall, it's a fun ride with great level design and deep immersion into the Star Wars universe. The Mysteries of the Sith expansion goes a little deeper into the expanded universe lore, has even more complex level design (sometimes a little too much, you'll be searching a few rooms for several minutes just to find where to go next), and a few new weapons and powers. It's essentially more of the same (minus the live action cutscenes), but exploring new planets and seeing even more cool Star Wars tech, a lot of which has continuity with other games such as TIE Fighter or Shadows of the Empire. The final levels are an unfairly difficult slog through endless lightsaber battles, but at least manage to be atmospheric, and cheat codes are easy to find if you just want to get through the game. If you use a graphics mod, this title holds up really well and is highly recommended.
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