STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II still holds up pretty after over twenty years. Gameplay is alright for its age and level design is pretty good. Williams' music works so well with the track selections being top notch. This game was a hallmark for having live action cutscenes featering the first lightsaber duels since Return of the Jedi. The acting isn't great but it definitely has more passion and authenticity than anything Disney Star Wars comes up with these days. The story is a bit contrived and a few occasions, but again, it has more passion and authenticity than Disney's Star Wars. Mysteries of the Sith however is rather disappointing. The title is awfully misleading. It's more a collection of unrelated short stories, with the final one actually involving the Sith. Yeah, the Sith story is the most interesting with its atmosphere, but it's also unreasonably difficult, which emphasises the overall problem with the level design in the expansion. It doesn't have live action cutscenes like the main game, and most voice acting sounds awful. So in short: Dark Forces II is a classic. Mysteries of the Sith sadly is not.

So yeah, I just wrapped up my latest playthrough like a few minutes ago. I’ve been a huge fan of the game since it dropped almost 30 years ago (and, of course, MotS too). Seriously, the vibe is unbeatable. The game totally gives off that real Star Wars feel. The soundtrack is awesome, and that mix of shooter and RPG (you know, kinda like Deus Ex) was totally genius back in the day (even if that doesn’t only apply to Dark Forces 2). With a little help from GitHub, it’s running like a charm on W11/3440x1440, no crashes, it’s flawless. I play through it once every year—it's basically turned into a tradition, for reals. - Story 10/10 - Gameplay 9/10 - Atmosphere 10/10 - Replay value 9/10 - Graphics 8/10 (still like them, don't compare them to modern titles though) - Level design 8/10 - Star Wars feeling 10/10 - Soundtrack 9/10

Star Wars: Dark Forces was a solid Star Wars action game with a common opinion among fans of being an almost perfect Star Wars power fantasy, except that you couldn't get to wield a lightsaber. This sequel seeks to remedy this critique, and thus we have Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. Picking up at the end of Dark Forces, you take control of Kyle Katarn, ex-imperial turned rebel operative, on a brand new quest of intrigue and double cross as Kyle races against a clan of Dark Jedi to find the fabled Valley of the Jedi. You'll battle through the empire, gangsters, tusken raiders and lightsaber-wielding foes as you experience quality Lucasarts story telling at its finest. On top of having slick combat, an engaging story and one of the most empowering arsenals ever to be in a videogame, Jedi Knight also feature live action performances with actors, costumes and special effects that truly bring the game's narrative to life. In short, it isn't a competition--but this game WINS.

Of all the games we get remakes for, this is the one that needs it. However, this is one of my favorite Star Wars adventures. Fun combat, you can chop arms off, and it was the first time the lightsabers felt good. Does it hold up? Yes, but you need to remember the time this came out in.

It does not ever properly handle some GPUs. But this game is a masterpiece of level design, puzzles, climate, music and sfx. Sacrifice time to run and configure it and you will be rewared with the best possible Star Wars action shooter game. They don't do such games anymore.