Star Wars™: Jedi Knight™ II - Jedi Outcast™

Jedi knight 2: Jedi Outcast stand to this day as the best Jedi simulator in existence. It really is quite simple: you press a direction in combination with the attack button to do different swings that you can chain together a certain number of times depending on the stance you're in. To block, simply don't attack and keep your opponent in sight and you automatically block any non-.explosive attacks. The light style fashions itself on the prequels with high speed, flashy spinning and infinite chaining. The medium style is your average Luke Skywalker-esque solid and defensive style. The heavy style brings to mind Darth Vader's heavy, powerful single strikes without any chaining whatsoever. Combat between force users basically revolve around catching your opponent in a missed swing or a particularly slow recovery to get in a clean hit. But what is a Jedi without his force abilities? You got Push, Pull, Grip, Lightning, Heal, Speed and Mind trick along with more passive abilities like jump and saber throw. Somewhat disappointingly, only push and speed are truly essential in duels thanks to push's ability to send jumping foes slamming down to the ground and break attempts at using grip. Speed. well, it kind of speaks for itself. That does not mean that using pull to send your enemy straight into your range instantly or Lightning to get in extra damage is worthless, it's just not something you want to to use your precious energy on over speed and push when in combat with force wielders. If any of this sound interesting, get this game! Just beware that the game is a proud bearer of hard and confusing old-school FPS design. If you decide to take on the challenge and not use a guide, be prepared to be annoyed more than once. On the positive side, the game becomes a lot more fun on repeated playthroughs where you know exactly what to do.

I really like this game and I really want to play it on my newer computer, but unfortunately I found out too late that this game is not compatible for the Windows 10 platform. The sequel game Jedi Academy works great, so I have no idea why GOG made this game work on the other platforms and not 10 Make sure to really pay attention to the game details section on the game's store page.

Jedi Outcast is the sequel to Jedi Knight and features a series of story-based single player scenarios and a multiplayer mode. The single player portion has you play as Kyle Katarn once again, a mercenary-turned-Jedi who fights for the New Republic. The core story is pretty utilitarian but well told and Katarn's story arc is surprisingly fleshed out for what is ultimately an action/shooter game. You'll be travelling to many memorable locations including Nar Shaddaa, Bespin and Yavin, along with infiltrating Imperial bases and starships. The gameplay is very polished and features what is in my opinion the best lightsaber combat ever created in a Star Wars game. It's easy, intuitive and, most importantly, downright fun. You also have a lot of fun force powers to mess around with enemies. Most of the levels are quite large and can get confusing at times - not as much as those in the first game, but still more cryptic than your average modern game. I see this as a good thing, as you have to use your brain every once in a while and it makes it more rewarding to figure out the puzzles. The multiplayer portion sports a few different game modes with all the weapons and force powers that you see in single player. Although a real highlight in its day, it should be mentioned that the multiplayer in the sequel Jedi Academy was somewhat improved. If you only care about multiplayer battles you may be better served with the sequel, if only because it was more popular and probably has more players. Jedi Outcast is a must-have for any Star Wars fan. In my opinion, the real highlight nowadays is the single player game, which is arguably superior to that of Jedi Academy. It's a fun romp through classic Star Wars locations with a pretty genuine original trilogy vibe. I think the game does better than its predecessor in that regard, which often felt like it was a Star Wars game in name only. The extremely responsive controls and smooth gameplay are also worthy of praise.

Jedi Outcast has nice plot, good missions and is a very good game overall but the most important feature of this game is its lightsaber combat. The next game in the series, Jedi Academy, might have had more lightsaber types and more lightsaber duels but in Jedi Outcast the fights and fighting mechanics were much better (also the plot and missions in Outcast are better). For starters lightsabers are deadly, most fights end in a single good hit. The lightsaber duels are usually intense struggles of dodging and parrying until one side makes a mistake. For comparison, in Jedi Academy the fights are usually much shorter, easier and you usually need several good hits to kill an enemy (a ridiculous amount of hits in case of some bosses). This simplification was probably a direct result of the added lightsaber types. Jedi outcast also did a lot better job in making the lightsaber duels feel special, instead of wiping out lightsaber users in every second room like in Academy, there were only a handfull of force users in the game and every one of those encounters felt memorable and challenging. Jedi Outcast is the best star wars lightsaber/jedi game there is.