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

I bought this game because Jedi Academy is one of my favorite old games. but this one didn't really live up to my expectations. The game starts slow, for hours you won't even see a lightsaber or use the force and these levels can be quite irritating. Also, the brightness adjusting bar didn't work if I launched the game from the gog app and the game was very dark, but starting it in XP compatibiliy mode fixed this. Then I was getting into the better part of the game, when I bought a newer grapics card (before I had an Nvidia, bought an AMD). After this, the brightness adjusting did work, but the cursor didn't diasppear in game. I've read many forums about this issue but nothing helped so I uninstalled the game. So from a personal experience, this title doesn't run flawlessly on either Nvidia nor AMD cards, on the later it being unplayable.

This was my first time playing this game. I came in expecting a lightsaber-simulator/Jedi-power fantasy. Instead, I spent the first third of the game playing a mediocre fps. Then, after the first 5 levels or so, I eventually got the light saber - and spend the next 4 or 5 levels fighting hordes of snipers, which render it completely useless and the levels themselves a slog. Levels in general can become pretty drawn out not because of their complexity, but because the game is often terrible at communicating what you're actually supposed to do. THEN, after little more than half-way into the campaign, it finally became the game I intended to play. You spend the rest of it obliterating imperial troops with you saber and force powers and duelling Dark Jedi in between. Problem is, even then, the game never rises above simply 'good'. Fighting against the mooks is easy and fun (a power fantasy), but while the saber-combat allows for a lot of depth in theory, duelling against the AI is still mostly trial and error, although it does get significantly easier with practice. Plot and characters are also more on the thin side and in no way compare to the KOTOR series, although this features some characters of the original trilogy. All in all, it is still a good game for the price point, but without nostalgia, I can only say that the game could have been a lot better. Here's hoping for the sequel.

This game is barely fun att all. Much too difficult on normal and as far as i can see (level 2) still no story. Just hunreds of hundreds of Stormtroopers. And most of the time I'm looking for the way to proceed.

Many reviews of this game are unfairly made. It came out during a time when Multiplayer a main selling point for games. It's unfair to rate the multiplayer, especially a nostalgic memory of it, without the same experience available today. New players cannot expect to play the same game that was released. Reviewing only the single player, this is one of the worst quality games every commercially produced. The gameplay and level design is abominable compared to Dark Forces 1 & 2 and Jedi Academy. All first person shooter features of the game are glitchy, unfinished, or unwieldy. Dark Forces II, for example, tried to recreate gun combat from the prequel. Jedi Knight II abandons the previous gameplay and replaces it with one that is extremely glitchy and unreliable. Basic features like movement and combat are "unwieldy" if being nice. In fact, it is difficult to describe the gun combat without resorting to insults. They did not properly test the game before release, and only nostalgia hides that fact from veteran players. The level design is good in parts but most of the single player level design is terrible. Players are presented with puzzles that have no instruction and wrong moves result in death. Inconsistent themes make hazards appear safe. There's no feedback for failure or success. The player simply has to stumble upon solutions and then stumble upon the exit that the solution opened. Proper solutions often trigger movement glitches which kill the player and make the solution seem incorrect. Many puzzles seem to have two solutions but the secondary solution will result in eventual death, causing unrecoverable save positions. Exploration is an important part of every other title in this series. It is routinely punished with death in Jedi Knight 2. Exploration was simply removed from this game. Do not explore. In closing, this game could never stand on its own. It's very sad to see the franchise being used as a fake symbol of quality for this unfinished game.

This "port" by GoG is a complete mess; in my case I can't even see 3/4 of the main menu/screen thanks to another lazy-a** effort by gog.