Star Wars™: Jedi Knight™ - Jedi Academy™

Buying a game on Gog entitles you to YOUR copy of the game. Without DRM the game is yours forever, or up until you have access to your account at the very least. But I believe you know what I mean. However, one of the most unheard of perks that come from purchasing through GOG, comes in the form of the control of even the version you wish to play of each game you own. Hence the Beautiful "Downgrade!" title. This is a game that similarly to its predecesor (Jedi Outcast) has been patched recently (two years ago according to gog) to make some commands of the console to stop working altogether. That is, mainly, the famous "dismemberment" cheats that allow the lightsaber to behave... LIKE A FREAKING LIGHTSABER!!! Considering this is probrably the only game series in the franchise to even grasp the feeling of what it's like to actually use a lightsaber, to have the lightsaber do nothing more than a scratch in your characters seems kinda dissappointing. which is why the developers of the game astutely hid a dismemberment command that allows you to cut through your enemies arms, torso, head, and legs, as if they were made out of butta. Thanks to the fact that you can play the original, past, versions of this title through gog, the new patches which enforce some form of "censorship" are, now, here, mute. I applaud GOG for giving me access to every version of these games and not only the most recent one. Thank you sincerely. As for the game, it is fantastic, amazing combat systems, incredible lightsaber feel, you can use plenty of force powers, every mission is distinctive and unique all of which feel perfectly in place within the Star Wars universe. The story is wonderful, the characters, voice acting, and writing are all great. And generally speaking the gaming community to this day is still going strong creating all sorts of mods for this incredible gem of a game. Truly one of the best Star Wars titles ever made.

The attention to detail in this 2 decade old game is way better than in titles such as Jedi: Fallen Order. Light sabers leave burn marks on almost everything they touch and you get cinematic finisher moves + dismemberment without them being touted as "revolutionary" features. They're just there. The same goes for saber customization, various projectile weapons and RPG like force power advancements. And did I mention it has multiplayer game modes with optional bots? Game changing mods that add new player models, maps and even new campaigns? Sure. There's even this open source engine remake project (OpenJK) which offers things like bug fixes, better resolution support and even a Linux build. Sadly, there are no ponchos. :|

Old classic that has kept its charm. As a successor to Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, this game has improved the lightsaber combat and adds dual sabers and two-handed saber. Excellent game, like the Outcast. Not as linear as Outcast, as the game alternates between linear plot driven missions and user selectable missions. I highly recommend you get both games. You can enjoy proper old school Star Wars action games, that are not ruined with premium currencies and microtransactions. When you get this game, you want to download "The Jedi Academy Texture Overhaul" packages and make the game look better with improved textures. Installing is easy; just unpack the downloaded zip files and copy the resulting .pk3 files in to Jedi Academy's "\GameData\base\" directory. Nothing is overwritten or altered, you're just adding 3 extra files, so you can't even mess up the game and its original files. They are all free and you can find them here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-jedi-academy-texture-overhaul You need to download these 3 packages: 1. The Jedi Academy Texture Overhaul v.0.3 Combined - filename: JKA_Tex_Overhaul_0.3.pk3.zip - filesize: 1.86 GB 2. JKA Texture Overhaul v.0.3.1b_Chandrilla_HQ - filename: JKA_Tex_Overhaul_0.31b_-_Chandrilla_revamped.pk3.zip - filesize: 86.55 MB 3. JKA Texture Overhaul v.0.3.h_Hoth_fix - filename: JKA_Tex_Overhaul_0.3h_Hoth_fix.pk3.zip - filesize: 26.43 MB

First off, I'm NOT a big Star Wars fan; I'm a big "great game" fan. That being said, Star Wars fans have been fortunate to have great games come out of that license. Along with Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefront II (2005), Jedi Academy is among the best Star Wars games ever made. Unlike Jedi Outcast (which is great in its own right), you actually start out with a Lightsaber and Force Powers in Jedi Academy. The story in Jedi Academy has its share of annoyances and isn't as good as Jedi Outcast, but the gameplay more than makes up for it. Cool combat, diverse locales, RPG-like Force Power upgrades, character customization, environmental puzzles...all make for a great game. All-in-all, Jedi Academy is a great swan song for the Quake 3 Engine and a damn fine use of the Star Wars license.

A worthy finale to the seminal Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series and a still a ton of fun to play. The level and mission design doesn't feel as archaic as Jedi Outcast and you get right into the best part of the game from the tutorial, lightsaber combat! The lightsaber combat and Force powers have been drastically improved since Jedi Outcast, giving you a lot more options in combat. If you enjoy Repawn's modern Jedi game, go ahead and give their spiritual predaccesors a try. They're very different games, but tell a pretty cool overaching story. Plus, dark side endings!