STAR WARS™ Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

Jedi Knight is a first-person shooter with an important twist: you have a lightsaber and force powers. The game is fondly remembered by most as being arguably the first title that lets you play as a Jedi. The single player portion consists of a series of story-driven missions, set a few years after Return of the Jedi, that have you travel around different planets, fighting classic Star Wars enemies and foiling the plans of a group of Dark Jedi. As you go through the game, you quickly get a lightsaber and start to learn how to use the Force. You get to choose which force powers you want and can eventually align with either the light or dark side and the story changes accordingly. It should be noted that the game still features solid gunplay and it doesn't feel like you have to use your lightsaber all the time to succeed (somewhat in contrast with Jedi Outcast and Academy). The missions also have great level design that might leave you scratching your head at times to figure out how to progress. As expected, the sounds and music are from the movies. The game also features live-action cinematics in-between the missions to advance the story, which is really great. The graphics themselves haven't aged very well, but I would stress the fact that the gameplay is so polished that it would be a shame if someone were to overlook the game for graphics alone. Some mods exist to improve the graphics. There is also a multiplayer mode consisting of various types of skirmishes. You get to create your character and customise him with whatever force powers you want. Overall, Jedi Knight is not only a landmark of Star Wars gaming, but it's also a terrific game in its own right. The story is fun and the RPG-like elements of customising the protagonist only add to this. The multiplayer was also a highling back in the days, though as is the case with many older games it might be hard to find others to play with. The single player mode is definitely worth the price by itself.

As soon as I saw this game in the front page, I bought, downloaded and played it. This was my favorite game when I was a kid. And know I am paying it again, just like then, in my language, wiht that gloriously overcompressed cutscenes and with all the magic that only classic Star Wars and "golden-aged" Lucasarts can gather. Thank you, GOG, for bring me back those moments. I can´t write an objective review in my current status of acute nostalgitis, but I may try. This is a first person shotter until mission 4, when you get the light saber, then it become a third person action game. You can configure the game so you autoswitch between first and thir person view when you use a gun or the light saber, or you just press F1 to swicht when you want. There are about 20 mission (22, if I remember well), some are just a duel against a single boss, some are short and lineal levels, some are more open and complex. I think you will need about 8-10 hours to finish the game. There is a lot of variety in scenarios (space stations, villages, ships, an abandoned house, a base in a mountain), weapons (blasters, rifles, wookie crossbow, rocket launcher, thermal detonators, machine guns) and enemies (stormtroopers, aliens, animals, some siths..). Then, there is the Force. You can become a jedi or a sith (just kill civilians or not), and the ending and some bosses will change depending of your way. You can earn force points (to do this, you must find secret places, so you must explore hard), and assign them to several power, like superjump, healing, shield, mental trick, thunderbolt, etc. And you will need them later in game, with harder enemies or complex jumping puzzle. It was one of the best games in that time, and for me, it will be for ever. PD: No, you can´t use harware acceleration in a modern sistem. Fortunately, it's not necessary. But if someone found a way to fix it, well, that would be orgasmic.

Great game! I will try to install the http://www.moddb.com/mods/jedi-knight-enhanced to upgrade graphics (jedi knight II quality) and also for the mysteries expansion.

Superb level design, great flow of action, great fmv's, good story featuring Kyle Katarn... simply put the best Star Wars game ever made, and it happens to be my favourite fps of all time too.