I was pretty young when Jedi Academy came out, and didn't play it for a few years until after its release at a friend's house. I remember having the time of our lives playing multiplayer, but I never stuck around to buying the game. Fast forward more than a decade and I've gotten a seasoned taste of video gaming, but mostly on modern games. So when I saw this thing for sale, I knew this would be my one purchase of the month. Jedi Academy is an absolute JOY to play. To those who played games of the earlier days, the controls and momentum of movement should make you feel at home. Born of the Quake 3 engine, the movement is slick, the shooting is excellent, and the devs did some straight witchcraft with their lightsaber system. No other game has as interesting or rapid a combat melee system. You're on GoG, so you're not here for the graphics (which still have better faces look better than Oblivion) but they're definitely passable; textures aren't too muddy and the lightsabers and guns look great. Textures are more visibly weak on open levels, but are made up with set piece meshes. Now, I haven't played most newer Star Wars games but when I say they don't make them like they used to, I meant gaming in general. Remember when you could get crushed by objects that compressed you? Remember when you could use your force grip and use it to slam enemies into the ground or other enemies and actually kill them? Thank the Quake Three engine. You don't see this kind of thing in newer games unless it's a scripted gimmick that advertisers and devs rave about. Meanwhile you can send enemies absolutely flying by doing any combination of abilities using the force without a tutorial telling you. The game's a touch easy once you learn the force powers and how they work and while the campaign is very fun, it's very easy to burn through it after the first playthrough. None the less, Jedi Academy is one of the most fun games I've had the pleasure of playing. Buy it!
What more do you cynical twats want based on these reviews I'm reading? You farm slimes in a ranch that make super cute faces and bounce everywhere in a relaxing pace. If you bought this for "mechanics" and "progression," you need to question why you even play games to begin with. The best 20 dollars I've spent on a game. It's a cute game, nothing more, nothing less. Absolutely no pretense.
A lot of reviews have already highlighted the weaknesses of Hotline Miami 2 so I'll go through my gripes with it. While the story is engaging and entertaining, the inability to select your own mask and abilities makes for a more confined and less repeatable experience. Second, the game is completely unlike the first. The first was a mixture of both tactical planning and on the fly random decisions. It did not punish you for going in guns blazing because sometimes, through luck or skill, you could react dynamically enough. However, I find I have to methodically plow through Hotline Miami 2 because there are many scenarios that will get you killed unless you used the "peek ahead" button that centers your view around your mouse so you can see further around your character. However, this is not conducive to the break-neck pace the music, aesthetic, and frankly the nature of the game want you to go. To me, this just isn't fun. Rarely, if ever, have I been able to spontaneously murder an entire level of enemies between sheer luck because of traps or arbitrary elements I would not have seen without scoping around in HM2. The music, art, and gore are all gloriously equivalent to HM1, but the gameplay is not sadly.
Most of the other reviews have covered all the upsides so I'll just get to the point. Now to the things that have plagued me; this could just be a result of my computer (far exceeds minimum requirements) but just something to keep an eye out. However, my friend says he never has these issues and I've watched other videos of the game working just fine. For the record, I am running a quad core I7 with 8gb of RAM on a 960M on Windows 10. I've a hunch it's windows 10, but compatibility mode doesn't help. First off, my game "freezes" for a split second when loading enemy dialogue or when they detect me or spawn. If my game freezes as I approach the corner to a door and I get a hitchup, I know there's usually an enemy or at least a civilian. Telling them to stand down does it as well against enemies. Shooting is no better. You know that red flash of damage on your screen when you get hit? Yeah, I never get that. When I'm exchanging fire with an enemy, the very moment I click to fire, I freeze up. If the enemy is looking at me and firing at the same time, I'll more often than not be dead after that half a second freeze. It is one of the most infuriating things I have ever experienced. One time, I was shooting an enemy from behind and I was quite literally lagging down to 15FPS as I was shooting him. It was god-awful. Second, there is no lag compensation when playing with friends in multiplayer. If your ping is over 50, you have an objective disadvantage as enemies tend to react faster. They prioritize enemy doing damage to you over their animations, so'll have whatever your ping value detracted from the time you have to react to their telegraphing. The game is still excellent. I have not yet found a solution, nor a cause to this. I noted that when starting up the expansion for the first time (compared to the base game), the game ran as smooth as butter. The more I played, the same issues started coming up until they were like the base.
