While Dark Alliance II provides some medieval hack-and-slash fun, especially with a friend, this sequel is incredibly shallow in its animations, game economy and story telling. While one might argue that Dark Alliance 1 is a shorter experience, its brevity is beautiful in comparison to its successor's droning run time, with repetitive locals and arduous character progression. If you must, must, must see what happens following the cliff-hanger of Dark Alliance 1, this sequel will provide adequate narrative closure, but proceed with cautionm as, outside of its loyal fanbase's undying nostalgic devotion, Dark Alliance II has little to offer beyond tiresome monotony.
Star Wars: Dark Forces was a solid Star Wars action game with a common opinion among fans of being an almost perfect Star Wars power fantasy, except that you couldn't get to wield a lightsaber. This sequel seeks to remedy this critique, and thus we have Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. Picking up at the end of Dark Forces, you take control of Kyle Katarn, ex-imperial turned rebel operative, on a brand new quest of intrigue and double cross as Kyle races against a clan of Dark Jedi to find the fabled Valley of the Jedi. You'll battle through the empire, gangsters, tusken raiders and lightsaber-wielding foes as you experience quality Lucasarts story telling at its finest. On top of having slick combat, an engaging story and one of the most empowering arsenals ever to be in a videogame, Jedi Knight also feature live action performances with actors, costumes and special effects that truly bring the game's narrative to life. In short, it isn't a competition--but this game WINS.
Dark Forces is a no-holds-barred epic Star Wars action game. It was created by Lucasarts circa 1995, at the highth of the company's incredible success with point-and-click adventure games such as Monkey Island, Sam & Max and favorable cash-ins on popular franchises such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, making Dark Forces an action game made by excellent story-tellers. Each mission begins with an immersive briefing that sheds light on not only the planet on which your mission takes place, but your reasons for being there and explanations for why you'll have to take certain paths and combat certain obstacles, all the while giving you a nuanced glimpse into the loyal and light-hearted working relationship between mission handler Jan Ors and player character Kyle Katarn. Level design and mission structure is very narratively based. You'll be navigating maps with a clear and realistic sense of archetecture, from bombed out cities, to sewage systems to Imperial strongholds, every corner has a story to tell. The game technically boasts large advancements for the FPS genre, being the first game to render multiple layers of world space, allowing areas and locals to be much larger and multi-floored then its competitors. Dark Forces may not be as long or as challenging as other games of its era, but it is an excellent Star Wars entry, and acts as foundation for the Jedi Knight series, which builds upon every idea started in this title. It may not feature a lightsaber, but it also doesn't blow up the entire cast with the death star in the last 10 minutes, nor does it put an over-emphasous on the narratively-uninteresting plot of stealing the plans to the death star. What other writers might tell in two and a half hours, this game conveys in 20 minutes with a fully original story containing new, longlasting characters and exciting developements afterwords. Definitely a fun time for any Star Wars fan.
When being compared to its predecessor, Jedi Outcast, Academy can--somtimes accurately--be accused of being more of an expansion than a sequel. The majority of models for the main cast have been reused as well as an identical arsenal of weapons with very few, if any new additions. With that being said, what Jedi Academy offers is polished gameplay, an expanded lightsaber combat system, character customization and short, fastpaced levels that never leave you feeling bored or stuck. With a devoted modding community that has been going strong sense 2003, Jedi Academy is very much still alive, with maps, skins, multiplayer and new campaigns by a talented fanbase. This final entry in the Dark Forces series may very well be an expansion, but it is an excellent, huge, and stupendously fun one at that.
