Yeah, you read the title right. It's better than any other Star Wars FPS, including other entries in the same series. The story and atmosphere are top notch. The live action cutscenes are extremely charming and were the first time anyone filmed a live actor wielding a lightsaber since Return of the Jedi 14 years earlier. This was the first game that let you play as a Jedi and wield a lightsaber, and the first to let you choose the path of the Light or Dark Side, with a different ending based on your Force Power choices and how many civilians you killed. Plus, the whole thing has that gritty feel of the old trilogy Star Wars EU, before the days of the prequels and sequels. My favorite SW era. Are the graphics a bit dated? Yes, obviously. This was very early in the days of 3D gaming. But there are plenty of fan-made remaster mods that allow it to run on modern systems at full resolution with improved textures, character models, and special effects. If you like first person shooters and/or Star Wars at all, you absolutely must play Jedi Knight. The level design is great, with lots of verticality, wide open spaces, variety of locales and enemies and weapons, and more. Give it a try, and you'll start having fun.
Save yourself half the price and buy the original game, which still runs just fine. Add on a widescreen mod and maybe a mod that converts BG1 to the BG2 engine (like TuTu or BGT), you've got your very own "enhanced edition," which works flawlessly, and doesn't come with any of the Beamdog's Enhanced Edition's more unfortunate changes. The new characters simply do not fit in this classic game. They're basically mod NPC's, which, again, you can find plenty of for free if that's your cup of tea. And even if you purposefully avoid the new characters, you still have to deal with the removal of all the old FMV cutscene sequences. The new "motion comic" style intro is a sad excuse for a replacement of the original. They even cut some of the important lines ("There are others! I can show you!"), removing a lot of the meaning. The EE changed both too much and too little. It changed too much for it to be quite the same experience it used to be, thanks to the removal of the FMV sequences and the addition of out-of-place new characters. And it changed too little, in that it's not really much of an "enhanced" edition - there are very few new features that haven't already been added to the original by modders for free. First-time Baldur's Gate players should buy the Complete edition and enjoy the original experience.
