Below are user reviews of Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 11)
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wow!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 12 / 13
Date: March 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User
This is a terrific first-person shooter and it's long -- so you get a lot of gameplay. While I haven't played any of the multiplayer games, I thoroughly enjoyed single player. There are plenty of interesting missions with a connecting storyline (a Lucas Arts strength ever since Dark Forces) and if you've played other Star Wars titles like Dark Forces, it's thrilling to see many of those same environments with better graphics, including your mentor at the Academy, Kyle Katarn! Before each mission you can select weapons to use in additon to strengthening your Force Powers, such as Healing, Grip, Force Absorption, Protection, Lightning, etc. By the end you've really customized your abilities. In one of the last levels you will choose the Dark Side or the Light, and this does affect the gameplay. You also get to ride a few different vehicles, which is fun, and I like that you can save anytime.
I do have a few minor complaints -- in the last dozen or so levels you must rely almost exclusively on the light saber, while I really like using a wider variety of weapons; the faces of players are oddly flat; and even though I met the system requirements I experienced slowdowns quite often.
If you like FPSs or games in the Star Wars universe, you will really enjoy this game for Mac. May the Force be with you.
Great Game!
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I wish I could say I've personally played the Macintosh version of this game, but as I'm completely addicted to the PC version, I can say this game is addictive!
You basically hack and slash your way through mission after mission of Jedi action. I mostly like the dark side powers (wandering around choking stormtroopers to death is loads of fun, especially when you can slam 'em around afterwards). The storyline is pretty decent, the missions are challenging without being obnoxious about it.
As I'm thinking about getting a Mac (mostly to expand my knowledge of them), I figure the best way to get myself to use it is to load it down with some good games. I figured this one and maybe "Halo" would be good incentive.
For those of you who're interested, I dug up the system requirements (which don't seem to be posted at this time)
System Requirements: (from aspyr)
Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later
PowerPC G3/G4/G5, 500 MHz or faster
256MB of RAM
1.3 GB free disk space
3D Graphics Acceleration required (ATI Radeon 7500/nVidia GeForce 2 or better, 32MB of VRAM)
4X CD-ROM
Multiplayer Requirements:
Internet and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported
Internet play requires a 56Kbps or faster connection
733 MHz or faster recommended for Multiplayer
Great idea, flawed execution (This review applies to single player only)
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User
I enjoyed Jedi Outcast, so I bought this as well.
The various features they added to the game are welcome additions, but the frame rate in this game is simply terrible. I have a fairly high end mac setup (Dual G5) with plenty of memory, I toyed with the video and sound settings, I downloaded the patch, but my frame rate is probably around 15-20 fps. Any time I switch weapons or kill someone I get noticable chop.
I don't know what engine changes they made, but Jedi Academy definitely does not play as well as Jedi Outcast.
Of the levels that I have played, I think the level design is a little weak. Between this and the frame rate, it is doubtful that I will even bother finishing it.
Best in the series of Jedi Knight
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User
This game is simply great. It runs perfectly smooth at 60+ FPS. The multiplayer is fantastic, with siege modes that include classes and vehicles. The storyline is definately Star Wars worthy. The game is NOT jerky and runs fine. I own this for my PC and MAC, and both run great, though i do get a much higher FPS on my PC which is around 90+.
Mediocre
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 7 / 15
Date: May 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User
Ok, so I got an eMac for christmas, and I figured that I'd better take advantage of the graphics card. So I went to the mac store and saw this and Halo sitting side by side. Needless to say, this is a predicament. I have always been a big Dark Forces fan, so I went with Jedi Academy. Boy was that a mistake. The only really cool thing about this game is the use of the lightsaber. Not only that, but the lightsaber is the only thing in the game that looks like it could have come from an FPS made post-doom. Aside from the lightsaber, the graphics are terrible. The game is really jerky, and about 2/3rds through, it becomes downright boring and I actually had to force myself to keep playing, hoping that the endless monotony would lighten up. (which it didn't.) The first few levels of this game are fun, but it goes way downhill after the hoth mission. Anyway after I had played this game for about two weeks, I traded it in for Halo, which is 10 times more fun, has infinitely better graphics, and runs beautifully on my machine.
Good/Bad, I can't classify it, it goes all over the board
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User
I'm going to warn everyone looking at buying this game to make sure that their computer's specs are much more than the requirements of this game. My Computer has twice the requirements and I get really choppy performance (twice the RAM, twice the processor speed, a better than recommended graphics card, et cetera).
The reason anyone's going to be looking at this game is for the lightsaber combat, which is awesome!. The problem is that when you're fighting someone else with a lightsaber, there's so much that the computer has to do, that your framerate drops to unacceptable levels.
One thing to look at is this game's predecessor, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. My computer runs that game flawlessly, even with multiple jedi duking it out with all their powers. So I don't get why my coputer can't run this as well. One area where this game is much better than it's predecessor is the maps. In Jedi Knight 2, I'm always looking at the maps and thinking about, "why is there this bottomless pit here?" Or, "How did all those guys up there shooting at me get there, there's no way up or down from there." At least in the two levels of this game that I've played (I have the demo, not the full game) everything seems to have a purpose where it is, even if it does seem a little odd (like a tomb in ruins, that's built straddling a bottomless rift)
As for the story, I can't tell you whether or not it's compelling like the one in Jedi Knight 2 or not because I haven't played the full game, but from what I've read, it's a lot more contrived than it's predecessor.
So beware of this game, don't play it unless your computer is at LEAST 1.25ghz and you have about 512mb RAM, otherwise you'll get stutters where you don't know what's happening. As for me, I'm not going to buy it solely because of the poor performance I've gotten on the demo, I might buy it for my xbox though, just so I can play it through.
Good Star Wars, as always!
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User
You'll have great fun! As always, an excelent Star Wars adaptation. You feel in the star wars univers form the beginning on. Great fun!
Could have been better
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 1 / 4
Date: May 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User
If this was a $15 dollar game it would be worth every penny.
Not a complete waste of money but not worth 40 bucks. The graphics could be better and a lot of bugs for a Lucas product. The story line isn't that great. The 500 processor requirement is a little low, at 600 if you have other things going on in the game (acid rain) then the computer gets freaked out what happens first. I really don't see a problem with that happening on a G5 but for the G4 people, I wouldn't get this.
Star Wars Fans
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User
I am the typical Star Wars Geek and I love to play the classics including Dark Forces, X-Wing, and Battle Front. Jedi Academy really lived up to my expectations of the Star Wars legend. The game's platform is very easy to understand and get used to and a lot of fun once you get into it. I couldn't stop playing!! This is a must for any Star Wars gamer who just loves to twirl a lightsaber around!
Oooohh... I like it!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User
This game is awesome. I personally enjoy that I can become a dark power, because I am evil at heart. The game is choppy when used on an Intel based MacBook, but there is a UB patch available that fixes that issue entirely. Horrible graphics, fun game, kinda reminds me of an interactive Doom 2. Addicting. Buy it, its worth it.
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