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COOL

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: February 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

When I first got this game it was so much fun!
Later I got Jedimod and it became sooo fun!
But as I played it more and more it got more boring...

Probably the jewel of the Star Wars franchise in the 90's era.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is great, the way you can switch between a first person shoot-em-up to a lightsaber 3D action game. Loads of fun. A must have for any gamer who wants to own a historical, impossibly fun game.

Jedi Outcast is a definate classic for Star Wars gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Very challenging first person shooter that turns into a great lightsaber romp in third person once you obtain a lightsaber! Some really fun cameos from classic trilogy characters as well as the great sound effects and music we've all be brainwashed with throughout our lives.
Well worth the purchase.. great gameplay, fine storyline and tons of hidden goodies!

Master YaYa

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Great multuiplayer game. I play with my grandkids in Indiana and my daughter in California, we have a blast. Server is so easy to setup, my 10 year old grandson did it on his own. The single player game is great too and challenging.

Worthy addition to a great FPS series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: May 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Star Wars has been plagued in recent years by lackluster or even awful game titles. After the 1997 release of the hit Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (a superior sequel to the DOS-based Star Wars single player FPS known as Dark Forces), players waited patiently for "Star Wars: Obi-Wan" which was being billed as the "next Jedi game" and the "successor to JK." Sadly, this game saw multiple delays. When the PC version was finally cancelled, and a scaled down version of it was released for the Xbox in 2001 (to scathingly negative reviews), many fans had almost given up hope of ever wielding the lightsaber in a worthy adventure on the PC again...

Until finally, a new game was announced, and in 2002, the world was gifted with Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

Backtracking a little...

The FPS genre really took off with titles like Doom and then Quake, capitalizing on gore, polygons and multiplayer to catapult them to the forefront of popular FPS games. The market was flooded with imitations. Of these, probably the best, and most innovative at the time was 1997's Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, itself the polygonized sequel to the somewhat generic, but incredibly difficult "Dark Forces" (still considered one of the "marathon games" since it lacked mid-level save, gave you limited lives, etc). Jedi Knight had a steeper learning curve than your average run 'n' gun FPS, in that it gradually allowed the player to earn "Force Powers" that enhanced your combat, navigation or survival abilities. Players could heal themselves, leap dozens of feet in the air, run super fast, become invisible, choke enemies, hurl blasts of force powered flame, create a protective temporary shield or lightning, etc. Most of the in-game weapons featured multiple modes of fire, with innovative and fun modes like the "sticky rockets" of the Rail Detonator that could be attached to surfaces or even enemy bodies, and Sequencer Charges, mines that could be laid on almost any surface for instant or proximety detonation. The game also featured movie quality (though cheesy) pre-rendered cutscenes, voice acting, and vast, vertigo inducing levels with multiple objectives per mission. The multiplayer mode was underused, featuring only a handful of Deathmatch ("Jedi Training") and CTF maps, over two dozen skins, and a variety of lightsaber colors and force powers to choose from (between "Dark" and "Light" Jedi and neutral powers used by both, plus secret Jedi ranks that could use some of each).

JK1 was a great game, but not noticed by the majority of FPS gamers who were too busy playing Quake 2 and Unreal. A rather good expansion called Mysteries of the Sith was released within four months of the original game.

JK1 was a game ahead of its time (and delayed quite often to the great annoyance of players) in many ways, but lacked some of the features that Quake and Unreal players had come to taken for granted over the years, namely a lot of useful multiplayer features, and robust modern graphics.

Jedi Outcast essentially takes the original game, and updates it with all the bells and whistles people have come to expect from the (not antiquated but still appreciated) Quake 3 engine, in the loving care of Raven Software (Heretic II, Soldier of Fortune, etc), a company with a talent for taking Quake engines and using them to create derivative, but excellent games.

The budget busting cinematic cutscenes of JK1 with their cheesy (but lovable) live action and CG were replaced with fully CGI short sequences (for the space sequences) and "in-game" machinima type cutscenes for the rest of the game with some decent voice acting, humor, and Star Wars/Dark Forces references.

Now finally the JK series was given dedicated servers and a built in server browser for multiplayer, demo recording, cheat protection via pure servers, more editing support, and the potential for larger numbers of players online with minimal lag. All these things we take for granted now, but back in 1997, they were in short supply and JK fans had to mostly do without.

The story begins where the past game left off, with skant references to events of Mysteries of the Sith. It's not explained why Kyle Katarn, the hero for hire from the previous adventures, who became a Jedi in the second game to avenge his father's death (like an alternate take on the familiar story of Luke Skywalker mixed with some Han Solo for grittiness to give the character a bit more edge), suddenly has a blue lightsaber instead of an orange one (as he had in MotS). In any case, he's given up the Force and renounced the ways of the Jedi, allow the player the convenient task of facing the first several single player missions using only familiar FPS style weapons (familiar to Dark Forces players anyway), blasters, grenades, a sniper rifle, etc. These missions are well crafted espionage and search & destroy type encounters, where Kyle is accompanied by his "will they or won't they" female partner Jan Ors, the Rebel Spy you originally convinced a young Kyle Katarn to leave the Empire when she showed him that the death of his father was not the fault of the Rebels as he'd been tricked into believing. Sadly, these early missions are not as fun as they sound and not nearly as fun as the similar missions in Dark Forces or Jedi Knight.

This is due to the fact that the conventional weapons in Jedi Outcast single player just feel weak and ineffectual. They tend to do little damage and have low accuracy. The enemies move so fast and the projectiles so slow, that it's possible for Stormtroopers to sidestep "laser bolts" and take multiple hits without going down.

While the sequel, Jedi Academy, would introduce area specific damage, headshots in this game don't make any difference whatsoever.

These first few missions thus become rather tedius to get through. If you survive these many missions (especially a rather cheap sequence on Nar Shaddaa where every step you can be instantly killed by snipers that you have no way of detecting... thougn on the easy difficulty you can "auto dodge" some of these shots like Neo from the Matrix), you'll finally begin to learn the ways of the Force (again) and become a Jedi. The lightsaber battles that you'll face in this game (mainly from the 3rd person viewpoint) are incredibly cool and cinematic.

Some Star Wars fans may find the storyline or some of the gimmicks in the game hokey, but bear in mind, true believers, that all of this stuff has precedents in the Expanded Universe, even the silliest things! The attention to detail shows just how geeky (in a good way) the development team had to be in order to make a game of this calibur.

You'll find yourself perhaps, as I did, saving and reloading in order to face the same opponents again and again in the excellent saber battles.

Unfortunately, some sequences of the game are not much fun, like some of the platform jumping sequences, or the stupid puzzles. These detract from the FPS elements and the lightsaber fighting. There is ONE vehicle driving sequence, where the player briefly takes control of an AT-ST walker and goes against a slew of enemies. There are also a few "get behind the gun and take out a bunch of enemies" portions, that are all too brief. It's very tempting to use cheats to skip over some of the platform/puzzle segments. I don't think even the worst puzzles in JK1 were this aggravating or frustrating.

Probably the most ludicrous example is a sequence in which you must travel from multiple suspended color coded rooms to find multiple symbols to enter a security code for a starship. Keep in mind that this sequence was supposedly built for ordinary humans to operate. It seems more like it was designed by a rich madman to frustrate a Jedi infiltrator like yourself! There's another portion of the game in which a key must be obtained from an Imperial officer (one of many such sequences), but the officer in question can be killed by Force nudging or blasting him into a bottomless pit quite easily, before you know that you were supposed to take the key off his corpse, forcing you to reload from an earlier save (or else cheat to progress). Still, such flaws can be overlooked in an otherwise satisfying single player campaign.

It's a pity that the SP game in Jedi Outcast does nothing to prepare you for multiplayer (unlike JK1/MotS) and that unlike JK1, does not feature multiple paths/endings (your character is forced to stay on the "Light Side" although you can use both light and dark side powers as they become available to you). Another feature missing from this game that the original JK had, was the ability to customize your force powers in SP. In the earlier game, finding secret areas gave you extra "Force Stars" that could be assigned to custom powers. Now finding secrets only gives you the benefit of finding some extra ammo or health, and all force powers are preassigned based on the level you're at. Another missing feature is the "morality scale" from the first game in which killing noncombatants pushed you closer to the "Dark Side" while saving them from enemies pushed you closer to the "Light Side" (staying true to one side or the other granted you a bonus force power near the end of the game).

In Jedi Outcast you're always on the side of right, and your actions in game have no effect on what powers you are granted access to, which decreases replay value somewhat. On the other hand the increased variety in saber combat, with the many new moves and multiple styles (borrowing heavily from games like Heretic II and the excellent Bushido Blade series on the PSX) does much to make up for these oversights to increase replay value.

The Force powers from the first game all change in the manner in which they operate. Each power has three levels of power, as opposed to four from the previous games. In Single player the powers operate differently than in multiplayer. For example Force Speed in SP slows the entire world down, except the player who speeds up 2x-4x in all of his movements for a limited time. In MP, Force speed simply makes you run faster for a limited time, like in JK1/MotS. Force Heal in SP makes you kneel and "meditate" to slowly increase your HP (at level 2 you can fight, but you can't run around while healing, and at level 3 you can fight normally and heal much more rapidly by tapping the button anytime). In MP, heal is an instant use power that grants you restored hit points instantly.

There is no bloodshed in the game (Raven software's demo at E3 featured blood spurting action, but this was removed in the official release, and the dismemberment with the lightsabers was toned way down to keep the "T" rating), but some German gamers came up with a neat little blood patch that can still be found on the internet. Additionally, via console commands, full dismemberment could be turned back on, meaning heads, torsos, and other limbs could be easily hacked off of enemies (or the player).

The missions are varied, taking you to different planets, space stations, and aboard ships in a predetermined order. Boss fights consist of realistic (for Star Wars) opponents for a Jedi Knight. An Imperial Remnant Admiral dons a lightsaber resistant (Cortosis) suit of powered armor with a personal force field generator for instance. Other battles consist of multiple lightsaber wielding opponents or swarms of stormtroopers or Nar Shaddaa alien thugs.

The graphics are pretty for the Quake3 engine, and the vistas are as vast and vertigo inducing as the ones you remember from the first Jedi Knight.

There is some NPC interaction, but it's kept to a minimum, besides the missions you take on with Jan Ors (if she dies, you automatically lose the mission) or some later ones with Lando Calrissian (voiced by the one and only Billy Dee Williams).

Since the game takes place long after the events of Return of the Jedi, much Expanded Universe material is drawn on, so if you're familiar with this material, it feels authentic. Everything looks as you'd expect it to in the Star Wars universe, and many of the designs of the weapons and vehicles are taken straight from the official "Star Wars Essential Guides."

The multiplayer component is quite fun, though the force powers, weapons and lightsaber mechanics are very different from single player. I'd say though that they are changed for the better. Powers that didn't exist in SP are present in MP, such as Team Heal, Team Energize (grants force mana to nearby teammates when activated), Drain (sucks mana away from your enemy and uses it to heal a Dark Jedi), etc. The saber combat is less cinematic, but more precise and tight (in the SP game, swing animations were chosen by the computer in most cases, which looked cool, but felt more loose and imprecise). Due to heightened damage, the lightsaber in MP is much more useful, allowing you to quickly dispatch one enemy to move onto the next one.

The game modes consist of CTF, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch ("Free for All") and a tournament mode, just like Quake 3's basic modes. There's also Holocron FFA where instead of user defined Force powers based on a limited number of Force points, powers are acquired by picking up "Holocrons" (floating cubes of lost Jedi/Sith wisdom) much like "Rune match" in Quake3 and Unreal Tournament.... Jedi Master, in which picking up a lightsaber makes one player "it" giving them extra health and nearly all force powers with increased mana regeneration, vs. the rest of the players who have only Force jump and conventional weapons (a reverse of "KFY" for Mysteries of the Sith players)... and CTY ("Capture the Ysalamiri") a twist on CTF, in which the flag carriers lose the ability to use Force powers whilst carrying, but also cannot have force powers used on them, creating a need for much more strategy and protection, and eliminating the possibility of "rambo" style domination of the game by skilled flag carriers. Unfortunately these other modes (CTY, JM, Holocron) were quite unpopular with gamers. The Duel (tournament) mode was somewhat popular with those who wished only to lightsaber fight, but FFA was the most popular.

While the game saw a good year of gameplay, the community was not without controversy. A large contingent of gamers took over various servers (abusing the "vote to kick" privileges, for example) that were devoted to FFA, in order to enforce a bunch of unofficial "rules" insisting that a deathmatch is not a deathmatch, but a place for players to stand in line waiting to challenge each other for a lightsaber duel.

You see, Raven software implemented a new feature into the game, based on a phenomenon from Heretic II. In Heretic II, the third person game allowed you to use powers, much like the Jedi powers in this series, and also use a melee weapon, the staff. Instead of fighting in a conventional deathmatch manner, many players chose instead to agree to fight each other with their staves only, one on one. Raven decided to create a feature in which two players in a deathmatch game, could "challenge" each other and these two players would be given protection from the rest of the lasers and explosions on the map... only these two could hurt each other, and they were limited to only using force jump, lightsaber throw, and lightsaber attacks and acrobatic moves. The winner of the duel received full health and was returned to the playing field.

This great new feature, was unfortunately abused by what came to be known as the "honor community" who insisted that this and ONLY this type of play was to be used on public FFA servers. Over time, especially in the community of the sequel, Jedi Academy, this "honor community" was opposed by many players who wished to get back to a more "pure" kind of deathmatch experience, which was much closer to the gameplay of JK and MotS online... simple run and gun (or team based play) using all the powers and weapons available, rather than the repetitive "dueling only" with the lightsaber.

Another problem in the community were the controversy over the patches. Raven patched the game twice, at first weakening the lightsaber, and introducing modifications that made the lightsaber fighting in MP more like that seen in SP. Most of these changes didn't go far enough in satisfying the SP lightsaber fighting fans, and went too far for those who appreciated the lightsaber as a weapon that was useful in deathmatch, rather than something only useful for duels. That is to say, the lightsaber was "nerfed" in order to make duels last longer, with the unfortunately side effect that this discouraged its use in deathmatch or team based gameplay. The final patch addressed this issue by putting in a switch to allow the lightsaber damage to be doubled for normal gameplay or halved for dueling, and the blocking to be increased or decreased at the server admin's discretion. However by this time the community was divided between server owners who wished to run the patch and those who did not.

Another problem was the presence of mods in the game that were designed by members of the "honor community." Many of these mods seemed to have vindictiveness in mind, since they gave the admin the ability to "punish" players whom they felt had violated rules, at whim. For example, the admin could type "amslap" to make a player fly across the screen, taking damage, without a way to defend against it. They could take away the player's ability to type, move, or defend themselves. They could make a player "explode" (die instantly) or teleport into a hole. These mods were typically transparent (did not require a joining player to download them in order to see them), and so many confused them with "hacks" and cheats. This created an atmosphere of paranoia and fear among gamers and a certain mistrust of admins (who could "cheat" by making themselves invulnerable or kill other players instantly without skill).

Another unfortunate side effect was the way in which these mods were often used to enforce the "honor" type of gameplay, which essentially broke up a server into a small group that dueled, and the rest who spent their time chatting, and using "emotes" (which were simply animations taken from single player and implemented into multiplayer to make the character sit, do a pose, kiss, or something else). Jedi Outcast on these servers became more like a 3-D version of IRC than a combat experience.

"Game experience may change online," indeed!

To this day, the game maintains hundreds of servers (less than Jedi Academy however), but the player usually has to ask if it's an "Honor" server or not, in order to avoid being "punished" and IP banned without warning.

There was also some controversy among players over the game balance (even after the patches). Many players disliked how the balance or the saber combat worked and so dozens of mods were created, all with a different idea of how lightsaber fighting "ought to be." According to many players, the Dark Side of the Force (which was arguably the most popular style of play online for most players who chose to play with Force enabled) was unbalanced, being slightly more powerful than Light. This was due to two powers in particular, Drain (which was used to suck away mana from the enemy until they had none) and Grip (which was not so much used to kill enemies as for the levitation effect it now had, which could be used to dump opponents off cliffs or into the path of a deadly swing). These controversies raged mostly for those who played one on one duels with force enabled as in a full on deathmatch, any tactic could be used, and so many more counters existed.

Another criticism of the game was the lack of a class based, objective based gametype. Such a thing was in development, but canceled due to lack of time on the part of the developers. It was known as "SAGA" and the remnants of it were dredged up and modified to a playable form by third party mod makers. Another remnant of this game mode were present in the bonus "unsupported" gametype known as "Jedi Vs. Merc" in which a server could force players to choose between a gun toting character with no force powers whatsoever or a Jedi with normal options, who could not pick up guns or use most of the gadget item pickups (portable force field, stationary blaster turret) being restricted to sabers only.

Jedi Vs. Merc was unbalanced, since the Jedi were simply far more powerful than the Merc, who started only with the basic bryar pistol, stormtrooper rifle and bowcastor, all slow projectile firing weapons that Jedi could easily dodge or reflect back at the shooter with the lightsaber (or worse, pull away with the Force, though the bryar pistol and stun baton could not be pulled). They also had the stun baton, but it was weak, and fairly useless, being even weaker than the "gauntlet" from Quake 3.

Some criticized the game for being "too Quakeish" in multiplayer or the way in which it allowed anyone to be a Jedi (though this criticism would apply to the first game as well). The issue of a class/objective based gametype was addressed in Jedi Academy (though again, it was criticized for its initial bugginess and the general lack of maps for it).

Still, overall, Jedi Outcast was a colorful and welcome addition to the series, updating an already fantastic FPS title that stood out from the crowd, with a modern engine, and introducing it (and quality Star Wars gaming) to a much wider audience.

This title was only surpassed the following year by Jedi Academy, a flawed, but (I feel) superior game (after the patch, and a few mods such as Open Jedi Project and Asteroids Mod).

If you're an FPS gamer or a Star Wars fan (or both), this is definitely worth getting, just be patient when it comes to Single Player, it WILL get better after those first few levels!

Overall fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game overall is great! Is fun yet at the same time challenges your reflexes and makes you think. Beyond the thinking though this game shows just how much fun even a game that is a little old can be!

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

One word.
Awesome.
If you are like me and have grown up watching the Star Wars Trillogy and frequently fantasized as a kid that you had the powers of the force and a light saber, this game will fulfill every dream you had as a child Luke Skywalker wanna-be.
The graphics are great and the sound is amazing, including the music score (much of which is original star wars movie music)

I would definitely sugguest a good sound system or headphones while playing to really appreciate the realistic envirionment.

It's good if moded

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: December 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is so bad lucasarts should of stop the game from being sold. But when you mod the game it the best game in the world. The game needed 2 stars for how fun it is and for its overall but when moded the game is fun . So don't get the game for gc,xb and ps2 version's just get it for pc because that's the only one that you can mod.

A more challenging alternative to "Jedi Academy"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: September 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

"Outcast" is the 3rd of the "Jedi Knight" PC games - or the 4th of the "Dark Forces" game, and the 1st of the series built using the "Quake III" engine. A sequel to `97's "Jedi Knight", "Outcast" reunites you with ex-Imperial Commando, ex-Rebel Mercenary Kyle Katarn. Now firmly working with the "New Republic" (established by the rebellion after their victory over the Empire), Katarn is also an ex-Jedi by the game's first mission. With Jan Ors, his lovely & trusty sidekick, Katarn infiltrates a stronghold belonging to holdout Imperial forces known as "The Remnant". What appears at first to be a routine battle with Remnant forces reveals signs of a larger and more ominous plot to create an army of Dark Jedi - a plan that includes an ambitious Imperial governor, an outcast of Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy, the Valley of the Jedi (from the last game), hundreds of evil - if inexperienced Jedi Knights - and a form of armor impervious to lightsabres. In confronting the plan, you'll travel to many locales both familiar and new to SW fans - from an Imperial prison to the Bespin cloud city of "Empire Strikes Back", from the "floating city" of Nar Shadaa to a Remnant base hidden in an asteroid belt; from the corridors of a huge Remnant battlecruiser to the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 (last seen at the end of the first SW movie). The story is tight - you don't choose missions, the plot will direct you. Along the way, you'll encounter familiar SW characters like Luke Skywalker & Lando Calrissian. Cut-scenes (using the game-engine, and not the FMV of "Jedi Knight") drive the story. (Everybody hated the video scenes from "Jedi Knight" - everybody but me; compared to the second trilogy, the FMV scenes of "Jedi Knight" were pure SW gold.)

The game is intense - the handful of evil Jedi from "Jedi Knight" are replaced with hordes of "Reborn" here, many in that special armor; even stormtroopers - reliable blaster-fodder from the movies and the older games - are tougher than before. To get through the game's many levels will not infrequently require special puzzle-solving skills. Individual levels are very long, and the game itself may consume about a month's worth of late-night Jedi-frag sessions. (Comparable gameplay wrapped up "Voyager: Elite Force" - the "Star Trek" Quake3 game - in about a week.) Some challenges seem needless - with players being forced to re-play the same the moment because they couldn't handle simple things like walking a ledge or jumping. The game could also have done without sniping - where you're picked off by some distant shooter you'd never even know existed until after he'd killed you. Lastly, the story - while governing the game - isn't all that compelling. It's your basic One-Jedi-versus-many-evil-Jedi-and-Imperial-stormtroopers story - an afterthought guaranteed to have you prowling many corridors in search of power-ups.

The Quake3 engine is breathtaking - smoke/vapor and laser effects are beautiful, and the smooth animation means that saber duels are much closer to those in the movies than to the saber battles of "Jedi Knight". The game also excels in visualizing vast distances (like the insides of the huge Bespin ventilation shafts) and the sounds of distant characters, and different atmospheric settings - from the claustrophobic corridors of a starship, to the sweeping avenues of Bespin; the steamy jungles of Yavin 4 to the hallowed halls of the Massassi Temple.

The obvious question is whether you should get this game instead of "Jedi Academy" - the other SW/Quake3 game, or whether your owning that newer game obviates having to get this one. "Outcast" is more challenging than "Academy" in almost every way - tougher Jedi battles, longer levels, more of them, more tenacious AI, hard puzzles - resulting in many moments that have to be re-played as apparently insurmountable. Casual players will probably be turned off by "Outcast", and should stick with "Academy". Those who feel ready for something more than stormtroopers and jedi mind-tricks will be more than satisfied with "Outcast". Also, while I may just be jaded, I've yet to find a SW game that matches the experience I enjoyed playing "Jedi Knight" back in 1997.

MY FULLY ARMED AND OPERATIONAL BATTLE-STATION: a P4 running 2 GHz, with 512MB of RAM and a GeForce III card kept the force (and the action) flowing smoothly on my system. Though an old game, prospective buyers should check the LA website to make sure their graphics cards are supported. My original Savage card, ably handling "Elite Force" was hamstring by this game despite both using the same graphics engine.

Great Game - Classic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: July 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is a classic Star Wars Game. I wish they still made Star Wars games like this.

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