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Where Outcast failed, Academy succeeds- in spades.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Wow, where to start? As much as I tried to like Jedi Outcast, the game left a bad taste in my mouth- it looked like Star Wars, sounded like Star Wars, but it didn't play like Star Wars. The game had so many annoying little problems that it all but sucked the life from it. Not to mention a pretty dull story that lacked any sort of dramatics or imagination-grabbing aspects that the first game had in such abundance. Fast forward a little over a year to Jedi Academy- and a surprising treat. I must admit to not being very enthusiastic about it, I quite honestly am used to being disappointed by such things, and was in fact looking to purchase Homeworld 2 and stumbled across Academy and bought it in lieu of Relic's much anticipated sequel- not to mention the fact that I couldn't find it.

I knew a little about the game, especially the fact that you were no longer going to be playing as Kyle Katarn- Dark Forces perennial hero, but instead a student of his. You start the game by designing your character- male or female, and a choice of races- human, Kel Dor, Twi'lek, Zabrak (the spikey headed guys like Darth Maul) or Rodian, saber type and color. Cool. I went for a sleek and sexy blue skinned Twi'lek woman to play as Jaden Kor, Kyle's prodigy who stunned the Jedi and Luke Skywalker by making her own lightsaber before even beginning her training. After that's complete, the game begins with your shuttle crashing near the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV and you along with your pal Rosh must make their way to the Massassi temple, avoiding local wildlife and then some stormtroopers. As it turns out, you oversee some bad guys siphoning something out of the temple. (For those who don't know, Luke Skywalker and Co. Defeated the Sith spirit of Ulic Qel-Droma, who had been imprisoned there 4,000 years before, during the golden age of the Sith.)

Jaden is an expert pupil and receives training from both Luke and Kyle, guaranteeing she'll be a major bad ass by the time things start to get rolling. Raven really made me proud by taking us to a lot of new places instead of simply carting us off to the same old haunts seen in the movies, with the exception of Hoth, which has never been visited in the JK series. Much of the game involves tracking down a group that has been revealed as the Cult of Ragnos, (again, a major bad guy and one of the first Sith Lords, circa about 5,000 years ago.) And they appear to traveling around the galaxy and using a scepter that appears to have the ability to draw off ans store Dark Side energies. Okay, I knew at that point what their plan was, but players unfamiliar with the Expanded Universe may not click on it right away. There are a lot of missions, close to 25 and they take you on a galaxy wide tour of some very cool places, and there is lots to do.

To their credit, Raven seems very adept at ripping every last ounce of life out of the aging Quake III Arena engine, but after this game, it's time to retire the old girl and move on to more versatile technology. It's almost five years old- quite a bit of staying power, but if they want to continue the franchise, they'd better upgrade. While textures were good and well detailed, the repeating patterns on walls and things like magma was very obvious, and it can't seem to push the polys on buildings or characters like many newer engines can. It does it's job, but just barely. Now, what they did improve is every aspect of game play that I hated in Jedi Outcast. Lightsaber moves are better, more effective, easier and more obvious when accomplished. Weapons no longer drill through your personal shields too fast, meaning you can hang in a fight longer than you could in Outcast. Everything is better- level design, story, character movement- they polished and revamped virtually every aspect of the game, making it more fun. Some levels were irritating, such as the never ending villains on swoop bikes, but for the most part I found myself really enjoying what I saw and did.

This game improves on every weakness Outcast has- it's 10 fold improvement over the last game. Even the multi-player levels are better, though there aren't that many of them. I did find that dual and double lightsabers are unbalancing against a single blade- I played a few multi-player levels with two sabers and cleaned house a lot easier than I had expected. Plus, they incorporated a Force power system similar to the original Jedi Knight and reincorporated such powers in the single player experience like Protection, Seeing and Healing, all of which were strangely absent from the Outcast single player game. Plus, the game doesn't force you to use Dark Side powers if you don't want to- you have access to them, but you don't have to put points into them. You're a Jedi Knight, not some wormy Sith wannabe. I would have preferred not having them at all, but I guess there are people who think the Dark Side is 'kewl' and have to use the powers. With a new game engine like Unreal II/2K4, Quake IV or possibly even the new Half-Life 2 system, who knows what Raven will have in store for us next. All I do know is that it's time to retire the Arena engine.

Additional (10/22/03) After reading the PC Gamer review, I must agree with their comment that this game's villains were very sub-par.

Not Much Changed but Game Play is Very Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The subject says it all. Jedi Academy doesn't make any great leaps beyond Jedi Outcast. However, the game play is still very fun and there are some very interesting additions. So far my favorite addition is the mounts/vehicles. I really enjoy riding a mount or swoop bike while using a light saber as a weapon. Running down storm troopers on your tauntaun is great fun. Even more fun is high-speed jousting with swoop bikers that are chasing you. I am finding this to be a very enjoyable game. I would recommend the game in general but it is a must have for any Star Wars fans.

Great Game! Not just a rehash of the last one.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you like Star Wars or any of the Star Wars action games that have come out, then Jedi Academy is a game that you simply can't miss. I liked Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, but it has a few big faults. I LOVE Jedi Academy! This game takes what was great about Jedi Knight 2 and emphasizes it, and it eliminates what was bad about JK2.

In case you haven't played a Lucasarts Jedi game before, this is a game that gives you the look and feel of being a Jedi Knight. You run around and do flips. You use the force to yank weapons from enemies' hands or to push them onto the floor. You shoot lightning out of your hands. You telepathically choke enemies like Darth Vader. You use a lightsaber to block laser blasts and duel with Dark Jedi. Jedi Outcast did a wonderful job of capturing that look and feel of being a Jedi, and I think that Jedi Academy does an even better job. This game is a sequel to 3 previous games, but you don't have to play those games to enjoy this one (but I would recommend playing Jedi Knight 2 anyways).

At first glance, you think "Okay, I've seen this all before". The graphics engine is somewhat outdated, the guns are the same as the previous two games, and so are a lot of the enemies. But after you play for an hour or so, you find that gameplay is substantially improved. The action begins immediately (you start the game with a lightsaber this time), and it never stops until the very end. There are no annoying jump puzzles in this game, and no gauntlet sequences where you have to complete 8 impossible tasks in sequence within 15 seconds. Say goodbye to those 3D pixel hunts. The puzzles are much easier, and there are very few of those annoying snipers. You simply jump in very quickly and start slicing and dicing unfortunate enemies with your lightsaber. To put it simply, there is a lot more fun and less frustration.

The game does a great job of mixing up the levels to keep the game interesting. Just when you think repetitiveness is creeping in, out comes a wildcard level that hasn't been done in the previous two games. A perfect example of this is the thrilling speederbike level, where you are flying around at 100 miles an hour and slicing enemies off of their bikes like it's a high-speed joust. There are other unique levels, but I won't spoil them for you by telling you what happens.

Unlike the previous games, you get to customize the look, race, and gender of your character. Throughout the game, you get to assign light or dark force powers as you progress, like in Dark Forces 2. After the halfway point, you get to wield a saber in each hand, or a double-bladed saber ala Darth Maul. By the end, you are fighting an army of Dark Jedi and it never gets old. Near the end once, I met two Dark Jedi waiting for me on a walkway high above a fiery pit of lava. I used Force Speed to rush in and whack one across the gut before he knew what hit him. Then, I clashed sabers with the other guy for a minute before finally using my Force Push ability to shove him off of the walkway and watch him plunge to a ghastly death.

One of the faults of this game is quirky lightsaber controls. The lightsaber is still very hard to control, and lots of the duels are mouse click-fests. That's a problem from the last game that wasn't fixed. Where this game lacks the most is production values. Specifically, the sound. The soundtrack is the same as in the previous Star Wars games, and it might start to grate your nerves. The voice acting is cheezy, and voice samples get repetitive, because there are so few. The graphics, on the other hand, are outdated, but the game makes up for it by making all of the scenery bright, colorful, and unique-looking. The scenery varies from the icy Hoth planet to the deserts of Tatooine, so it never gets repetitive.

I like Jedi Academy better than Dark Forces 2 and Jedi Outcast. I like it more than any action game that I have played in a long time (at least a year). This is what a Star Wars Jedi action game should be. Don't be put off by first impressions or so-so-looking screenshots. This is a great action game.

The history is repeating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok, more skills, Sith jedis, new planets, shoots and Jedi girls that look like Playmates. But, has anybody realized that we haven't seen the cities of many new planets? Is my imagination, or the most part of them are desert? And Coruscant? That's all about the planet? And Mon Calamari? Why we haven't seen their planet yet? What about battles in the forest? And underwater mission? And to end, the game for me has been very easy.

Looks Great So Far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Finally it is here, the third installment of the Jedi Knight Saga!! The past two games have been great and this one looks better than the rest! In this new game, you will not be Kyle Katarn anymore, but a Jedi knight that you can customize yourself with looks, gender, clothes, and many other amazing details! I highly look forward to the game and what else could i say? Buy it!!

Keeps the kids busy for a long time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My sons, 11 & 14 adore this game! They continue to beat it and go back in with different scenarios. Very compelling ( I chose not to say addictive in the same sentence as kids)

Star Wars Full on FUN!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Jedi Academy---
don't get caught up too much on the plot, storyline, or roleplaying depth of this title. the game is pure, full on FUN. it's like the designers of this game saw star wars when they were 8 years old and then came along here and put every single thrill-ride of the 3 (original) movies in this game.
you got lightsabers -- of course. you got force powers -- of course. you get to ride a tauntaun charging down snowtroopers with your lightsaber, you get to go on a wild speederbike level (i played rocket jockey, those saps didn't have a CHANCE!), you get to hop in an AT-ST and rampage around. the controls aren't so complicated that you keep crashing into walls and have trouble surviving due to that.

i have a save game for the prison mission. it is TOO fun. you get captured and tossed in jail, and lose your lightsabre. the sadistic boss hogg warden is bored -- he wants to let you lose, and you're supposed to run to your ship to escape.
i say, 'oh you THINK that's how it's gonna go, do you?' forget lightsabre, i have force lightning level 3! i walk out of there with bare hands, two guards see me, and BOOM! i nail them good! bodies are flying, men are screaming, things are blowing up.... too fun!

Sweet Game!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

You should totally buy this game. It will keep you going with hours and hours of fun. From capture the flag, and free for all battles and other game types,
slice your way thorough with a lightsaber and many other available weapons. You can even design your own lightsaber, have one in each hand or a double sided one. Overall, this game is great. The only thing I didn't like was the Graphics, but other than that, The combat is great fun, you can play online with your friends, and capture the flag is a really fun thing to play on this
game. When I first played this game at a friends house, he told me it was only ten dollars, and I couldn't believe it!

The Force is with you all night

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I cannot get engough of this game. One the most fun First and third person shooters. The lightsaber fights are excellent plus the use of all the force powers make it more intersting. The game is smooth, fast paced, clean with enough Jedi power to please the most uptight star wars fan. The graphics are great as well. You even get Mark Hamil playing Luke!! Buy this now for true game enjoyment.

One of the better Star Wars games...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had a lot of fun with this game, and SW fans will undoubtedly love it. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it's too short and there isn't much replay value. That said, this game taps into one of a SW fan's most ardent desires: to go to Jedi school. Think of this as a Jedi Harry Potter game, where you get to design lightsabers (and re-design it halfway through the game, with the option to use 2 sabers or a dual saber), learn cool force powers (the Darth Vader choke grip is awesome and really useful for tossing fools off cliffs) and go on a wide array of missions from Hoth to Tattoine and Korriban.

While I liked this game, I still feel that the best Star Wars game out there is Knights of the Old Republic (on Xbox and PC). It offers more depth and story and is consequently more engrossing. That said, if you are a fast-twitch gamer or a FPS fan, opt for Jedi Academy. If you liked Jedi Outcast, you'll love this. I actually didn't care for Outcast that much (horrendous level design) and found that Academy has much, much improved flow and is more intuitive. A fun game!

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