Do, or do not… There is no try

By William Barker

Two player light-sabre duels can be quite intense

When the original Jedi Knight (aka Dark Forces 2), blasted on to PCs back in 1998, it allowed you to not only use the legendary light-sabre, but you could also take advantage of force powers.

Indeed, it was a happy time for gaming, and four years later Jedi Knight 2 appeared on the PC.

Kyle Katarn returned, as did his side-kick, drawn from the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels, Mara Jade.

Fast forward another year, and Jedi Knight 2 (JK2) is available on the Xbox.

While the single-player game is a fairly direct port of the PC version, the multiplayer aspects are not. There are many who are quite sour that the game didn’t get the Xbox Live! treatment - essentially online play - but we’ll look at the ins and outs of the multiplayer game a little later.

For those who haven’t played the PC iteration, the story of JK2 revolves around one Kyle Katarn, a former Jedi who renounced his powers after realising how close he came to the dark side.

Still working for the New Republic, headed up by the softly spoken Mon Mothma, Kyle is earning his keep carrying out reconnaissance missions, which is where the game kicks off.

The start of JK2 shows Kyle and his accomplice, Mara Jade, flying to a remote planet, where a strange transmission has been intercepted. Intel suggests that the transmission was using old Empiric encryption, and from here on in the story really starts to get interesting...

One of the more endearing aspects of the game is that A) it has a great plot involving a rather shady new reptilian Jedi Master, and B) the way in which the story progresses is highly entertaining.

The voice-acting, for instance, is excellent, and even Lando Calrissian, voiced by Billy Dee Williams, makes an appearance.

Such flexibility is only possible using the force...

The voice actors put in a really great turn, and this makes the story much easier to swallow. The opportunity to fully explore a number of Star Wars locales is also a wholly thrilling concept, moreso for the uber-fans.

Gameplay is very similar to that of the PC version - no great surprise - but the control method differs greatly. Every single mode of input on the Xbox’ controller is used in JK2, which at first will present a few problems.

Thankfully the early levels are a pretty simplistic, both in terms of puzzle-solving and the opposition you will face.

As you get further into the game, unlocking Kyle’s latent force powers, light-sabre skills and his bodily function party tricks (not for the kids, let me assure you!), you’ll begin to feel more and more comfortable with the controls.

I’ll be honest and say that, at first, I really didn’t like playing the game with a controller, but as time wore on, it turned out to be quite agreeable.

This also comes in handy when you decide to indulge in a little multiplayer mayhem, as knowing the controls will keep you alive a lot longer than just having played the PC title.

Anyway, back to the single player aspect, and Vicarious Visions has done an commendable job on porting what is a carbon copy of the PC game. While this is all well and good, the PC game wasn’t perfect, and oftentimes you’ll find yourself wandering around the huge levels with no idea what to do next.

While the intelligent targeting reticle helps (glowing different colours if something is interactive), there are still a handful of situations that probably should have been omitted. Still, I guess that’s what walkthroughs are for…

Visually, the Xbox handles the JK2 graphics with aplomb, running at close to 60fps in all but the most frenzied of conflicts.

The SwampTroopers will impress the die-hards

Maybe the trusty GameBlitz PC, replete with pizza topping and 18-month old ice-cream sludge on the keyboard, is getting a little slow? Nevertheless, JK2 on the Xbox is one smooth game.

Texture detail and special effects haven’t been significantly spruced up, which is a bit of a shame, as the graphics – while far from crap – are starting to look a little dated compared with such titles as Unreal Championship et al.

The mainstay of any first-person shooter is a deadly array of weapons, and JK2 doesn’t disappoint in this regard.

From the old-school Bryar Pistol to the rather tasty Heavy Repeater, JK2 has more than enough weapons to whet the appetite of even the most carnage-hungry psychopaths.

In addition, force powers are particularly useful for not only toying with your foes, but for solving specific puzzles and so on. One of my faves, though, has to be the level force grip. The first two levels allow you to simply choke and levitate an enemy from twenty paces, which is pretty cool on its own.

Level 3 force grip actually allows you to move your victim about, so you can be exceptionally nasty and drop them off a cliff, or into a lava pit. This alone kept me occupied for hours.

Back to ballistics, and many of the weapons found in the game have a secondary function, and let’s not forget the light-sabre, either.

While the original JK was the first official Star Wars game to incorporate the laser sword (a Star Wars mod for Doom did so back in the mid-90s), it’s implementation was, well, pretty shoddy.

In JK2, however, the light-sabre is one seriously useful, and powerful tool.

As you progress through the single-player game, your offensive and defensive skills will increase, and you’ll be able to master a number of sabre ‘throws’, the most powerful of which seeks out targets. Hmmm…. Target seeking laser sword….

The light-sabre is also brilliant at blocking incoming weapons fire - all you have to do is aim in it in the general direction of whoever is firing and Kyle's latest force powers take care of the rest.

Watch as I give away my position with ill-timed fire!

But perhaps the best use of the light-sabre is in multiplayer battles, where two similarly-skilled players can really go the tonk.

Raven coded a righteous combat engine for the sabre, and Vicarious Visions has ported it beautifully to the Xbox, allowing for seriously sweet swordsmanship.

While it is a shame that online play was ditched, the level of player customisation and sheer fun that can be had in the Jedi Arena (multiplayer) mode is quite remarkable.

While there are six main Jedi Arena modes – Holocron FFA, FFA, CtF, Jedi Master, Team FFA and Duel – you can tailor a number of factors that will dictate how multiplayer games pan out.

For instance, you can customise your own player to have no force powers, but be super accurate and have a preferred weapons, say the Golan Arms FC-1. On the other hand, you may decide to create an old-Republic do-gooder, who spurns technology in favour in Jedi tricks and the light-sabre.

Bots also come into play, which is an absolute godsend and something that games like Halo (multiplayer) were sorely missing. Even though multiplayer is offered for only two human players, you can customise a whole bunch of bots, which will influence how a specific map is played.

For example, you may have an all-out blast fest, splattering the walls with blood every three seconds, or you could be faced with a more strategic operation where two massive armies of Jedi’s clash with the snap-hiss of light-sabres.

There are added incentives for succeeding in the single-player game too, as you’ll unlock new Jedi Arena characters – yes, even bad-girl Mon Mothma. There are also a few Jedi Arena-specific force powers and items too, like dark rage, Ysalamiri, force absorb and force seeing, the latter allowing you see all players – even through walls.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is a great title. While the engrossing single-player plot-driven game is in there, providing at the very least a few weeks of solid play, Vicarious Visions has added a seriously appetizing multiplayer aspect to boot.

Game: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast
System: Xbox
Players: 1-2
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is on the shelves now.