Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II Review

After playing the first few minutes of this game I knew that Dark Forces was never going to be played again, yes Dark Forces was good, it had added many new things the game style, but many people didnt think it was really that good and were content with Doom as they had been for ages.

Then came along Quake and the world cried out, 'it can be done' and 'wow look at that'. You could say that Dark Forces was the middle man of the games and provided a stepping stone between both Doom and Quake, as did Duke Nukem 3D and other similar games.

Now we move on to the actual game itself, it is really brilliant, I was amazed at how different the game looked with a 3D card compared with what I was used to, it was the first game to run with my 3D card but who cares, it looks lovely.

The game engine is a wonderfull thing allowing fully moveable AT-ST's and spaceships. All the enemies act differently with each one having thier own saying, most of them you dont understand, but thats not what counts, you get to shoot innocent citizens to increase your dark side of the force or shoot only the enemys to increase your light side.

When you manage to get some force stars, you begin to choose some force powers, from either the Dark or Light side of the force, each one is good and adds to the gameplay greatly, especialy when fighing other jedi. Each and every level has to be explored in its own right, each one bringing a new challange, like the level when you are stuck in a falling spaceship and the gravity is turned off, most of the controls and weapons are useless and you have to find your way out while bouncing off every wall in the place, this was the hardest level I came across but also one of the best, I never thought that such a level would exist in a 3D game like this.

The best thing about Jedi Knight is the fact you get to use the legendary 'lightsaber', both in single player and in multiplay, the fans got what they wanted, the controls are easy to master and the moves are hard to pull off, but with a little practice, you soon get the hang of it. To help you in your Jedi training, you get to fight each of the dark jedi every few levels starting with an easy fellow to beat up to the Dark Jedi Master himself, I got as far as Boc, the last jedi before Jerec when my machine crashed and I had to deleted the save game and have to play the game again, but i am not bothered.

This has to be one of the best games I have played and with the MOTS add on pack it offers many months of play added on top of which you have internet play, which I must say has a pretty large following, the game will last for a long time to come.