Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (includes Mysteries of the Sith)

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $34.74

Accessories:
Lego Star Wars Death Star II	LEGO Star Wars Imperial Dropship	PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	LEGO Star Wars Rebel Scout Speeder

Customer Reviews:

Great Game [Posted on 2005-06-10]
Out of all the Star Wars games I've played, PC and Xbox, this game for the PC is the best. It has the real Star Wars feel, great music, an original storyline that can stand on its own. Great camera angles, with the choice of 1st or third person. I was sad when it was over. I really enjoy the games where the controls make sense, the camera angles are positioned right and you are able to move freely and choose the weapons you want, not feeling like you have a handicap from the fault of one of the programmers. It's a great game that I highly recommend.

Your path is at a moment of change. [Posted on 2005-11-06]
This was the first computer game I ever bought. I'd been hearing about it since '96, when PC Gamer did a feature on it, and after reading that article, I knew I'd be buying this game. In fact, I went and bought it BEFORE I EVEN HAD A COMPUTER OF MY OWN TO PLAY IT ON. When it came out in the fall of '97, it blew the doors off every magazine that reviewed it. Until HALF-LIFE came out a year later, this game was the one to beat. And granted, the graphics are pretty seriously dated now in 2005, it's still a great game; a true classic.

Now, let me tell you why.

This was the first game that brought a true melee weapon -- a lightsaber -- and Force powers into an FPS and made them work flawlessly, something no one thought was possible until then. It was also the last game (until ENTER THE MATRIX) that used FMV sequences between missions that actually helped flesh out the story taking place.

Kyle Katarn is the name of the man you play as. He's a former Imperial officer who resigned out of rage when he learned his father had been killed by Imperial operatives. He joined up with the Rebel Alliance, and you played as him in the game DARK FORCES, which was sort of a prequel to this game.

Now, it's a year after RETURN OF THE JEDI. The Empire is reeling, fractured, disorganized, and the Alliance's star is rising. But, the game doesn't begin with that; instead, it starts with the execution of a Jedi Knight who's been in hiding all this time. This Jedi, Qu Rahn, has been living on the run because he has a secret that would've meant absolute power in the hands of anyone who gets it. Who kills him? Jerec, a Dark Jedi, aided by six others like him, who will do anything to get that secret.

That secret is the Valley of the Jedi, an ancient Jedi burial ground where the Force is extremely concentrated. Anyone who taps into that massive stockpile of power would gain literal godlike abilities in the Force.

So what does all this have to do with Kyle Katarn? Simple; his father, Morgan, knew the hidden location of the Valley. Morgan was good friends with Rahn. And Morgan was murdered by Jerec, who didn't know what secrets Morgan had. It quickly becomes a journey of self-discovery for Kyle, who takes up Rahn's lost lightsaber and races to beat Jerec and his allies from finding the Valley and stop them from exploiting its power...or taking that power for himself.

This game had two different endings, depending on which path you choose. If you choose dark Force abilities, and you callously slaughter civilians, you become a Dark Jedi yourself, competing with Jerec over the Valley's fate. But if you choose light Force abilities, and you go out of your way to defend civilians, you'll become a Jedi Knight, and work to protect the Valley from Jerec and his Dark Jedi.

JEDI KNIGHT blew me away when I played it. I loved every aspect of it, all of which was thanks to Justin Chin, who was the project leader and who wrote the story. He did an incredible job, make no mistake. Kyle and his allies -- Jan Ors, an Alliance soldier; Qu Rahn, assisting you from beyond the grave; and Wee Gee, the family droid -- are all archetypes cut from the STAR WARS cloth, which is nothing but a good thing in my mind. The Dark Jedi, on the other hand -- Jerec, a twisted and evil former Jedi from the Old Republic; Sariss, a cold, calculating perfectionist; Maw, a hateful being whose rage fuels his power; Boc, a warped and clearly insane Twi'lek; Pic and Gorc, a bizarre set of twins like you've never seen; and Yun, the youngest and best of the bunch -- are almost all inspired by the title characters from Akira Kurosawa's classic film THE SEVEN SAMURAI.

The settings are just what you'd expect, full of atmosphere that could've been lifted directly from the movies. Nar Shaddaa is like Hong Kong in space, with buildings crammed together without planning. Sulon is a pastoral agrarian world, at least where it isn't under the Empire's heel. And the Valley of the Jedi and its tombs evoke are so rich with history, you can almost hear the spirits of the Jedi speaking to you in the hallways of the burial grounds.

Also packaged in this bundle is the one and only expansion pack for it, MYSTERIES OF THE SITH. It's set five years after the events of JEDI KNIGHT, which naturally assumes you chose the light side. You play as Kyle again in the first few missions, who's taken on an apprentice -- Mara Jade, a character introduced in Timothy Zahn's STAR WARS books from 1991-1993 (HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, DARK FORCE RISING, and THE LAST COMMAND). After that first batch of missions, Kyle goes off to chase down a lead, leaving you controlling Mara for the remainder of the game. You take missions aiding both the fledgling New Republic and the newly-rebuilt Jedi Order, until you travel to a forgotten Sith temple to rescue Kyle from the dark side...and from himself.

While SITH had a few flaws -- why would Kyle have to re-learn Force abilities he already had? Why not say who the Sith WERE, instead of just dangling the name around? -- I did like the setting of the Sith temple. This place is genuinely creepy, where the spirits of the dead know no rest, and never will. I also liked how they handled the ending duel. It's audacious, and it fits in PERFECTLY with the Jedi precepts. It's also so simple that you'd never think of it.

I recommend this game as heartily now as I would've eight years ago. It's a low-tech game, so it's practically guaranteed to run on whatever rig you have. And because it's been out for so long, you can pick it up for a fraction of the price of the current games.

Buy this game. It's worth a lot more than you'll pay for it.

dated [Posted on 2005-12-13]
This game was good in it's time, but by today's standards is lacking in terms of graphics and gameplay. I would wish for a better mapping system that is easy to comprehend. The levels are mazes, and I got lost so often I had to use a cheat to complete most levels. The shooting was easy, while navigating the game map was hard. If not for the cheats, I would have found it unplayable. In addition, Mysteries of the Sith cutscenes would play at a speed too fast to see or hear. Perhaps my system is too modern for this ancient software.

I suppose for the diehard SW fan, any game is good, but if I want to see Mara Jade, I am better off with a book or comic. The MOT renditions of Mara left much to be desired graphically.

I wish that you were not stuck playing Kyle Katarn most of the time. He is just a minor character, and not very interesting.

Old game but STILL WORTH PLAYING !!! [Posted on 2006-07-28]
I just got a system good enough to play Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy, but I must say, Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith are STILL brilliant Star Wars games. In the newer games, lightsaber combat is much more advanced and the multiplayer is much more fun.

However, in the matter of plot, Dark Forces and MOTS are still EXCELLENT. Force powers are just as good as the newer games (for the most part).

I have extremely fond memories of playing the MOTS demo over and over when it first came out and then years later, actually finding the full game on Amazon at a time when it was deucedly difficult to find.

Try this game; you won't be disappointed, especially if you're a diehard Star Wars fan and want any action/fps/adventure game you can lay your hands on.

GG

Dark forces 2 rules!!! [Posted on 2006-09-05]
The game dark forces 2 is my favorite game. I just beat it about two months ago. It was an extremely long and hard game. I've read some reviews for this game where the gamer had to go find cheats for it. I did not use any cheats of any kind. I defeated the game on the dark side and i'm replaying it on the light. This game has wonderful force powers. My favorite is force electricity. The lightsaber battles are fun but they could have been a little better. The graphics are really bad on my computer but once I get used to them it's not so bad. The levels are made up of loads of rooms, secret places, giant pools of water with sea monsters, huge air vents, and other great challenges. This game is a great buy. I would be a little concerned about the graphics. The mysteries of the sith game is really cool. I haven't beaten it yet but then again I haven't been working on it. The first level is great. The graphics are way better and the stormtroopers skill with a blaster a lot better. There are harder enemies with a lot more intellegence. In dark forces 2 the stormtroopers and every other enemy you encountered couldn't shoot or think straight. The best thing about mysteries of the sith is, you don't have to be kyle katarn throughout the whole game! You get to be mara jade. She isn't more powerful than kyle or anything but a change is nice once in a while. I would highly recommend these games they are the best!

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