A-Z backlog challenge: Jedi Academy
My first experience of The Jedi Knight series of first person shooters began in 1995 with Dark Forces on the PS1. I've found it quite hard to play most of them again recently. The old school focus on searching levels thoroughly and finding secrets in obscure places bored me. I also didn't enjoy the visual rather than gameplay focus of the Force Unleashed series. Jedi Academy seems to be a good balance between the two.
You play as a new recruit to the Jedi Academy. You can choose from both genders and from various races form the Star wars universe. You also get to design your own lightsaber- at the start hilt and color, later in the game also whether to use a single bladed, dual bladed or to dual-wield two lightsabers.
To move up the Jedi Ranks, there are groups of 5 missions, of which you must complete 4. It's good that you can skip one if you find it particularly boring or difficult. Between these groups of missions there are compulsory missions which tell the main story tells of a Sith cult looking to siphon force energy from various places.
Missions will take you to familiar locations such as Hoth, Tatooine and Korriban. There is a good mix of indoor and outdoor locations and most levels are sprawling and well-designed with the odd environmental puzzle requiring you to use Force pull and push.
There are also a number of different weapons for you to choose from or find, although most of the time using your lightsaber is easier and more fun. There also health packs and shields to pick up and recharge.
It's cool to run into familiar allies and enemies such as Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Stormtroopers and Tuskan Raiders. Some of the enemies become a bit repetitive, especially late in the game when you run into dozens of dark jedi.
Between each mission, you can gain a new light or dark side ability or upgrade an existing one such as force lightning, heal, choke etc. I focused on the light side ones, which may be part of the reason why combat started getting repetitive. There are a few combos to use in lightsaber combat but after killing so many hundreds of enemies in similar ways it becomes drudgery. If there was more reason to use the large variety of guns, this may have been alleviated.
I'm glad I gave this another chance as it was interesting and fun at times, but I'm not sure how much I would recommend this to people used to more modern games. Luckily it is very cheap and can be picked up in numerous Star Wars bundles.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 68
Steam price: $9.99
Best sale price: $2.49 (-75%)
You play as a new recruit to the Jedi Academy. You can choose from both genders and from various races form the Star wars universe. You also get to design your own lightsaber- at the start hilt and color, later in the game also whether to use a single bladed, dual bladed or to dual-wield two lightsabers.
To move up the Jedi Ranks, there are groups of 5 missions, of which you must complete 4. It's good that you can skip one if you find it particularly boring or difficult. Between these groups of missions there are compulsory missions which tell the main story tells of a Sith cult looking to siphon force energy from various places.
Missions will take you to familiar locations such as Hoth, Tatooine and Korriban. There is a good mix of indoor and outdoor locations and most levels are sprawling and well-designed with the odd environmental puzzle requiring you to use Force pull and push.
There are also a number of different weapons for you to choose from or find, although most of the time using your lightsaber is easier and more fun. There also health packs and shields to pick up and recharge.
It's cool to run into familiar allies and enemies such as Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Stormtroopers and Tuskan Raiders. Some of the enemies become a bit repetitive, especially late in the game when you run into dozens of dark jedi.
Between each mission, you can gain a new light or dark side ability or upgrade an existing one such as force lightning, heal, choke etc. I focused on the light side ones, which may be part of the reason why combat started getting repetitive. There are a few combos to use in lightsaber combat but after killing so many hundreds of enemies in similar ways it becomes drudgery. If there was more reason to use the large variety of guns, this may have been alleviated.
I'm glad I gave this another chance as it was interesting and fun at times, but I'm not sure how much I would recommend this to people used to more modern games. Luckily it is very cheap and can be picked up in numerous Star Wars bundles.
Release Year: 2003
Rating: 68
Steam price: $9.99
Best sale price: $2.49 (-75%)
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