Being Jedi Outcast was such a success in my book, I was pretty excited for Jedi Academy and bought it day of release. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have my doubts however. One of my biggest concerns was the fact the face of the franchise, Kyle Katarn, wasn’t the main playable character of this game. Instead players will be able to create their own Jedi to be, Jaden Korr, from a slew of different create a character options. These options include the typical items such as male and female, facial feature, and clothing design. The more interesting aspects are you can also choose from a variety of different races, like the Rodian for example. Another nice feature is you will have the ability to create your own lightsaber, by choosing different hilts and blade colors. In the later levels, you will also gain access to dual wielding sabers, and the ever popular double bladed variety. That means players won’t have to go through several average levels just to get their lightsaber, you’ll have it from the start of the game, and odds are it’s the only weapon you’ll want to use.

    Having the ability to create your own character isn’t necessarily a bad thing for this game, but it does have some draw backs that docks a few points from the overall feel of Jedi Academy. For starters, Jedi Academy’s plot isn’t as nearly well polished as its predecessor’s. Jedi Academy’s story revolves around Jaden Korr learning the ways of the force, and of course the fate of the galaxy is at stake. After Jaden, and his (or her) friend Rosh are assigned to their master, Kyle Katarn, the cookie cutter adventure begins. I know that sounds harsh, being as a whole Jedi Academy really isn’t terrible, but Jaden’s quest to become one with the force doesn’t have the emotional impacts Jedi Outcast had. Although it does have decent moments, Jedi Academy’s story lacks the overall maturity that the Jedi Knight series has been known for. Mainly do to the fact players have control over which mission they will complete next out of 3 series of 4 possible missions instead of having a standard linear experience. Another flaw to Jedi Academy’s story is in the voice acting. For the majority of the time, the voice acting is fine, but being players can choose between a male and female character, that ultimately means there must be a male and female voice actor for Jaden. Any time Jaden speaks, no matter what the sex is, the characters lines feel like they have simply been copied and pasted into place. On occasion, some character’s lines even slightly overlap one another, and this just take a player out of the entire experience.

    Jedi Academy’s game mechanics are where this game really comes to life, as it builds on the foundations set in place by Jedi Outcast. The main focus here is pure action from start to finish, and its pretty rewarding. As to be suspected, Jedi Academy is also a mix of 3rd and first person perspectives. While using the large array of blasters, bow casters, and other authentic or unique Star Wars weapons game play transfers into a first person shooter. Using ranged weapons can have its advantages, but in terms of this game feels a bit unnecessary being players will have access to their lightsaber from the get go as I mentioned earlier. Being the lightsaber is going to be the main weapon of choice, the game will almost exclusively be a 3rd person adventure. Unlike Jedi Outcast, the ability to enter a first person view for saber combat has been removed. Some might miss this feature, but Jedi Academy has plenty of new attacks and character animations to take its place which makes fighting feel much more diverse. These new attacks and animations only become even more unique once the player is given the choice to upgrade to using two lightsabers or the double-bladed lightsaber. The addition to these two choices really brings the action to life, as your character will be able to do more devastating attacks.

    And what would a Jedi Knight game be without force powers? Well, it wouldn’t be Jedi Academy that’s for sure. Jaden’s greatest ally, the force, has also undergone some changes since the last installment of the Jedi Knight franchise. The force is just as powerful as it was in Jedi Outcast, there are just more force abilities players can take advantage of. There are both light side abilities, and dark side abilities. The light side powers, which include Force Healing, Force Protection, Force Absorption, and the Jedi Mind Trick are generally defensive abilities that are used to aid Jaden. The dark side powers are a little bit more interesting. They include Force Grip, Force Lightning, Force Rage, and Force Drain. These are Jaden’s offensive abilities, and are pretty darn cool. The biggest change to the force in Jedi Academy, is the fact players will have control over which abilities they want to focus on. That means if you are the master of your own destiny, and Jaden will truly reflect your personal play style.

    Multiplayer has also returned with Jedi Academy, which added a lot of life to the overall replay ability of the game. All of the same modes that were offered in Jedi Outcast are still intact, and players can choose to use a pre-made character like Luke Skywalker or Kyle Katarn as their online avatar. Of course, their Jaden Korr is also playable online. Like Jedi Outcast, the amount of gamers still playing online has diminished over the years although some still remain. In its day, I spent many hours playing Jedi Academy’s multiplayer and it is a blast. If you can’t find a human opponent, you can still play against Bots. Although its not the same as playing against someone else, its still worth playing.

    Graphically, Jedi Academy isn’t drastically different than Jedi Outcast. Being Jedi Outcast had some pretty decent graphics, I’m not too disappointed in how Jedi Academy looks although it would have been nice to see a little bit more in terms of that “wow” factor. I also ran into compatibility issues Jedi Academy while running Window’s Vista (what else is new right?), so setting this game to run with in Windows XP mode will definitely save you a lot of heartache is trying to run Jedi Academy with a newer operating system.

    Sure Jedi Academy didn’t take a huge step forward for the Jedi Knight franchise, but I can say with absolute certainty that I had a lot of fun playing this game. When you want some intense lightsaber action, and feel like tossing some storm troopers over a ledge with Force Grip, Jedi Academy is definitely a worthy investment.

Written by RB

Over and Out

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