After a brief meeting with Luke Skywalker and a quick tutorial on using The Force, you’ve got some basic Force powers and your trusty lightsaber. Once you’ve cheesed your way through the first few hours that see Kyle’s partner slain by the game’s antagonist, Desann, and his little slag of a Sith apprentice, Tavion, you’ll be on your way to using The Force once again.Īfter encountering Desann and losing badly, Kyle decides he needs to get his Force powers back, as well as his lightsaber. Now it may sound overwhelmingly negative up to this point but bear with me, because the game does get better. In fact, to this day I don’t think I’ve ever done a playthrough of this game without using cheats and a walkthrough… I must confess, I did use some online walkthroughs to get by and, once I realized that there was a cheat menu that allowed me to get all the weapons, force powers and God mode, I turned it on and never turned it off. It doesn’t help that many of the game’s puzzles revolve around you flipping switches, either. All too often I’d overlook a switch I was meant to flip because it was camouflaged amongst a wall of other Star Wars-y computer stuff. However, this makes finding the consoles you’re supposed to interact with a bloody nuisance. Given the game’s age, it’s understandable that there isn’t that much variety to each map’s assets. But if you don’t save after every little encounter you risk the chance of losing your progress and having to go through the annoying puzzles and fire-fights again.
I did it so much that I ended up using all of my available save slots! I’ve not had to do such scummy saving since, well, since Jedi Outcast originally released. I’m not ashamed to say that I save-scummed my way through the first few hours. The Stormtroopers were uncharacteristically accurate, while I was the polar opposite. The controls aren’t great and I often found myself wasting most of my ammo as I fought with the crosshairs. Being that Kyle has ditched his Jedi powers, you’re basically playing a first-person shooter that wasn’t made with consoles in mind. Unfortunately, it’s not all fun and sabers. The first level sets the stage for the next five hours of the game. This serves as the game’s introduction and, in retrospect, it’s not a great one. Of course, it’s not empty and there are loads of Stormtroopers up to no good. Instead, he’s mooching around space with his partner Jan, and the first mission you’re on takes place on a drab, grey outpost that’s supposed to be empty. Kyle’s not a Jedi anymore, that’s the main thing. I can’t quite remember why, as all I remember is that I played the first Jedi Knight game and I barely remember it. You play as gun-for-hire Kyle Katarn, a chap who used to be a Jedi until he turned his back on The Force for reasons. This game now takes place in the “extended universe” along with other games and books released before George Lucas’ massive payday. It’s not considered canon with the newly released movies and lunchboxes that Disney has pushed out the door since paying George Lucas to step away from the franchise. Jedi Outcast takes place a few years after Return of the Jedi. But before I start going into detail on the finer workings of Jedi Outcast, let me set the scene. And I’ve spent countless hours scratching my head, trying to figure out some of the solutions to the game’s many puzzles. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with the Reborn dark Jedi. I’ve been running around massive levels shooting Stormtroopers in the face. These days we’ve got… well, you know what we’ve got.Ī surprise release this month, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast has been taking me back to my childhood over the last week. It’s a shame because the Jedi Knight games were some of the finest uses of the Star Wars license.
That’s bonkers, right? The game’s original PC release was a success that spawned a sequel, Jedi Academy, but nothing more. Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is now older than I was when I first played it back in 2002.