Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

First there was Dark Forces...

Next there was Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight...

Then there was Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast...

Now there is Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy!

LucasArts and the Official Site have just announced that Jedi Academy will be released this year on Xbox and PC. Straying away from the development of Kyle Katarn's skills in the Force (for he is taking a vacation with Jan, if you recall the cutscene at the end of Jedi Outcast), you control an aspiring young Jedi being trained under the great Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.

Here's some details:

-- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows players to go through locations in the classic Star Wars universe as they control a eager student of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Players will interact with Original Trilogy locations and characters while deciding if they will fight for those who need help on the Light-Side or go down the path of power on the Dark-Side.

-- Players design their characters by picking individual characteristics for their characters: species, gender, clothing, and physical attributes help make the experience more exciting and gives the character more experience before entering the Academy to learn about and use the Force.

-- Players also design their lightsaber, including blade color and the handle. You can use a single blade, or use two blades, or have a double-edged lightsaber like Exar Kun or Darth Maul, and then choose from a variety of colors.

-- New and familiar vehicles, weapons, and planets enhance the gameplay.

-- Multiplayer like the past Jedi Knight games.

-- Choose which missions to take to attain new skills.

http://www.lucasarts.com/products/jediacademy/

Here is a female Twi'lek Jedi with a purple double-edged lightsaber slashing her way through a crowd of saber-wielding masked men.

A male human Jedi with a green double-edged lightsaber taking on two masked men, each with two red lightsabers.

Another female Twi'lek Jedi, this time with two lightsaber, one blue and one yellow, against more masked men.

A male Rodian Jedi with a purple double-edged lightsaber up against a terrorizingly huge Rancor with big sharp teeth.

The male human Jedi from an earlier pic, fighting more masked men. This time he's in a darkened room and, while cutting down another of his opponents, is approached by a big man with a red double-edged saber.

The Rodian Jedi from an earlier pic. It looks like he is in a bar, likely on Nar Shadda or Coruscant. A Trandoshan with a blaster rifle is at a nearby table, and a Rodian hitman in the background. I have spotted some bacta containers near the bartender on the bar, so there is a Jedi Outcast reference for ya...

I'll show you more pics when more pics surface! 🙂

With any luck it will have multi-play much BETTER than that of the previous ones...

I hope so too, though probably not too advanced... 🙄

Jedi Outcast multi-play was just a confused free-for-all. No finesse, no skill, and a huge disappointment for thise who wanted proper sabre fights.

They need to tone down some of the Force powers as well; all that overt lightning and drain usage just looked dumb.

And speed was TOO powerful in Outcast- they would use it in the film ALL the time if it was that good.

And I hate to say this... but sabres should KILL PEOPLE when they hit them! Bad guys like Desann shouldn't have to take ten hard sabre hits to the face to be killed. They should just be very difficult to hit! How can they say the sabre fights are just like those in the film if it feels more like you are holding a club than the Galaxy's most dangerous personal weapon?

Plenty of room for improvement from Outcast, if you ask me.

(Oh, and get rid of those gay "can't be blocked by sabres" sniper rifles as well)

In Jedi outcast...I just cheated.........:-).....got the code for unlimited damage....Dessan was pretty hard to beat anyway..

Yes, I agree with the unblocked disruptors. Every so often you do a quick auto Force speed dodge, but it doesn't happen often. In a story I wrote it could be deflected.

When it comes to how many times it takes to kill someone, I use the realistic saber combat codes. If you set it on level 20 the people just fall apart. 😄

ouch that sounds painful

Yes, but the game has been designed with that NOT happening in mind, The stances, for example, become pointless if a light stroke kills as fast as a strong one.

Now, frankly, the strong stance is just dumb anyway- why make silly long strokes with a sabre when a quickl thrust would kill just as dead? Nonetheless, that is how the game was designed so just turning up the sabre damage didn;t really get to grips with the issue.

Duelling should be re-done from the ground up to make it hard to hit but making hits kill.

I usually like to go with the fast stance....yes the strong stance is silly...you usually end up riddled with blaster bolts by the time your finished your first swing

Yes, the strong stance is only good for taking out a group of enemies around you, though that never happens anyway. 🙄

The fast and normal stances are my fav, but after finding the unlimited Force energy code for Outcast on the Cube, I've been using just lightning and throwing the saber, as well as using the unlimited ammo code with the repeater.

The point is that they designed the game to make the strong stance do something. The strong stance should not- at the design stage- exist. Some of those strokes take two seconds to complete. Now, compare the lightning-fast blows of the duels we see in the films. How cool would Maul have been if he had hefted his sabre around like an ogre's club?

Frankly, even medium is a bit slow.

that's why I stick with the fast...I stand there until the bad guys shoot themselves 😄 💃

But you can hit someone with a solid stroke in fast and he does not die unless you hack the game. It is just silly. I know it is a agame where it seems to take five blaster shots to drop someone but... even so, you know? Lightsabres have a certain style to them, and there is no point in them if you can stab someone in the head with them and have to do it again.

I usually don't have to worry about that because I've hit the attack button so many times that the bad guy gets buried in lightsaber strikes and falls right quick...but I do see your point about the lightsaber's flaws in the game