Star Wars - Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight

I could not find a thread on this.

One of my favorite games of all-time. Maybe my #1 ever for the time that I played it. It still holds up, but I'd be lying to say it hasn't become a little dated (not just graphics).

I have downloaded this on Steam and I'm giving it a full playthrough.

ALSO. I am recording my full play-through, and I'm releasing them as individual levels on my youtube account with color commentary on each. This isn't so much because I have an active youtube fanbase (though one of my vids hit 100K views). They're almost entirely WoW fans that follow me because I blog for a WoW website occasionally. But it's more just for me, to amuse myself, and to have a record of me playing through one of the games that elicits the fondest memories from my youth.

So...

Anyone else love this game? Have stories, etc.?

More soon. I may falter and give up on my video project, but right now it seems very fun.

My enjoyment of this series did not occur until Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

I did not like Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. It was too clunky, to me. I was used to playing very well polished 3D games on the N64 so games like this one just seemed so cheap and lame to me. However, when Jedi Academy rolled around, I enjoyed that game quite a bit. It is very similar to its predecesors. If you enjoyed Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II as much as I enjoyed Academy, then you probably played it through at least twice. I rarely play through games more than once so for me to play through a game twice is absurd.

What did you think of Academy, Digi? Did you like it as much as Dark Forces II?

Also, we need a game with a virtual 1 to 1 mapping of your movements to a mo-fuggin' lightsaber so we can finally have our long-awaited lightsaber game!

Originally posted by dadudemon
My enjoyment of this series did not occur until Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.

I did not like Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. It was too clunky, to me. I was used to playing very well polished 3D games on the N64 so games like this one just seemed so cheap and lame to me. However, when Jedi Academy rolled around, I enjoyed that game quite a bit. It is very similar to its predecesors. If you enjoyed Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II as much as I enjoyed Academy, then you probably played it through at least twice. I rarely play through games more than once so for me to play through a game twice is absurd.

What did you think of Academy, Digi? Did you like it as much as Dark Forces II?

I...played Dark Force, Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight II, then stopped. I have Academy in a pack I just bought on Steam, but may not get to it for a while (or ever). So, sorry I can't weigh in.

For one brief period, before Half-Life came out, Jedi Knight was PC Gamer's best game of all-time. So I wasn't the only one that loved it; the critical acclaim was quite high, even though the production values were better in subsequent titles. The level design in JK was superb, and is still what separates it from most modern shooters. It also took full advantage of the SW universe in terms of settings, bad guys, weapons, visual flavor, etc. making the most out of the technology of that time.

JKII was a step back, though still good. Lightsaber combat was more polished, but the game itself wasn't transcendent. The Academy trailers and press never excited me, so I didn't play it when it came out.

DF II was definitely the best of the bunch. It had exceptionally good level design, which is what its legend was based on. That was never equalled again. The sabre combat was gimmicky but that was very forgiveable because of how good the atmosphere was and this being the first time anyone had made a game like that. The subsequent games kept trying to improve sabre combat but never really did, and it got less and less forgiveable. I can pretty much guarantee that you wouldn't be very big on Academy, Digi.

1-1 sabre combat will never happen, mostly because it wouldn't actually be any good. They'd have done it by now if it could reasonably be done and be enjoyable.

^ What Ush said. Though I think the cool thing about the lightsaber in JK was that it was just a situational play. The entire toolbox still needed to be utilized. It didn't hurt that, at the time, we hadn't really ever used a lightsaber in a video game, at least not in a 3D environment in a cool way. Like I said, it's aged, but at the time the lightsaber was a revelation.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
I can pretty much guarantee that you wouldn't be very big on Academy, Digi.

Sucks. Ah well.

I tried to buy all the Jedi Knight Games I could for Xbox recently... but at 80 plus dollars each...

I should probably get a better computer sometimes but laziness and all. I want to play all these games badly.

The Jedi Knight games were awesome. I had so much fun with them...

I played this one too after my friend was done playing with it and enjoyed it too with its FMV's and B-grade acting.

Originally posted by Kazenji
I played this one too after my friend was done playing with it and enjoyed it too with its FMV's and B-grade acting.

That's hilarious that you pick those out as the talking points. The acting was...unfortunate. Good thing the gameplay was so good.

I know the acting was cheesy in the FMV's same with every other game that used it...but i enjoyed them.

Honestly, I think Academy may be my favorite of the JK games - I played it several times over. I also had way too much fun with the saber battle multiplayer part of it. I remember spending many an evening a few summers back playing that every night with a number of other KMCers (most who are no longer active on here). Was so much fun.

So I finished the video of level 1 today. Not sure how I feel about it.

But it's also obvious I've been watching a lot of Sqiddish videos recently, and most of the AC fans on KMC will know who that is.

I'm going to start going for broke in my approach to the level starting with the next vid. I was too thorough, patient, and generally not awesome in level 1. It needs to be more...manic.

Academy is my persoal favourite in the series, though a good chunk of that is due to the excellent mods done for it.

Ahahaha Squiddish is ****ing awesome. I miss his ACB vids. Beard Beard Action Beard!

Originally posted by Peach
Ahahaha Squiddish is ****ing awesome. I miss his ACB vids. Beard Beard Action Beard!

It's depressing. My stream of consciousness as I play is like a really toned-down Squiddiish, but then I listened to the audio from my video and was like "ah damnit, I'm nowhere near as funny as he is."

I still subscribe to his channel despite not having any games in common with him (he never plays AC multiplayer these days). Sometimes just watching him curse to high heaven in a shooter deathmatch is enough to brighten my day.

Originally posted by -Pr-
Academy is my persoal favourite in the series, though a good chunk of that is due to the excellent mods done for it.

It seems like this game was much better for PC.

Digi, when you get done with II and the one after (forget it's name), you'll be on to Academy.

Anyway, what's your youtube channel?

Well, of course it was better for PC. Same with the KOTORs. Half the fun of them is being able to mod the hell out of them.

Originally posted by dadudemon
It seems like this game was much better for PC.

Digi, when you get done with II and the one after (forget it's name), you'll be on to Academy.

Anyway, what's your youtube channel?

Once I have the first couple levels posted to my account, I'll post it. Check back here in a few days. Right now it's a bunch of very niche WoW videos, so not much you'd be interested in.

I'm not replaying Jedi Outcast. Academy would be the only other one I would play. And I might play Academy eventually, but Jedi Knight is really the reason I bought the collection off of Steam.

Level 1. Enjoy:

YouTube video

Level 2 is...longer. I'm trying to figure out a compromise in the editing of it, so that it stays < 20mins. I also clean up my desktop so there's not a noisy Optimus Prime in the background (it won't play in full-screen for me due to newer OS, which I don't mind, but sucks for the video). So this video was, if anything, a trial run for what will hopefully be smoother video experiences in subsequent levels.

I was still figuring out the controls and particulars for some of the level. It's a relatively derpy experience.

Originally posted by Digi
Level 1. Enjoy:

YouTube video

Level 2 is...longer. I'm trying to figure out a compromise in the editing of it, so that it stays < 20mins. I also clean up my desktop so there's not a noisy Optimus Prime in the background (it won't play in full-screen for me due to newer OS, which I don't mind, but sucks for the video). So this video was, if anything, a trial run for what will hopefully be smoother video experiences in subsequent levels.

I was still figuring out the controls and particulars for some of the level. It's a relatively derpy experience.

I can't watch it now. But, consider hitting ctrl+enter to get it to go to full screen. Let me know if that works.

Also, you can adjust your desktop screen resolution to match that of the game to get it to go full screen. Turn on "auto-hide" for your start bar and make your desktop background black and it will make your video recording "appearance" more professional. That, or move the game screen to your second monitor (if you have one) where the start bar is not located.

Also, boobs.