Jedi Academy

[budgie 1]

Seems a lot like Jedi Outcast so far. The missions have a familiar run, shoot/slash, find button or exit setup to them. I'm playing on the easiest setting (Padawan) so that the lightsaber duels last longer - old dudes like me have slower reflexes and like to see the action. Nice that you get to choose your own character and build your own lightsaber but at the start the options are limited. You begin as a new student at the academy under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker and Kyle Katarn and choose your own look. There are more variations for female faces (even though male players make up the majority, the options for human faces are restricted to a black dude and lookalikes of soccer stars David Beckham and Michael Owen) and the difference in sabers seems to be in handle and blade color only. You can't start with two sabers or a double-ended one, so I'm waiting for the chance to get at them.

Early missions are linear, despite the branching campaign promise, and appear to be geared toward familiarization with force powers. The cool thing is that you get to start acting like a Jedi right out of the gate as opposed to Jedi Outcast's long, tedious shooter levels at the start. I would also like to have seen a 'training' feature, wherein I can go back to the academy any time between jobs and brush up on force skill combinations or lightsaber dueling. Maybe that will come later. As for the art and graphics - correct me if I'm wrong - Raven still uses Quake III and they make it look very pretty. The environments are detailed - from the icy wastes of Hoth to the Lush jungles of Yavin - and altogether keep that classic Star Wars universe feel.

I'll keep you posted on the branching campaigns as I progress. It shouldn't be too hard on the lowest setting. I have already created a different character to use in a more difficult campaign where I may even explore my own 'dark side'.

Edited September 8, 2003 by budgie

[firefly2442 0]

I'm working on the demo. How do you get past the big door?...

[GRIN_Wolfsong 0]

Don't like it. Doesn't make the books justice. They should never have put the game in an area where so many books have taken place that are so higly regarded among true Star Wars fans.

Kyle Katarn has nothing to do with Jedi Academy. They should have droped him and used Kam Solusar for that part instead. Kam was one of the first 12 students, and later became a teacher.

[El_Nino 2]

I'm working on the demo. How do you get past the big door?...

Firefly,

Good question. It took me a while to figure it out too. In that big octaganal room that you just cleared of the 3 jedis, there is a door to the right. Use force senses. This lights up two symbols, one on the floor, one on the door. Stand inside the symbol on the floor while still lit up, then use force pull on the symbol on the door. There is another place later in the mission where you will also have to combine powers.

el

[firefly2442 0]

Thanks, gonna go try it out.

[firefly2442 0]

That was fun. I like the dual lightsabers. hehe.

[budgie 1]

The SP verdict is in. The game took about 8 days of solid play to complete, with anywhere from 1-5 hours clocked each day. The level design is much like Jedi Outcast as I said, but the focus is on saber combat from the get-go and less shooting, and it is possible to go through the whole game without firing a shot (I did many levels that way). Despite this, shooter conventions still apply and I found my self having to navigate my way to the third floor in order to find the switch for a drawbridge on the first floor on more than one occasion.

On the subject of shooter conventions, there is but one level which follows the formula exactly and it's not only the most yawn-inducing but the least plausible: It has you trapped and unarmed in an Imperial prison and you are set free as a kind of hunting sport by the warden - a washed up, alcoholic grey-suited Imperial officer who has confiscated your saber. This guy is a real slob - he has a ton of stubble and his beergut flops out of his unbuttoned jacket beneath a stained white wife-beater. Yet he is the level boss and when you fight your way out through the levels, sans-saber and picking up guns as you go, he is the final challenge in the last room. With an uber-weapon in hand, this fat loser proceeds to dash back and forth like a track star while pinning accurate shots in your direction and blowing away sections of floor to hinder your progress. Disgusted with the whole level so far, I couldn't take this final insult and switched to God mode to sort that clown out and get back to the real game. There is no joy in fighting so hard in a game against someone I could beat the crap out of in real life.

The voice acting is above average for a game, the graphics are beautiful and the sets are gorgeous, but the story is thin and predictable. It centers around some dark force cultists trying to resurrect a sith Lord. some of the names and history might make more sense to officianados, but outside the movies, I know practically nothing, despite being a lifelong fan. Nevertheless, a dolt could follow the plot so don't worry. Cut scenes are frequent but mercifully short. There is plenty of background jabber, especially when sneaking up on Stormtoopers (the easiest of saber-fodder). The game even pokes fun at itself with the soldiers in one instance complaining about the layout of my previously griped about security switches. Puzzles are generally simple, shortlived and not the focus of the game, and the developers seem to know they shouldn't be taken too seriously. IMO it would still be a little more believable if the switch for door A weren't in section D.

Leveling up is fun and adds a slight element of role playing as is the fashion in action games these days. Aside from eight core force powers (from Jedi Outcast) you can choose to upgrade four 'light' and four 'dark' powers with a new force point after each mission, and you'll never be a master of all 16 powers. With the game, there is a caveat that overusing the 'dark' powers (such as choke or life-draining) will hasten your slide to the dark side, but I found that in game it makes no difference. Perhaps they were talking about the sadism it breeds in the player. Your path is entirely your choice and the choice is spelled out for you at a certain point in the game. In earlier levels you are given three sets of five missions and you must complete any four in each set before moving on to the next, story-driven segment. The fifth is optional if you want the extra point, but as I was running two campaigns with different characters, I chose to make that one mission the difference between the two guys. I completed only four each time, but the mission I skipped would be different for each man, so I got to see them all.

Lightsabers are the raison d'etre of this game. As I said, you begin with one and that is all you really need (you can and should skip the prison mission unless you really need the extra force point). There was never a dull saber fight and even the real level 'bosses' are not as quick as Desann was in Outcast, giving you time to think about your moves and savor your fight. I say 'bosses' because they don't really feel a whole lot better than the rest of the saber-wielding bad guys in each level, instead providing a slightly harder challenge. That was fine with me, I'm thirty now and I don't have the reactions of a Playstation user or Counter Strike fan, if you know what I mean. Nevertheless, higher level cultists can be challenging, coming at you with a combination of flashy saber moves and devestating force powers, forcing you to take quite a few do-overs to complete segments of levels.

The cultists come in three stripes: the red suited saber wielders are easiest to beat, providing a modest challenge if you stay on your toes. They can still kill you with a lucky stab however, and they have force powers too - and remember while we are smarter than the computer, it will always process faster reactions, so you need to be alert when fighting them. These are often accompanied by blue suited force wielders, only occasionally seen with a saber. These guys work in tandem with the reds on most occasions and provide a cruel distraction of force push, drain and lighting spells as you try to fight the saber-wielder. I took to trying to kill these guys first (easier as they have no weapon to block with) to even up the fights. Then there are the brown-suits. these guys are faster, stronger and more powerful than you and present a real challenge. I played on the moderate (2 out of 4) difficulty and they gave me a real run for my money, they sometimes even frustrated me. Yet killing them is a real reward and if you learn to fall back, time your moves and force use and put some thought into your fighting, they present a long and satisfying duel.

There is also, in your datapad (the shooter's typical help window) a section on saber moves which shows, in realtime with your character as the model, each move for the different saber types and styles and tells you the key combo for each. This was a real help and after a few missions, I could genuinely visualize which situations would require which moves. With one saber, as in Outcast, you can choose, fast, medium or strong style at any time, depending on the fight. As in Outcast, I never used strong - it was suicidally slow. Fast works best in cramped quarters with multiple attackers, while medium is the best all-round dueling style for me. When using dual sabers or Darth Maul's staff saber, you can always switch back to a single blade. The staff's default style is medium so, going to a single blade resets the style to fast, same for dual sabers. However this is only useful on rare occasions as the double-edged death of either the pair or the staff ensure that enemies who get to close on any side are sure to meet a swift end, if only by accident. I can assure you, there is nothing more satisfying than taking on a trio of cultists in a four way saber duel with your trusty staff saber. With a pair, you can also hold one saber while throwing another - so you'll still block ranged attacks. You can even use force grip to hold an enemy in place and then throw your saber at him while he's helpless in mid air. How cool is that?

But there is some disappointment to be had with the sabers and the force. Although you can have a single saber, dual sabers or the staff saber, you don't get a shot at the latter options until about two-thirds of the way through the game - a little late in my book. The moves are difficult to learn and timing is hard in the heat of battle. I often found myself struggling to make the right key combo work, whilst getting cut to ribbons by the cultists. And while it takes you many hours to master the use of the single saber, you will find that the twirling death of a staff, or the lightning-quick butterfly combo of a pair of sabers are far more powerful and easier to execute for beginners - making you wish you'd had such weapons from the start. Aside from having earlier access to the better sabers than you, the bad guys seem to have perpetually higher force powers than you as well. I tried to use the force-drain power (sucking an enemy's life force by dutch-rubbing them) and found that it was impossible to get close enough and ranged draining seems to result in a modest gain at the cost of nearly all your force power. Yet the cultists had no such trouble doing it to me. And the decision to take the light or dark side is left until a scripted moment late in the game, so if you choose the dark side, don't expect to have a lot of time to play around with it. Perhaps an expansion will address that.

Nevertheless I had a ball of a time. It is great being able to customize your character from race, gender and face options, and to choose the hilt and color of your saber (blue, green, don't-call-it-pink, amber and yellow) and even your clothing. I was forced by my girlfriend to choose the Beckham lookalike and managed to talk her out of the "purple" saber and into green. That guy, following her mean-streak was destined for dual sabers and the dark side. My character was the smoother looking black dude, with a...ahem, bigger saber, for which I chose an amber blade that coordinated really well with his skin color and tan tunic with sea-blue trim. What? He was my champion of light and went on to fight with the coveted staff saber. I will return to fight some of those better duels many times over, I am certain. I have yet to play the saber duels in multiplay, although I am sure there will be the typical assortment of cheats and rogues, not to mention the requisite twelve-year-olds who in all fairness, will be able to beat the living tar out of me.

Edited September 15, 2003 by budgie

[Pyro_Monty 0]

Wow, great read, Budgie. Very well written.

Why aren't you making money out of you writing?

[Chems 0]

wow! Sounds great, I even like the sound of the prision level, no weps just force sounds uber cool. thanks for the review m8.

*goes out and buys it

It is great being able to customize your character from race, gender and face options, and to choose the hilt and color of your saber (blue, green, don't-call-it-pink, amber and yellow) and even your clothing. I was forced by my girlfriend to choose the Beckham lookalike and managed to talk her out of the "purple" saber and into green. That guy, following her mean-streak was destined for dual sabers and the dark side. My character was the smoother looking black dude, with a...ahem, bigger saber, for which I chose an amber blade that coordinated really well with his skin color and tan tunic with sea-blue trim. What? He was my champion of light and went on to fight with the coveted staff saber.

Sounds a bit like Mace Windu, I think Ill go for that look!

[budgie 1]

You can read the full Gamespot review here. They gave it an 8.4 on the Richter scale.

[Chems 0]

Gettin it Saturday! yay, break from GR thank god!, and OFP mp demo.

[McNamee 0]

yep, goin into town on sat, with chems and a couple of mates, jk3 is MINEEE. We also gonna watch that tears of the whatever movie...

[Chems 0]

Got JK, man is it looking good. I made my dude a Mace Windu look a like. Dont give you much time before you fight your first jedi do they???? Looks very promising so far. What I really like is the way that your working like a jedi, like not on your own and you choose missions instead of been told. What Id like to see is a Jedi Academy from the times before a new hope, when the jedi were very stong. Anyways off to play it now!

[Super-Bob 0]

So who here has JA, maybe we could get some GR.net duels goin.

[Ruin 17]

I hate reviving old threads but I just got JA.

I LOVE lightsaber duels. Loads of fun!

I enjoy using my l337 gripping powers and throwing people off of ledges, lmao!

I'm up for some games if you all are!