Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Jedi Outcast is a game I heard about a while ago but was never able to play, I never owned an Xbox or a PC good enough to run these types of games when I was younger, and despite being a huge Star Wars fan, I mainly stuck with Battlefront II, Force Unleashed, Bounty Hunter, and Lego Star Wars. I eventually got around to it nearly 20 years later since it was released recently on PS4 and was on sale. Jedi Outcast is a weird franchise, because this franchise started off on PS1 as a generic Doom clone, then when Dark Forces 2 came along, they decided to go with the Quake formula, but decided to change the series from a first person shooter to a shooter/action hybrid and gave you a lightsaber. Dark Forces II was an interesting game, but was sort of a trial and error because no game attempted to do lightsaber combat at that level before. Then this came along 5 years later and further evolved the formula. Outcast is a weird game because for the first 1/4 of the game or first 5 levels, the game is strictly a FPS where you go through bases killing storm troopers and navigating through maze-like corridors. Then 1/4 of a way in the game throws you a lightsaber but still expects you to occasionally switch to guns to take out certain enemies or tackle certain areas.

Unfortunately, Outcast really hasn't aged too well and is a product of its time, the first 1/4 of the game is just a generic FPS game that almost feels like a poor man's Half Life. Then you have the odd level design, some levels are just designed so poorly and annoying, like there's a level where there are snipers far away in a city and they have near perfect accuracy and can kill you in like 4 or 5 shots, and you are expected to locate the snipers, use your sniper to pick them off, and hope you don't die. There's another level where you have to outrun lasers in a corridor or you die in one hit. There's a level where you have to sneak past enemies and if you are detected you instantly fail the mission. I'd say roughly 1/3 of the levels in this game are either poorly designed, have too many frustrating obstacles and elements, and are overly difficult.

Speaking of which, the difficulty in this game is annoying. I played on medium difficulty, and I found myself on the verge of death constantly in the early stages from just basic enemies. Then when you get your lightsaber and end up facing against sith enemies, you can die in just 3 or 4 hits from these enemies. I feel like the difficulty of this game is super unbalanced and the fact that you have to restart the entire mission when you die makes it worse. Luckily the PS4 version had save states, but without these I would have quit this game a long time ago. This design is just so dated and feels unfair, I mean even Dark Souls had damn checkpoints, this game has almost nothing, and some levels go on for 20 minutes, if you die at the end you have to redo 20 whole minutes to get to where you made it.

No in terms of gameplay and combat, this is the game's somewhat strong suit. The shooting mechanics are kind of poor because often I found myself missing when I was pointed right at my target, but the lightsaber combat is pretty fun and entertaining. My only annoyance is often I'd swing my saber at an enemy only to wiff and miss when the enemy was right in front of me. The force powers in this game are incredibly fun and varied and make this one of the first games of its time to offer this variety. You can choke enemies, shock them, push, pull, throw your saber, mind trick them, and this isn't even every ability. As you progress your powers improve and you feel more powerful, and that also makes it fun to progress. Honestly this save the game a lot, especially in the later levels, and hell, if you want you can just turn on god mode in the cheats and just feel like a jedi god for some fun.

The story itself is pretty basic, but Kyle is a pretty cool hero. This game takes place after Return of the Jedi and I honestly wish this were canon instead of the terrible sequels we got from Disney, in my head I'll actually accept this as the true post Episode VI canon. We get characters like Luke and Lando to return and see what became of the jedi after all this which is cool. The story isn't anything special, but it has some cool moments and even if the main villain is kind of lame and non existant for most of this.

The level design is also kind of frustrating, often I found myself getting lost and needing a guide just to figure out where to go, and I would never have figured out most of this without guides. Often the game is very vague about where you need to go or what you need to do. Fortunately, the frustrating design is most prevalent in the early missions and later on in the game, the levels become a bit more linear and straightforward. But it still is poor design when at least 1/3 of the levels in this game need a guide to figure out where to go or what to do.

Overall, Outcast is a solid game and was great for its time, but has just aged poorly in many of its elements, mainly the difficulty, maze-like level design, and somewhat clunky controls and combat. The game has lots of cool force powers to play with and solid saber combat, despite the clunkiness, and it does continue the story past Return of the Jedi, and does it better than Disney, but much was improved in the sequel Jedi Academy and this is a game I probably will never revisit again, mainly due to the poor design choices. Plus in terms of Star Wars games this really doesn't even hold a candle to KOTOR or Battlefront II. It was a fun game for its time, that quickly became dated. I mean in ways this is better than Force Unleashed, but I feel like Force Unleashed ultimately was the lesser frustrating game, even if Unleashed had a worse story and didn't have as bad ass force powers.

After nearly turning to the dark side, Kyle Katarn has decided to return to life as a smuggler and mercenary for the Alliance. The game begins with Katarn and pilot Jan Ors on a mission from Mon Mothma. They are to investigate a distress call from a planet that was believed to be uninhabited. There, Katarn and Ors run into Imperial forces known as The Remnant and uncover their plot to create an army who are artificially infused with the force; referred to as The Reborn. During the events, Katarn returns to his Jedi ways, but his anger allows him to flirt with the dark-side of the Force.

Since Katarn starts off as a mercenary, it will be a few levels before you receive your lightsaber and force powers. There are plenty of weapons; various blasters (such as the Bryar Pistol, Stormtroopers Blaster Rifle, sniper-style Disruptor Rifle and Wookie Bowcaster) and explosives such as thermal detonators and trip mines. The lightsaber is your primary weapon since it can attack mid-range via sabre-throw, is strong at close range, and can deflect some lasers automatically; giving you better defence. When enemies are out of range, you will need long distance blasters to take them down.

All the force powers you gain will unlock and improve over the course of the game via story progression. This makes a change from previous games where you unlocked them with skill points. Eventually you will have force jump, speed, push, pull, lightning, heal, mind trick, and choke. There are instances where these moves are used to progress through the environment, but mostly you will use them to take down enemies.

You can switch between first and third person views. I found third person is best with the lightsaber whereas first person is best for gun fights.

There are 24 single-player levels that span eight different environments including familiar locales such as Yavin or Bespin, in addition to other places like the mining facility Artus. There's a few familiar faces too such as Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian (even voiced by Billy Dee Williams).

At the start of the game, you will be taking down hordes of Stormtroopers and some Imperial officers. Soon after, you will be taking down familiar enemies in the franchise such as thermal detonator-throwing Grans, Rodian snipers and strong Noghri. These are extremely annoying to fight, but after a few levels, you will be back to fighting Stormtroopers.

The music and sound direction is pulled straight from the films. The iconic John William's score plays during the game and dynamically changes volume during the more intense action sequences. The sound of blaster fire is great, and Stormtoopers even give a Wilhelm scream as they tumble. The enemies themselves have a much higher standard of animation, which gives them better movement and satisfying death sequences.

Health is initially restored using Bacta Canisters, but eventually you gain the Force Heal ability. Force regenerates fairly quickly, giving you access to constantly heal. Shields provide extra protection and can be regenerated at certain green-coloured stations.

The game's design hasn't really changed which is a bad thing. You will often get stuck and walk around aimlessly, just because you didn't see a fairly inconspicuous passageway, or have to do something that isn't so obvious like shooting out a window. It's a problem that has plagued the franchise, yet the development team keep on doing it.

I also feel the game is a bit muddled in it's game-play direction. The laser fire seems to have a random aspect to it which creates some funny battles with the Stormtoopers early on; you both send high quantity of laser fire at each other but fail to register a hit. It does recreate moments that you see in films, but as a first-person shooter; it takes away part of the skill element to it. The use of the lightsaber takes it further away from being a FPS but I often found the combat a bit “hack-and-slash and hope for the best” which reduces the fun factor. The game tries to add variety with the 'puzzles' but often it comes down to finding a switch which you can often miss, then aimlessly wander around, becoming frustrated.

There's also plenty of moments where you feel like the game is being unfair. Being thrown into situations where there's several snipers and several grenade throwing Grans is just stupid, especially when the snipers seem to have rapid aim. I played on the lowest difficulty (out of 4 options: Padawan, Jedi, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Master) as I expected the game to be similar to the other games in the series; and I was right. It's ridiculously tough at times.

The good news is that you can save anywhere, and you can press F12 to Quick Save and F9 to Quick Load. The helps to alleviate frustration somewhat, but the fact you need to save so often illustrates how insane the game can be.

It's a relatively long game compared with other first-person-shooters, taking around 15 hours, although the game time is inflated by the parts where you get lost. The positive aspect about the game is that you do feel like a powerful Jedi, and it's great to have the full spectrum of Force powers. Being able to do the basics of push and pull in addition to the darker powers of choke and lightning gives you variety and allows you to dispatch your foes in satisfying ways. Jedi Outcast is definitely the best in the series, although I'm not a fan of the series.

I had never played Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast before but expected greatness given both the developer and series’ pedigree. It was a crushing and cruel experience then to discover what is possibly the worst entry in both Star Wars: Dark Forces’ and Raven Software’s FPS catalog. It’s a game plagued by a myriad of problems that could have been avoided given an extra month or two of development.

By 2002, Lucas had stopped being so protective of the franchise (some may say to the extent of tarnishing it), which allowed Raven to be far more free to explore the world of Star Wars than the original games. Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker make lengthy appearances alongside memorable locations from the films, such as Cloud City. While Raven’s efforts at fan service are appreciated, the game ends up feeling hollow as a result. It is neither a fun ride through the world of the original films like Dark Forces nor an interesting story in the expanded universe like the first Jedi Knight. Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando, but he is clearly phoning in lines, adding to the soullessness of the whole thing.

Presentation and story weren’t what sold me on the previous games, so I’m okay with this. What I’m not okay with is the game being significantly flawed in almost every other facet. The levels, for the most part, take place in warehouses and ships that all blend together with boring greys and browns. For as bad as the first Jedi Knight’s levels were, Jedi Outcast features some of the worst level design I’ve ever seen in a FPS. Almost every single level had me getting lost and stuck multiple times, discovering the majority of secrets before I found the main path in the least expected area (such as a vent in the ceiling in a random room). At least when I found the solution in previous games, I felt clever for solving a puzzle or exploring. In Jedi Outcast, I’m left scratching my head why I’m finding secrets easier than the main path. All of this is made worse by the lack of a map, which was a feature in the previous games.

Though the lightsaber and force abilities saw a significant upgrade, the shooting of Jedi Outcast is awful. I could stand in front of a stormtrooper and unload my gun, while bullets magically dance around him and the ones that land provide no visual/audio feedback. Now imagine how much worse this is when the AI is strafing around and the broken hitboxes fail to cooperate with the player. Even firing guns—the foundation of the FPS—is joyless in Jedi Outcast. The standard blaster rifle lacks accuracy while the sniper rifle unzooms if the player moves and has such a long delay that it’s useless in most situations. Later guns feel weak and inaccurate, making a heavy reliance on melee combat non-optional.

The game gets better as force powers become more powerful. Pull weapons away from a group of foes and cutting them all down has never been more satisfying. Even this is spoiled, however, with scenarios that get progressively worse. Escort missions lead to forced stealth sections which leads to a terrible vehicle section, an anti-gravity area that is maddening, and a final boss fight that feels random: one try I can’t get a single hit in, while the next I beat him in two hits. Around every corner, Jedi Outcast reminds you of all the terrible elements present in early ’00s games while losing the core fundamentals that made the first two series entries fun.

Jedi Outcast sounds like a trash fire but the sad thing is that it is on the cusp of greatness. It’s no surprise then that Raven put out its other first big flop the same year with Soldier of Fortune II. Both games share key members of development staff along with the problems that come from rushing a game, failing to polish before release. While Raven never returned to the Soldier of Fortune franchise, it did take another stab at Star Wars.