Review NaN of 53
, from USA
Price Paid:
$10.00
from EB Summary:
This game defined my concept of the first person shooter. It's really the first shooter game I really ever played that wasn't marred by tedious puzzles every five seconds. Sure, there are SOME puzzles in this game, but most of the time, they make sense. If they don't, I have a strategy guide to solve them for me. :) Yes, some people consider that cheating, but I consider it pointless to sit in front of your computer for X amount of hours trying to figure out something that, even with a strategy guide, is hard at times. Plus, I don't play first person shooters for their puzzles. I play them for their, well, shooting. I mean, I like to go around shooting storm troopers, pulling their guns away, turning invisible and dropping mines on their heads, etc. Yes, all these things are possible thanks to Jedi Knights great "Force Power" System. In essance, all the powers from Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI are in there. There are also a few that were made up to help balance the game. For instance, force absorb, force blinding, force speed, etc. However, none of the powers are unbalanced, thus creating a game where pretty much no matter what you put points into, your character will still be excellent. Granted, there are BETTER ways to apply skill points. For instance, force lightning is considered a pretty weak skill in Multi-Player. However, just the other day I was fighting someone who killed me using Force Lightning. So you can't really say that one skill is better than another -- you just have to know how to use the skill.
At first when I started the game, my controls were a little messed up. For instance, on my mouse, if I moved the mouse up, instead of my gun moving up, it went down. So I had to "reverse" the axis, which took me a little while to figure out. Once you get it fixed, though, the controls are absolutely excellent. Everything is responsive, and if you don't think your mouse is responsive enough, all you have to do is adjust the sensativity. Also, accessing force powers is something that you really need to know how to do. In other words, it's a really good idea to assign "hot keys" to skills that you use the most. For instance, I like to play the Dark Side a lot. Therefore, I need quick access to things like Force Destruction and Force Grip (which will be explained later). Thus I re-map the key to get it to what I want it to be. For instance, my delete key became force destruction and my right control key became force grip, since those keys are close to my arrow keys, and, remember, you need to access force powers quickly, or you're dead. Jedi Knight is a VERY fast paced game, and if you can't keep up, most likely you're going to die. However, if you don't like this pace, and you want it to be slower, more like a "traditional shooter" you can always play in games that don't allow force powers, thus giving you the kind of game you'd rather play. See, when a host launches a game, he can select the maximum amount of force powers allowed in the game. The highest is level 8. If the host selects 0, no force powers can be used. Personally, I like to take a break, every once in a while, from force powers, and play no force sabers in the Multi-Player level Battle Ground Jedi. Battle Ground Jedi (that's what BGJ means in multi-player games) is a level where there are no guns, and your only weapons are force powers (if they are allowed) or, if they are not, your light saber. It's really neat to see four people (that's the max allowed in a game...) swinging their light sabers trying to hit each other. Sometimes a person will get lucky and kill two people with one swing, but that is usually pretty rare, and, I think, at least, occurs because of lag. Lots of times I will hit someone, yet they will not receive any damage. It's not too bad though, because sometimes they will hit me and I will take no damage. So it all balances out in the end.
The way that your force powers get determined is this -- the more "good" you do, the more chance you have of being the light side. The more "evil" you do, the more chance you have of being on the Dark Side. Well, you might ask, what does the game consider to be "good", or, for that matter, "evil"? "Good" is considered to be basically the lack of evil, meaning that if you avoid killing civilians, droids, etc. that pose you no harm, you will have a better chance of being on the light side. However, if you choose to destroy civilians, droids, etc. then you will probably be well fitted to the dark side. Naturally, the game makes it harder to be on the light side than the dark, so if you want to make the game easier, well, just fire a concussion rifle into areas where there are lots of people running around...you get the idea. Naturally, the story line is also different depending on what path you choose to take. Actually, the first time I played this game (on the Dark Side), the mission after it gets decided what path you get, (to avoid spoiling the plot) a "voice" talks to you about how you have done wrong, etc. and for a moment, I actually felt like I was the one who did all those wrong things...it was really kinda neat at the time. It's things like that, when YOU feel involved in the story, that tell you the story was well done.
There are also certian "bosses" that you must defeat in order to win the game. They are scattered throughout the levels, meaning that you don't have to take them all on at once, in some final battle. However, the last boss you face has a...neat trick that allows him to replenish his life. It's fairly easy to stop him...once you know how, of course. However, some bosses are easier than others, and I feel that factor is what makes the game a little unbalanced. For instance, I killed the first "boss" easily. The seconds "boss" was so hard that I ALMOST had to resort to cheating. Then the rest of the bosses were average difficulty. Granted, it's just one boss, and I know most shooter fans like a challenge, but I just thought it was a little hard for me.
Overall, this game is the best shooter I've ever played. It's wonderful story, big levels, and nice "powers" give it a feel that not only Star Wars fans will love, but everyone who is sick of the same shooter formula, and wants something different. Report this review >>
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