Not only a must own to Star Wars fans but to PC gamers as well, this game is awesome
In 1997 LucasArts released this sequel as a continuation of Kyle Katarn's story only with new gameplay features such as playing with jedi powers the results were spectacular.
Story:
The story takes place at some time after the evnets of the first game an old jedi survivor of order 66 named Rahn was taken prisoner by Jerec and his group of Dark Jedi. Jerec needed him to locate a sacred place called the valley of the jedi to gain unspeakable power to rule the galaxy and soon executes him after a failed attempt of fighting back. The game now turns to Kyle Katarn the protagonist of the first game who's father was murdered by Jerec as well and was chosen by Rahn's spirit to stop Jerec from finding the valley of the jedi.
The story is well told and presents and interesting amount of twists such as the course of the story will change depending on your actions (in other words Light or Dark changes the story at the climax)
Graphics:
Dark Forces 2 uses a powerful game engine called the Sith engine and the game looked great for its time presenting great textures, lighting, character models and animations. The frame rate also ran well and it almost never drops.
Sound/Music:
The sound in the game is also pretty good. the guns, explosives and lightsaber sound appropiate, the music is the same great John Willians music we all known and loved from the movies, the voice acting is okay at best. Overall the not only looks good it also has the sound to match
Gameplay:
Dark Forces 2 plays like any other old-school shooter at the time your mission is to go from point A to B at each level but it does a great job at doing so, for starters there are numerous secrets in the levels that contain weapon and health caches. The levels are very well designed and contain numerous puzzle that the player must solve to move along. The enemy AI is also very intelligent they can detect movement and hear gunshots, they will also sometimes run away when damaged or disarmed. You also get a large variety of weapons such as a pistol, thermal detenators, a repeater rifle, and of course the lightsaber the weapons each have their own unique abilities and do a good job at getting you out of certain situations. This is also one of the first games that let you play as a jedi and feature a large variety of abilities and powers that are very fun to use and add to the jedi feel. The game's single player campaign is also a decent length an stays fun from begining to end, there are also some cool boss fights that pit you against Jerec's dark jedi and of course Jerec himself, each of these boss fights are tense and challenging and all require strategy to beat. My only critcisim is the confusing navigation system in the pause selection screen.
Multiplayer:
Since Quake there are numerous PC shooters that tried to rival it's fast-paced and well designed multiplayer. Jedi Knight is one of those attempts, the game consists of only Deathmatch and CTF both are well put together and add to the fun with ability to customize your character and lightsaber which add to fun and make an overall fun Multiplayer experience. sadly this game is continuing to grow old and the Multiplayer community continues to dwindle, but if you can get some friends to play it can be quite an experience.
Overall:
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 is undoubtebly one of greatest classics in the Lucasarts star wars franchise. I personally recommend it to not only Star Wars fans but to PC gamers as well is has a good story, good graphics, great gameplay, and was the Star Wars game that made being a jedi so much fun.
PS: There is also an expantion pack called Mysteries of The Sith release not long after this game. if you liked this game you will like Mysteries of The Sith as well