If you play one Star Wars game play Jedi Outcast. You play as Kyle Katarn who gets sucked back into fighting for the Rebellion against the Empire despite his reluctance to do so. The game starts you off in an enemy base that's filled with storm troopers which surprisingly looks good even after 18 years. Granted I was playing it at 1080P with config changes. The game stays true to Star Wars lore where Kyle Katarn has to go to the Valley of the Jedi to restore his Jedi powers. While you use your guns in the early missions, after you get your Jedi Powers back that’s when things get interesting with your lightsabre battles and your other various Jedi powers effectively rendering your guns not as important. Without spoiling the story too much (as this is one of the best modern stories in Star Wars games). You travel to various planets hunting down an elusive mercenary, while encountering various characters from the Star Wars universe. With respect to lightsabre battles, it’s awesome. Probably one of the few Star Wars games that got it right when it comes to lightsabre battles. You can use various stances depending on what you need (ie more power) to fight the bosses or more agility, you can set your lightsabre stances and use your lightsabre in various duels. Even after 18 years. the lightsabre battles is still top notch and goes to show how innovative it was for its’ time. Now, the downside. While it has great variety of levels and functions (ie commanding a AT-ST) to fight other AT-STs) and great level design (ie the shootout that happens in a bar) it has it’s downside. For example, it’s not clearly laid out where to go next. In one of the earlier levels you had to duck through boxes in the dark to get to an opening to get to the next level. In one of the later levels where it’s raining, you had to actually go underneath a broken pipe (which has steam coming out) and duck into the water below to get to the next part of the level. These things aren’t as obvious and can make things frustrating for modern gamers. Let’s say it still has the old school 90s early 2000’s gameplay. But I feel it makes things harder than it needs to be.
Graphic wise. The details in the environment are all done well. The storm troopers are reflective of what you would see in the movies with great ragdoll physics when they are shot. The various weapons, aircraft, are well done. Since the Quake III engine is good with rendering buildings it does it’s job well. While it may not be the best graphically for that year (that will go to UT 2003). It’s still one of the best looking games from 2002.
Sound wise, it’s done well from the voice of the imperial troops, the music from the Star Wars movies, and so on.
In summary, if you want a game with a great storyline minus some frustrating level design that aren’t that bad once you get past it. Then this is the game for you. Easily one of the best story driven, action, Star Wars game. If you were disappointed by the newer Battlefront games then get this.