Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Review

There are dozens of Star Wars games on the market, but none captures the excitement of lightsaber combat as well as the Jedi Knight games. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the third game in the series, or, technically, the fourth if you count 1995's Dark Forces, which didn't bear the Jedi Knight name (and didn't let you use lightsabers or Force powers, either). It is also the second Jedi Knight game to appear on the Xbox. Jedi Academy is not a revolutionary product, as it uses the same Quake III engine and gameplay elements as last year's well-received Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. It manages to take all the fun parts from its predecessor and greatly expands on them to create an engaging, new action game in its own right.

Kyle Katarn has retired from his swashbuckling days and becomes an excellent teacher for Jaden.

You play as Jaden, the new protagonist in Jedi Academy. You previously played as Kyle Katarn, a strong yet reluctant Jedi, in the previous Jedi Knight games. Kyle has since joined Luke Skywalker as a teacher at the Jedi Academy and is looking for new students. You can actually customize Jaden's character. You can be male or female, you can choose from one of several different races, and you can wear different outfits. In any event, you also happen to be the most promising student in the new class. Apparently, you've even built your own lightsaber, which is highly abnormal since lightsabers are usually built during training.

If Jaden is considered an unusual student, then your training is anything but common. Jaden's transport ship is attacked when it arrives at the Academy and then crashes into the ground. You and another student, Rosh, are the only survivors. He becomes your friend, yet seems to become jealous of your abilities and is upset by his own slow progress. You don't have time to worry about Rosh, though. The storyline revolves around solving several questions related to your attack at the start of the game. Why did a female twi'lek steal information from Luke's chambers when the students were away rescuing the downed ship? What role does the Imperial remnant fill in this attack, and is it related to the mysterious Cult of Ragnos that is appearing in the galaxy? After a short training mission, you immediately set out to help Luke and Kyle obtain answers to these questions. The game's story doesn't get in the way of the action but serves to tie the numerous missions together.

Jaden travels all over the galaxy in the game. The missions are surprisingly varied, and that is one of the most pleasant aspects of the game. One mission has you fighting stormtroopers on a refinery, while another mission has you stranded on a desert planet until you can find pieces to repair your ship. Like its predecessor, Jedi Academy takes you to familiar locations, like Tatooine and Coruscant. Some missions can last over an hour while others take five minutes, so you never quite know what to expect. Jedi Academy has an overall linear path, but you can mix this up to a certain degree. You start out with a set of five missions to choose from. Once you complete four missions, you can either return to the academy to gain new skills and advance the story, or you can play the fifth mission. Completing the fifth mission will grant you an extra point to distribute to your Force powers, but you may find yourself doing so just because the missions are diverse and entertaining. After returning to the academy and completing a plot-critical mission, you are offered a new set of five missions. This repeats three times until you complete the game, adding up to about 10 to 15 hours' worth of solid single-player action, depending on what missions you choose and what skills you use.

It’s a modern day jousting match, though the odds are slightly in your favor.

Jedi Academy does an excellent job of balancing its missions. Your first set of missions puts you on reconnaissance or rescue duties where you'll face mercenaries, poorly equipped stormtroopers, and the occasional dark Jedi. This is by no means boring. Let's face it: It's very satisfying to completely dominate your enemies by hacking through them with your lightsaber as they desperately try to shoot you down. By the last set of missions, you'll constantly be fighting dark Jedi and stormtroopers in power armor. The game justifies this by explaining that new students take easier missions and then progress to more challenging ones as their training continues. You also drive a variety of vehicles throughout your journey. You get to take speeders out for spins, and you get to control an AT-ST while attempting to ravage Imperial remnant bases from within. While not a crucial part of the game, vehicles are a welcome addition to the normal gameplay.

Perhaps the best improvement in Jedi Academy over Jedi Knight II is that it grants you your lightsaber and Force powers at the very start of the game. You spent the first portion of Jedi Outcast without your abilities, and it made those sections rather tedious by contrast. The weapons were interesting enough, but people play these games for the Jedi combat. So this time around, the developer's decision to focus the gameplay on these Jedi abilities is a major boost for the game. That's not to say that conventional weapons are useless. While it's possible to finish the game without ever putting down your lightsaber, sometimes rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and grenades can help dispatch of some pesky foes.

Jedi Academy also changes how you progress your Force abilities. You start out with eight core Force abilities. They are: pull, push, speed, sense, jump, saber offense, saber defense, and saber throw. Your abilities are limited at first, but you automatically become more advanced in these areas each time you return to the academy. There are eight advanced Force abilities to choose from. Four of them are on the light side of the Force, and four of them are on the dark side of the Force. The light side abilities are absorb, protection, heal, and Jedi mind trick. The dark side abilities are comprised of drain, lightning, grip, and rage. You receive a point when you complete a mission, and you can distribute it into any of these eight powers at the start of the next mission. Each power has three levels of improvement. For example, one point in Force heal allows you to heal while standing still. A second point lets you heal while moving around, and a third point improves your healing ability altogether. The point system works well to represent the fact that you are slowly learning from your master, Kyle. There aren't enough points in the game to become a master in all categories, so you can either intensely specialize in a specific ability, or you can choose to specialize in several abilities across the board.