An excellent expansion for Jedi Knight that with some extra spit and polish could have been a full sequel.
Great gameplay. Good replayability and value. Great sound. tweaked multiplayer.
The Bad
Dodgy cut scenes. Dated graphics even for the time. Underdeveloped story.
For an expansion pack, Mysteries Of The Sith almost seems like a full new game, largely due to the number of enhancements over the original Jedi Knight, and the fact that it has its own storyline and 14 completely new levels to explore.
Initially you don the persona of Kyle Katarn again for a few levels, which eases you back into familiar gameplay, until you have to switch to Mara Jade, a female character with an interesting back-story from the extended Star Wars universe. The problem is that assumptions are made that you already know this character's history from reading the series of Star Wars novels, because she is never really fleshed out as a character during the game itself, potentially leaving many gamers with no clue as to why they should play as this character through a large portion of the expansion.
As with Jedi Knight, the levels are very well designed, the environments diverse, and the mix of ranged weapons, melee lightsaber and Force power combat action remains intact. There are a couple of neat additions, such as turning the Stormtrooper E11-blaster rifle into a sniper rifle, and the ability to don a disguise later in the game. A few new alien and space ship models also add some extra colour to the levels.
The Rancor finally makes an appearance (it was missing from the original Jedi Knight) and is suitably challenging.
Due to this being an expansion pack, there are no FMV cut scenes, and while the in-engine cut scenes are well choreographed, they cannot convey the same kind of epic feel to the story. When the original Jedi Knight game was released, the graphics were not 'cutting edge', so when the expansion arrived, the low-poly character models felt a bit dated.
Keeping in mind that this was an expansion pack and not a full retail release, it actually offers more gameplay and variety than many full retail games released today. The environmental puzzles are well done, and there are still many secret areas to be uncovered. This expansion also managed to improve and expand some of the Multiplayer action. However, the underlying story, although interesting, was not very well developed, the in-engine cut scenes felt awkward, and it could not convey the same epic feel as the original Jedi Knight.
As with Jedi Knight, the graphics are very dated now, but there is still some great gameplay and fun to be found here.
Gameplay - 9/10 - still a great blast to play
Graphics/Design - 8/10 - in context with when the game was released
Sound/Music - 9/10 - excellent sound throughout
Story - 7/10 - not as good as the core game, and not as well told
Replayability - 8/10 - due to the variety of gameplay mechanics, highly replayable
Value - 9/10 - for an expansion pack, it lasted almost as long as the full game, and was probably originally intended as a full sequel.
Overall: 8.3 (rounded up to 8.5)