Product Description

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 picks up where the award-winning Dark Forces left off, but with even more features and firepower in dazzling 3-D graphics. As Kyle Katarn, you must acquire the lightsaber and learn the ways of the Force to become a Jedi Knight. Confront old foes--Greedo, Bossk, and storm troopers--and new enemies, seven Dark Jedi who plan to harness the power of an ancient burial ground for unsurpassed evil. But take heart, your 10-weapon arsenal and over 12 Force powers make you a force to be reckoned with. You can play for either the Light or Dark side.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6423 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2007-03-16
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: German

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jedi Knight Mysteries of Sith caters to the farm boy in all of us by letting players grab a lightsaber and fight their way through the Star Wars universe from a first-person perspective. You slip into the boots of Jedi wannabe Kyle Katarn, guiding him through several adventures that should appeal to any Star Wars fan. (The two of you out there who don't care for Star Wars will just have to find another game to play.)

Your Jedi powers grow as the game progresses, and players are free to commit acts which strengthen their ties to either the Dark or Light side of the Force. Once the commitment to good or evil is made, you lose all your Force powers from the opposing side but gain the ability to add more powerful tricks to your arsenal from the side you chose. All the neat stuff from the movies is there, like the Force pull that lets you disarm enemies, and Vader's sadistic favourite, the Force grip, for choking enemies from a distance. Other powers like Force jump give you greater mobility in the game, and all the Force powers add immensely to Jedi Knight's gameplay.

The included Mysteries of Sith add-on picks up the adventure five years later. This time you get to play as both Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade, the female Jedi from Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire. This time around you must adhere to the Light side of the Force, but that doesn't make gameplay any less interesting. Success in these expansion missions require much more use of your Jedi powers than the original game, and actually having to think our way through problems in a first-person shooter (especially in the last few levels) was a refreshing change.

Graphically, both games hold up well. Resolution can be cranked up to 1600 x 1200 if your video card is up to task. Although the environments you move through lack detail, the design is quite spectacular. Few games offer environments this massive or varied, and the familiar Star Wars architecture lend a great deal of atmosphere to the game.

The movie tie-in also means that Jedi Knight has some of the best sound effects ever. From the hum of a lightsaber to the roar of a passing TIE bomber, everything is authentic and immediately recognisable. If you missed this game the first time around, don't make the same mistake with this bundle. --T Byrl Baker ==

Customer Reviews

One of the finest first person shooters ever made
Upon it's release in 1997, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 brought a truly epic feel into first person shooters that simply hadn't been possible before, and indeed was the first Star Wars game that felt like you were part of something big that wasn't just involved in flying star fighters.

First of all, the graphics engine. The character models were not as refined as some other games at the time (Quake being an ideal example, or even Quake 2) but the animation was smooth and fluid and this brought enough life to the characters that the rather angular design didn't matter too much. Visual effects such as explosions and other animations, for the time were effective enough and still are, if lacking modern polish. However where the engine really shined was in the expansive nature of the level design. The levels were enormous, expansive. Incredible wide open areas, with intricate interior locations, all at a superb framerate (perhaps aided by the less than high polygon count on the models). Not until the Unreal engine was unleashed would this kind of epic size be experienced in a game, and even then, Unreal would push itself to run as well as Jedi Knight with such large designs.

The sound design in the game is pure Star Wars, as you'd expect, and is quite solidly done, if not particularly groundbreaking. The voice acting is above average, and the main characters voices are provided by the actors featured in the games FMV sequences, which used real actors, a sure sign of an expensive production. and a rarity these days. The acting in these sequences is perhaps somewhat wooden and, of course, highly derivative of the original Star Wars films, but it's still immersive enough to gloss over these minor points and the story is fleshed out superbly.

And the story. The games places you in control of Kyle Katarn, the ex-Imperial mercenary of the first Dark Forces game, and the beginning of the game sees Kyle trying to find out who murdered his father. The first three levels of the game don't feature lightsabers, or Jedi at all, so be patient. Through Kyle's quest we learn of a dark Jedi, Jerec, and his band of apprentices who intend to sieze the power contained within an ancient Jedi burial ground, and the connection it holds with Kyles father and ultimately, Kyle himself. Not to give too much away, but there are many locations to visit throughout the story, and some impressive (even today) set pieces and battles that will prove challenging even to experienced first person shooter veterans. Once the inevitable lightsaber is discovered, throughout the rest of the game you will amass points which can be allocated to force powers both light and/or dark side orientated. This affects the course of the game around half way into it as well, so there are two different endings.

The gameplay is, overall, great fun, with a few annoying control issues on occasion and a slightly clunky physics system but this does not detract too much and is easy enough to adjust to. In summary, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a FPS classic, from the FPS golden age when sprites were first being eschewed in favour of polygonal characters and environments.

Mysteries Of The Sith is a special 'mission pack' expansion for Jedi Knight that adds a substantial amount of new content to the game, with an all new story set around 5 years after the story in Jedi Knight has concluded. The introduction of several new weapons, force powers, enemies, environments and a new main (and controllable) character as well as significant graphics engine enhancements (Quake 2 styled coloured lighting) which add further vividness to the experience make this an essential selection, and one that will keep you occupied for some time.

In a few words: challenging, essential, immersive and great fun.

BEST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!!(if star wars crazy)
This is undoubtalby the best of all action/shooter/adventure star wars games, and in my opinion the best star wars game ever. The feel is sooo good, and authentic, and its incredible when you walk into a room full of imperial activity and the imperial march come thundering on. kyle katarn has some great quotes to. The story is cool aswell, and orinal and interesting. proper live action cut scenes really gets you intersted in the characters too. the levels are really well desinged, not too much veriaty in the gameplay its self, but plenty of exiting and varying mission objectives. and now with the amlmost equally good expansion pack, the mysteries of the sith, top value for money! so what if the graphics arn't that good, i still love it.

The oldies ar the best!
Jedi Knight is a game people think of as old these days, but if you love classics or have an old PC buy it. It's got everything you could want, engrossing story line, great game play. What more can I say.