Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC, 1997)

The story drives this game more than "Jedi Academy", which admittedly has great saber-combat. But, the character of Kyle Katarn is given so much more depth in this second installment compared to the first entry (an FPS that resembles the "Star Wars" bent on "Doom"). You will play as a mercenary getting in-and-out of trouble for a couple of levels, and then your return to your father's house leads you to a special treasure...the lightsaber! This is actually a nicely-handled gaming mechanic, and probably made all of us gamers jump out of our seats when we got our hands this weapon!

In fact the story is actually one of the best ever. Seven Dark Jedi search for the Valley of the Jedi, which will give infinite power to the one who unlocks the secrets. The acting in the cutscenes is not phony or forced at all.

Although the levels are challenging, unique, and fun...the balance between choosing to become a Light Jedi or a Dark Jedi is severely imbalanced. After the 14th mission (which there are 21), your actions will determine whether you are a good guy, or a sadistic villain. Choosing the Light Side will give you practical powers, more cutscenes, and a much better ending (not to mention that it matches the sequels to this game). But choosing the Dark Side will give you powers that are evil and very amusing, but don't really have much use against the Dark Jedi that remain in the game. Also, you're gonna be short-changed on about 8 cutscenes, and then find a good ending that isn't nearly as satisfactory as the Light Side finale.

Great game for older pc's,,,I keep and older pc' around just for using older hard ware and games,,this was one of the best of the star wars series games,,advanced graphics for the time and awsome first person play,,weapons and light saber make it an overall exciting game to play,,I recomend this for star wars fans.

An excellent sequel to LucasArts original Dark Forces game. Kyle Katarn returns in this classic Star Wars shooter; if you liked the 1st installment, you will love the sequel.

I bought this game because I used to own it once upon a time, when I was a wee laddie. I ended up getting rid of it because I was such a bad gamer, I couldn't figure out how to beat it. However, it haunted my dreams for years, so I re-purchased it. It was just like I remembered, except that I was able to beat it. I love it because it's Star Wars, and I love Star Wars. However, there are three problems I had with it. One, the game tends to crash when you load from a quick-save; two, the cut-scenes, at least on my machine, get these black spots in them, sort of like a spray can; and three, the lightsaber is rather simple, just repeated slashes. The later Jedi Knight games, Outcast and Academy, do a much better job. Other people have complained about specific Force powers, but since I rarely use the Dark side, I have nothing to say about that. All in all, if you've played Outcast, you should play this, if only to know what they're talking about when they say Kyle fought Jerec at the Valley of the Jedi.

The addition of the lightsaber, and force powers make this sequel to the brilliant original better in some ways, though becoming a jedi without any training stretches things. As an First Person Shooter, a very nice game.