OK, let’s cut to the chase about the new Star Wars movies: They blow. The most remarkable thing about Episode II, in fact, is that it actually manages to be worse than Episode I—which, after the debacle of Jar Jar Binks, is quite a feat indeed.

The truth is, over the years, it’s really been the games that have kept our interest in the Force alive—by tapping into the spirit of the original trilogy far better than the bloated new movies. Along with classics like X-Wing and, more recently, BioWare’s stunning Knights of the Old Republic (see page 114), LucasArts’ Jedi Knight series, beginning with Dark Forces in 1994, has done a fantastic job of plunging gamers into the heart of the Star Wars universe, with great storytelling matched by equally first-rate gameplay.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the fourth entry in the series, and it’s the first game to fundamentally alter the formula. The results, unfortunately, are mixed. I’m not sure if it’s a result of trying to appeal to Xbox gamers or more casual players in general, but what used to be one of the tougher shooters around has been made much easier and lighter this time. But, though it is certainly the weakest Jedi Knight game so far, I still had a good time all the way through it. Lacking in ambition and inspiration, Jedi Academy nonetheless gets by on the sheer joy of wielding that lightsaber and mowing down bad guys.

31 FLAVORS—ALL VANILLA

As in the previous games, Jedi Academy takes place post-Return of the Jedi, with the Empire destroyed and Luke Skywalker now playing Mr. Chips to eager young Jedi wannabes at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4. Unlike previous Jedi Knight games, however, you are, surprisingly, no longer playing Rebel Alliance agent Kyle Katarn, the series’ signature protagonist. Kyle, like Luke, has been reduced to the role of an NPC, giving you advice along the way and occasionally fighting alongside you.

So, if you’re not Kyle Katarn, who are you? Good question. When you first boot up the game, you’re taken to a character creation screen, which may make you believe that you are, well, creating your own character. Not so. Yes, you have a few race and gender choices (Rodian male, Human male or female, Kel Dor male, Twi’lek female, Zabrak male), but the fact is, no matter what you pick, you are going to be the exact same character in the same linear, scripted story line: the cleverly gender-neutral-sounding Jaden Korr, a young Jedi newbie.

Other choices you make here, like your clothing and the hilt and color of your lightsaber, are equally superficial—these are aesthetic decisions that have nothing to do with gameplay. What would have been nice (if the developers had wanted players to feel their decisions actually mattered), would be to offer advantages and disadvantages based on the race you choose—an extra Force power or weapon or capability of some kind. It’s a little silly to go through the motions of offering players “choices” when those choices don’t really mean anything. If we’re all just going to play Jaden Korr, then just say so, create the character for us and don’t waste our time.

RAISING THE DEAD

Once the game actually begins, it begins well enough, with your ship crash-landing near a Massassi temple on Yavin 4. The opening level serves as a basic tutorial and sets the story line in motion, which, to sum up quickly, has Imperial remnant troops siphoning Force powers from around the galaxy in an attempt to resurrect Marka Ragnos, a Sith Lord who died 5,000 years earlier. As far as Star Wars stories go, there’ve been worse—at least there’s no talk of midi-chlorians here.

Where Jedi Academy differs from its predecessors is in the structure of the game after the opening level. While pieces of the bigger story, and your role in it, emerge and become more critical as you proceed through the game, a huge chunk of Jedi Academy involves being sent on a series of smaller, often unrelated missions in order to test your skills and prove yourself as a new Jedi. At each stage of the game, you’ll be given a list of five missions; you must complete four, in any order, before you’ll trigger the next act. (You can also go ahead and finish the fifth mission, too—which is what all but the laziest of players will do.)

The mission-based structure is smart and pretty cool, in general, giving players a small bit of nonlinearity and decision making, while allowing the developers to zoom players all over the galaxy in a variety of settings and mission types. The missions run the gamut qualitywise, with some being more fun and inspired than others. While huge chunks of the game are devoted to standard (and not overly thrilling) FPS run-and-gun, the more memorable missions try to mix it up a bit. In one, you have to rescue prisoners of a Hutt crime lord while avoiding a giant rancor. Other missions will put you on the back of a tauntaun, behind the wheel of a swoop racer, and in a brutal duel against the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter.

Nothing brilliant, but a nice change of pace from running around corridors and jumping on crates—and some good, classic (if overly obvious) Star Wars-y references. For some, especially casual gamers, that’s going to make the game good enough.

HEY, DUMMY, I’M OVER HERE

The big problem, for me, is that the game is just too easy—and I normally stink at shooters like this. I beat the game on the Normal setting without ever being significantly challenged once, even during the few boss battles. Though many people complained about the lack of a lightsaber during the first half of Jedi Knight II, here we have the opposite problem. By giving us the lightsaber from the first minute of the game, certain enemies, like the myriad stormtroopers, Imperial officers, and Tusken raiders, are nothing more than cannon fodder right from the start.

In addition, though the game makes a pretense of letting you choose your weapons at the beginning of each mission, this decision proves to be about as meaningful as the “character creation”; a few minutes into most missions, you’ll have all your weapons anyway. In one mission, you are imprisoned and lose all your weapons, including your lightsaber. The bad guy, out of boredom, challenges you to escape. It’s a great beginning, but then they blow it: Two minutes into your escape, you already have a blaster rifle. How much better and more challenging would it have been to make you play the entire level with no weapon, forcing you to use your wits instead? It’s just too easy.

It doesn’t help matters that the A.I. is weak, too. Enemies that are easy to mow down even when alert are made even less challenging when they fail to acknowledge your existence or can’t come close to aiming their weapons at you. With a disruptor rifle or other long-range weapon, you can sometimes pick enemies off without them even reacting—they’ll just stand there, stupidly, taking shots until they die. Even the end boss, which takes the form of two rounds, I was able to beat handily by exploiting flaws in the A.I. All I had to do was jump to a perch that it didn’t even try to reach and then hammer on it, undisturbed, with Force Lightning until it died. Not the climactic battle I was looking for.

SO WHAT DID I LIKE?

This all sounds negative, but the odd thing is, despite all this, I still found the game entertaining throughout. Two things save Jedi Academy: the lightsaber and the Force powers. As in the previous Jedi Knight games, they are implemented beautifully. If this is what you mostly care about, the game delivers.

Lightsaber battles remain the highlight of the game, and they are present in abundance. The last few levels of the game are essentially a gauntlet run through a series of lightsaber duels with Dark Jedi, and unlike the other bad guys, these guys will actually offer you a challenge. Later in the game, you’ll get to upgrade to either two lightsabers or a double-sided saber, and the battles become even more intense, as you’ll often find yourself accosted by multiple enemies at once.

Adding to the fun are the Force powers, which you can choose to level up as you proceed through the game. As with other parts of Jedi Academy, the “choices” are a bit disappointing. Each power has only three levels, so you’ll max most of them out pretty quickly. In addition, though they separate the powers into light and dark sides, these powers have no bearing on your character’s morality: You can pick all dark powers, level them all up, and it really means nothing. Late in the game, when you get a choice to pursue a light or dark path, it has nothing to do with how you’ve been applying the Force—which makes you wonder why you bothered in the first place.

Still, the Force powers are a blast to use. Force Pushing an enemy off a cliff still remains one of the most satisfying kills in any shooter, with Force Grip coming in a close second. I also like Force Sense, a new power used during some of the game’s puzzles to see hidden markings, but also valuable during combat to scope out lurking enemies or to check on an opponent’s remaining health.

LESS IS LESS

One only has to look as far as Lara Croft to see what happens to a gaming franchise that outstays its welcome. Four games into any series is a long time, and the chances of keeping things fresh and exciting diminishes with every game. Raven and LucasArts get some points for not just rehashing the same game again and trying to mix things up a little with the mission structure and new character. But they could have (and should have) taken it much further, offering us real decision making and moral choices along with the FPS action.

As it is, what they’ve created here is Jedi Lite—an easy game, totally digestible by casual fans, with tons of references to the movies’ more popular characters and locales. Is that a bad thing? Well, hardcore gamers and longtime fans of the series will most certainly be disappointed. But what are you gonna do? LucasArts went for a populist, crowd-pleasing entertainment this time around. And given the painful boredom and portentousness of the recent movies (as well as the impenetrable Star Wars Galaxies), who can blame them? There are worse ways to spend your time than slicing bad guys in half with lightsabers. (Like, say, standing in line for Episode III.) If this is all you demand from your Star Wars games, then may the Force be with you. But given what we’ve seen BioWare do with Knights of the Old Republic, it’s clear this franchise can be so much more.

10 Years of Star Wars PC Games

Well, pull my lightsaber, Chewie! They’ve been making Star Wars PC games for 10 years now! Where the heck did the time go?

Here’s a full list of all the Star Wars games for PC, minus some compilations, re-releases, and kiddie stuff we don’t care about. The original CGW ratings and issue numbers are also included; note that before 1994 we didn’t include numeric ratings because back then our readers knew how to read words and judge for themselves. Just kidding. We love you guys.

1993

X-Wing (n/a, #107) Outstanding Star Wars space sim. The original classic.

Rebel Assault (n/a, #115) Short, fun shooter—one of the first must-have CDs.

X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit (n/a, #115) The first X-Wing expansion.

X-Wing: B-Wing (n/a, #115) The better X-Wing expansion.

Star Wars Chess (n/a, #116) It’s just like chess, except Luke is your king. Yay!

1994

TIE Fighter ( #123)

X-Wing’s superior sequel. A classic.

TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire (n/a) More TIE Fighter goodness.

1995

Dark Forces ( #130) The first Star Wars shooter is tough but great.

Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire (#139) Short actioner, but with flashy (at the time) effects.

1997

Yoda Stories ( #156) Makes solitaire, or death, look like a good time.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter ( #156) Good multiplayer, but poor solo play.

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II ( #161) Awesome shooter, rivals TIE Fighter as best Star Wars game ever.

Shadows of the Empire ( #162) Fun, flashy port of popular N64 game.

Monopoly: Star Wars Edition ( #165) Monopoly + Star Wars = who cares.

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Balance of Power ( #165) Adds the single-player the original game forgot.

1998

Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith ( #166) Good, not great, expansion.

Rebellion ( #168) Management-heavy hardcore war game. Just what the family wanted.

1999

Rogue Squadron ( #177) Another N64 arcade shooter. Woo hoo.

X-Wing Alliance ( #180) Great story and missions, but bugs knock it down.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace ( #181) About as good as the movie.

Episode I: Racer ( #181) Surprisingly strong racer.

2000

Force Commander ( #191) A Star Wars RTS:

great idea marred by bad execution.

2001

Battle for Naboo ( #203) OK N64 port with weak graphics and A.I.

Galactic Battlegrounds ( #212) Star Wars meets Age of Empires.

2002

Starfighter ( #214) Decent console port, but can’t hold a candle to X-Wing.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast ( #215) Another great JK game, but Green overrated it by 1/2 a star.

Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns ( #217) A good expansion that improves the original.

2003

Galaxies: An Empire Divided ( #231) Robert Coffey role-plays lap dancer.

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.