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Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

aka: JKII
Moby ID: 6073
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

In Jedi Outcast, you once again play Kyle Katarn, star of LucasArts' Star Wars-inspired 1st-person shooters Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II.

Kyle has retired from being a Jedi fearing consequences from the Dark Side of the Power found within himself during his chase of the foul Sith-Lord Jerec into the lost vale of the Jedi at the end of Dark Forces 2. Chronologically taking place after the second Star Wars Trilogy, you'll meet various well known people from the original Star Wars movies like Luke Skywalker himself and Lando Calrissian.

Also following the tradition of its predecessors, you explore the surroundings in the typical 3D environment and can use a lot of different weapons and gear from the Star Wars Universe, including the famous Jedi Weapon, the light saber.

Spellings

  • スター・ウォーズ ジェダイナイト2:ジェダイアウトキャスト - Japanese spelling
  • 杰迪武士2:杰迪放逐者 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

185 People (167 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 66 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 144 ratings with 13 reviews)

A Solid Sequel...

The Good
My hats off to the developers for taking great inspiration from the preceding Jedi Knight game. The immense structures were breathtaking and stylish. The sound was without issues and the graphics were top notch.

The Light saber play was really fun. A great feature to add upon in the game, adding challenge and specialized attacks. I took special pleasure in whipping my light saber through a crowd of storm troopers, watching as they literally fell to pieces.

I really liked the story. It felt slightly contrived, but not so strained to break the feeling of being in the Star Wars Universe.

And driving the Walker was very cool...

The Bad
The numerous jumping puzzles that required a fair amount of keyboard agility created some annoying play.

I was less than crazy about the jungle level and I really didn't like the underground training level either. The starting levels were slow and really tough.

The Bottom Line
Its too cool to set aside because of a couple rough areas. A great sequel. A lot of saber action...

Windows · by Scott Monster (986) · 2006

Quite fantastic, actually.

The Good
STORMTROOPERS NEVER LOOKED SO REAL

  • This is an example how you can take engine that gave shelter to some of the crappiest games to another level, going beyond the limits of effects, graphic and gameplay. Using first-person mode with every weapon except lightsaber works more than nice, and auto-aiming helps to it, but the real joy is wielding the lightsaber, running on the walls (yup, Sands of Time is about two years late for the effect), and what all not. This is a pretty mighty usage of obviously giving engine. COMBAT ZONE
  • Variety of weapons is enough for a Jedi to handle, and you get each new weapons your enemy is using whenever the chance presents itself. Most of weapons have already been seen in prequels of this game, but a few are new Kyle didn't yet had the chance to tryout. All the effects and explosions look nice, and rumbling option won't ever leave you in peace. But there are a few interactive weapons you can use, such as mounted cannons for example, but no, you won't be able to commandeer walkers or other imperial vehicles, not in this Star Wars game. But undoubtedly, you'll confront the entire arsenal of those. ROBOT OPERATIONAL
  • This time you get to take control over those small mouse-size bots that you could constantly encounter throughout the Star Wars universe, game-wise and movie-wise. Sometimes you'll use them just for the fun of it, to explore some area, or as a way to proceed further. PUZZLES ARE FINE
  • Nothing too complicated, no extra-hard jumping puzzles or something that would turn this first-person shooter into adventure game, it's all fine in place. IMPERIAL ARMY LOOKS SO KEWL
  • Imperial Stormtroopers, Swamp-troopers, Imperial Officers, Imperial Commandos, AT-STs, they all look magnificent. Kinda looks like it was much more attention paid to enemy models than your own character. May be 'cos you don't see your character up close too often. REALITY FENCING
  • Lightsaber fights are now more real. There is no bit by bit energy takeout, it's who cuts first wins. It's not easy to strike the enemy though, and the lightsaber effects are cool throughout the game, you can throw it on the group of foes, bounce bullets as you regain Jedi abilities, pierce the wall whenever close to it in a flashy effect, and especially great effect when two lightsabres collide. FINE STORYLINE
  • Story starts as Kyle renounced his Jedi life but due to circumstances he gets back on that track, and that includes coming back to Jedi Academy to meet Luke Skywalker and retest thy own abilities as a Jedi and get your lightsaber back. As always, Jan Ors is still hanging with Kyle. DYNAMIC UNIVERSE
  • This game is very dynamic and fast-pacing. Everything moves around you, constant wars are being present, and you hardly ever rest. It's nothing as close to compare the dynamic of C&C Renegade, but it's a fair dose of dynamic events. CUTSCENES, EVEN A FEW
  • I didn't think I'll see any pre-rendered cutscenes in this game, so I was pleasantly surprised to see several, even thought they were only with ships and space, no person on such scenes, only present on in-game cutscenes. EXTRAS TAGGLE ON
  • There's a fair amount of extras, from being able to see any character model you encountered, see the FMVs, or play the XBox exclusive extra level. Hint: it's actually the same level that was used as PC demo. POWERS THAT BE
  • This time you don't get to choose the side and the powers, they choose you. You regain your abilities and more as you progress throughout the game. You get new abilities but your very same also increase, and at pretty incredible rate too. Jumping for instance. This time there is no speed power the way we saw it in Jedi Knight, instead, the time gets slower and that effect is made like sort of quasi slow-mo. This time powers such as push and grip are really expanded when you grow more powerful. You quickly turn into an unstoppable machine, but underestimating your enemy may as easily cost you your life.

    **The Bad**
    SUBTITLES ARE/WERE
  • At first it will seem alright but as you progress, you may encounter mis-aligned cutscenes with non-synchronized relationship of speech and subtitles. That is really something that game of such tremendous talent is not supposed to have. SOUND OFF THE ALARM!
  • Strangely enough, as much as this game is fast as a lightning and nothing chops off the framerate, the sound problems get pretty obvious for unknown and rather mysterious reason. It can't be the DVD reader, can it? It's when you shoot that you hear the actual shot half-a-second later. But that's just the first time as the next shots go fine. It's just as if DVD needs some time to spin which is quite weird. At first I can't say to've noticed it, but later quite regularly. Beats me if I can think of a reason for it. It's almost like the game struggles with that first shot and the graphics and like it all freezes for that moment of synchronization. If anything, XBox was the last console I'd expect something like this to encounter on. LEVEL DESIGN FALL
  • Level design is great, but the third level you encounter, the very first one in Jedi Knight for those who played the game, in Nar Shaada city if my spelling is flawless, has too much jumps and falls. You can fall any time you want... and don't. It's quite annoying level in general. Hearing Kyle scream isn't any more fun either. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE EMPIRE?
  • It's kinda silly and very discouraging to see hordes of Imperial's finest following some lizard-looking guy called Desann, Dark Jedi or not. I bet he couldn't deal with them the way Kyle does, why even protecting him, kinda looks all the way silly. I mean, those Stormtroopers are still capable of self-thinking.

    **The Bottom Line**
    Great game with easy interface and equal advantages for either computer or console, not too short, with variety of locations, things to do, hordes of enemies to deal with, and puzzles to keep you focused. Would seem like a great miss not to have it in thy collection.
  • Xbox · by MAT (239833) · 2012

    Some good Star Wars action sullied by a lot of irritating puzzles.

    The Good

    This is certainly the best game I have ever played that emulates the experience of being a Jedi badass with force powers and lightsaber skills aplenty. Once you acquire your force powers you can use the force to shove people off ledges, yank weapons away from Stormtroopers, fire that super-keen blue Jedi lightning, choke enemies, and even Jedi mind trick an Imperial officer or two.

    The lightsaber combat is also done quite well. The third person perspective for this weapon feels quite natural, and for the most part it is quite easy to get the hang of wielding your lightsaber. There are three different attack stances; one fast but not too damaging, one slow but very powerful, and a compromise stance. Once you have access to them all they can be cycled through at the touch of a button, allowing you to modify your lightsaber technique as the circumstances warrant.

    The games visuals are quite nice as well. The environments have a totally authentic Star Wars feel. All the architecture in the game looks just as any Star Wars fan would expect it to. Bespin looks like Bespin, the interior of Imperial ships is very much as one would expect; even the switches and control panels are all oozing with Star Wars detail. The 'Death Star' multiplayer map scores especially high in the nostalgia department.

    Speaking of multiplayer, it can be a fun experience, especially the Jedi Duel, a lightsaber/force powers tournament of sorts. There aren't a whole lot of maps, but the ones that are there are mostly pretty cool. The ability to customize your MP character with light or dark side force powers is a nice touch.

    **The Bad**

    The games first two levels or so, before you have reacquired you lightsaber, are awful. They feel like 'Doom' in Star Wars clothes, and almost made me give up on the game before it really got underway. Gameplay in these first few levels consists of switch hunting and jumping puzzles; not exactly stuff that makes you feel like a Jedi. It is all first person, as any weapon other than your lightsaber defaults to a first person perspective, with no option to change it back to third. As an FPS, the game is average at best, and awful at worst. Things do take a turn for the better after this point, but inane puzzles still plague the rest of the game.

    The enemy AI could have been better as well, but since the Stormtroopers in the movies are so stupid, it's somewhat hard to criticize the game for not breaking with that element of the films. Mostly they stand in one place and shoot at you, while you run around slicing them apart, or deflect their own lasers right back at them. One especially annoying enemy, the Garms, are only armed with thermal detonators, and throws them indiscriminately, with no concern for their own safety. The tactic feels cheap, and betrays the existence of poor AI rather early in the game.

    **The Bottom Line**

    Overall, 'Jedi Outcast' is a pretty good Star Wars action game that does a fairly nice job of capturing the feel of the early films. It's not as good as it could have been, but not nearly as bad as some Star Wars games of the past (see my review of 'Star Wars Rebellion'). I am still waiting for the Star Wars game that is really going to knock my socks off. As of this writing, 'Knights of the Old Republic' and 'Star Wars: Rebellion' are just around the corner, so here's to hoping.

    Xbox · by Entorphane (337) · 2002

    [ View all 13 player reviews ]

    Trivia

    1001 Video Games

    Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

    Cutscenes

    Many of the 'combat action' displayed in cutscenes (and at one point watching the young Jedi train), including a moment with Luke Skywalker, are not pre-determined and are done somewhat more randomly via the AIs. What this means is that no two cutscenes are alike... and even though you may have seen it before, it will probably happen differently the next time. This is notable because sometimes unintentionally humorous and anti-climatic results occur (aka the AI doing something stupid).

    This excludes the pre-rendered video files (usually of spaceships and exterior views) used within the game.

    Information also contributed by WildKard

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    Related Sites +

    • Fight the Dark Side
      An Apple Games article (archived on the author's webpage) about the Macintosh version of Jedi Outcast, with commentary being provided by Aspyr Media President Michael Rogers (August, 2002).
    • Jedi Knight 2 files
      Almost all major Jedi Outcast maps, skins and mods can be found here including Jedi Academy files.
    • NZMac Review
      A (largely) unscored but positive review of the Macintosh version of the game by NZMac, a New Zealand Apple site (Jan. 01, 2003).

    Identifiers +

    • MobyGames ID: 6073
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    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Alexander Schaefer.

    Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Xbox, GameCube added by Kartanym.

    Additional contributors: Raphael, Unicorn Lynx, Solid Flamingo, naula, Zeppin, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

    Game added March 31st, 2002. Last modified January 22nd, 2024.