Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It was made available on Steam on September 16, 2009. The ga
I'm surprised there's no praise for the craziness and verticality of the level design. Some of the levels are really unique, requiring you to go through these huge winding tunnels and taking you for a ride, or one in particular where you have to escape while everything is sideways and boxes and shit are sliding around and killing other dudes that you have to avoid. The things you do in this game is really evocative of star wars and are pretty crazy for a game even now where stuff like that would usually be a cutscene or something.
This is actually the case in general for older games vs newer ones. All the setpiece stuff is really not in the player's control and you either watch the full thing just play out, or all you have to do is press a few buttons that the game tells you to. Older games often are much more immersive gameplay wise.
JK has some of the best level design I've ever seen in a game. Coming out onto the bigass courtyard in Baron's Hed feels absolutely stunning, walking on cranes and bridges high above ground can really get nauseating and the ship escape stage is a masterpiece through and through.
I used to have the demo version on PC, seeing this game make me almost cry, I loved it! If someone remember the name of the song used in the demo version please let me know : )
The sound fx the level design the game play the characters the atmosphere just freakin love this game been playin it since it came out on my brothers copy and cant stop playin.
Take a look at Unreal 98 (Unreal Gold), if you like outstanding level design, and visuals. In 98, when Unreal came out, there were no game what could comete with that, such big maps, and complex map with the visuals it has - not a single game could beat. Even looking great nowadays.
As cheesy as the we're in the 90s if they would have kept going with live action into more modern times with today's budget in games it could have been really awesome
Actually, i think we all miss games with a well made captivating story. Graphics are important yes.... But it all becomes an empty shell without that tight story with mini clips!
Something of a shame is the DLC, Mysteries of the Sith, does not come with live-action cutscenes. This is one of the few games that puts in the role of Mara Jade and seeing her in the flesh would've been a real treat to see.
The level design in this game is god-tier. So much verticality, it's lovely. I wish more games today would actually use all three dimensions of 3D this effectively!
@@jonny-b4954 all those memories of jumping, swinging, leaping from platform to platform, shooting through the air by jump pads all while shooting demons must be false then
@@Ojthemighty I did say it has some. Not really what I was considering verticality at first, though I guess it technically is. Jumping around isn't really my definition of verticality. But drastically open expanses where you can look down 20 minutes later and see the section you were just at. Absolutely towering levels and what not. So, I guess Doom Eternal does have more of that than I considered at first. I just dont' recall even really noticing any abnormal verticality to that game.
Just a heads up for anyone that is interested in getting this, the Dark Forces 2 version that was released on GoG recently is the best version. You can easily run it at 1080p with none of the problems that plague the steam version.
I know this is an old comment but I recall the GOG version still requiring some fiddling to get hardware acceleration to work. The HW accelerated version looks much better than the software rendered one.
Just get a old 50-70 dollar desktop and put windows XP on it. Im thinking about doing this as I only play pre2010 games and run windows 10. winass 10 on which nothing properly works. Winass 10 on which I experience massive gamebreaking framerate drops with 15 year old Deus Ex and Rome Total War. Winass 10 which cant run Total Annihilation Kingdoms from 20 years ago without hardcrashing my pc. Which cant run Morrorwins fluently without having to download fixes. Yeah that modern development for you. Wouldnt be surprised if its on intend by the Microsoft communists who want to make any old things and data reminding us of the old world unusable and erase it that way. Just a thought tho. Why else would they be able to just upgrade windows until windows 7 and then fucking anything over with windows 10
I think the monologues at the beginning of each boss fight are from Qu Rahn. the guy who died in the opening cinematic. Since he appears as a force ghost to the player a few times. He also stops monologuing at the start of each boss fight as soon as you turn dark side which I thought was a very nice touch.
I always thought it was Rahn, who Kyle does meet early on in the game. It made sense to me that Kyle has lost his father, and the finality of that loss is that there's no force-ghost for Kyle to reach (even though that wasn't a problem by the time that Jedi Outcast was released).
Thats a bit disturbing isnt it. I loved these JKDF2 cutscenes even with the hamed up lines gave it more charm i think. And it didnt take itself too seriously, it knew what it was and just rolled with it and it looked like the cast had fun doin it.
Rogue One, Solo and The Mandalorian were fine additions to the SW universe IMO, and arguably the best stuff Disney did with the series. Yeah, Rogue One was basically a Dark Forces retcon, but at least it was a good one. However, the sequel trilogy... that's another story. Regarding these old games, like the Jedi Knight series or even The Force Unleashed, TBH I prefer them. Idk, but the whole Legends stuff (the old Expanded Universe) was far more interesting and fun and than the new canon. At the time, it also gave us the sense of something new in that universe, whereas this new canon stuff feels like "more of the same".
@@rodrigof.r.desouza3587 any of the disney starwars dosnt hold a candle to when lucas was in charge. He had a few misses but over all the quality coming out under lucas was staggering.
@@TSPH1992 ever play any Remedy Games? Max Payne 1 & 2 used photographs of real people (with a "cartoon" filter on them) for the comic-style story screens; Alan Wake intermixed live-action footage with the 3D game world such as with TVs; and Contol uses live-action for video reels you find in the game
@@TSPH1992 the 3 i listed are all on steam yes. Theyre all third person: Max Payne is an action shooter, Alan Wake is a thriller, Control is an action adventure. I also forgot to mention Quantum Break which just straight up has basically a TV show in the game lol
This was the first video i ever saw from from you. I was hungover as fuck that morning and on deployment so time were rough, so these videos have pretty much been a part of my life since and i love em. Thanks dude
Its a great first. Think my first or one of them was sonic on the mega drive when i was about 3. I remember playing much older games a couple years after on my dads and other peoples pcs, sonic and other sega games were my first exposure or was it math attack? Trying to remember that far back is hard when youre 29. You got me on a trip now.
Blasters are ideal even when you get the lightsaber, because Kyle doesn't become proficient with it until he gets to Ruusan. It's meant to imitate Luke Skywalker's progression as a Jedi in the original movies. Since in Star Wars Episode 4 he never uses the lightsaber at all and when he finally does use it in Episode 5 he gets his ass handed by Vader. It's not until Episode 6 that he is proficient in using it. The Jedi Knight games are very similar.
Being a huge lover of this game and having played it countless times, I can honestly say that you pretty much hit the nail on the head about every aspect of it. What I particularly liked about your review versus others I've seen is that you go in depth about, for instance, level design, storyline, and even Force Powers, rather than focus solely on the Lightsaber combat. Even so, I liked the honesty coming from this review and was pleased with your overall verdict. =)
my dad got this game back in 97 and now I'm playing it almost 20 years later, I've been playing it since I was about 7. One of my most favourite games ever
In the books Kyle even roasted him by remembering him of the day that Rahn cut him in half with his display of form 1 lightsaber combat. After blocking sariss, wounding boc. Kyle might be Chuck Norris. But Rahn. Who was physically and mentally tortured still had enough fight left in him to best jerecs Dark Jedi and put jerec in a position where he had to blast him with force destruction. So there is a reason why Kyle became a badass protagonist
Hey, they're steadily bringing more and more back as and when it can fit. Big chunks of the Old Republic era and even Grand Admiral Thrawn are back into canon. Kyle is probably just a bit OP to bring back right now, maybe if they do a series between 6 and 7 he'll come back.
If most of it was canon, than there would be a lot of messy plot details and such. The EU was semi canon, and honestly should've stayed that way (unless a piece contradicted the movies, then it wasn't).
The EU wasn't messy. Read the Essential Readers Companion by Pablo Hildalgo and you will see what I mean. There was hardly any contradictions in the Old EU, and the ones that were there were easily fixed and explained by Lucasfilm a long long long time ago.
God. Such nostalgia. I think this was my first Star Wars game when I was just a little tot. Even though I didn't know what I was doing (e.g. just flat out jump out of the map) I still had loads of fun. :)
This is still my top favourite Star Wars game to date. Followed closely by Tie Fighter and Knights of the Old Republic. I don't know why they didn't create another Jedi Knight game where you had to chose either the Light side or the Dark side depending upon players actions. It adds a moral element to a game.
The very end there with the lights flying all around our Jedi was cinematic gold. I wish more games today would capture the wonder and awe you can see in many of GG's reviews. Dark Forces 2 was a good game, it is a shame that it is so hard to get working on modern computers.
The thing I like about this is even when you become a Jedi, it can still be preferable to use other weapons beside the light-saber. It's way overpowered in Outcast/Academy and the actual shooting is terrible compared to Dark Forces II.
The shooting in Outcast and Academy is fine. The main thing that makes the combat trickier is the fact that enemies move around a lot, and much faster than they did in Jedi Knight, so you end up missing a lot more often. Luckily you move faster too, so it’s easier to just run up to them, dodging shots, and hitting at closer range is much easier.
Hey man! Great review of one of my favourite games of all time! Small correction: those monologues at the start of each boss battle are by Jedi Master Qu Rahn (who died at the start of the game), not Kyle's father. Keep the vids coming! :-)
Thanks for this review! I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan, and for whatever reason, I missed this gane first time around.. Only got it there today after watching your review, and I'm about to stick it on now.. Gonna be DEADLY! Thanks again for the review, it made me REALLY want the game, so much so that I had to get myself a copy! All the best from Davey in Éire (Ireland) :)
I was SO hoping you'd do this game! this is my favorite game of ALL time! I spent so many hours as a kid playing the multiplayer on the ign gaming zone, playing custom levels/mods. a standout game indeed. great sp campaign as well. a pain to get running on windows 8 though. I haven't been able to get hardware acceleration working even with workarounds that I had used when running the game on win7.
In all honesty, Dark Forces 2 was my first Star Wars game experience as a teenager. I fell so in love, I even bought unofficial guidebooks and whatnot to elevate my gaming experience by finding secrets for that little extra force-star to become the uber Jedi. The level design is still a two sided cutting edge. I think you downplayed it a little, because one can get desperately lost in the levels, specially if someone plays it for first time.
When I was a kid playing this, the lightsaber is all I wanted out of the game and it's pretty much all I used. Revisiting it as an adult though, the lightsaber play felt a bit clunky and I surprisingly had WAY more fun blazing through and rarely letting off the trigger
Absolutely one of my all time favorite games, and I still own my original disc. I even burned a copy of the soundtrack from the disc, one of the best mix of John Williams' score and featured music that had never been released at the time.
Ah yes, I remember this game, and the age of live actors in cut scenes. I was glad when that ended. I always thought it broke the flow of the game to have cut scenes that looked so vastly different than the game itself.
When I think of 90's gaming I think of this game, MechWarrior 3, and Baldurs Gate II. I think of many others also but those 3 probably give me the most powerful memories of greatness.
I got this for Christmas in 1997, absolutely LOVED this game. I have played it through fully more times than i can remember. I have played as light and dark side. and yes, you can unlock all powers as long as you pick your side early. You can add stars to light and dark, but once you pick a side, you lose the stars and powers of the opposite side. So, if you do light, only add stars to light. Also, you can get all of the stars if you find EVERY secret area. Some of the secret areas are so much fun to uncover (clombing around the outside of skyscrapers on narrow ledges!). Fun game, i really want this ported to Playstation or Switch!
Great review. One more interesting tidbit: this game marks the first time live action Star Wars scenes were filmed after the creation of the original trilogy as this game predates production on the prequels.
Loved this game, it was among the 1st batch of games i bought when i got my very first PC, a long, long time ago ;) Never got it working on Windows 7 too and im sick of having to rebuy my old games on steam. Awesome review.
Heyyo, very true! Another thing of note is Lucasarts were big advocates of widescreen, thus it is great at detecting system's supported resolutions and is probably the first game I can think of with widescreen resolution support :)
Great review, you get a sub from me. This was one of the fist games that I ever played online. It was crude as shit being on dial up and all that but I'm pretty sure I put more hours into Jedi Knight than any other game.
This game was my preteen years and THE reason why I wanted the internet to go head to head online with lightsabers. Perhaps Jedi Outcast plays better, but the story and happenings here were far more interesting to me. I just wish I can find my physical copy because the Steam version and its lack of music (without hard, hard work that isn't a complete fix) is a pain in the ass. Excellent review.
I just checked to see if u did a review because I just found your channel today. I was a little disappointed you didn't do a mystery of the site review which was a great spin-off to the dark forces series. I was gonna ask a request if you'd be able to do it sometime on your spare time? I have played game before but I like to hear others opinions on what they think as well
Yeah, Disney killed the lore so bad that I dislike Episode VII. They killed the best of the EU including KOTOR so fuck them. My head-canon is what matters.
Sorry to say it, but you're wrong, the old EU was canon Lucasfilm said so in star wars insider repeatedly over the past 20 years. And before you pull out that George Lucas Starlog quote he never said nything about canon in that quote.
Great level design, great characters, weapons feel good, enemies are fun, wonderful art direction and the sound design is seared into my brain, there jut something about it that hits the spot. Been playing it since it came out and it never gets old. Just wish there was still a way to play online. I was too young and my parents didn't have that set up when i was a kid
OMG. I loved this game back in the day. What impresses me the most is that this review calls it retro and the review itself is almost 10 years old hahah.
The demo for this game was one of the FPS games I ever played and I loved it. I played the demo so much that when I eventually got the full game, I was able to just breeze through that level. The only one that really gave me any trouble was the falling ship level. I needed a walkthrough to figure out how to get through that one. Kyle's turn to the dark side, if you go that way, felt pretty forced. I also wasn't fond of the fact that Force Jump had to be bound to its own key rather than just replacing the normal jump. Plus, I'm pretty sure that one of the secrets in one level is unreachable if you haven't upgraded Force Jump. You said that the game blocks you from using force powers in the fight with Jerec, but just a few moments before you have video of yourself using Force Protection against him. When I played the dark side path, I kept using Force Destruction (I think that's what it's called) on him. Tip for others; When playing this, decide early whether you want to take the light side or the dark, because once you hit the turning point in the game, the other side's Force power will be off-limits and any points you put into them will be wasted. You take the dark side by killing innocent NPCs. Fun tip for the fight with Boc; If you've taken the dark side and upgraded Force Throw, you can go into the bunker-like areas, Force Jump on top of one of the ledges and when Boc comes in looking for you, you can just keep using Force Throw to bash him to death with debris. Sure it's cheap, but there's also something satisfying about sitting up there where he can't reach you and just throwing junk at him. :) Also, for those who think the game looks too old, there is an enhancement pack you can download that gives it better models and textures.
The version of the game I got came packaged with an expansion pack entitled "Mysteries of the Sith".. Does anyone else have experience of this expansion? Is it a stand alone game? I wonder if it's any good.. I'm going to search for a video review of it! If anyone could give me any information on it I'd be very happy.. May the Force be with you, from padawan Davey in Éire (Ireland) :P
that actually how I got introduce to Jedi knight was the expansion. although the expansion I got the dark forces 2 was more a demo with 3 levels rather than 21 as a full game and mysteries of the sith had 14 levels. and yes it's a great game. it one of my favorites in the series and I like it better than dark forces 2 also my opinion
i got it included with my game too. played until the last level. got scared shitless because of the new monsters and that i mainly use guns instead of the lightsaber and that guns dont work on the last level.
Blaze Eternity yea it was was actually the last 3 levels you couldn't use guns on. Also the light saber battle on 12th level against dark Mara there's a trick I did on her every time not using cheat codes. I use to jump into pool where you come to meet her and have her follow me behind and jump out and she'd drown herself and I use to beat her that way
Ok some time ago I never knew that they carried on the with the Dark Forces series. In fact I remember wishing they carried on after the first Dark Forces game but I never knew they did because they changed the title of the series to Jedi Knight. In fact I remember this one time I bought Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast for the Xbox and when I found out I was playing as Kyle Katarn. I was like "Wait you mean the guy you play as from the first Dark Forces game?". So yeah I looked up the game on the internet and much to my surprise to find it was actually a sequel to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 (Never knew that game existed back then either). After that I was like "I can't believe it, they actually made more Dark Forces games"......So yeah that's pretty much how that went for me.
Hmm, bought Big Box in 1997 and again DVD-size(what's it called?) in 2003, 'cause I thought i'd lost the first one..(I hadn't = 2 x 2 CD-ROMs = happy to this day)
My uncle gave me this game when I was a kid. For me it was better than the movies. Rather be a Jedi than watch one for sure! great game and great review, keep it up!
Jedi Knight is among my favourite FPS games because of its level design that sometimes had you solving puzzles (especially in the expansion) - and i played it for the first time only a few years ago! A small correction though: the game uses the Sith Engine, which is (AFAIK) a completely new engine for the game that was later used in the Indiana Jones and the Infernal machine, a Pit Droids game for kids and parts of it in the GrimE engine for Grim Fandago :-). I wonder if the new Grim Fandago remake contains any bits of code from the Sith Engine :-P
This game was one of the most fun Star Wars and PC games i have ever played and the whole Jedi Knightseries like Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy . They sure don't make Star Warsgames like this anymore . I had a fun time playing this game :)
It's weird, I have one two separate occasions come across Jerec's actor in something else, and instantly went "He looks familiar." How do I recognize an actor when his eyes were always covered when he stuck to my mind?
I can't remember if I played this when I was a kid, but I know I played the first Dark Forces to death. Some parts look familiar but I don't think I ever actually played it sadly. I just got it on gog, and I'm so excited to play it. Had to look up a review first though
Wish this game had more missions on infiltrating imperial bases like the 1st Dark Forces game. There were stormtroopers here and there, but I always love sneaking inside bases and sabotaging their evil plans.
Someone made a mod to help get this game installed on Win 7 x64. Played through this again not too long ago and while it looks like it's age, it's one of the better Jedi Knight games out there.
Dark Forces takes place just before A New Hope (mission 1), with the rest of the game taking place 1 year after A New Hope(1-1.5 years after the battle of Yavin, or ABY for short). Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight takes place a year after The Return of the Jedi (5 years ABY). Even without Emperor Palpatene the Empire was a mega force to be reckoned with and it makes a lot of sense that it would take the rebellion close to five more years to wrestle control of the galaxy from them. The add-on missions Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight - Mysteries of the Sith takes place around 9.5-10 years ABY (Either immediately after the Thrawn trilogy of books or right before the Dark Empire graphic novel trilogy from the early nineties). Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast takes place 12 years ABY and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy takes place 14 years ABY which places both of the two later games during and after the Jedi Academy trilogy of books from the early nineties. Did ya'll not have any of the expanded universe stories Down-under? They were kinda cannon here in the States until Disney happened to the timeline.
I'm guessing you just recently played it for the first time. In the late 90s when it came out, the most fun part of the game were all of the mods available and playing it on the Microsoftgamingzone. Some way ahead of its time mods like DBZ and then other fun ones that make it rpg and add more Sabers and force powers
I am currently playing this game. Theres no hand holding and you need to learn how to play it and unlock the secret areas to get force powers. Patience is a virtue. But for a game released in 1997 it has a lot of content and a good story, character development
heh this game was fun back in the old days though the graphics are dated today it can still be fun today also its interesting to see someone who would replace the old Emperor after the movies.
I prefer Dark Forces original for a number of reasons, but Jedi Knight is a worthy successor. The best part about it is just how well the lightsaber combat is nailed in terms of gameplay. At first I thought the boss sections against the Dark Jedi would be too hard (I just spammed thermal detonators against the first boss) but gradually I learned how to get good at dueling, and once you do it’s so satisfying. It feels really authentic too. You actually have to move the cursor/lightsaber in the opposite direction to parry, and you have to dodge just as much as blocking to stay alive. The fights are challenging, feel really immersive, and are loads of fun. The Force Powers are also really cool, but force heal is too OP if you max it out. You’re pretty much indestructible. The map design is as good as in the first game. They’re long but not too long. There is plenty of variation, and a lot of the levels have nice puzzles you have to solve, so you’re actually having to think as much as shoot up the troopers. Despite the newer shooting mechanics, it feels just like how it did in the first game. The FMV cutscenes are imo better than even modern games because it actually has real people acting alongside the CG (which in and of itself blows away the cutscenes from DF1). It feels like I’m watching a movie. A couple criticisms would be that the new save system is kind of annoying. If you forget to quick save in a while you have to go way back so you have to remember to manually save quite often. It also takes a way a little of the tension I feel. In Dark Forces 1, each life was valuable and dying meant one life closer to restarting the whole level. You couldn’t afford to mess up. In this game, you can pretty much die infinite times and you’ll be fine as long as you saved recently. Often times I’d find myself intentionally committing suicide just so I could go back to some place or get my health back. A minor issue, but along with the OP force heal does kind of break the difficulty in the game. Also, the Kell Dragons aren’t really as challenging as before In Jabba’s ship, you had to face them bare-handed with no weapons, which was terrifying. In this game you have all your gear so you can just spam the concussion rifle or grenade launcher from a distance and they won’t even approach you. The Kell Dragon was too easy in this game. Other than those two criticisms, fantastic game.
