I also liked how there was so many different lightsabers colors, I believe yellow color was introduced for the first time. Two years later in Phantom Menace fans would get a double-bladed weapon of Darth Maul. Also bad guys could use other colors than red.
@Nebula I'm guessing he's referring to the white centre in every blade beneath the outer colour (except for the darksaber which has a black centre with a white outer light).
Growing up, this game was always just as much Star Wars as the films to me. Introduced me to the EU and helped expand my creativity and imagination along with it. Good times!
Same! this game and Rebel Assault 2 (and even Dark Empire that my uncle had) were among my first introductions into the Expanded Universe when I was a kid.
To me the first Rogue Squadron game on N64 plus Dark Forces and TIE/X-Wing fighter series on PC broke that mentality/paradigm real quick...realized we were in for a new era of graphical and technical greatness!!
The Ewoks movies and cartoon did that for me (introduced me to the EU that is). Games like X-wing, TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (or if you prefer Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II), Rebellion, and Yoda Stories just let me immerse myself as a teen to early 20s. Can't remember exactly when Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy came out, but I think they were like Republic Commando, mid to late 20s to early 30s.
Second fun fact, the souls trapped within the Valley of the Jedi mentioned by Rahn and the source of the power Jerec is hunting down is the result of the detonation of the Thought Bomb by the Brotherhood of Darkness in the last Jedi vs Sith galactic war, when Darth Bane tricked the Brotherhood into believing they could survive the technique and which killed not only every Brotherhood member but also the 100 Jedi sent to stop them and arrived too late. They'd been trapped in limbo for a thousand years until Kyle freed them.
+oktyone We had seen Coruscant allready in TIE Fighter AND in Return of the Jedi special edition.. wich came out in march 1997 when this game came in late september that year
funny enough nar shadda and coruscant each are symbols, nar shadda is the dark city planet full of gangs and crimelords, and coruscant is the opposite.
@@_anton_khoury_5936 and maybe return, the jedi took decades to return and the sith a millenium and still returned, legends can return, certainly has never left the fans, only disney abandoned it we didn't
@kevinsupple5382 Actually, just looked it up since I was curious, and it was the first Death Star. Andors style and personality is also a lot similar to Katarn, not to mention the fact that they both favor the Briar Pistol(Blaster), so it's very clear they just saw his character and made him in their vision. The only difference is Andor isn't force sensitive, but that doesn't really matter since the parts they stole from Katarn and gave to Andor was before he was a Jedi.
i really love 8T88's voice, beside that, this game had the feeling that every enemy had its own personality, not just "some" boss, These older games are more worth then modern ones
@@kenpoarniceguy1 Honestly, I don't recall. I worked primarily on the cutscenes & cinematics for the game rather than on the gameplay itself. But I believe he was.
8t88's voice was acted by a voice actor named Denny Delk, and if you heard his normal speaking voice, you would never guess it was him. 8t88 is definitely my favorite character in this, i don't normally care for backstories to fictional characters, but i would love to see more of 8t88.
I think I once read the actress playing Jan was a Chinese fashion model (I can believe it). The actor playing Kyle didn't act much in anything after this and eventually quit to pursue other activities. Thankfully he was interviewed by a few websites around 2010 about his experience working on the game.
Man I really miss some of the early EU stuff that occurred before the prequel movies. This game was released before it was established that Dark Jedi use red lightsabers, so the variety in sabers was neat. This was also the first piece of Star Wars media to feature a character using two lightsabers (before Anakin demonstrated it in Attack of the Clones).
You know, I´m Impressed at how good the acting (And writing for that matter.) is, It´s not spectacular but compared to almost every late 90´s video game (I´m looking at you Resident Evil.) its actually really good.
+ArmaBiologica35 yeah, i think what those FMV cutscenes lacked was some real directing, other than that most actors seemed well suited for their roles, even if sometimes it came out a bit corny. what i think is the real flaw here is that the blue/greenscreen effects were obviously not polished enough. and besides, there were just too many of them. like for instance when Kyle looks over his father's home: did it all have to be CGI? couldn't they just find a proper spot, shoot the scene and only later digitally add the shuttle and the house?
yarpen26 that would have required building a set. Having a pre-rendered background was just cheaper on these type of budgets. Not to mention, since the video was going to be a bit on the grainy side due to data limitations, it wouldn't matter too much with the Polish. All this considered, it was far better than what it deserved to be.
Lol I love how all the dark side choices in the old games have your character go from naive but still wanting to do good and all to I want to murder innocent people without any remorse. They break character so hard it’s hillarious. Kyle goes from being angry but is like on the verge of crying after killing that guy and having the choice to kill Jan or not, and in the dark side option he’s suddenly all like “Not only am I gonna kill my friend, but I’m going to become even more evil then you, Jerec!”
Star Wars morality (or rather, Jedi/Force morality) has always been very simplistic and black and white. It's like the "slippery slope" notion not only isn't a fallacy, it's a code of conduct. "Hey, I killed this guy because it was more convenient. Might as well become a brutal totalitarian dictator!"
@@richardkoeln True but remember why we have systems to divide the power in a state. Most humans cannot handle the power that goes along with high positions, it should be different for Jedi maybe but only for really well trained ones.
The Dark Side in Star Wars is inherently corruptive, and it's repeatedly stated (and shown) that giving into it will rapidly rearrange the way the Force user interprets the reality around them.
@@richardkoeln the Slippery Slope being called a fallacy is itself a fallacy. It's basic psychological conditioning that one change will have knock down effects later in time, and that one change in philosophy (and indeed, the cultural zeitgeist) inevitably leads to others. The fallacy part is that most of the time, where it leads isn't obvious until post-factum, and a lot of predictions end up being bullshit.
+Nicolas DOMEGE-BERENGER Yes this game had really one unique way to immerce you right into the universe, the view of jedi and sith, the fights, just everything! They represented the universe like no one else did
Oh man, nostalgia, the first ever game I played online on the Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone... Had a crush on Jan since 97 and seeing her again, still do haha.
+Z09801 If that book were converted into a film with these style of cutscenes, I'd agree. However, to my knowledge, besides the films, this was the only other piece of official Star Wars media to be shot in live action. This was the only thing, before The Force Awakens, to truly be considered an Episode VII movie.
+Nicolás Riveros (Sigh) I've always treated "Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II" as a true live action sequel to "Return of the Jedi". Too bad Kyle Katarn and his video game adventures got erased from the Disney continuity. I would rather re-watch Kyle steal the Death Star plans than watch "Rogue One: A Star Wars story".
+Stormtrooper Sverige excatly! i mean, is like Disney was like "oh, do you like some of the most badass characters be in an official cannon? well fuck you"
+Rudy Schmidt Star Wars 7 deliberately repeats Episode 4 because the movie saga is like a poem with rhyming stanzas, or a symphony with repeating themes. For example, in both Episode I and Episode 4, a Skywalker from Tatooine blows up the enemy battleship. In Episodes 3 and 6, a Skywalker fights his nemesis while Palpatine watches from a swivel chair, with a space battle raging behind him. Star Wars is all about history repeating itself.
+Dobbys Boggart Or this is just a lack of imagination. They are afraid to take risks because they care more about the money than the universe they have stolen. In every Star wars they were some emblematic scenes, or some awesome new planet or spaceship. In EpVII there is...nothing new, even the plot is the same. Stop searching for an excuse, they are just cowards. I'm starting to think that even Rogue One will have a better plot than the Sequel. Even Ep I did a better job in your " repeating the story" stuff. BTW, I enjoyed EpVII ( 3 times ), it was cool, really. But it was empty. It was maybe a good film, but not a good star wars film. (sorry for my english, I tried my best ^^ )
+Picard Gaël To be honest, A New Hope itself had taken a lot of plot elements from different media. And in the end, even a bare bone plot can be effective if used as a vehicle for good characters.
+Picard Gaël Your English is excellent. Better than that of a lot of native speakers of the language. Episode 7 takes a lot from Episode 4... I hope that this isn't going to be a consistency throughout the new trilogy... I really do like Episode 7, but I also really see how it is a reboot of Episode 4. I do not want to see Episode 8 as just a mirror of Episode 5, even if "The Empire Strikes Back" is largely considered to be the best "Star Wars" film. I want to see something fresh.
As someone who enjoys the Star Wars films as a whole, I've found that one of my biggest regrets (alongside Pellaeon and Mara Jade) is that Kyle Katarn and his exploits had to be lost. That being said, this type of character would be perfect to place in the timeline between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. I think it would be cool to see an Anti-Hero Jedi who does what is morally right, but is also willing to accept the darkness within the world and leave the ultimate choice (and consequences) of good/evil to his enemies. Giving someone Jerec a Lightsaber and basically challenging Jerec to make a choice that could lead to his death is morally grey, but also badass.
It's cheesy, it's overly dated, and the characters and plot are overly barebones, but I would LOVE to see this game be either remade, or reimagined into a movie. This kind of adventure story would be a very welcome, very unique story to see be further fleshed out, and while Jerec and his band of Dark Jedi are all especially barebones archetypes, I see a lot of potential for them. Plus, a droid villain like 8T-88 would be pretty badass. I would love to see an Indiana Jones style adventure story with space travel and lightsabers!
Even back when I was at LucasArts working on this game and Dark Forces I felt it would make a great TV series. Now with the dawn of the Disney+ streaming service I am even more convinced of it.
@Clanner Bob good point; Kyle Katarn deserved a fucking break. The guy who defended the Valley of the Jedi and defeated Jerec and Desaan is a fucking legend himself and deserves a woman in his life
@@bryansteele832 Considering that Star Wars is a Space Opera, over acting is only part of the charm. The guy who did Jerac really emphasized this, lol.
These late 90s cutscenes are better than all of Disney's Star Wars combined. I used to play this game so much. It's still worth playing every now and then.
Bar none my most favorite Star Wars game. It was mindblowing all the way back in the late 90s to zappy-zap enemies in a first person shooter like Papa Palpatine.
Really wished they went back and remastered this stuff. It looks like a great storyline that faded into the past. I've never even heard of this game :( It would be cool if they went back and updated the graphics and other things!
I remember playing this game over and over again back in the late 90s when I was younger. Has it really been 20 years? Haven't seen this for so long. So what happened to me? Well, I got married and now I have 2 teenage children!! All the star Wars games available these days are multiplayer games and I much prefer single player games like this one was!!
Congrats on having kids... I highly recommend Jedi: Fallen Order. It feels like the succesor to the Jedi Knight series IMO -- more than The Force Unleashed, anyway (not that I dislike TFU, on the contrary). I only wish they would make a Dark Forces 3.
If they made Delta Squad from Republic Commando canon with a little cameo in that crappy Clone Wars show, then they should definitely make Kyle Katarn canon by giving him a cameo of some sort. He is *THE* best EU character ever made for Star Wars; a sort of Han Solo (mercenary, charismatic) and Luke Skywalker (father murdered and a force user/Jedi) in one.
Jin Zor Not only Kyle Katarn saga, Shadows of the Empire and both KOTOR games should be canon. KOTOR 1 and 2 has plenty of material to allow the creation of a TV series or set of movies.
+XwingRed4 You and other fans will always respect them in your minds. That's great. It's all made up, so you can decide what's canon for you. Disney just wants the flexibility to create an awesome alternate story.
The first game was Kyle investigating an imperial shipping and production project. The second game is a completely different genre: Indiana Jones in the Star Wars galaxy.
Good retro game if anyone remembers Here's some thoughts about the game itself: About him killing Maw- Shows the purity of indecisiveness. And for a brief moment him allowing his deepest emotions to affect his reality. Honestly its situations like that which make us human. Which is why Jerec uses this opportunity of weakness to have him make the ultimate sacrifice. Although in my opinion it's a very, very out of character scenario for Kyle to take the dark-side choice. But this is just a video game not a movie, so I'll excuse the lack of character development. Light or Dark Ending- Light because the Dark ending shows it's not what he even wants when he sobs up looking at that tape of his father for the last time. I mean symbolically it shows him trying to shed the last of his emotions and becoming a full killer. It doesn't actually prove in anyway he's over it. His demeanor still shows weakness as opposed to his light side ending. It's quite a great dichotomy though. Showing the shallowness of owning the entire world but still being uncomfortable in your own skin. Or better put; transforming from a bringer of life to a bringer of death, hence the personality change. It's the comparison of owning the world or owning your soul, you can't have both. When you own "the world" you don't just go do what you want as the leader of the empire. When you own "your self" you actually give up owning the world and, in all honesty, the concept of owning in the first place. The dark side is actually the ultimate bondage because the empire follows you everywhere. You in a sense become "The Empire", which is just a God/Energy of Control and Destruction. As opposed to being "The Self", which is a God/Energy of Freedom and Life. So yeah Light side ending in this game and in real life for me thank you. Freedom>Control. In terms of cinematography- The good ending is cheesy and rushed. Nothing is really presented in terms of ideas or relativity. Just a simple, thanks dad. Where-as the dark side ending flows very smoothly. In terms of cinematography and direction... The dark ending is superior
Jay Cee Productions Frankly as far as the whole arc goes, IMO the dark ending is canon. Katarn isn’t Jedi selected and rigorously trained in the goody two shoes cult, he’s a human with human vulnerabilities, he’s lived a life where he’s already seen the darkness, he’s not prepared for it and thus the dark ending is where he naturally belongs. Besides, we all know saris wanted that d the whole time.
Keep in mind when watching these cut-scenes that they were filmed before Episode 1 was in theaters, and with a much lower budget. Also, before just anyone had software to film themselves wielding a lightsaber. "Old folks" were blown away by this game's "FMV" scenes. It was like "an entirely new Star Wars film", even before new Star Wars films were made.
I remember watching my older Brother playing this in 1998. I was 11 years old and been a Star Wars Fan since i could remember. That Game felt like a complete new Movie to me.
This was the first fps I ever really played. It was also the first thing that really got me into Star War. Was a great game and told a decent story. I agree with most of the old school fans here that this game and the series Heir to the Empire are part of what made Star Wars last h as long as it has and deserves more respect that it gets.
Thank you for posting this. I had a six-pack of Star Wars video games on CD back in the 90s, which included the Kyle Katarn trilogy. Not sure if the the full games were loaded or just the first few levels each, but it doesn't matter, considering I could never beat them. Anyway, the sound/video capabilities of our home computer never let me view any of these cut scenes properly. Really means a lot to see these for the first time.
I was 5 years old.. My dad used to be so proud that I could complete this game so young.. One of my favourite games of all time, outcast and academy were also excellent sequels!! Remake this for us, you must!
Thanks for this! Can't get the cutscenes to work in my game, so this helps me figure out what the hell I'm actually doing "recovering your father's data disk from the clutches of 8t88's severed arm"
Just came back from seeing The Force Awakens and felt like watching some real SW shit instead of Disney fan catering. It wasn't a bad film but I just felt like it wasn't the Star Wars I fell in love with.
+Da Docta Yeah you're right. It was made for your average popcorn consuming moviegoer that just wants a lot of X-Wings and explosions on screen. This and the OT will always be true SW to me. The Disneyverse shit ruined SW for me. Even the prequels are more appealing to me now. At least Jorge took risks and did something new within the universe instead of relying on nostalgia and recycling.
+eqthqmqp What does OT star for? And yeah I heard that The Force Awakens is exactly the same as the first movie, which comes as no surprise as Disney is so lazy they couldn't think of their own story.
+Chris King Oh, of course. I feel ashamed that I have never heard the term OT before. But that was a good point you made; when you make the prequels look good, you know you need to go home and rethink your life.
Also, 17:28 - my favourite cutscene... The musical was just EPIC. Can't remember this music being used at any other point in the trilogy, except for the Death Star intercept. Such a fantastic piece...
@@Sadeness99 All the finished cutscenes as well as the original bluescreen live-action footage were archived by LucasArts and I would assume that it They still have it. To the best of my knowledge that bluescreen footage was never officially released to the public. Of course, that's not to say that other copies of that footage might exist elsewhere. ;-)
Loved these games. Chosing between light and dark side, cool characters, great villains, nice character arc - nothing we saw in the Rey Kylo mess. Even Dark Forces 1 was better than JarJar Abram's stuff, though without lightsabers.
Thank you! We put a lot of effort into making these cutscenes. There were 300 effects shots total. It was like working on a feature film. Most of it holds up pretty well considering we did this 22 years ago. The digital lightsaber effects techniques I helped develop for this game's cutscenes are what we ended up using at ILM on the Star Wars prequels.
@@CAndrewNelson Wow, thats amazing. Thank you for your hard work. Also, if you know someone from Lucasfilm, tell 'em to replace the current trilogy and make a new one starring Kyle "takes no shit from anybody" Katarn.
@@B0XMATTER You're welcome! We had a blast making this game. A year later I moved over to Industrial Light & Magic to work on the effects for the Star Wars prequels. I have always thought Kyle's story should be turned into a television series. Would love to be able to convince Disney that Dark Forces / Jedi Knight should be adapted into a series for the new Disney+ streaming service. There are actually quite a few LucasArts properties that would make great series or movies for Disney+.
Some People just CAN'T leave well enough a [former] established continuity and old [but respectable] fan base alone. Clearly they have not heard of the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". FUCK YOU Disney! You killed Star Wars [and TRON]! FUCK YOU!!! #Betrayal #TheRealEpisodeVII #KyleKatarn #DarkJedi #Jerec #JanOrs #DarkForces2
Nicely done. I still believe Dark Forces II to be one of the best games set in Star Wars. And we have real actors, as well as the whole style of the game is very close to Star Wars of old. The music is based upon the original music by John Williams, but the game uses the remix versions, made by Peter McConnell, who brought the best of music and sound editing to such projects as Rebel Assault, Force Commander and Battlefront!
Grateful that this got made. Got a glimpse to what Star Wars could have been. Too bad the talented story-makers couldn't find a way to work on the movie canon. 90's were a magical time. We could've had the future we deserved - Star Wars and everything else
