I jumped right into the multiplayer. Should I bother with the SP if I didn't enjoy JO SP much at all?
Why buy Jedi Academy if you're only going to play half of it?
Get your money's worth and play single player.
It's certainly improved in terms of lower frustration level, more force/saber action and more locales and longer.
But if you desire a deeper story, deeper characters, etc you won't find that here.
Basically they gave you access to more force powers and moves, but some inherent weaknesses of the JK2 SP experience remain:
-weak weapons (other than the sabers) vs. MP where they are useful.
-the animations/movement feels a LOT LESS tight and precise vs. MP (though I suppose some would say it's "more cinematic" or something)
-The silly "auto dodge" function that only works on the easy difficulty settings is again used instead of the more common sense/less random ability used in MP (in both games) of blocking disruptor shots with the saber and/or using Force Seeing Level 3 to auto dodge EVERY shot that hits above the waist.
At least with hit location, you can sometimes score head shots on enemies to kill them instead of having to pound round after round into their bodies while they just kind of shrug it off while running around as in JK2 SP.
Sure, play through JA SP, give it a go for a few levels at least. Can't hurt to try it. It's easier than JK2. Frankly, other than the less deep story/characters, I had just as much fun playing through it as JK2, though with less frustration (the puzzles and gun only levels in JK2 were just tedius).
Originally posted by DF mod Feedback
I jumped right into the multiplayer. Should I bother with the SP if I didn't enjoy JO SP much at all? Personally, Jedi Academy is one of my top-5 all time SP games, which I've now played 6+ times (>half through 7th). But then, I absolutely *loved* Jedi Outcast. It replaced Jedi Knight as my all-time fave game, and is still in my top 5.
So ... if you don't like JKII, you'll probably not like JA. But as much of JA is comprised of 'quick missions' rather than multi-level missions, you might like it better.
But ... how will you know unless you try. And, you *have* the game ...
Mike
Well it's a moot point now anyways; sp is borked for me. I've reinstalled, upgraded to 1.1, and tried almost every setting in game (inlcuding safe mode), upgraded to the latest ATI drivers for my Asus 9600XT, and made sure all my other hardware and XP Pro Updates were as they should be.
JA SP loads fine, except when I get to the first cutscene inside the transport it just zooms around an empty ship while I hear invisible people talk. When the first level begins after the crash landing I can't see myself in 1st or 3rd person mode, can't see my lightsaber or anyone else, but I can still move around. Pretty ridiculous.
Judging by the lack of buzz around the 'net when this game was released I'd wager that I'm not going to be missing much more than standard fps fare with a force/saber twist. :\
I have to agree with txa1265 and disagree with my friend Kurgan. As much as I liked Jedi Outcast SP, and I liked it a lot, I think people unfairly overrate it compared to Jedi Academy SP.
JK2 SP was good once you got your lightsaber and Force powers, but people forget how tedious those early missions were before your first confrontation with Desann. Remember crawling through those mine tunnels with those crab creatures chasing you? Ugh. It got a lot better after you got your lightsaber and Force powers, but even then some of the missions were a little bit too much of the same thing (like on that cortosis mining facility). You also didn't get to pick your Force powers, so there was no variation in that. Again, I liked it a lot, but it wasn't perfect.
But with Jedi Academy, there are more varied locations, and you can pick which Force powers to enhance. The first time I played it I maxed out all the Light side powers before increasing Dark side powers (so I was mostly Light side), stuck with single-saber, and picked the "light side" ending. The next time I maxed out the Dark side powers first (so I was mostly Dark), again picked single saber, but picked the "dark" ending. Currently, I decided to max out Heal first, then Dark Rage, then Mind Trick, so I could Dark Rage and then quickly heal, and use Mind Trick to get stormies to fight each other, or Mind Trick a Rocket Trooper Officer to wipe out the baddies for me while I sat back and watched the show.
And, that doesn't even include choosing dual sabers or saber staff to play the last third of the game. I think because of all the different options, the replayability factor is higher (if you are smart about it). It was very different playing with mostly Dark side force powers compared to mostly Light side powers. When I had mostly Dark side Forces, I had to remember to not shoot or saber the last bad guy so I could Drain the life out of him and replenish my health like a vampiress.
Speaking of which, the ability to be one of six "species" as Jaden was also a welcome change. Especially when I used my [shameless advertising] Human Female (Jaden) Skin Expansion Mod (
http://www.lucasfiles.com/?s=&action=file&id=538) and Tavion Extreme Makeover (
http://www.lucasfiles.com/index.php?s=&action=file&id=498) skins [/shameless advertising].
http://premium.uploadit.org/Amidala/sp_composite1_800.jpg)
The voice acting is much better for the female Jaden than the male Jaden (it was done by Jennifer Hale, the same actress who did Bastila in KOTOR). And being able to play as my very own creation gives Jedi Academy the win over Jedi Outcast, for me at least.
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
I have to agree with txa1265 an
JK2 SP was good once you got your lightsaber and Force powers, but people forget how tedious those early missions were before your first confrontation with Desann. Ahem. ;)
Actually I loved the first several levels and saw them as homage to Dark Forces. As I've said repeatedly, my intent before the release of JKII was to play the series through. Well, I had just played Dark Forces in Aug 2001, and was still playing MohAA, so I skipped it and did the JK/MotS combo. I finished with >1 week to spare. What to do?!?! Play DF, of course:D So I finished it right before getting JKII, and it was a perfect lead-in for me. And I savored the saber all the more because of it.
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
The voice acting is much better for the female Jaden than the male Jaden (it was done by Jennifer Hale, the same actress who did Bastila in KOTOR). Very much agree ... she had spunk and wit - not Cate Archer sassy, but she was fun.
Which is why after two male Jadens, the rest of my plays have been female.
Mike
Um, i do recommend playing and completing (if you can) single player before moving on to multiplayer. At least you get to get used to the game (Eg. Force powers, controls, your lightsaber... etc) before moving on to the advance which is online play.
Players can easily tell whether which player is a "newbie" or in other words, "n00bs". :)
Originally posted by DF mod Feedback
Judging by the lack of buzz around the 'net when this game was released I'd wager that I'm not going to be missing much more than standard fps fare with a force/saber twist. :\ You'd be wrong.
The lack of buzz is not due to the quality of the game - any more than the lack of buzz with NOLF 1 or 2 or Gothic I or II indicates lack of quality. It is like movies or music - the deafening roar of buzz over Britney's latest will drown out high quality releases such as Dave Holland Quintet's 'Extended Play' CD. But that doesn't mean anything about quality.
Last September, the gaming media was in feeding frenzy mode over two things, and two things only - Half-Life 2, with its' anticipated Sept 30 release, and Call of Duty, due to the WWII gaming craze.
Let me restate - I'm no gaming n00b. Sure I love Star Wars, but I'm not blind to crap games (TPM for PC, Flight of the Falcon for GBA). I know what I like and the Jedi Knight series captures that well. But for many it does not - especially those tuned to FPS mode. The JK series plays differently than a standard FPS, that's just how it is. Some like it, others do not.
Mike
True enough about the hype, although I didn't convey properly that I meant gamers in gaming communities, not the worthless gaming media outlets.
Let me ask you, though:
Does JA SP play differently from and better than other FPSes simply because of the focus brought by a melee weapon and force powers (and the gameplay options created there in, as opposed to just guns), or because the rest of the game (level architecture, level progression, npcs, storyline, etc) is a diamond in the rough amongst other FPSes?
...And while I'm here if anyone has any ideas i'd appreciate the help. I've got the same problem (described above) as these two guys
http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?forumID=3&threadID=994&messageID=7695#7695)
In regards to your technical problem, often times 3rd-party MP mods and maps will interfere with the Single-player game. Make a copy of your GameData folder (Copy of GameData) and delete all non-Raven .pk3 files from the base folder. Make a shortcut to the jasp.exe in Copy of Game Data and use that to play Single-player only, and your original GameData for MP only.
In regards to JA SP being different from most FPS games, it is different because you can't use guns against many of the bad guys. They either dodge, deflect, or push your shots right back at you, causing you to harm yourself. You are forced to use only your lightsaber and Force powers to fight them. The exception is one mission where your lightsaber is confiscated and you are limited to guns and Force powers only.
As I said in my earlier post, single-player is actually quite fun. Also, there is no whining about "laming".
Originally posted by DF mod Feedback
Does JA SP play differently from and better than other FPSes simply because of the focus brought by a melee weapon and force powers (and the gameplay options created there in, as opposed to just guns), or because the rest of the game (level architecture, level progression, npcs, storyline, etc) is a diamond in the rough amongst other FPSes? That is a tough question. Let me see what I can come up with:
- There is something inherently different about the gameplay. For instance, when I played Call of Duty, it felt just like playing MoHAA. When I played Far Cry, it felt just like playing Soldier of Fortune II (I actually just replayed SoFII and confirmed that feeling), and when I played Tron 2.0 it felt just like playing Elite Force II ... and not that much different from the first several levels of Jedi Knight II. JKII and JA just *feel* different.
- There is a major contribution of saber and force, no doubt about it. It isn't just a melee thing - because with force powers you're a sort of combined fighter/mage.
- I believe there is a Star Wars component to it as well. Take Elite Force II - if it weren't for the various Enterprise and Klingon and other Trekkie things, the game would have been far less enjoyable. The JK games have that as well - slicing Stormies is more satisfying than popping Nazis for me. That is also part of the reason why I love Hoth ... and Bespin ... and Tatooine ... and so on. And why I like Hoth more than NOLF 2's Siberia or SoFII's Kamchatka ...
So I guess some is objective, some is subjective and some is that visceral mix we call gameplay.
... oh, and I'm sorry to say I have no clue about fixing the technical issues - I've not had a problem on the two PC's and Mac I've played it on.
Mike
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
In regards to your technical problem, often times 3rd-party MP mods and maps will interfere with the Single-player game. Make a copy of your GameData folder (Copy of GameData) and delete all non-Raven .pk3 files from the base folder. Make a shortcut to the jasp.exe in Copy of Game Data and use that to play Single-player only, and your original GameData for MP only.
I just did a fresh fresh install... there are no non-Raven .pk3 files or any other non-Raven files anywhere. Same deal. I give up... I never had to deal with this nonsense in Dark Forces or Jedi Knight.... or even JO. Thanks all for your input... continue to debate here if that suits you.
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
JK2 SP was good once you got your lightsaber and Force powers, but people forget how tedious those early missions were before your first confrontation with Desann. Remember crawling through those mine tunnels with those crab creatures chasing you? Well, at least JO had a serious plotline and some surprises in it...JA is just a collection of short missions with three long missions used as separator. You say the first missions were tedious, ok but at least they had some realism (except for the dumb level where you have to recover the saber), in JA many "short missions" are simply stupid. A few examples:
- The mission where you help that Wedge dude to capture a Imperial refinery. You can approach the base with your crappy fighter and imperials don't even bother to send a squadron of TIE Fighters after you or at least to have a group of Stormies ready to shoot at you while you're landing.
- The Dreadnaught mission: same as above, they capture Kyle's ship and there's no sign of any guard in the hangar bay. Yay for McGiver kind of guards! :p
- Droid's Recovery: Kyle tells Jaden that he/she will learn diplomacy..actually it's a kill-kill-kill mission like all the others.
- Blenjeel mission: giant hungry sandworms...wow,what an original idea!
- Tatooine mission: Raven dudes have been really cheap on this one. I guess it was too much for them to create a Han Solo model.
- The intro to the final mission. You arrive at Korriban with your Z-95 and you exit hyperspace right near a imperial ship. Of course no one aboard cares to stop you (at least they could have added some space dogfight sequences!)
And last but not least, Rosh Penin! The most annoying SW character after that Jar Jar Blink :mad:
IMHO...
Jedi Academy SP sux and the first impression when I got the game was "Ok, LucasArts stole me 20 bucks" (I paid JA $40 but the MP half is worth of the $20).
Jedi Outcast is good but the real King is still the original Jedi Knight with its cinematics and the best bad dudes ever seen in a SW game.
Originally posted by txa1265
slicing Stormies is more satisfying than popping Nazis for me.
Eh, Stormies, Nazis, same thing, different level of technology.
Originally posted by Hiroki
Eh, Stormies, Nazis, same thing, different level of technology.
Lies. *Looks at my name, title, avatar, and signature.* I'm no Nazi!
Originally posted by Giddamon
Well, at least JO had a serious plotline and some surprises in it...JA is just a collection of short missions with three long missions used as separator. You say the first missions were tedious, ok but at least they had some realism (except for the dumb level where you have to recover the saber), in JA many "short missions" are simply stupid. A few examples:
IMHO...
Jedi Academy SP sux and the first impression when I got the game was "Ok, LucasArts stole me 20 bucks" (I paid JA $40 but the MP half is worth of the $20).
Jedi Outcast is good but the real King is still the original Jedi Knight with its cinematics and the best bad dudes ever seen in a SW game.
Most of the things you criticized were "lack of realism" setting up the scenario (hey, they didn't scramble a squadron of TIE fighters to intercept Jaden. Hey, that ISD didn't shoot at Jaden), but the actual missions themselves were fun (in my opinion). Maybe they don't meet your expectations for plot and setup compared to DF2:JK and JKII:JO, but are plot and "realistic" scenarios ALWAYS necessary for an enjoyable FPS game? How about DOOM? DOOM II? Quake? Quake II? Serious Sam?
I tried playing Jedi Knight AFTER I had played Jedi Outcast, but the dated graphics, 12 poly-count models, corny acting, and primitive lightsaber made me quit after a few levels.
And after playing JO, Amidala, did the JK graphics sort of hurt your eyes a bit?
It is indeed worth it... beat it on Light and Dark and then load fun maps with the DEVMAP command in the console.
example:
devmap t3_rift
once you enter, type GOD, GIVE ALL, SETFORCEALL 9, NOTARGET is only if you want an NPC to completely ignore you though.
spawn fun stuff if you wish, or just type playermodel luke or whatever and feel the 200 point force bar flow through you...
also type IKNOWKUNGFU in the console for the fists, use them like you use katas and you'll have great fun...
if you've got skins or models, they work. I have Bastila from KOTOR, so I just type playermodel bastila and I get the skin.
Malak's the coolest in SP though, Revan is for some reason oversized...
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
I tried playing Jedi Knight AFTER I had played Jedi Outcast, but the dated graphics, 12 poly-count models, corny acting, and primitive lightsaber made me quit after a few levels.
Youch! I feel a tad bit sorry for you since you weren't around to enjoy JK when it originally came out. I guess you never experienced the glory known as Dark Forces in its heyday either? :(
It's funny, most gamers I noticed when JO came out who adored the game, and to a lesser extent adored JA, never experienced the first two Dark Forces games either. The rest of us seemed to expect them to build more on the JK formula than they did for JO, especially given all the gameplya advances in the industry since then. To me the DF series was always about leading the way, not settling. JA MP appears to be more of the game JO should have been... too bad I can't play the SP to complete this picture.
Originally posted by DF mod Feedback
Youch! I feel a tad bit sorry for you since you weren't around to enjoy JK when it originally came out. I guess you never experienced the glory known as Dark Forces in its heyday either? :(
Actually, I tried to play Dark Forces but it is the only FPS game that ever gave me motion sickness, so I couldn't play it.
Now Jedi Knight also made me nauseated, but for different reasons....
Well, I'm a old fan of Lucasarts (prolly I was playing TIE Fighter when most of you were at the kindergarten :p ) so I admit to be a bit biased, yet IMHO no JK-X level will ever reach the atmosphere and pathos of the Sith Palace map in MotS (i.e. the Sith Undead :eek: )
I loved the 1st levels of JK2! It was like the 'han solo' levels, kinda.. then the rest were the 'luke skywalker' like levels. That game rocked. JA was good, better graphics (play around with them, compare JO's lowest settings, to JA's lowest settings, theres a big difference! Type in r_subdivisions 80 both games, and youll see a huge difference between the two, unlike what most people say, the graphics jumped up a few notches. And lets face it, JK2's graphics are still good right now, maybe not amazing, but still good.
When I got DF2, I thought it amazing :D That saber rocked (back then) now JK2/JKA are much better. I hated that twi-lek though. And still, DF2 was unrealistic, I mean, kyle being a jedi for so little a period took out Jerec, who could heal himself, was super powered by the valley of the jedi, and was a jedi for many many years before Kyle... well.. thats unrealistic. At least in JK2 Kyle was powered up by the valley, and had some experience before he fought desann.
Well, even Luke Skywalker apparently became a kick ass jedi by jumping around for 2 minutes in the Dagobah swamps :D
Anyway, DF2 Kyle used the holocron of the Jedi beheaded by Jerec in the intro movie (I forgot his name), I think to have read that somewhere in the novel (and no, I don't usually read EU books but since it was included in the JK box :rolleyes: :o )
Why not just try it and see if you like it?
Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
Actually, I tried to play Dark Forces but it is the only FPS game that ever gave me motion sickness, so I couldn't play it.
Now Jedi Knight also made me nauseated, but for different reasons....
Yeah it gave motion sickness to, I've only played like the first two or three misions, I can't wait till that group finishise DF for JA.
If I remember right the first 3/4 of Jedi Academy SP levels are
pretty good... After that it will become pretty frustrating when
all you do is hack down endless waves of saber hooligans...
And about the story and characters... It was OK (bit stupid like
Jedi Outcast) when I first time played it... but now after I have
played KOTOR... I don't know if it could be more pathetic...
I hope that in next Jedi Knight game they move far to the past
or future or "overwrite" EP 4-6 story so that your actions can
change how things play out... There should be much more RPG
elements and with enemies and combat they should set quality
over quantity (even one stormtrooper with blaster rifle should
be dangerous opponent and going against squad of those
shouldn't be a good idea even for jedi...)
Sorry for the thread revival, but I meant to post this a long time ago, but the boards were acting up, so I just saved it on my desktop and forgot about it until now... enjoy! ; )
I played the DF demo (3 level for dos) back when it first came out.
While it was a cool concept (whoa, it's like "Star Wars Doom or something dude, cool!" and "Like, the weapons have two fire modes, sweeet!") I quickly got bored with it since the levels were pretty generic.
Fast forward to late 1997. A friend of mine was talking about how great Dark Forces II was going to be and he showed me the game in college. At first I wasn't that impressed but the gameplay was enough to win me over and get me hooked. After beating the game, I went back and bought Dark Forces to see the "backstory."
Let me tell you, while the graphics in DF1 were "bad" compared to JK (well in some ways, in other ways they were okay, since they had some more detail, even though they used sprites 95% of the time) the later levels were much better than the demo levels I had previously played. The game was frustrating in places due to the fact that you couldn't mid-level save, but overall quite fun once you got into it.
When MotS came out of course I jumped right into that game too. SP was cool but more forgettable an experience than JK's was, I don't know why. Maybe the levels didn't feel as "vast" (even though size wise they were probably comparable, just MotS was more mazelike, but JK would SHOW YOU just how small you were compared to everything else), and the developers for some reason chose to use lower quality sound for this game so it wasn't as pleasant to listen to as JK1, but the MP was impressive for the sheer number of options available to you (even moreso than JK). It had a few annoying bugs that were never fixed, but again, a very enjoyable game and a "step up" from the previous games.
Moving on to Outcast I enjoyed some aspects of the game, mainly the "improved technology" of the engine, but some things that were left out from JK/MotS. MP of course was 'where its at' for me. I did the dueling thing for awhile, alongside my real favorite CTF. I missed the entire 1.03 patch thing due to stuff I was doing in Real Life at the time. By the time 1.04 rolled around I wasn't playing as much anymore so I missed out on a lot of the "corruption" (as some of us cynical ones call it now) that largely turned the community into an 'honor-dueling-only' society at the mercy of whiners with admin mods.
When Academy came out I was pumped. I'd read all about Siege mode and it sounded awesome (having been a big Unreal Tournament player I was really looking forward to Assault "Star Wars style" let me tell you). I was not let down (though there were quite a few things in Siege that felt unfinished). Siege was a ton of fun (and still is). So that aspect of the game has given me the opinion that JA is another "step up" in the series, even if much of the rest of the game isn't a huge leap forward, more like some people would say "an expansion pack + new patch" (I'm not saying I agree with that reasoning, only that I can see how it's not the jump between say DF and JK1 or between JK1 and JK2).
The small tweaks and changes between 1.04 and JA 1.01 to me are mostly positive and the ones I didn't like I can live with. Mods of course are always nice (with some exceptions, and I think you can guess what I am implying), and mods like OJP and the official unofficial mods (like Asteroids) really flesh out the game for me.
So it's been a great series so far. Would I enjoy it as much if I wasn't a Star Wars fan? Perhaps not.
But I see Star Wars as more the "Hook" that got me into the series, and not so much what keeps me here, but the gameplay.
Sure, once in awhile while playing Siege I imagine in my head that I'm "in the movie" but usually I'm just playing a fun game and having a good time.
Originally posted by AJL
And about the story and characters... It was OK (bit stupid like
Jedi Outcast) when I first time played it... but now after I have
played KOTOR... I don't know if it could be more pathetic... Ah! So it's not just me.
I really enjoyed JO's story and didn't have as big a problem with the Reborn as some others did. I liked being able to battle saber-wielding opponants. When JA came out I had a good time with SP and although the story and some characers were weaker I didn't mind it as much as others did. Both were just fun games to play.
Then I went off and played KOTOR. Oddly, at first I had a hard time getting into the RPG point and click style of combat, but it quickly grew on me. Of course the story was far superior to JA but that is underatandable considering the genre of the game. In the end KOTOR is right up there with my all-time faves.
Then I decited to go back and have another go at JA for some FPS fun. But after KOTOR the story so far has been almost unbearable. If Rosh is part of the future of the Jedi, Palpy should have finished the job. Jaden doesn't seem much better to me. Tavion is such an awful boss after facing Malak. The whole story is decidedly uninspiring to me now.
Even the gameplay hasn't been nearly as much fun this time around. The only people around are enemies and most don't put up much of a fight. The emptiness of the galaxy just seems so much more apparent after playing KOTOR. And the RPG elements, even though it is a nice attempt, just feel so lame to me now.
If and when I finish JA SP again, I'm defintiely going to go back and give JO yet another shot. My memories of it are so fond it will be interesting to see if I enjoy it just as much. I suspect I will, since Kyle as a character is so much better, and not just a whiny punk.
Don't get me wrong, JA is still a great game, but it is amazing how playing something like KOTOR brings out all its flaws, especially storywise.
It would be sooooo cool for JA to have a story like KOTOR! Of course, I still favor the time period of JA. KOTOR was cool.. its just.. sometimes I forgot it was star wars... it was just some game. Without luke.. it just not as good. Chewie was an added bonus in JA for me! :) Although I wish they had made a Han Solo (he should have been there!)
And what was that stuff chewie was talking about Leia for? She should have made an appearence.. somewhere (I waited through the game hoping she was a part of the story!) Too bad.
Prime hit the nail on the head for me. Having played KOTOR a couple times through, it was frigging difficult to accept the characters and story in JA.
The next JK game needs to have depth, my dream would be of a SW game combining the fast action of the previous two games with the immersive atmosphere of something like KOTOR, and the lack of the latter is where we feel that 'emptiness' that is so present in JA's gameplay.
I'm also a little sick of the Q3 engine now that we're surrounded by all this new technology with their advanced physics and superior graphics and whatnot.
Well, I think the graphics are good, the models could use some work, and they need more advanced shader stuff, but overall the graphics can compete with games of today, no problem (unless your thinking Doom3 or something)
A physics system like they had in Max Payne 2 would be cool (I think MP2 was built on the Havoc engine?) You know, just walking into stuff, and everything was moveable...
Imagine using force push and you pushed every object in the room. That would be so cool, or even pull would pull stuff to you (like medpacks, and bacta, or even a console, but that would hurt you)
Yeah, that would be cool, like there are advantages and disadvantages to using force powers (like pull, you can pull stuff to you, like guns, and health, or even guns from other players, or you can also pull big objects, like rocks or consoles, and hurt yourself.)
Everything should be breakable, like in real-life too... like screens, and even vehicle windsheilds... stuff like that.
ooohh, combine havok engine with Redfaction's geo modding :eek: :eek: :eek:
Ja SP worth playing? hmmm, even easier than jk2 sp, so.. NO
Yeah but it's a GOOD kind of easy.
I honestly only played through JK2 SP once, but I went back and replayed various sections (with or without cheats) because they were so cool.
Likewise with JA, I beat it on lightside, then went back and played a lot of other parts over and over. Not to mention all the time I spent with the demo!
I still have yet to beat the Dark Side ending, but then I have been somewhat busy for games lately, but I will get to it eventually. ; )
JA is actually longer than JK2 (unless you skip a bunch of missions, as you have the option to) and has somewhat more replayability due to the customization and alternate ending (even if it is a throw-away choice thing at the very end of the game). While JK2 is definately harder, the difficulty factor is more of an "annoyance" factor for me.
Jumping puzzles and puzzles that take a long time to complete that are just busy work (like that "code" mission with the multi colored codes in that floating maze, yikes!), as well as those missions where you would step outside and be nailed by a half dozen snipers that you have no way of hitting or avoiding, except blind luck and memorization. Or the maps where you're forced to use underpowered and inaccurate guns against enemies who can dodge them too easily and take too many hits to die, arrrrgggh!
Not that JK2 wasn't a fun game, but it definately had a lot of "throw down keyboard & mouse in disgust and take a long break" moments than JA did, for me.
well, i was talking more about the dark jedis of sp. like.. jedi master of ja it's the padawan on jk2. just that. it's to easy. and i prefer for a game like jedi knight 1 sp like jk2 and not like ja
Originally posted by Khier Serakk
Prime hit the nail on the head for me. Having played KOTOR a couple times through, it was frigging difficult to accept the characters and story in JA.
The next JK game needs to have depth, my dream would be of a SW game combining the fast action of the previous two games with the immersive atmosphere of something like KOTOR, and the lack of the latter is where we feel that 'emptiness' that is so present in JA's gameplay.
I'm also a little sick of the Q3 engine now that we're surrounded by all this new technology with their advanced physics and superior graphics and whatnot.
Well, JA & JK2 are First Person Shooters, while KOTOR is a full blown RPG. So of COURSE it's going to be "more immersive" have better character development, more choices, etc. (since that's what that genre is SUPPOSED to do...). FPS games are about blasting up & killing stuff and having a lot of action. One's about adrenaline, the others about telling a nice story and having deep characters.
Also, KOTOR used the Baldur's Gate 2 engine, which wasn't exactly new when the game was released.
I know, I'm nitpicking, but c'mon. I mean Doom3 comes out hailed as the Second Coming, and what is it really... it's a very basic FPS game with great graphics. That's IT.
Nobody is touting it as a failure because the story is cliched or the characters are two dimensional or that the universe isn't populated by much more than dead guys and stuff trying to kill you.
Sure, we'd all love a game with the depth and atmosphere of KOTOR, the size and scope of SWG, the action and sword play of the JK series, the ship combat of XWA and the graphics of Doom3, UT2k4, etc.
But who's going to make such a monster? It would cost a fortune and take many years to develop. By the time it came out people would have problems with stuff already.
Developers strategies these days focus on doing one thing and doing it right. Or they end up in development hell like Duke Nukem Forever. Or else companies make "modules" of a game that add new content, breaking it up rather than having to create an entire game with everything (like the "Jump to Lightspeed" expansion for SWG for example).
Originally posted by Kurgan
Well, JA & JK2 are First Person Shooters, while KOTOR is a full blown RPG. So of COURSE it's going to be "more immersive" have better character development, more choices, etc. (since that's what that genre is SUPPOSED to do...). FPS games are about blasting up & killing stuff and having a lot of action. One's about adrenaline, the others about telling a nice story and having deep characters. True. But I'm finding that taht doesn't change the fact that I miss those story elements a lot more now that I'm playing JA again. I am enjoying the story of the game a lot less, even though I know the reason for it.
Originally posted by Kurgan
Also, KOTOR used the Baldur's Gate 2 engine, which wasn't exactly new when the game was released. That's not true. The game was built on a completely new engine and is entirely 3D. (
http://pc.ign.com/articles/136/136512p1.html?fromint=1) So it was exactly new when it was released. :)