Game
They can find out even from
that jammed holomessage, there is something in the air. They
hear about some Valley of the Jedi, and some kind Reborns. Also some imperial
officers seems to be involved. There is something up, but what? They don't
really know that right now, but hearing Kyle's voice you'll understand, he
doesn't even care. Pay his money, then good bye. But the disillusioned Kyle
gets entangled. As Kejim is crawling with imperials, and our heroes gets
involved the things pretty well! They will investigate the scene, and learn
some new information and details, which will give valuable information for the
rebels, and cool game experience for the gamer. The game is just an FPS at
this point, means First Person Shooter, as we do not have a lightsaber yet,
just firearms, and explosives. JK2 allows you to use 2 views, which means this
game is more then an FPS. You'll have the basic "inner" view, it is like you
were the character, you see what he see, and you hold your weapon in your
right hand. But there is a third person view too. It means you watch Kyle
from a bit above and behind him, just like if you were only a spectator. Both
views are enjoyable, but the 3rd person view is more useful, you can have a
better view on your environment, so you might detect the secret areas, tilt
the camera, which means you can look out from a corner without looking out,
and risk you head to be hit. Also, you can see under yourself on an edge, or
you can see things that happen behind you, so they can't get behind you easily.
Stepping next to a dead
trooper's weapon lying on the floor
Kyle will take it, so your weapon arsenal will be expanded all
the time. Basically you will have stronger weapons, but you'll encounter harder
opponents with stronger weapons, too. You can also have the rifles stored on
the racks on the wall, and the items from the crates, and collect them in your
inventory, which is a huge pocket If Kyle were carrying really so much
weapons on him, probably he would collapse under that weight. He has Bryar
pistol, imperial E11, Disruptor sniper rifle, wookie bowcaster, heavy repeater,
DEMP gun against armored mechs and vehicles, Merr Sonn rocket launcher, and
some demolition packs, thermal detonators, laser beam trap mines, robot turrets,
and remotes.
Not a weak armament! Arnold
Schwarzenegger has so much weapons on him in the "commando" movie. :-) So the
game will provide a wide variety of firearms for the gamer. The weapons are
different, they all have some specific feature, or a secondary fire. There
are weapons, which launch grenades, there are rapid burst of fire, but that
is not that precise. There is one, which enlarges a great amount of laser, and
shots a enormous strong dose of fire. While an other one alter the projectile's
course when hitting (mandinered) a wall, so this can be used to fire into a
corner without going there. I can tell you, the first FPS part of the
game is exciting, amusing, and not boring at all. This is not the usual search
them and kill them game, many other FPS games are boring, and the killing is
foolish, and meaningless. Here in JK2 that is different.
Many criticizes the game, that this is so difficult, that is is not easy to
advance to the next levels, this is not just a foolish slaughter, you gotta
find your way, solve many puzzles, you gotta use your brain, a
bit, and find
out what is that consol good for, or how to open that door, and what to do
after all enemies are dead, but the level is still not over! You will have
many interesting quests, and plenty of good locations, however there are some
annoying jumping part, where you'll load back your last save game pretty often,
but those areas have also their importance in the game.
There is a rich selection of
inner and outer locations in the Jedi Outcast. Graphically they are pretty
good up to now. There was mentioned a planet earlier, Kejim. But there will be
some other new planets, you'll travel to Artus Prime, Nar Shadda, Bespin,
Yavin, and to the Cairn asteroid that is in the Lenico ring, and you can
see the Valley of the Jedi, too.
During your journey you'll
encounter many enemies, mainly imperials, who are commander by imperial
officers, who will send every single imperial stormtroopers against you of
course.
They have some really great,
and new services. Swamptroopers are an awesome good looking, green armored
camouflaged troopers, who hide in the swamps, and shadowtroopers, who are
black armored, lightsaber wielder fighters, who has a cloaking shield, and
undetectable.
But early in the game you'll
mostly encounter "only" trandoshans, weequays, rodians, and grans, and of
course stormtroopers all the time. You can collect their weapons by killing
them, as I mentioned earlier. But taking out an officer, you can have his key,
and with that you'll be able to enter even in Sesame cavern... In each cavern,
or I mean in each rooms you must calculate on some resistance. There will be
defensive guns on the ceilings, and mines on the floor. There are sometimes
E-WEB cannons, and trip mines, which radiate a blue ray, what you won't like
to interrupt, as it detonates the mine. And not to mention those hundreds of
stromtroopers, who all wanna "dissuade" him to nosing around.
During these dissuade"
you may be hurt, or injured. So always have a/some bacta on you. This healing
liquid regenerates your life with 25%. Also, the red-white med packs also
regenerate your injured body. Search the locations for the "shield machine",
which is flashing a green light. Pushing that you can have 100 units of
shielding, in doses of 10. Similar machines are good for your ammunitions, but
those are blinking an orange light. But all of these stuff are available on
the floor wondering around, it seems the imperials put some supplies for the
intruders on the floor, like bullets, shielding, and medipacks. :-)
Some locations are dark, so
you'll need an image amplifier goggle. It depletes its batteries very quickly,
but it can help you in the dark rooms! Get one for you, and recharge its
battery every time you can, you'll need it. Also, your binoculars will use the
same battery! So you can spare that, as your weapon #4, the disruptor sniper
rifle has a pretty good zooming scope on it, and that is for "free"!
Story lines:
The initial solve the puzzle,
find your way, and shoot'em'up will be soon interrupted by a sad tragedy,
while Kyle is on an important mission, Desann and his apprentice Tavion attack
Jan, who was waiting for Kyle at the ship.
Desann is a Dark Jedi, former
apprentice of Luke Skywalker. He was also trained in the Jedi Academy. He is
one from those, who is hated by Kyle so much. (However Kyle was almost walked
the same way when nearly chose the Dark Side) Desann was a Jedi, who was drunk
by the Dark Side, left the Order, and made terrible things. Now he plans same
terrible things, and wanna kill Kyle's girl, Jan. While Tavion pulls Jan into
their ship Desann abuses Kyle a bit, then orders Tavion to kill Jan. Tavion
ignites her lightsaber inside, Jan shouts, then a long, tense, quiet moment
comes. The raging Kyle rushes Desann to avenge his babe, but he can not
compete the much stronger, force user, and well trained lizard-like
Chistorian Dark Lord.
Desann is playing with Kyle for a while, like a cat plays with a mouse. But Desann finally gets tired of it, he laughs at Kyle derisively, because Kyle is not a
challenge for him, that Desann feels shame to fight a so weak opponent. So he
Force grips Kyle for a bit more, then throws him to the ground, turns away, and leaves the drowning Kyle there. Kyle regrets that he voluntarily put down his lightsaber, and left the Force in the past, that is the reason why he is so weak
now that he can not revenge Jan. If Kyle were Jedi at that moment, he would have became a Sith. He hates Desann. He is vengeful, we wanna be strong, to be able to pay off. This is the time, when Kyle almost lost in the Dark. He decides to go back to the Valley of the Jedi, to bath in the power of the ancient Jedi souls, to regain his forgot and lost force powers. But his hatred makes him blind to see that
Desann's ship follows his!
He leads the evil Sith Lord to the secret Jedi location. So fallible we are, that is the human soul, who can blame Kyle for that? This one of the
strength of Star Wars films and games. There is a spiritual content in most of them. This makes their characters closer to us, closer then any other game, or film characters. There are human fates, and personal tragedies, actualities, that touches every feeling being. We understand from them, how narrow is the border between the good and the bad, between love and hate, between glory and falling. A bit easier to understand how those few Jedi fell. We'll
realize how difficult to stay good, and clear in certain life situations, especially if someone has power! Who could remain shy and modest if had a Force Power that a Jedi has? Who could live a monastic-like life? Who is that person, who won't acquit an attack, or an insult knowing the full scale of Force is his/hers? Wouldn't you long for more? Wouldn't you lust for power with it? Could you guide others to goodness, charity, forgiveness, especially with your enemies? Many great Jedi fell under the weight. The best known tragedy is Anakin's, who was thought to be weak and arrogant and corrupted, but please keep in mind that Anakin was deemed to be the Chosen One, and one of the biggest hope for all. That is a weight, indeed. Also, he had a really hard slave childhood, later there was a big pressure on him by Palpatine, while he were responsible for the Jedi. He lost both loved women of his life, both in his own hands, however his mother died a different way in his hands, then Padme Amidala. So all together these may result the failure, even a for Jedi.
Now, decades later Luke works to reorganize the Jedi Order. He seeks for talents, searches the whole Galaxy for teachable Jedi Padawans. He found Desann,
taught him, but Desann left the good path, he was too strong, wanted more, and failed. Kyle almost made the same mistakes, but
fortunately he came through, so the roles has evolved, Desann became the bad, Kyle became the good. But notice that could have happened reverse, too, just like between Revan and Malak. So this big bad Desann plans to do some bad thing again. Exploiting the emotions of Kyle he follows him to the Valley, to trace down the location of the secret energy, because he wanna bath HIS men in the power of the ancient souls,
"reborning" them to Dark Jedi, who will be Force Sensitive, strong, and able to use the Force.
He plans to destroy the Jedi Academy on Yavin, and to make a heavy blow on the New Republic, and to rebuild the Empire. Of course, imperials like this, and Admiral Fyyar supports the idea. Fyyar is the other main evil individual of the game. He develops the Shadow trooper (Cortosis) armor, which protects the person who wears this garment. Also, it is able to provide a certain protection against lightsabers, and covers the wearer with a cloaking shield, leaving him unseen.
Between these two enemies Kyle decides to
go back the Jedi Academy to Luke. He gets back his saber,
and soon he finds his way back to the Force. The game simulate this performance with a stronger Force power as you level up Kyle abilities, sometimes getting a new power, next time some existing power reaches a higher rank. As he advances, his soul steadies down, his anger calms down, so Luke takes him under his wings again, and train him to be a master. Kyle advances well in his saberfight, too, some sources mention him one of the finest fencer in the Universe. This was modelled in the game with Kyle's 3 saber forms.
After many adventures Kyle meets
Tavion, first (wo)man of Desann, and defeats her in a lightsaber duel, but he spare her life in a demo, and does not throw her into a chasm, because Tavion tells him the truth, Jan is alive. This gives Kyle a second chance to keep the balance of his soul, and to remain in the Light Side, so he gives mercy on Tavion, and lets her live and leave. We can control a more dignified, a stronger Kyle from now, a real man of poise. There come some more excitements - he frees Lando Calrissian, (who's voice is given by Billy Dee Williams, himself!), and some more interesting things - we fight together with Luke Skywalker against some reborns, which really does not happen every other day!
He finds admiral Fyyar, who comes to the arena in a big yellow machine, of course protected with a kinda
force field, equipped with two built-in machineguns. It is similar to that cargo loader machine in Alien 2, that Ripley used against the alien queen, remember? Well, Fyyar sometimes gives Kyle a big punch with the arm of the mech, then fires a burst of fire with the guns, so that is not an equal and a courtesy duel, but Kyle somehow manages to defeat the imperial officer in the end.
Finally he finds Jan, rescues her, he will learn Desann's plans, and sabotage them. He will infiltrate Desann's ship, deactivate its shields, and inform Rogue Squadron to attack the ship. Finally Kyle helps the rebel on Yavin to defeat the imperial forces attacking with AT-ST, stormtroopers, swamp troopers, shadow troopers. He helps the Jedi instructors and padawans
in the Jedi Academy against the Reborns, and finally he defeats Desann, too. In the meantime New Republic forces arrive, and disarm and capture many enemy troops, but Tavion manages to flee with many Reborns, and escaping they plan their next evil plan. They plan to found a new sect, which wanna resurrect a big Sith lord (Marka Ragnos), and now they really wanna conquer the whole world, and BTW to prepare the Jedi Knight series to be continued with
Jedi Academy. :-)
Funny moments
The game experience is conducive to the good game feeling, the enjoyable music and voices, and the popular "real" characters (Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, R2-D2, Lando Calrissian, Mon Mothma) - and also the humorous scenes. The source of humor is often available during the
game play.
Hitting models
There is a new engine innovation in this game. The soldiers has different hit areas on their body, every hit causes a different injury. If you hit them, they cannot shoot back, and their body will be tilted because of the shot. They often cry something then. Then they pull their
weapon back in front of their body, to aim you. Shoot them again, but try to hit an other area. They will react again. If you do it well enough, you can make him "dance", that is a kinda folk dance, the stormtrooper will
yammer, and he will beat his limbs. :-) Finally he will die, but till that, you can play a bit with him. If you hit a man on the upper floor he may fall down on the
ground floor, or onto a scared fellow stormtrooper. There are some stormies, who will make a somersault or fall backwards because of a head shot. And just watch them flying away when throw a thermal detonator at them! So you will get a quite multiple
injury and hit
model in this game!
Boring swamp troopers
Think about it! How are those many
Swamptroopers got in the swamps of Yavin? It is funny to imagine that they wake up early morning, have a breakfast, and then put on the
camou armor, and go to work. Which means to sit in the swamp every day, and silently wait for Kyle, watching every bush, and the trees, and as Kyle appears they
immediately open fire at him. It is quite a monotonic and boring life for a swamp trooper...
Typing in the air
Do you remember when Jan or
Lando find a consol and immediately start typing? They are typing fast, but they pressing and hitting the air instead of the buttons of the keyboard, or instead the control panel! You'll laugh at it, as they bend forward, and press the nothing, and if you ask something, they will turn to you to answer, and continue pressing the air IN FRONT OF YOU...
Physical education
Kyle's Force Pull (level 2) pulls out the weapon from the enemies' hand. Watch what will do the stormtroopers!
They surrender with hands up and they crouch. Then they stand back, run away a
meter, and crouch again. Then stand up again, but quickly crouch back, and
inch along crouched. Then start the whole gymnastic from the very beginning.
You can have them make this exercise even in water or in the swamp, too... :-)
Mound of troopers
Kyle's Force Pull (level 3) is able to pull not only the weapons, but the stormtroopers, too! It can be very interesting. When I was in front of a door, I opened it, and Force Pull the room, then stood aside. There flew out some ten or so stormtroopers, and the fell in a big mound. I ran there, and quickly sabered the
mound of troopers. With a few slashes you can finish up several opponents with this
method. After that I wanted to enter the emptied room, but there remained a stormie alive on the bottom of that pile, he climbed out from under his dead fellow troopers, and without his weapon ordered me with a cheeky voice: let's see some ID! I started to laugh, it was so humorous. (the illustration depicts a similar scene, not mine. However it is quite the same. Also, you can see a small bug, as the bodies are fading into one an other.
Funny comments and quips
There will be some really interesting, and very cool moments because of the communication of the enemy. Imperial officers like to say supercilious and arrogant sentences. They seem to like "you Rebel scum" the best. They shout "Who's there?" often, then they calm
themselves down, thinking they heard some imaginary noise. But if you try to move again, they'll hear it, and will ask a very forbidding and menacing "what?!" Listen to it, very cool. Reborns also like the cynical quips, they say they had expected more from you, and if you die, they say lord Desann will be pleased with their performance. But in usual, they like to criticise your accomplishment, and your personality best of all. While the stormtroopers usually like to make you surrender, so they want you to drop your weapon, or to freeze, and "Halt!"
One of my funniest scene came from this! On that level, where there is a giant elevator in the middle of the hangar, and a
blue force field protects the hangar from the vacuum I went in the control room, and decided to open the hangar
force field so the troopers would fly into the space. The vacuum pulled out the crew and the stormies. As they were flying out I stood
behind the window, I wanted to watch what happened. They spotted me behind the window, and as they flew away in front of me they told their scripted (programmed) sentences. A bunch of people fly out to space to die, and they consider it important to
jabber for me. You gotta hear that! It was a babel of that lot of What?! - Who's there?! - Halt! - Freeze! - Drop your weapon! - You rebel scum! - Don't move! - Let's see some ID!
I liked those 2 stormies who shouted me to show my papers for them, (but who knows why did they needed that anyways?), and the other one, who want me not to freeze, I thought OK, I won't move dude...:-)
The illustration depicts that hangar, and control room, where it can happen, (there is 2 similar hangars) you can try it, too!
Multiplayer
The multi of the game is very popular. There are Wars between clans on the Internet, they have championships, but many gamers like to play multi on LAN (local network). You can saberfight in the game's own places and with the own characters. But recently the fans like to create and use "skins" of famous characters, which means they wanna play with other real Jedis, and clones for example. They load the texture of a
film character into the game's databank, overwriting the existing textures, so there are a wide variety of creatures, droids, soldiers, and main characters of the films. They also make scenes and special locations. There are rules, what multigamers observe, and they have a knight etiquette. They know when they can attack, for example when one just stand there, and write a chat message on his keyboard, you must not attack him, as he cannot defend himself. Also, that is not a nice thing to attack a single opponent for a group. If a pair is
dueling, it is a bad manner to get involved, and to help for any of them. Also, if you were
challenged, you should take it. They often great each other, and make a bow before fight. They agree when using firearm is accepted, or just the lightsaber is permitted.
Capture the Flag
2 team fight each other, the aim is to capture the enemy flag from their base, and to bring it back to own base. There are defenders, whose only aim is to protect the carrier (runner), who runs with the flag. Also, there are guards at the own base, who try to protect the base from the intruders, and to keep the own flag in its place. The runners don't have to fight, their task is to steal the enemy flag, and transport it back to own base.
Capture the Ysalamiri
Similar then the flag thing, but the Ysalamiri neutralizes Force Powers! You can see that small yellow creature around
admiral Thrawn's neck, he protected himself against Luke Skywalker's Force abilities with an Ysalamiri. You gotta know that this creature not only deactivates the attackers' Forces, but you also won't be able to use yours, when your reptile-collar is on. :-)
Free for all FFA
This is a real crowded fight without rules. This is crazy, everybody run like hell, shoot somebody, or cut someone into pieces. This madness is going on till someone reaches the decided frag number, which means till he/she kills the needed number of enemies.
Team FFA
There are a red and a blue team, they coordinate their strategies. This is the most tactical form of the multigames, we will see very harmonized actions, fast, accurate attacks. The professional teams has different roles, the
team members have their own functions. There will be a bait person, who lures the enemy in front of the firing squad. They attack together, each member knows his part in the final victory, a small mistake is often enough to loose the battle against these guys.
Jedi
Everyone has some kinda firearm, when a lightsaber is dropped from the sky to a random location of the battlefield. The person, who grabs it will be the Jedi. He/she can gain points by killing the others who has rifles. Everybody want to kill the Jedi, to take over his role. But be careful! If a Jedi was shot down, everybody will run to get his lightsaber, because not the murderer will be the new Jedi, but the one who grab his lightsaber first! That is not an easy task!
Duel
That is a single combat, a duel of two. You cannot count on your team members here, you'll be alone. You also can not encroach to others fight. You'll be face to face, or front to front with the opponent. The victorious of the Duel gets a point. The next opponent can take the place of the looser. If there are many players waiting for his round that is very difficult to get into the ring, so try to remain in the ring as much time as you can. Collect your point, because against
some big guns you won't get into the ring very often.
JK2 is a real Star Wars game. Single mode is developed to entertain us varied. First you'll use
fire weapons, later you'll wield your lightsaber. You will meet famous characters during your
adventures. All characters are authentic, the story is enchanting, whirling. You can sit in an AT-ST and march around with it, well before
Battlefront 1. The
game feeling is excellent, the graphics is neat, its music and voices are excellent, typical of
Star Wars, the multiplayer is very popular, so this game worths to be a
cult game, and evergreen.
written by: Norbert Rostas 2008.03.28.
