

The game also reintroduces characters from the films. You'll even find yourself visiting places from the films, including the abandoned Rebel base on Hoth. Ancient temples, floating industrial plants, dense cities and the rest are all on tap here.
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Since the team has managed to get the garbage masher and barfight levels out of their system with the previous game, Jedi Academy's free to break some new ground in the Star Wars universe. This was one of the big draws with Jedi Outcast and it's taken to an even higher level here. You will face a moral choice in the game which does give some weight to it all (and changes the outcome somewhat) but I'd still like a hero whose main motivation wasn't passing his finals. And while that might be okay on its own, as a follow up to the previous game, it definitely leaves us wanting more. Since he's the player surrogate, we expect him to be a little flat, but it seems as if Jaden's only motivation throughout the entire game is to get through Jedi school. Where Kyle's previous adventure involved love, revenge and the fate of the galaxy, Jaden's mostly just involves the fate of the galaxy. And to be honest, even if the story were told in a completely linear, focused fashion, it just still wouldn't be as good. Here the cutscenes are shorter at least but definitely still lacking the impact of those in the previous game. Hell, the plot was so good, we didn't even mind the lengthy cutscenes that broke up the action. This is quite a change of pace from the relentless plot that drove the previous game. Since the player can now choose from a set of missions, the relationship they each bear to the overall story is less pronounced.

To begin with, the story's simply not as tight this time around. These smaller missions offer a chance to build up extra Force powers and even reveal some small clues to the overall shape of the main story.īut this relatively open mission structure doesn't come without some notable disadvantages. Once that's done, you'll have the chance to choose from five more missions before the process repeats itself again. You can choose these missions in any order (and even skip the fifth one if you're that anxious to get on with the story) before you're forced to take a mission along the main plot line. Suffice it to say that you'll have a group of five missions to choose from after the introductory training is over. We're pretty sure that those reasons are at least somewhat nefarious, but since the point of the game is figuring out who's behind it and what they're up to, we hesitate to say more than that. That work, by the way, involves a new cult that's trying to siphon up Force power for reasons unknown. You'll visit a surprising range of locations right from the start before settling in for the real work at hand. It's a great way to get your feet wet and ease you in to the environments and the saber fighting before the challenge level ramps up.

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It's nice that the game offers a series of fairly short, relatively unconnected missions at the start. In all, the early levels aren't too much of a challenge and can be passed in the matter of a few hours. As a new student in the Jedi Academy you'll go on quite a few milk runs at the start. I'm mollified somewhat by the decision to let players create their own character's appearance here but I can't shake the feeling that, since the character is created according to the player's preference, that we'll be seeing yet another character for Star Wars Jedi Knight: The College Years. Still, it's better than a contrivance to get Kyle back to a weaker state to provide a compelling challenge and sense of progress to the game. I understand why Raven and Lucas opted to go with an entirely new character for the series but it's still hard to say goodbye to such an old friend. One of the biggest changes is that you won't be playing as Kyle Katarn.

While the title does many things better than Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy nevertheless comes with a few minor problems that bring entirely new frustrations. So I should just cut and paste my Jedi Outcast review and replace all the "greats" with "phenomenals," right? Well, not quite.
