Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

by LucasArts

Product Features

• First-person Star Wars action/adventure, with a story-based singled-player campaign and a variety of multiplayer combat modes
• Learn the ways of the Force from Master Luke Skywalker
• Customize your character by choosing species, gender, clothing, and physical attributes such as hair and facial features
• Create a custom lightsaber by choosing hilt design, blade color, and style: single, double, or dual sabers
• Unique level selection system allows players to choose their own path through the game

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000A2MCN
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches ; 7.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 16, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (139 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,704 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #91 in Video Games > PC Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Video games and books such as the popular New Jedi Order series have continued the storyline of Star Wars past the events in Return of the Jedi. According to this "extended universe", Imperial loyalists have been pushed back to a small number of worlds and are now known as the Imperial Remnant, and meanwhile Luke Skywalker has started a training academy to rebuild the once glorious Jedi Order. Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy casts players in the ongoing Star Wars epic as Jaden Corr, a new character in the Star Wars universe who has enrolled at Luke's Jedi Academy. The Imperial Remnant and a group of dark-side Force users have been up to something shady, and it's your job as Jaden to uncover and stop their nefarious plans.

The game is a mix of first-person shooting and third-person lightsaber combat, with a heavy focus of the latter over the former. Players are allowed to customize the basic look of their character by choosing from a list of heads, torsos, and legs. Moreover, players can now customize the look of their lightsaber hilt in addition to the blade color, though all of these customizations are aesthetic only. Answering overwhelming fan demand, players now have the option of fighting with two lightsabers or the double lightsaber made famous by Darth Maul. The flashy new lightsaber combat styles are a lot of fun and make duels twice as entertaining. Players are able to use a set of Force powers such as Push, Pull, and Speed, that should be familiar to anyone who has watched the Star Wars movies. Ironically, players can learn and use Light Side and Dark Side powers like Heal or Lightning interchangably without any real restriction or consequence. The single-player story line is fairly thin but adequately does the job of giving you an excuse to visit a variety of diverse environments and cut through bad guys by the boatload.

The multi-player game features standard action game modes such as Free For All, Team Free For All, Capture the Flag, and Duel. Jedi Academy also features a couple of innovative multiplay experiences. Power Duel pits two slightly weaker players against one slightly stronger player. Siege is a team-based combat mode ala Battlefield 1942, but with a far older kind of Stormtrooper. Players assume the role of Scout, Demolitions, Soldier, Heavy Weapons, or Jedi, and use the strengths of their particular role to help their team accomplish the objective. Objectives typically involve breaching a wall or carrying an object from one place to another. Imagine a dynamic Star Wars battlefield complete with vehicles, Star Wars architecture, and small teams of Scouts, Jedi and Demolitions guys sneaking around while troopers and heavy weapons specialists blast everything in sight, and you've got an idea of Siege.

The game's only major flaw, if you can call it that, is the focus on lightsaber combat; those looking for a dedicated shooting experience may resent the reliance on these elegant weapons. If you're willing to play a Jedi simulator as a Jedi simulator, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a fun foray into the Star Wars universe that takes players beyond the familiar events of the classic trilogy. - Jon "Safety Monkey" Grover

Pros:

• New lightsabers and lightsaber moves are fun to play with
• Multiplayer Siege mode is excellent
• Force powers and Star Wars setting a refreshing break from standard FPS fare

Cons:

• Storyline is not terribly interesting
• Lightsaber and character customization--while cool--have no effect on gameplay

Product Description

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy gives you the chance to follow an ancient and powerful tradition from long ago, in a galaxy far away!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best standalone expansion ever, August 26, 2003

By 

"millaybooks" (Blacksburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (CD-ROM)

I realize it's marketed as "Jedi Knight 3", but this is in every possible way an expansion to Outcast. It doesn't really continue the JK story, and it has almost the exact same engine and force powers and weapons, etc, with very little modified. Movement is identical, etc. If you played Outcast, you'll be right at home immediately.

That said, this is one of, if not the, best games I've ever played. Every modification it makes to the Outcast engine is an improvement, however small they are. As with the original Jedi Knight, you now get to choose what Force Powers to receive (to a certain extent...half are given to you, half are by choice), and you also get to choose light or dark side at a certain point in the game. All of the JO multiplayer powers are now in single player, plus one extra (that lets you see people through walls and stuff like that), and all of the weapons return, plus a jaw-dropping new version of the Concussion Rifle from JK.

The most important change, though, is in the format of the game itself - instead of a linear progression of levels, there are three sets of five levels, within which you may do the levels in any order. Between each set is a plot-advancing mandatory mission. In each set of five, you only need to complete four, so you can continue on if one of them stumps you, but you'll miss getting another force star (one per level you play). For the first set, your core powers (jump, push, pull, sense, lightsaber defense, lightsaber offense, lightsaber throw, and speed) are at level one, for the second set they're all at level two, and for the third set and the whole endgame, they're all at level three. This means you get a HUGE amount of game in which you are an uber-Jedi, unlike Outcast in which you only had two levels at full power.

Also, this means that instead of having long missions with multiple parts, the game mostly consists of small "vignette" levels, short and sweet. There are good and bad sides to this, the bad being that you don't feel as involved with the storyline, but the good being that there is INSANE variety in level design. Almost every planet looks different, and levels range from working your way down a speeding train to escaping from jail (lightsaber-less) to leaping back and forth across a giant chasm that a jedi temple has been built into (and since been turned into ruins). The sheer variety of visual and gameplay styles is mind-boggling. Every major Star Wars scene or place that wasn't recreated in Outcast is back here, too, from speeder bike chases (exhilaratingly fun) to the ruined Hoth base. It's insane how much is packed in to these levels.

The best thing about JA as compared to JO, though, is that JO's first two missions sans-lightsaber are GONE. You start out the very first level with a lightsaber, and the one level where you're forced to be without it you have massive force abilities, and if you really hate it you can skip it anyway. The worst part of Outcast is gone completely, and all that's left is pure Jedi gaming goodness.

Multiplayer is also back, with a couple of new modes (including an incredibly fun 2-on-1 power duel), but fewer levels. It averages out to about the same amount of MP goodness from Outcast, not really better or worse. The improvements in this game are mostly single player.

Finally, a minute detail for most but extremely important for me, if you liked Force Lightning in the old game, your head may explode when you see this one. It blows people back, has more than double the range, and is just generally the most insane offensive ability possible. Everyone - GET FULL LIGHTNING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Overall, an absolutely incredible game, fixing everything that was wrong about Outcast, my previous favorite game of all time. The only downside is that they didn't change enough - this simply isn't a full-fledged sequel. If you liked Outcast, you'll love this, but if you didn't, give it a pass. There's nothing terribly different to change your mind.

79 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Force to be reckoned with..., July 24, 2003

By 

AntVector (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (CD-ROM)

After a healthy wait, the third installment of the Jedi Knight saga continues in this latest release. Fans of the earlier games will be at home with the basic setup: run around lovingly crafted Star Wars locales, zwapping Storm-Troopers with a lightsaber and generally spoling the Evil Galactic Empire's plans. Where this latest installment differs from the older games is that for the first time you WON'T be playing as spy-turned-Jedi, Kyle Katarn.

"Horror," you gasp, "don't tell me he's gone forever!". Well no, he'll be making a special guest appearance, but this time as one of your Jedi instructors. As the title suggests, the game offers players the chance to join Luke Skywalker's Yavin IV Jedi academy - a sort of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, but for Jedi. Instead of playing as a familiar Star Wars character, the game allows players to create their own, unique, Jedi apprentice by customizing your species, sex, clothing etc, allowing for literally thousands of configurations.

Even better, as you progress through the non-linear missions that you'll be dispatched on by your instructors, you'll be able to specialise in a particular saber style...the basic single-saber, the Anakin-inspired two-saber approach or the pyrotechnic staff-saber, of Darth Maul fame. Saber combat is the main focus of the game, but you can still grab a handy blaster to zap things with.

After you've sufficiently honed your skills in the one player game you can take the fight online (with your custom character, naturally). New multiplayer modes include an objective-based team game called 'Seige', and the ability to re-enact the climactic Qui-Gon/Obiwan/Darth Maul threesome from Episode One in the new 'Power Duel' mode - its a two against one saber showdown...what better way to prove your force mastery than by thwapping 2 birds with 1 stone?

So, loads of new tricks up the Lucasarts' sleeve, no doubt all wrapped up in the usual gorgeous graphics and sound. If Jedi Outcast is anything to go on, this game will be a must-have in any Star Wars fan's collection.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good game, could be better, September 29, 2003

By 

Elim Garak (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (CD-ROM)

Star Wars, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the 3rd installment of the Jedi Knight series, and could really be called 'Jedi Knight III'.

The game is fairly similar to Jedi Outcast in terms of gameplay, graphic and sound. The story in this game involves a young Jedi student at the Jedi Academy, studying under Kyle Katarn. The game follows a fairly standard setup, you participate in missions to achieve various goals, using your Jedi powers that increase with every mission to achieve those goals. But this game has one fundamental difference to Jedi Outcast, it allows a player to choose the Force powers they want to have more ability in, and those powers can be either of the light side, or the dark side. Towards the end of the game, the player is forced to make a choice to go to the light side or the dark side of the Force.

But the major new feature of Jedi Academy is that a player can now customize their character in the game, choosing gender, species, physical appearance, and, most importantly, lightsabre colour and handle style.

This is where I found the game lacking. I expected to have a wide range of character choices and options, instead there were only a handful of choices, Human male, Human female, Zabrak male, Twi'lek female, Rodian male and another male from a strange alien species. I would have liked to have been able to choose from a huge range of species, clothes and physical appearances, with enough options to ensure that every character is unique. This lack of options is one of the reasons that I gave this game 4/5 stars.

The lightsabre combat though, is where this game really shines. In additon to choosing blade colour and handle style, this game also features a whole host of new and cool lightsabre attacks and uses, such as a roll then quick lightsabre stab, and a move where a player can do an extremely fast twirling motion, essentially killing anything within the radius of the lightsabre.

Later in the game, the player must build a new lightsabre, but now there a 3 choices, single sabre, twin sabres, or a double sabre like Darth Maul used in Episode I. The new options are great, and allow for some fantastic new moves. Lightsabre combat is definitely the highlight of Jedi Academy.

Another point to mention is that the game is surprisingly short and easy. An experienced Jedi Outcast player could finish this game within 20 hours, probably less. The in game problems were surprisingly easy to solve, allowing a player to progress easily through the levels. After all the care and effort taken to customize a player's character, to finish a game that quickly just isn't satsifying. This is also part of the reason why I gave this game 4/5 stars.

In short, this is a good game, but not an outstanding one. I get the sense that it was possibly rushed through production, which may explain why it was so short. If you're a Star Wars game fan, you should definitely buy this. If you're just a casual gamer with a passing interest in Star Wars, I recommend you think twice before buying this one.