2/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Dark Forces II.

Star Wars - Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, is the sequel to the first Dark Forces entry, but the first to establish a confusing naming convention for a series that keeps that trend up. For real, after playing the Dark Forces remaster, I was not particularly excited to try this entry out. However, after spending about 8-hours with the game, I can say with confidence, this is a definitive improvement over the first entry in the series, mainly in reference to gameplay and design. This estimation does not come without some caveats. This is a game that has a different identity than it's predecessor. While the 1995 entry is more of a "Doom-clone," this entry from 1997 is more of a "Quake-clone." To be as concise as possible for myself, the first third of this game was awesome. Live-action cutscenes that worked for me (especially the corniness), a story that felt pretty intriguing, and some linear-action levels that felt thought-out and fun to play through. The improvements that were made with just two years of development were quite impressive. The levels have actual identity and structure, and the combat felt all-the-more dynamic and engaging. The story builds for a cool lightsaber moment, where you get the weapon to use at your own discretion. However, this is where some things start to fall apart. The lightsaber is pretty basic to use, and doesn't feel super great to utilize. It's more like a pretty bat. The last two-thirds (or half) of the game, is where all of this unraveling takes place. Besides the lightsaber stuff, the story starts to feel a bit unsure of itself, but there is enough motive established to keep things going. The level design starts to feel obtuse, as it felt in the first game. There are many levels with puzzles or paths that feel obscure and confusing. Too many times, did I have to look up where to go. Towards the end of the game, I encountered a puzzle with a fail-state of having to respawn, which I found frustrating (and borderline lazy/poor design). I even had a door bugged for me which made me almost quit the game. At least this sequel introduced the "manual save," which circumvents having to restart a level from scratch. The lightsaber battles were really cool, in theory. Sometimes they felt cool, if I really used my imagination. However, often they just consisted of me swinging my pretty-bat while spamming circles around my opponent. They sometimes led to cheap deaths. The force powers were hit-or-miss here as well. There are a couple of useful powers, but most I just did not touch. I liked the idea of having multiple endings, whether you choose the light or dark side, I'm sure that was pretty novel for the time. I did just want to note, I did mod my game. I used the OpenJKDF2 mod, simply just to ensure I could run the game on my system with minimal issues. I didn't really want to change the vanilla game too much, as I really appreciate the retro-graphics and vibes. The mod was fairly easy to install and get going. Overall, this was an improvement over the first entry, but it is still held back by time; with many elements of the game feeling stiff and stale, leaving a really conflicting experience to be had here. The game feels great to play, the levels have actual structure and story, and the story itself flows quite well. However, this is definitely a game from 1997, and some of the design language used back then has not translated well in 2024. While I am glad to have played through this game, I am ready to move onto the next entry. I am moving onto Mysteries of the Sith, but I am starting to get really excited to try the last two Jedi Knight games. Alas, patience is a virtue. Console Played On: PC (Steam - Modded) Game Played: 08/2024 - 08/2024 Review Written and Published: 08/18/2024