outcast vs academy

[Raanes]

which of the two games is the best one for it's time , and which is the hardest to complete?

what do you think?

 

Vs

[king yoda]

academy is the best but it´s very easy i played the whole game in one week. jedi outcast it´s harder than JA.

[Cavkov]

yeah im with king Yoda but i completed JA in 1 1/2 days played almost none stop ,...but i guess im skilled

[Raanes]

i'm not quite agreeing with you king yoda and Igor_Cavkov , i think that the outcast is the best game in the jedi knight trilogy. because the outcast game has more insight and it's more challenging than the JA.. but that is just my point of view

[king yoda]

i choosed academy because of the great chose of playable charakters, the better npc´s and the stuff with the dual lightsaber, jetpack and saberstaff. and the mp is better.(siege)

i will not say that outcast is bad.

[Cavkov]

nonononnononoono just couse i think JA is better DOES NOT MEAN that JO is bad!! ok hehe

[StormHammer]

This is how I rank the games with 'Jedi Knight' in the title...

 

1. Jedi Knight (Dark Forces 2)

2. Jedi Outcast

3. Jedi Academy

 

While JA has technically improved over JO, I felt it was weaker and less cohesive, and simply did not do enough or have enough depth in the context of it's basic premise. The 'mission' format was a good concept, but let down, I think, by trying to include too many locations, which glossed over a 'scenario' for each level, rather than taking the bull by the horns and fleshing out the sub-plots, inserting strong characters to go up against in each of those missions, and making the whole thing more compelling.

 

The original JK is still the best in terms of story and characterisation, level design and atmosphere, in spite of all it's other flaws and dated graphics.

[king yoda]

i never played jedi knight dark forces. i begann with outcast. is it really so good?

[Cavkov]

yeah i can tell you are missing something!!! even the first dark forces!!

[Raanes]

i think you should go to your nearest fantasy shop and buy the dark force one and two , they are a masterpeice of a game

[StormHammer]

Originally posted by king yoda

i never played jedi knight dark forces. i begann with outcast. is it really so good?

 

Play it and judge for yourself. There are still copies of both Jedi Knight and it's expansion, Mysteries of the Sith, floating around.

[|GG|Carl]

SP:

JA is much easier, but also more fun. Jo has got some quite long and frustrating levels, but that makes the game last longer.

 

MP:

JA is better, except for one thing, the server list! Only 10 servers in the in-game server list! Bad!

But if you use ASE, JA MP is just great! Especially siege.

[Cavkov]

Yeah Mysteries of the sith is my favorit i know its out dated but when i played it it gave me chill!! so damn good....and that was my second jk game,...first was dark forces1

[kingdomwinds]

i think the saber combat in dark forces 2 was pathetic. all you did was`swing the saber and`no special moves oe stances. the graphics were so bad too. wasn't tomb raider 2 released at a similar date? that is a bad game too but it had better graphics than df2

[txa1265]

I'm finding it hard to say whether JA or JKII is my fave. In some ways I'd like to say JA, but then I find myself in a " but ... welll ... but, then ... yes, but ... I dunno ... " kind of a battle.

 

Ultimately I will figure it out through my replay. I have said that if I play JKII again this year then Jedi Academy is a 'failure' (by that I mean it failed to supercede JKII).

 

As of now:

#1 JA

#2 JKII

#3 JK & MotS

#4 DF

 

I agree with a lot of what Stormhammer said and will state it plainly - they 'half-assed' the RPG elements that would give your personal version of Jaden a compelling personality, so in the end it almost feels like you get to design a character MODEL, not a character.

 

Maybe it is just that I've gotten very heavy into RPG's, against my generally FPS pre-disposition (maybe it is just that I'm now in my LATE 30's )

Mike

[Cavkov]

well i think they should include level ups in next jk game,....and experience points but still have the real time action...and make that you can download more quests and so on but i guess this is just a dream...

[Emon]

Originally posted by StormHammer

While JA has technically improved over JO, I felt it was weaker and less cohesive, and simply did not do enough or have enough depth in the context of it's basic premise. The 'mission' format was a good concept, but let down, I think, by trying to include too many locations, which glossed over a 'scenario' for each level, rather than taking the bull by the horns and fleshing out the sub-plots, inserting strong characters to go up against in each of those missions, and making the whole thing more compelling.

 

I know what you mean, but I looked back on JO. The level design is simply horrible, the puzzles plain suck, and the ending was terrible. JA wasn't perfect, but it was way better. The ending was much better, level design was much better, combat is a lot more fun.

 

I don't care how less cohesive it is, I find JO's problems to be far worse than JA's.

[DarthMuffin]

Is it just my browser or Kurgan posted three times?

 

Anyways, I enjoyed playing both games, but I personally enjoyed SP JO better than SP JA. Yes, the gun levels were sometimes frustrating, but it was a big challenge in master without a saber.

 

I'm also a Katarn fanboy, so I was kinda disappointed to create my own Jedi (I guess it wouldn't make sense for Kyle to re-learn all the force anyways).

 

I liked the mission system, but as it was previously said, I think there are too many locations. The only planets I would like to have visited were Hoth, Yavin, Coruscant (not the crappy Nar Shadaa reskin...) and Tatooine.

 

I also agree with the JK1 stuff. IMO, it's the best shooter ever! I actually found myself stuck many, many times while playing it. JA was a walk in the park in Jedi Knight, and I must say it's quite easy in master so far.

 

Oh, and I also miss Jedi Master mode

[Kurgan]

I'm only halfway through JA but so far I'm finding that Outcast was harder, mostly because of the frustrating gun levels and a couple of puzzles.

 

The fact that the guns are more powerful and you have certain force powers right away (like seeing) makes JA a bit easier.

 

As for the rest, I am finding JA is equal to or superior in every way.

 

A couple features you can currently only find in JK2, so there's still a reason to get it if you already have JA:

 

1- Holocron FFA, Jedi Master and CTY MP game modes, which are quite fun actually.

 

2- "True" First Person Lightsaber and First Person Fists are usable (since there is a semi-transparent skin). First Person Lightsaber in MP (with full control of flips and acrobatic moves).

 

3- The ability to say "Hey, You There!" in MP. Okay so that's not a big deal. Most of the taunts for the JK2 characters were cooler or funnier in JK2, but in JA a lot of them have turned generic. There's also apparently some missing bots in JA (Lando for example). Of course there are JA mods out there that fix all of these, but JK2 has 'em already there. Ditto with the MP maps and Mon Mothma as the announcer instead of C3PO.

 

And if you're a big Kyle Katarn fan, you owe yourself the pleasure of playing as him throughout the whole game with the story revolving around him rather than your generic Jedi character.

 

And its good back story for how Kyle came to where he is now (though of course, you also should play MotS to see how JK2 came about, and JK before that, and DF before that!).

 

 

And yes, the saber combat in JK/MotS is "pathetic" (compared to JA), but remember when it came out it was the BEST in any pc game in existence. No games until Heretic 2 came close (although it wasn't a Star Wars game of course) and Bushido Blade series (which were PSX only).

 

And while a lot of things in JK/MotS look dated now, the gameplay is still much faster and has its own unique flavor, making it still worth playing once you get past the ancient graphics.

[Kurgan]

And yes, I did just post three times. My browser ground to a halt and gave me error messages about how I was being "refused" from the server, etc.

 

Don't worry, I deleted the copies. ; )

[Samuel Dravis]

I think that the best of the series was Mysteries of the Sith. The storyline was great, levels were huge, puzzles were...puzzling, and it has the cool E-11 sniper rifle! The sith statues are creepy too.

 

Dark forces was ok, but waaay too many jumping puzzles. (I think that it was the first game to let you jump, so they went crazy on it) The best level was the sewer one.

 

JO - it was the (almost) only game I played for a year and a half (until JA came out). It was good, but level design was not nearly on par with JK/MOTS. Partly that was due to the engine (it couldn't have huge maps/outdoors like JK/MOTS could) and part was just poor design.

 

JA - Much the same as JO, except for the engine was VASTLY improved (can now handle maps as big as JK/MOTS's) and a few new animations, improved scripting, and the best - drivable swoop bikes!

[Prime]

Originally posted by Emon

I know what you mean, but I looked back on JO. The level design is simply horrible, the puzzles plain suck, and the ending was terrible. JA wasn't perfect, but it was way better. The ending was much better, level design was much better, combat is a lot more fun.

 

I don't care how less cohesive it is, I find JO's problems to be far worse than JA's.

That's sort of how I feel about it as well...

[StormHammer]

If they could take the strengths of JK, MotS, JO and JA, and apply them all in a new game, then that would be a killer title to play.

 

Perhaps my previous comment about JA sounded a little harsh, and that I don't like the game. I do. I like it a lot, just not as much as the others.

 

As I said, JA is technically superior to the other games. I think the saber combat with it's increased variety of moves has matured, and doesn't need a great deal of further tweaking (in terms of the SP game).

 

So I am getting increasingly intrigued about how the JK mod in particular is going to turn out. Because it will use the JA engine, all of the right gameplay mechanics are now under the hood, and with 'enhanced' levels based on the originals, the creative design of JK will be refined.

 

I guess we'll have to wait and see...

[Cr0n0]

I prefer jedi outcast over jedi academy but both are good games. Maybe i just like outcast because it gave me something new. I dont like the saber staff and duel sabers because episodes 1 and 2 are both ****ty movies. Darth Maul is a faggot and Anakin in both movies are homosexuals. Episodes 4-6 are the only true StarWars.

[Prime]

I think that the big "problem" is that the technical and gameplay differences between Dark Forces, Jedi Kngiht, and Jedi Outcast were substantial. JA is not a huge leap from JO, so it doesn't feel like it is as good. But if there had been no JO and JA was what came out, we'd all be jumping for joy.