Reviewing the [JKII] reviews ... and a couple of questions

[txa1265]

Hi:

 

I didn't put this in the Valley as I'm forcing myself to stay 'pure' until I get the game and have a chance to play it a bit. Tomorrow is my birthday (happy 36th to me ;-) and I don't even need the force to be virtually certain my wife and kids got me JKII. I've had to exercise restraint ... I needed to go into my local EB to replace a mouse - and there sat JKII and the strategy guide ... yum!

 

On the strategy guide - I picked it up and flipped through the start enough to know I don't plan to get it, as it looks like primarily a walkthrough and maps. Am I wrong? DF had nice details on the development of the game, and RtCW had lots of older tidbits from Wolf3D and the original CW (where I cut my 'pc gaming' teeth).

 

I have recently played through JK and MotS again, but finished earlier than I thought (getting better each time?), so I played DF again on my Mac. What a great set of games ... I only think each time that I should *start* MotS as the Jedi Master I finished JK ... oh, well.

 

For the reviews, there seems to be a common complaint about the slow pace at the beginning due to the lack of Force Powers and saber. Is this different than in JK? My first play through that I didn't really notice, but on subsequent plays I notice it quite a bit - the first levels on JK are so long, it seems forever before you get the saber, and your powers seem just to be developing to a useful level when the game ends ... How does that compare in JKII?

 

It is interesting to read lots of the reviews ... they seem pretty good in general - saying that the major flaws are the 'ordinary' early levels and some of the puzzles, but that the game takes on epic levels of excitement and gameplay after you regain your force skills. Therefore they are rating it in the 90-ish range. Given the raving about RtCW and MoH:AA, it is interesting to see that no one says anything like 'good but not as good as ...'; instead they are saying things like 'best play in a few years', 'best SW game ever', best action / strategy / whatever since Half Life / Max Payne / Tomb Raider / whatever ...' What do people here think?

 

It has also been interesting to look at some of the video clips from Gamespot http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters/products/media/0,11100,516547,00.html , which show a decent amount of action (no force speed, though).

 

Mike