PC Games of 1997: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight

Greetings gaming nerds and welcome back for another helping of PC Games of 1997 and I think I found a title that we can all have memories about.   Good or bad, we have all had some interaction with this next particular game.  In 1995, Lucasarts put out a FPS with a bit of puzzle solving called Dark Forces.  Following the story arc of one Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial turned mercenary.  This man is responsible for laying hands on the Death Star blueprints as well as dispatching the prototype Dark Trooper bots.   So what could be more impressive than that record…well let’s just say the force is strong in this one.  So grab your lightsaber, hone your force powers and feel free to use a thermal detonator in the crowd.  This is Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.

Kyle undergoes "intense negotiations".

Jan Orr: What would you do without me, Kyle?

Kyle: I’d be a content old spoiler.

Continuing from its predecessor Dark Forces, we look into a larger scope of the galaxy and what is to be come of it if Kyle does not get to the main page.  5 years prior Kyle’s father was dispatched off this mortal coil by a dark Jedi or Sith over the location of a lost planet concealing the greatest concentration of the living force known only as the Valley of the Jedi.  Legend has it that over a thousand years ago an army of Jedi (lightside force users) and Sith (darkside force users) battled themselves near to extinction leaving this embodiment of force presence.     Force speed is of course one of the more fun force powers to have. Light your saber and do run by slayings. 

Worst Craigslist threesome offer...ever.

Inter spliced with the 3D graphics of the time is some cut scenes of the voice actors of the characters in blue screen acting.   The handing via keyboard is a standard WAS and Mouse button 1 and 2.    With the single player story is where the fun began. Back in the day MSN Gaming Zone has an exorbitant amount of puzzle, strategy games and FPS to be online and Dark Forces 2 was beloved by many for the Multi-player fights had just begun to get ugly with atrocious spelling, obscene comments and the odd force blinding.

The game’s storyline is set a year after the events of Return of the Jedi and the controlling forces of most of the Star Destroyers is a darksider name Jerec; an inspiring Sith Master that wants to claim the Valley as a source of power and corrupt the galaxies to his every whim.  Kyle, a now self-taught Jedi must battle Jerec and his darkside warriors, stormtroopers, AT-STs and about every other Imperial to stop Jerec’s mad plan.  His choices will determine what path of the force he will follow.

I have just a few comments about the game and its play.  This is primarily a FPS game with some puzzle work and impliementing the force for Kyle gives you more options to fight with along with a barrage for weapons like Dark Forces, now even a lightsaber to hack your opponents with.  The expansion pack for the further adventures Mysteries of the Sith continued more levels but the story five years after Jedi Knight and follows Mara Jade, a mercenary and former darksider.

My butt look blocky in this shot?