The LucasArts comeback wagon just keeps on rolling. It is a wagon laden with wondrous games both old and new, designed to trick us into falling in love with the computeryvideotasticgames arm of the George Lucas Empire all over again, even though it used to keep us locked in the cellar and whipped us with the metal end of its belt on a daily basis. It’s a deception few will grumble about, however. The revisiting of its back catalogue on download services (specifically, Steam and Direct2Drive) continues with the announcement that the Jedi Knight shooter/lightsaber series will fetch up on said services soon. That’s ’soon’ as in ‘tomorrow’. Wootini!
No word on price, but LucasArt’s ever-excitable Twitter feed assures us “we have been good in the past, right?” [Polite cough]. I, ah, think they mean the very recent past, rather than most of the last decade. What is confirmed is that it’s the entire Jedi Knight series – so not simply Jedi Knight 1 &2, but also Jediless predecessor Dark Forces (which I played through a frightening number of times back in the day), divisive and arguably underrated sequel Jedi Academy and JK1’s Mara Jade-centric (a fan-favourite expanded universe character who, I believe, eventually ended up getting hitched to Luke Skywalker once he finally stopped having dirty thoughts about his sister) expansion Mysteries of the Sith.
I find the completism fascinating. We really are gradually headed towards a time when any and every major PC game is available near-instantly. That said, I’d love to see sales figures on these kinds of re-releases: do they purely have niche appeal, or are they genuinely reaching a new audience who isn’t running screaming from the olden graphics and lack of Achievements?
Still, o happy day. Trad. response, just to head you off at the pass: yes, but what about TIE Fighter/X-Wing? I’m sure they’re coming, but they probably need a little more technical skullduggery to play nice with XP/Vista/7. Patience, younglings. Oh, and I also want to see Shadows of the Empire re-released – but just the marvellous opening Snowspeeder vs AT-AT level, and not the ‘orrible rest of it.
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Empire Commando, please.
I’ve played all of those games all the way through, go me :D.
Jedi Knight 1 was the first game I ever played online, so yeah, defining moment in my gaming life there.
Finally, I can replace the JKA DVD that I bought from someone in the UK and paid approximately one day’s salary to procure and ship. I’ll just put it away and occasionally take it out and rub it with a diaper.
Also, where the hell is TIE Fighter? I think every other title is just a “test the waters of this newfangled internets” thing before they make eight kajillion dollars re-releasing TIE Fighter.
JK (I think that was it, don’t recall the details well enough to tell them apart …) was really great. The online two-player saber duels — where folks actually bowed before commencing with the saber smashing — were quite amazing.
Also, after finish JK I went back and played the first level with a cheat to unlock all the powers of a jedi. Gives you a good sense for why it was plausible to send a single jedi down to a *planet* to police the thing …
To any interested, a revamp mod was released a while ago for JK1. I thought they did a pretty good job, considering. Hopefully this will be compatible with the Steam version.
DF2:JK was probably my favourite FPS ever. Never really managed to care much about Doom or Quake, but I replayed that game a hundred times (exaggeration), and I’ve never enjoyed a shooter as much since.
The parts after that felt like shallow, consolized tripe, alas. I’m not saying they necessarily were, but they certainly didn’t have the same magic as far as I’m concerned.
Oh, tomorrow as in tomorrow for the people on the other side of the planet who have already woken up in tomorrow. As in Wednesday the 16th :(
P.T.’s mentions of lightsaber dueling and the bowing remind me of an article I once read. I know a lot of you will have read it already either at the time or like me after reading Kieron’s manifesto but I thought this would be a good time to bring it into the conversation anyway.
@Railick, Roberto
The Republic Commando books are indeed related to the game. I quite like them, as well. I only ever got to play most of the way through the game once, so I don’t remember the game’s plot much.
The books are about Omega Squad, mostly, but depending on the book, Delta squad (from the game) show up quite a bit. The last book, Order 66, actually has a bit of what Delta were doing on Kashyyyk, which might be about where you’re looking for information. Again, I didn’t finish the game, so I don’t quite know what you’re looking for.
Anyway, if you liked Republic Commando and you happen to like Star Wars, I would recommend Triple Zero, by Karen Traviss. It’s probably my favorite out of them.
Yes, I’m a Star Wars geek. Please see my name for more information.
Empire Commando, please.
Oh god yes. That makes my lips numb just thinking about it.
I loved how Jedi Knight 1 introduced each duel. It had a great cinematic pan with a narrator who describes the enemy. It was Jedi Knight 1 who got me to move onto WASD controls instead of Doom’s controls
I guess Dark Forces still won’t be available for us Germans…
*to (not for)
Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith are such awesome games. Two of the best ever made (and definitely one of the best expansion packs ever made).
The level design in JK is still my favorite of any FPS.
I have them already, though i hear they have problems on modern systems… if they fix that then it might be worth buying again.
Jedi Outcast and Academy – hated the first, and the second was only slightly better. But i know others enjoyed the MP.
PS/// Get them on GOG lucasarts!!!
Man I’m very interested in what the price point of this release will be, I own all the games but would love to convert them into Steam….
2bill:
I doubt they like the GOG’s NODRM policy :)
There are joysticks that cost 12 euros. I find it hard to believe that that is a barrier of entry for a Star Wars game as accessible as Xwing.
The best news about the Dark Forces release is that they are running out of excuses, TIE fighter vs Xwing is coming…
Mysteries of the Sith never grabbed me at the time – I think I missed the cheesy but fun video sequences. Jedi Knight is my favourite Star Wars action title, though. There’s just one thing I prefer about the later titles in the series, namely the sabre fighting.
I wish they’d let RAVEN make a new JK game instead of wasting time with consolised button bashing nonsense i.e. Force Unleashed.
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight was also my first online game. Didn’t play it MUCH, and I got caned, but it none the less briefly became my first dabble with online gaming.
shall we get a RPS jedi academy server up and running somehow once this is out? :)
i used to love it, my disks are long gone and i will have to re buy it, does anyone have the ability to host a server?
Alec, you get extra points for “wootini!” right there.
I should really keep track of these comment thingies.
Saber only.. good ol´ days.. :)
There can be no patience with regards TIE Fighter: play or play not, there is no wait.
Best things about Jedi Knight were the awful one liners by Katarn:
- “Looks like someone doesn’t like to have company!”
- “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”
- “Leaving so soon?”
- “I’d be a contented old man!”
The second best thing was the mindless voracity of the Stormtroopers. Killing Stormtroopers has never been so much fun.
Funny – I was thinking of Dark Forces the other day in the ‘level skip’ debate, as an example of a PC game designed not even to allow mid-level saves, and perfectly pitched at that. It meant you had to allow a certain amount of time for a bash at the final level, but that didn’t detract from it at all – the solution is better game design.
Other than that, the thing I remember most about the game is picking up a Stormtrooper rifle for the first time and discovering how hard it is to hit anything. A lovely touch.
The one about being good in the past referred to equal pricing on Steam.
Much as I liked Dark Forces at the time, my main memory now is of the strange design decision that crouching down significantly reduced enemies’ ability to hit you. I spent the entire game pretty much invulnerable due to constantly holding down the C button.
Is there still an online presence for the Jedi Knight games? Saber duelling was without parallel.
Oh, and the X-Wing series does work on XP/Vista (yes, even 64-bit) for me, thanks to this man’s workaround.
http://www.markusegger.at/Software/Games.aspx
New Rogue Squadron and Jedi Knight for PC, please.
@Roberto: I think there will be a Republic Commando sequel and I agree, that game was a whole lot better than people gave it credit for. It sort of made the Star Wars universe look cool again without the endless Jedi hocus pocus stuff as the center force (exc. the bad pun) behind the gameplay.
Oh for the love of god, give me Grim Fandango!
@Railick, DarkNoghri yeah I’m reading through the Republic Commando books right now, as I recently played through the game again and had a craving for more. The author, can’t remember her name of the top of my head, stated that she wasn’t going to touch the whole delta squad/sev situation, she said she would leave it up to lucasarts, so they better damn well deliver! and soon, its been like 5 years!
The books are good in their own right though.
@PHeMoX
Yeah I completely agree, the game went in a very original direction with the art assets while retaining that star wars feel. In my opinion probably the best thing to come out of the new trilogy.
Didn’t Jedi Knight use Microsoft Gaming Zone (or something with a name like that) for its multiplayer? I’m assuming that doesn’t exist any more, so what are they using for this re-release?
P.S. Don’t seem to be able to log-in at the moment.
I doubt they’ve changed anything for this re-release, but you should be able to play both Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith online using GameRanger.
“Also, I’m pretty sure TIE Fighter works in XP (although it requires a joystick for the collector’s edition which brings another potential problem), though perhaps Vista may be an issue, since I’ve heard it doesn’t like older games much…”
I was playing this at a LAN, and we had it working fine on XP and Vista. Weird…
Poor, poor Dark Forces. It apparently doesn’t even rate having it’s name in the title of the series it kicked off. Sad, because Dark Forces was ALL THAT IS STAR WARS. Especially in the pre-prequel era when we didn’t really know what the Jedi were all about and without Luke Star Wars was mostly about starship combat and troopers.
I just want “Star Wars: Dark Forces4: Jedi Knight3: Jedi Outcast2: Jedi Academy” to be named correctly, that’s all!
-Pax
What about Pod Racer? It’s the only game that really scratches that high-speed, canyon-rushing, hover-racing itch.
Ah how I wish they would make a sequel to Republic Commando. I also hope they call it Imperial Commando and start the game with you executing Jedi children. Muhahaha.
I loved Dark Forces and Jedi Knight 2. Jedi Academy wasn’t quite as good, but still a very decent game.
But, I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve yet to play Jedi Knight 1 (and Mysteries of the Sith). I’m definitely getting that game the moment it becomes available on Steam.
Jedi Knight is favorite game of one of my friend, i still know that whenever he used to go his home, he would play this for at least 2 hours, And he still does.
not on steam yet :-( / sob
This was the best article I ever raid about JKII: Jedi Outcast (not that I have many but still =)). The game was really well done in both single- and multiplayer.
I still have many fond memories of messing with the guys running the macro scripts (force-pulled all the Death From Above spamers from far away witch usually sent them flying on their back).
Also running around in singleplayer with maxed-out force-speed through a corridor full of stormtroopers, slashing at them in the fast stance. Turning around at the end I see the first one baerly hit the ground that very same moment.
oops my comment was directed at
ok I am too stupid to quote so I am just going to stop now. The article I meant was linked by Persus-9 above. Sorry
They’re up…
The good:They’re still all brilliant games.
The bad:Everything aside from Jedi Academy, and Dark Forces have no music. Very, very lazily done on, Lucasarts,