Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

"And a Knight shall come, a battle will be fought, and the prisoners go free."

- Star Wars: Dark Forces: Rebel Agent

Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (often abbreviated JK by fans) is a first person shooter computer game released on October 9, 1997, by LucasArts. This was the first game in the series to include multiplayer capabilities over the Internet or over a LAN. It was also the first computer game to allow players to take control of a Jedi character using both the Force and lightsabers in a multiplayer setting.

Kyle's revelation
Kyle Katarn, looking for information about his late father, has been captured by the administrative droid 8t88, and is under interrogation. During the interrogation, Kyle is informed that his father had been killed by the Dark Jedi Jerec. Before 8t88 can kill Kyle, the latter breaks free and retrieves a stolen data disk from the droid meant for Kyle's father. After recovering the disk, and his father's lightsaber from his old workshop, Kyle sets out in search for the murderer of his father.

Single player
Jedi Knight is noted for the ethical decisions integrated into the gameplay. Kyle is a neutral character for most of the game, neither fully light nor dark. Actions against unarmed civilians throughout the game, as well as what Force powers a player chooses throughout the game, will sway Kyle towards the light or the dark sides. Eventually, the character Kyle must choose between light and dark; how he chooses depends on the player's actions throughout the game. This feature would later be mirrored in games such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel.

Kyle starts the game with no knowledge of the Force. As the player progresses through the game, Kyle gains Jedi abilities, known as "Force Powers." These powers fall in three general categories: Neutral, Light, and Dark. The game awards one "Force point" upon the completion of each level, and an additional point if the player finds all of the secret areas. These skill points can be allocated towards any Force power, boosting that power's effects.

Multiplayer
The full breadth of Dark Forces II gameplay was explored in online, multiplayer arenas. Plot and the infused morality around "light" and "dark" became irrelevant as players were able to forego the game's Artificial Intelligence and instead engage in multiplayer combat. It was also online that the unique aspects of Dark Forces II distanced it from other, otherwise apparently similar first person shooters. Single player did not significantly benefit from force powers, agility, and large weapons, whereas online play demanded attention to these remarkable attributes.

The game lacked a dedicated server and was hosted by the MSN Gaming Zone, although several "IP boards" were hosted on fan sites such as JediKnight.net and Ron Mercer's Qtracker (formerly hosted at stomped.com). Most games were confined to the Nar Shaddaa (Nar) game room which became a refuge for clan wars, recruitment, and challenge. Five game types were used almost exclusively: Full Force (FF) Battle Ground Jedi (BGJ) and Canyon Oasis (CO) and No Force (NF) Battle Ground Jedi and JI Oasis (an add-on level created by the Jedi Infantry clan). Games varied from two-player to four-player, allowing free-for-all, teams, and head-to-head combat. Another popular game type was Capture the Flag (CTF).

The lack of dedicated servers created difficulties in lag time for online play. Messages sent were never centrally processed, and so a "hit" in one person's frame nearly never guaranteed an actual event. Players compensated for lag by shooting ahead of the opponent so as to register a hit on their computer.

Canyon Oasis was undoubtedly the most-played multiplayer map due to its variety of weapons/pickups and varied terrain (including water tunnels and ramps). It was also brightly lit, meaning stealth was a less viable tactic as it was in many of the darker maps favored by the development team and mod makers (such as Blades of Death). Despite its huge popularity, there was a movement against its overuse as well, to the point where a player group was formed with the slogan "Because we're sick of Canyon Oasis." 

At times the game suffered from extensive cheating, until the third party program known as "Kicker Helper" was released to combat the cheating. JK's permissive checksum system was what allowed most of the "hacks" or "cogs" (as the cheats were commonly called) to work. The physics engine and force system of the game, however, were so permissive that many legitimate actions were construed as cheating. "Hypergrip," or "Supergrip," referred to using Force grip on an opponent at a faster than normal rate as to kill the opponent in seconds. This is performed simply by targeting an opponent with Force grip and then repeatedly pressing the assigned Use Force Power key. Each iteration sends another pulse of grip, eventually killing the opponent. The same procedure can be used with Force pull to repeatedly draw a weapon, often creating multiple copies within the level due to lag.

To this day, GameSpy Arcade and Qtracker support JK and MotS online play. However the most popular place to play is at IG Zonewhich is a spiritual successor to MSN Gaming Zone's CD game section. A few groups also exist that meet up for games on IRC, plus one dedicated server at NarShaddaa.net, to its remaining devoted fans, and many mod projects keep interest alive.

Neutral Powers:

 * Force Jump
 * Force Speed
 * Force Pull
 * Force Sight

Light Powers:

 * Force Healing
 * Force Persuasion
 * Force Blinding
 * Force Absorb
 * Force Protection

Dark Powers:

 * Force Throw
 * Force Grip
 * Force Lightning
 * Force Destruction
 * Force Deadly Sight

Voice cast

 * Jason Court—Kyle Katarn
 * Denny Delk—8t88, Picaroon C. Boodle
 * Bennet Guillory—Qu Rahn
 * Angela Harry—Jan Ors
 * Morgan Hunter—Maw
 * Roger Jackson—Greedo
 * Christopher Neame—Jerec
 * Rafer Weigel—Yun
 * Valerie Wildman—Sariss
 * Time Winters—Boc Aseca
 * Jacob Witkin—Morgan Katarn

Crew

 * Director—Scott Ewers
 * Writers—Justin Chin

Characters

 * 8t88
 * Boc Aseca
 * Picaroon C. Boodle
 * Gorc
 * Duno Dree
 * Jerec
 * Kyle Katarn
 * Morgan Katarn
 * Max
 * Maw
 * Jan Ors
 * Qu Rahn
 * Sariss
 * WeeGee
 * Yun

Creatures

 * Drugon
 * Kell dragon
 * Mailoc
 * Water cyc

Droid models

 * Imperial probe droid
 * Mark IV Sentry Droid
 * Medical droid
 * Mouse droid
 * Gonk
 * R2-series astromech droid
 * Remote

Events

 * Mission to Ruusan
 * Mission to Sulon
 * Second Mission to Nar Shaddaa

Locations

 * Barons Hed
 * Nar Shaddaa
 * Ruusan
 * Valley of the Jedi
 * Sulon
 * Sulon Star

Organizations and titles

 * Galactic Empire
 * Imperial commando
 * Imperial Officer
 * Stormtrooper

Sentient species

 * Gamorrean
 * Gran
 * Grave Tusken
 * Human
 * Rodian
 * Trandoshan
 * Ugnaught

Vehicles and vessels

 * Super Star Destroyer
 * Vengeance
 * Moldy Crow
 * AT-AT
 * AT-ST
 * TIE/ln starfighter
 * TIE/sa bomber
 * Lambda-class T-4a shuttle
 * Sulon Star

Weapons and technology

 * Bryar Pistol
 * Bowcaster
 * Concussion Rifle
 * E-11 Blaster Rifle
 * Imperial Repeater Rifle
 * Lightsaber
 * Rail detonator
 * Sequencer charge
 * Thermal detonator

Miscellanea

 * Bacta
 * The Force
 * Telekinesis

Alternatives in gameplay
In case the player chooses the dark side, the alternate ending is triggered: Kyle Katarn kills Jan Ors and then becomes Jerec's rival, this time for dominion over the Valley. Kyle again retreats to the falling ship and escapes in the Moldy Crow, but this time doesn't crash-land. Instead of fighting Sariss by the ship's wreckage, he faces Yun again, now in a match that could only end in death. He then makes his way to the core and defeats Boc. Kyle defeats Jerec, and becomes the new emperor of the Imperial Remnant, with Sariss at his side.

Notable aspects
When a player dies online, his weapons and ammunition are stored in a "pack" which appears where died. Many players insisted on leaving these packs so that respawned players could immediately reload and be fully ready to compete. The focus, then, was not on which player could luckily pick up the biggest gun. Instead, the JK community stripped its combat of meaningless advantages. Players allowed each other to load before combat started, and similarly between each kill. Games to small numbers of points (e.g. 5 or 10) could last upward of an hour, while constantly progressing at a furious pace.

Attitudes such as this separated Jedi Knight from the other shooters of its time, many of which focused on vibrant graphics and loud explosions. The JK community responded by tuning its gameplay to focus entirely on speed, agility, aim, and the ability to out-think opponents. Levels such as JI Oasis (mentioned above) were created specifically so that weapons and ammunition could never be a problem; it was littered with the most powerful weapons in gross excess. With universally significant lag requiring players to fire ahead of their opponents, and the ability move at unbelievable paces, players spent much time learning others' patterns. Without understanding explicitly which way an opponent would turn next, firing was a useless gesture.

Jedi Knight features two viewing modes: internal and external. Internal view allows for a crosshair and more accurate aiming, but a naturally limited view of the environment. External places your character in space with your view behind and up from him. You can see much more terrain and gain greater perspective on surroundings. This is the preferred view for lightsaber combat (indeed, there is an option to automatically switch to this view when you switch to the lightsaber), and most players eventually prefer it.

Expansions and mods
Just four months after Jedi Knight's initial release, LucasArts released Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, an official expansion pack, created by the LucasArts team that worked on Outlaws (a spaghetti western themed first person shooter) which features the opportunity to play as Mara Jade for a significant portion of the game. This expansion significantly improved the original Jedi Knight engine by adding aesthetic features such as colored lighting, new enemies and Force powers (and more controversially, doing away with the Dark/Light side duality). There were several under-the-hood changes as well, the most significant being that COG, the programming language that Jedi Knight uses to create scripted in-game events and interactivity (doors, elevators, weapons, in-game cutscenes, enemy behavior, and many other things in Jedi Knight are controlled by COG scripts) was expanded with new functions and capabilities, which the Sith Engine took full advantage of. In addition, while enemies in Jedi Knight would run away if stripped of their weapons, in Mysteries of the Sith they would attempt to fight with their fists. Mysteries of the Sith also featured new types of multiplayer action such as the gamemode KFY ("Kill the Fool with the Ysalamiri" based on KFC, "Kill the Fool With the Chicken" a fabulous "tag" based game mode from Outlaws), and included several new weapons, such as flash grenades, a seeking railgun, remote sequencer charges (mines), electro (sniper) scope for the E-11, and a carbonite gun. A few Force powers such as Throw and Lightning were replaced with Chain Lightning (to attack multiple opponents), Force Push, Saber Throw, Projection (decoy), Defense (lessened Force attacks but without giving back Force mana like Absorb), and Far Sight (leaving one's body to spy, with the novel side effect of allowing a person to avoid damage from long falls by slowing his descent). Unfortunately, Mysteries of the Sith multiplayer never was as popular as Jedi Knight multiplayer because the Sith Expansion was typically sold separately from Jedi Knight (but required the original game to install) and was often difficult to come by unless it specifically came bundled with Jedi Knight.

Over time, unofficial editing tools were developed for this game, thus attracting a wide audience of level editors that still make levels for this game today. Countless modifications have been made to Jedi Knight by way of software products such as JED, the map editor created by Alexi Novikov (with help rumored to have been provided by at least one JK team member). JED was then changed with some bug fixes and other trinkets, and was renamed ZED. Less popular but somewhat more user friendly was JKEdit, which was recently released free to the public. Avid JK modders and fans have released new multiplayer levels, single-player levels, character models, and even weapons. Sites like the Code-Alliance (formerly DarkJedi.com) were host to a great deal of activity with regard to modding tools and enthusiasm. One reliable source of these mods today is popularly thought to be The Massassi Temple. Another source for Jedi Knight editing and modding is JK Hub. Unlike many other fps games, Jedi Knight still enjoys a wide fanbase even after nearly nine years, primarily due to the fact that Jedi Knight and its Mysteries of the Sith companion game are extremely editor-friendly (in how nearly anything about the JK engine can be changed or modified, with only a few exceptions, plus the wide enthusiasm of level designers at Massassi and at other groups. The other strengths and contributors to the games longevity with fans could be attributed to the large and expansive often "vertigo inducing" levels, the excellent third person option (within the context of a traditional first person shooter, a real novelty at the time of its release), the incredible fast pace of online play, and the complexity of the use of Force Powers and Melee combat (lightsabers) in the mix of more traditional First Person Shooter combat. Finally, the inclusion of the Dark/Light duality, morality scale and alternate endings made Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight stand out from the FPS crowd and made a lasting impression on many fans.

Reception

 * In March 2004, GMR Magazine rated Jedi Knight the fourth best Star Wars game of all time.

3D Hardware-support
JK supports Direct3D hardware-acceleration only; proprietary rendering application programming interfaces from the game's era like 3Dfx's Glide are not supported.