Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

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. It is based on the Star Wars franchise. This is 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.

The game is well known for its use of live-action cutscenes.

Opening crawl
Dark Forces II Jedi Knight

Since the destruction of the second DEATH STAR, the Rebel Alliance has begun the difficult process of building the New Republic.

Seizing the opportunity for control of the galaxy, new rival armies arise. The most dangerous of these are the DARK JEDI. Their leader, JEREC, seeks the legendary VALLEY OF THE JEDI. Within this lost battleground he will find untold power to destroy peace and justice in the galaxy...

Storyline
The plot of this game places the player in the role of Kyle Katarn, who made his first appearance in Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995). Jedi Knight begins several years after the events in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It begins as Kyle looks for new information of his father's death from a droid named 8t88 ('88' for short). Kyle is informed by 88 that his father was killed by a Dark Jedi named Jerec. 88 trys to kill Kyle but he escapes from a gun to the head (from a Gran) and chases 88 for a stolen data disk meant only for Kyle from his father. Afterwards, he recovers a lightsaber from his father's workshop, compelling him on a journey to confront his father's murderers and to discover his own latent Force abilities. While on this journey, Kyle learns that seven Dark Jedi (Yun, Pic, Gorc, Boc, Maw, Sariss, and Jerec, the leader), his father's killers, are intent on finding the Valley of the Jedi, a focal point for Jedi power in the universe.

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.

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 throughtout 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. A "Force meter" displays Kyle's progress towards either side during breaks in the action.

In case the player chooses the dark side, the alternate ending is triggered: Kyle kills Jan Ors and then becomes the rival of Jerec, this time for dominion over the Valley. Success signifies that Kyle becomes the new Emperor of the Imperial Remnant with Sariss on his side. This scenario however is alternate and not canonical.

Levels

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

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). 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 lots of activity with regard to modding tools and enthusiasm. The most reliable source of these mods today is popularly thought to be The Massassi Temple. 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.

Online play
An often looked over, but extremely important part of Jedi Knight's longevity was the astounding and addictive online mode. 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 Qtracker. Most games were confined to the Nar Shadda (Nar) game room which became a hilarious refuge for clan wars, recruitment, and challenge. Although the game itself offered a wide range of choices in play, there were only four actually played regularly. The choice of the 'elite' or those aspiring to be were, Full Force (FF) Battle Ground Jedi (BGJ) and Canyon Oasis (O) and No Force (NF) Battle Ground Jedi and JI Oasis (an add on level created by the Jedi Infantry clan). A few clans also specialised in the Capture the Flag (CTF) feature but it was a lot less popular than the four key settings. There were a small set of skills that had to be mastered to be a top player in each setting. These skills were definitely not known by most which led to a massive gap between the more skilled players and the average player. No Force Sabres was particularly guilty of this with the best known players being accused of being hackers on a regular basis.

The game did suffer from extensive cheating, especially in the period from 1999-2000 (which even included the absurd creation of so-called "hacking clans") until the third party program known as "Kicker Helper" was released to combat the cheating, by allowing the host to rename players and remove certain hacks, restore levels and kick them. JK's permissive checksum system was what allowed most of the "hacks" (as the cheats were commonly called) to work, an unfortunate side effect of the ease of editing. Another problem was the font display made it extremely easy for cheaters to use long ascii-laden names in order to avoid being kicked (the primary problem which Kicker Helper addressed). In all, the cheating created an atmosphere of paranoia, in which accusations were much more common than the cheating itself.

To this day, GameSpy Arcade and Qtracker support JK and MotS online play, to its remaining devoted fans, and many mod projects keep interest alive.

Places visited

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

Characters

 * Kyle Katarn
 * Jerec
 * Jan Ors
 * Qu Rahn
 * Sariss
 * Boc
 * Maw
 * Gorc and Pic
 * Yun
 * Morgan Katarn
 * 8t88

Enemies

 * Grans
 * Rodians
 * Grave Tuskens
 * Stormtroopers
 * Bounty Hunters
 * IT-0s
 * Mailocs
 * Water cycs

Crew

 * Scott Ewers--Director
 * Justin Chin--Writer

Trivia

 * The game is notable for including nearly an hour of live-action (FMV combined with CG, much like Emperor: Battle for Dune would do four years later) involving characters such as Kyle Katarn for the first time.
 * The only non-space simulator game to feature a BFF-1 bulk freighter in the scenery, seen from the distance near the end of the first level. The BFF-1 were invented for the X-wing computer game series
 * Perhaps the first Star Wars game to feature a "morality scale" of Dark/Light Force alingment that changed depending upon how you played. This also changed the content of later levels and the ending of the game.
 * The game establishes that Lightsabers work under water, and there are more than four blade colors to choose from. However this has been contradicted in other sources, such as the sequel.
 * The concept of the Valley of the Jedi was merged with later retcons made with the release of The Phantom Menace which demanded the Sith to have been lost and secret after a battle, and 'created' the Battle of Ruusan.
 * Jedi Knight is the only game within the Dark Forces saga that does not make specific reference to any character from the Star Wars movies.