| Dark Forces, past and future. -Mic Den Octela - Aug 05 02:09am | |||||||||||
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From Dark Forces, to Jedi Knight (3): Jedi Academy. Gamers around the world have stood (or rather sat… impatiently sat…) and anticipated the arrival of each sequel. Do you remember when you first played Dark Forces? When you saw that first Stormtrooper? When you picked up your first E-11? When you encountered your first Dark Trooper? Do you remember how hard the game was back then, considering the only FPS alternatives were things like Quake, Doom, Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D (For the sadder, you’ll remember other games of the same engine like Blood and Redneck Rampage)? Do you remember completing the game and then contemplating whether or not to do it again with every cheat you could find enabled? Have you ever thought about that level where you got stuck? And would have done anything to get past it? I do… And good god do I feel old. I remember running around for hours on the first level, because I couldn’t find a door which was in plain view. Whether it was covered in rather large pixels, or was just a hard to find door is no longer an issue. All I want to remember is how much fun I had being at the eyes of a Stormtrooper rifle-wielding maniac called Kyle something-or-over. And then, of course, you picked up that monthly PC Games magazine. You glanced casually down at the cover, and you saw Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. Instantly your wallet shot back into your pocket like a whippet on speed. Cowering and whimpering at the thought of a soon coming 29.99 withdrawal. And lo, you moved on. So here you are, your Dark Forces CD and absolutely huge box are stuffed away neatly under your collection of imitation, Bulgarian bookmarks. (What? Some people actually collect those things?) Placed on your desk, in its shiny cellophane wrapping is your lovely, brand-spanking, new copy of Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. You stare for a few moments contemplating what the games going to be like, you rip open the wrapper and flip the box round. The back is covered with pictures of the game. (By “covered” I mean, 4) The best thing about it is the first thing you noticed. A picture of Maw on the back, with no legs, clutching his orange Lightsaber in a rather provocative way. You look at the front and are amazed at the picture of Jerec and Kyle with Lightsabers at each others throats. On the back are a picture of Kyle with his green Lightsaber in some kind of room, a first person shot of a Tie Bomber taking off, a picture of Kyle facing a weird turtle monster thing and another first person shot of Two Stormies/Bucket Heads. Do you remember when you first loaded up the game? It was installed and you had gone through the necessary costly sacrifices to improve your system and were ready to roll. The game loaded up and you saw that intro, the Lucasarts man thing and that little FMV about a Jedi/Sith skirmish (You remember the one? Where that balding Jedi guy stole Yun’s Lightsaber and started hacking around to no avail). I loved that FMV… Then of course there is the actual main menu screen, all Yavinified and looking like some Aztec temple. Once the game is loading you’re staring at what appears to be a gorilla attempting to pole dance on top of the loading bar, which you notice seems to be taking forever and a day to load. Eventually your in the game, you’ve seen that beginning FMV and had a good luck at a rather sexy actor playing Kyle (Nasty beard though). Now its time to chase down 8t88 and get that disc! Ah, memories… You remember, of course, that first duel with Yun. (My favorite Jedi of all time!) Who looked like he was just about to touch you up with his camp flicking wrist action! The other Sith? I don’t remember all of their names… All I remember is Boc, Sara, Yun, Maw, Pic, and that Jerec dude. That ever easy to remember quote: “Let’s see what this saber can do…” Don’t forget, Jedi Knight had a good and a dark side ending. Remember that bit where all your dark side force points are being ripped away and put into the force point bank at the bottom? If you didn’t know it already; clicking “Continue” at the bottom will skip all that and let you kill your little female friend. Anyway, now you’ve had a little backwards mind trip into your mid 90’s, lets take a step forward. You’ve almost forgotten about Dark Forces and to push you even farther away from it, an Expansion pack has been released for Jedi Knight. Known as “Mysteries of the Sith”. This game included our saber wielding friend with a new Lightsaber, a new mission, a new friend (Mara Jade) and a whole load more fun! Remember that really random first mission in a Rebel base under attack? Remember that at the end you could become an “Uber Jedi”. Moving on now, let’s skip ahead a few years, to the point you heard of the game Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Whether you read it in a magazine, or saw it on the internet, or heard it from a friend! Every JK enthusiast remembers where they heard of Jedi Outcast. For myself I read it in a magazine, with screenshots and a load of information to boot. Brimming up to the teeth and willing to smash peoples priceless Ming pottery to get this new game, you set forth to upgrade your PC once more, if you hadn’t already done so. When the game was released, and you got a copy, you installed it. After sitting eagerly for 10 minutes waiting for it to install, staring at the rather nice picture you find yourself watching a rather disappointing demo about Kyle and his rather dashing female companion talking to Mon Mothma, a face you’ve not seen since Dark Forces. The first level was ridiculously hard, not because people were hard to kill, far from it, but because it was so damn big and awkward that you found yourself running around for hours trying to find that combination. Remember the first time you got your Lightsaber after that stupid fight with Desann? The first Reborn you ran into, and how cool did you think you were for frantically swinging your blue neon thing and making sparks fly out of a guy’s lower torso. Who ever knew your spleen was made out of iron? Considering you guys have got to read this, I’ll skip ahead to JK3. Now here we are, present day. I don’t think I need to remind you of how you heard about it, your anticipations, the speculations, your annoyance and your joy when you realized you couldn’t control Kyle, but you could control your own personally created character. The mission based game play made for a welcome change in experience, but you felt you were somewhat straying away from what you knew. Starting the game with a Lightsaber made it irrelevant to use any guns at all. You also didn’t feel that level anticipation “Is this the level I get my Lightsaber?”. The earning of Stances as you went along left you with less freedom and the eventual involvement of Staffs or Duals if you required was just plain dumb. You should have started the game being allowed to use any style you wanted. If your going to give us what we want straight away, then the first few levels are all that’s worth going through. Now Muiltiplayer is where the last three games have really shined. Not many of you will have had the chance to play Jedi Knight on multiplayer, but I suggest you grab me, or Virtue and you have a game with us! (Sorry, but I only know one other person who would be willing to play) Capture the weird flying wallaby thing! Ysalamari or something. JK2 and 3’s multiplayer will speak for itself as most of you will have played it, if not then you should! The multiplayer game play has allowed players around the world to do what they’ve always wanted! To grab a Lightsaber, with a color of their choosing and a skin of their choosing and go absolutely saber ‘fwinging’ mad! We’ve all come to the conclusion that the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series is finally over. Its dead, kaphut. There is no more Jedi Knight action to come in the future. But that doesn’t go to say that there never will be a similar game, that there will never be a game, television episode, or book that doesn’t include Kyle. There’ll be a mention of Jaden at some point maybe and there will most certainly be more Luke Skywalker. Maybe they’ll make another game that focuses around the Jedi Academy, and being a student that trains in the Academy itself, takes randomly generated missions on set themes which might be planets or locations well known to the Star Wars galaxy and quests out to be the best Jedi Master there ever was. We don’t know, and we won’t know for some time. I do know that the Star Wars gaming enterprise is NOT over and probably won’t ever be as long as there are computer games. If, for some reason, there never is another game relating to Star Wars by Raven, or if there is never a game relating to Jedi Knight in game play or any other element. Then be sure that there will be other Star Wars games. There are titles all over for different genres of gaming! Galactic battlegrounds for RTS, Rogue Squadron for flight sim and Battlefront for war sim. Be ready gamers, I foresee a wealth of Star Wars games to come in the future, you ensure you’ve got a good enough computer to run it, and I’ll ensure you remember the ‘Turd Sandwich’! |
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| Comments |
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dloko - Student 
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Anyone remember Drazen Island and the JKRPG Mod for JK?
Good times!  |
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Selph Senatu - Student 
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*Cries* I can't install my JK:JA game, damn disc's too scratched.  This comment was edited by Selph Senatu on Oct 17 2006 02:52am. |
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Bhasthian - Student |
the dark forces is a classic game ^^ _______________ Let The force Guide your life... |
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Archos Rivenstone - Student |
I remember that first dianoga in the anoat sewers. Scared the living force out of me. Same with that first Dark trooper. I think I actually went through that level 3 times before I figured out that I was killing my triggerhappy self with my own fusion cutter, and I would need explosives to break its armor. I remember JK multiplayer. That was a ton of fun! The canyon oasis was overused, maybe, but that's because it was one sweet map. MotS opened up multiplayer options considerably, but it's kind of a shame Kentucky Fried Ysalamiri never enjoyed the sort of popularity that CTF did. On another note, who here read the New Jedi Order and got really excited when Kyle got a part, however small and useless, in a couple of the books? I think they could make some really good games off that franchise, and the two already established series that could benefit most are Jedi Knight and X-Wing. Computer technology is good enough now that with the right engine design things could turn out to be really fantastic. Taking down voxyn sounds like Kyle's area of expertise, right? (And we're about due for a new X-wing anyway. One with shadow bombs.) _______________ "The Force isn't about waging war. It's about finding peace and your place in the galaxy." - Jacen Solo, The New Jedi Order: Jedi Eclipse  [=_=_=_=]={~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A Lightsaber is an interesting weapon, a blade unique in the history of warfare. A paradox, not unlike the Jedi who weild it: those peaceful warriors, who kill in the service of life. Have you ever noticed? The blade is round. It has no edge. But it is a lightsaber - which means it is nothing but edge. There is no part of this blade that does not cut. Curious, yes? Symbolic, one might say." - Vergere, The New Jedi Order: Traitor |
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Xanatos - Student 
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:') Good times , good times, great article. AAAAh! MINEMONSTERS!! _______________ |
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Duncan Frost - Student 
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I know how to make the guns rock! Make them TOTTALY EFFING INSANE!  Say, the repeater fires 2000 lightsabers per second, with ewoks on the end that hang onto the enemies balls and hack them off. And the thermal actually ANNHILIATES the map. And.. and... and.... hmm. I must make a forum thread of this! _______________ Owner of Jedi_Pimp's 800th comment, possibly by accident. |
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Ian Jandos - Student 
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All I know, is that keeping Lando alive is Tough! -Ian _______________ Member #7625 | Since 7.6.04 The Archives |
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Ctathos - Student 
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Blood, now there was the game to begin them all. I knew a guy that literally played that game blindfolded... and rocked. I don't know how he did it to this day... |
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Mic Den Octela - Student 
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Quote:
Quote: i remember when you get your lightsaber in jedi outcast... i was like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh and kept swinging the thing madly...like ATLAST!!! ... very cool emotions haha Yeah that was cool, i actually prefereded it when you got your saber in DF:JK myself, i don't know why it just worked for me, i was like "wewt, time to try this beast out!" "Let's see what this saber can do." "The irrigation channels are my way out of here!" Two of my most favourite Kyle quotes ever! Kyle-JK F2 _______________ -Padawan of Virtue -Brother of Menaxia, *|irael, Krynn Adept, Majno, Ris Win Juljul, DaMi3N, Beowulf, Dash Starlight, Carrock and Yuken Zalak Bartender at Munes bar. Sir Mic of Nippledom! Proudly beating Wang, since '07. (Crackdown) |
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Alex Dkana - Staff 
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Quote: i remember when you get your lightsaber in jedi outcast... i was like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh and kept swinging the thing madly...like ATLAST!!! ... very cool emotions haha Yeah that was cool, i actually prefereded it when you got your saber in DF:JK myself, i don't know why it just worked for me, i was like "wewt, time to try this beast out!" _______________ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield | Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken | Rhaiko D'kana - SWTOR EU Guild Co-Founder | Is it what the teacher, teaches? Or what the student learns? A Dkana |
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SaZ - Student 
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i remember when you get your lightsaber in jedi outcast... i was like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh and kept swinging the thing madly...like ATLAST!!! ... very cool emotions haha _______________ playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana |
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Plo Koon - Student 
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Ah, so many memories! DF's and Jedi Outcast are my favorite game to date. Remember when you enter the carbon room, steam billowing everywhere. There's a Reborn that say's "I sense you Jedi". You ignite your lightsaber and it's on! Also the hallway on Bespin where the Reborn was hanging from the roof corner, jumping down onto you! many memories. I love the Jedi Knight games! _______________ Free Tibet! Click this link,and learn Here too This comment was edited by Plo Koon on Aug 12 2006 09:31pm. |
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Carve - Student 
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Quote: I agree on Alex' comment, The previous X-Wing and TIE games absolutely rocked... X-Wing V TIE Fighter was like.. the in-between At the time, most of the clans were roleplaying. While the single player itself wasn't very good, multiplayer was fantastic with giant multi-thousand-player storylines and stuff. _______________ © |
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Roan Belouve - Retired 
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I also missed out on DF and DF2, but luckily discovered JO and JA. I still remember the start of the final stage of JO when you see Desaan behind you in the mirror and turn around and he's not there AWESOME  Great Article Mic _______________ *Bro to Vaxxla,Padawan of FiZZandOdan-Wei Part of the mighty Belouve Dynasty-Knight of Nippledom.Twin of Selphestal!**Proud Master to Kaelis and Acura Friend to anyone who would call me the same . Pic by the amazing Majno (merry)
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Mic Den Octela - Student
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Quote:
Quote: I love reminiscing on these old games. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (and X-Wing Alliance later on) and Jedi Knight were the staple games I played when I was a youngster in high school. Multiplayer games were fantastic back then. Very true, did you ever play TIE Fighter or X-Wing before that? They were great as well, have to say i loved the campain in Alliance though. I agree on Alex' comment, The previous X-Wing and TIE games absolutely rocked... X-Wing V TIE Fighter was like.. the in-between _______________ -Padawan of Virtue -Brother of Menaxia, *|irael, Krynn Adept, Majno, Ris Win Juljul, DaMi3N, Beowulf, Dash Starlight, Carrock and Yuken Zalak Bartender at Munes bar. Sir Mic of Nippledom! Proudly beating Wang, since '07. (Crackdown) |
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Alex Dkana - Staff
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Quote: I love reminiscing on these old games. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (and X-Wing Alliance later on) and Jedi Knight were the staple games I played when I was a youngster in high school. Multiplayer games were fantastic back then. Very true, did you ever play TIE Fighter or X-Wing before that? They were great as well, have to say i loved the campain in Alliance though. _______________ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield | Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken | Rhaiko D'kana - SWTOR EU Guild Co-Founder | Is it what the teacher, teaches? Or what the student learns? A Dkana |
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DrunkenJedi - Student 
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Nice article! I came into the games late, 'cause I wasn't a gamer and had no computer. Dark Forces was out a long time before I bought by first computer, so I never played it. I was late into JK2 'cause I bought a Mac, and we Mac users had to wait for ports of good games. Aspyr's port of JK2 is some of the best work they've done. But nobody has ported JK or MOS. So I've not yet played JK. Now I need to buy a used PC so I can play JK and MOS. At least this way I'll get some "new" gaming as my favorite Jedi. _______________ American dollars are worth less than Imperial credits. |
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Carve - Student 
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I love reminiscing on these old games. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter (and X-Wing Alliance later on) and Jedi Knight were the staple games I played when I was a youngster in high school. Multiplayer games were fantastic back then. I even remember the transition from 56k to cable. All the hosted gamerooms would be like "1v1 CABLE HOSTING!!!!!" haha. Good times. I miss them. Also I can't describe how hilarious it is to me that people here are still saying "omfgh4x". It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. _______________ © This comment was edited by Carve on Aug 08 2006 07:32am. |
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Alex Dkana - Staff 
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Ahh memories. This certainly made me think back to when i was playing those games, taking on the Probe Droids in DF, and taking on Mohc at the end. DK2:JK, still one of my favourite single player shooters, the level design was superb, the FMV bits were great, the dark jedi were well realised (Gorc & Pic lol), i could go on. I enjoyed MotS as well, being a big fan of Mara Jade anyway, i was impressed with some of the new levels, like the frigate level. I remember getting JK2 when it came out, and doing okay early on, although the mine crabs really got on my nerves! The many memories of the various multiplayer levels of JK2 are also fondly remembered. I think its a shame that since the shuffle and reorganisation at Lucasarts, they have shown little inclanation to place star wars games in the expanding universe, back when the JK series started the seemed a lot more confident about doing just that. They do not seem to realise that the future of the franchise is in the EU, and getting people who are not avid book or comic readers interested in it. Still the star wars franchise is not going to come to an end for an unbelievably long time, and i expect games will always be a big part of it, before long they will have to move back to the EU, and hopefully we will get to see more of Kyle then. He certianly hasn't been forgotten appearing in EaW, cameoing in the Dark Nest trilogy of books, having a story set during the NJO for the WotC trading card game, and being mentioned in an interview about the untitled 2007 star wars game. Anyway nice article Mic, good to see a new one. ~AlexD'Kana~ Edit: Quote: Anyone else remember going OMFGWTFH4x WOW THOSE GFX FLYING THRU NAR-SHADAR IN DARK FORCES 2 ARE 13333337! ? lol yeah i remember doing that Oh and Asyhr sorry but GB > EaW > R > FC always... Oh and Dash & Wic yep that was funneh, actually one momenti liked in JK2 was spacing all the stormtroopers/pilots in that hanger at Caairn Base. _______________ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield | Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken | Rhaiko D'kana - SWTOR EU Guild Co-Founder | Is it what the teacher, teaches? Or what the student learns? A Dkana This comment was edited by Alex Dkana on Aug 05 2006 04:03pm. |
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Lirael - Jedi Council 
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Anyone else remember going OMFGWTFH4x WOW THOSE GFX FLYING THRU NAR-SHADAR IN DARK FORCES 2 ARE 13333337! ? _______________ I can write my name with my sparkler. My sparkler > your lightsabre |
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Wicek - Nugget 
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Quote: I remember running around for hours on the first level, because I couldn’t find a door which was in plain view. So true! I had the same situation |
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Dash Starlight - Jedi Instructor 
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Nice job! Do I remember facing Stormtroopers? Yeah, I just used Pull and disarmed them.. they ran about like helpless children afterwards _______________ The name is Bond. James Bond. |
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Ashyr - Student 
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Great Article. That brings back some memories... Btw, Empire At War > Galactic Battlegrounds _______________ Top ten reasons to get a better computer...|My fan |
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Pink_Mintaka - Student 
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Whoa, totally awesome article Mic! Big thumbs up! |
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Majno - Padawan 
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Nice article man, some of those things rang so true. The running around on the first level on JK2 for one. Keep up the good work, cheers! _______________ " You've just taken your first steps into a larger world. " - Ben. This comment was edited by Majno on Aug 05 2006 02:23pm. |
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