Old school Star Wars - for better or worse...
Lightsabers are brutal instruments of death. If I saw somebody with one of those whilst I was walking down the street to pick up a carton of milk I would run and only when safe would I bother to get my phone out to call the army. You can get fried by just touching those things. Kids, stay safe, avoid lightsabers. Avoiding Jedi Knight isn't necessary, even though it might not be superb by today's standards.
Dark Forces: Jedi Knight was well received when it first appeared over 12 years ago. Graphically it hasn't aged well. If you can get 3D acceleration to work you will be treated to something that is passable. Without it, Jedi Knight can appear a pixelated mess with red, yellows and greens turning Kyle and his world into a mashed up plate of bolognese. There are lots of grays throughout. Vibrant colours make short cameos when guns are shot or lightsabers are waved.
The cut-scenes are laughable. Samuel Jackson might have looked bad screaming as he was killed but he puts these actors to shame. The acting cheapens my disbelief but it doesn't detract from the game too much. It is Star Wars after all.
For the first few levels the game seems utterly standard, like a star wars doom. You run along the sides of Nar Shadda chasing after a humanoid with a knack for all things evil. The levels are fairly expansive. Gaping chasms feature in a lot of the sections and require frequent quick-saving (although a quick-load feature is absent).
Things change for the better fairly early on in the story. Once the lightsaber is acquired, Kyle Katarn turns into a third person adventurer who can amputate a storm troopers arm with the click of a button. Jumping twenty times your height is great entertainment and slicing an imperial trooper after pulling his weapon away is comical.
The level design is not always clear. There was a button I missed towards the end of the game resulting in Kyle being stuck for five minutes until the thought occurred to backtrack. Lightsaber battles with other Jedi are particularly clunky but over quickly. The last two Jedi are irritating to say the least. One repeatedly jumps and is a complete bugger to hit whilst the other has more health than every Olympic athlete squashed into one supreme being.
Controls are very standard. Being that it's an old game you will need to go into the menu and alter the settings to suit a more modern set-up. I also recommend selecting the option to make Kyle always run. Weirdly, whilst there is an option to use a mouse wheel, you can only use it to manipulate the camera. I wanted to use the wheel to select my weapons but Jedi Knight just wouldn't have it.
Jedi Knight has quirks. It hasn't dated well in some respects but it is fun. The screen resolution alters whenever you return to the menus and it has issues with today's graphics cards. It's worth the price Steam are asking for but will require time and patience to get running. It's definitely recommended for Star Wars fans and also for anyone who is happy to play a reasonably solid action / adventure game from the end of the nineties.
Jedi Knight does not have the slamming, over-the-top action of more recent Star Wars games but it does have more heart and soul. It feels passionately made and deserves a look.
Jedi Knight is now available on steam.