Jedi
Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
Released
in late 1998
Review written 1/31/2004
System: PC
Developed and Published by Lucasarts
Jedi Knight. A great and, at the time, innovative first person shooter.
I am a huge Star
Wars fan, so I loved the game. Mysteries of the Sith is the add-on for
Jedi Knight, and is a very worthy follow up. Jedi Knight and Mysteries
of the Sith is my favorite FPS.
Jedi Knight and Mysteries of
the Sith are very similar, as is expected from an add-on. But in this
case that is a good thing because Jedi Knight is an extremely well done
game. It does not add much to Jedi Knight's formula, except for being
able to use both the dark and light force at the same time, and adding
more guns, but that is okay because Jedi Knight was already among the
best in the genre in this category. Jedi Knight is unique. It's a
slower paced game than Quake. The force powers make for a great
twist and can make gameplay quite interesting. The weapons are
also powerful, and the game adds some great new ones like a sniper
scope for the stormtrooper rifle -- each weapon now has a second
function --, but the focus of the game is on the force and the
lightsaber, not the weapons. As it should be. One other way
it shows its uniqueness best is by how its engine can display large
areas competently and do it so often.
Yes, by today's standards the graphics are badly out of date, but if
you can look past that you will see a game doing the best it can with
the graphical limitations of the engine it is in. And besides, I like
the game's look. It is a nice representation of Star Wars and, as I
said, does large outdoor areas very nicely, unlike most engines from
when it came out. Quake is painfully bad at doing outdoor areas and
even Quake III, whose engine is used in Jedi Knight 2 and 3, had
problems here... none in this game. You are frequently in areas which
stretch into the horizon. This sense of scale helps make the already
brilliant level designs of JK/MoTS even better. To me, while they have
many strengths, the best part about Jedi Knight is its brilliant level
designs. Level design is key to gameplay, and Jedi Knight succeeded
brilliantly. Mysteries of the Sith continues that tradition, with more
levels in the same style of Jedi Knight. Some are even better than the
best ones in Jedi Knight, amazingly, given how good some levels are in
the original game.
The last three levels, especially, are
very memorable. I would say that that group of three still has yet to
be equalled in any FPS... they are just that good. The only gameplay
problem I can think of would come in here, however. The first 11 levels
are good, but do not prepare you for the challenge and uniqueness of
the last three. When you reach them, you will be in for something of a
shock as the difficulty suddenly jumps up several levels and you lose
all your guns, for good. I truly loved this part of the game, however,
so I think that perhaps they should have reduced the doing small quests
part in the middle of the game and expanded the final segment. It would
have been great if there had been more than three levels on the planet,
given how unique they are. Large, quite long, very challenging levels
are the hallmark of Jedi Knight and they are fully in evidence here.
They also can frequently be confusing and make you search the levels
for where to go next all the time, and with frequent (but admittedly
mostly switch-based -- though not all. Some are inventive.) puzzles.
but again, I like this aspect of the game. It is a refreshing change
from your average FPS where it is nearly impossible to get lost. Of
course the automap helps greatly here, and again Jedi Knight's great
automap system comes in very handy. Without it the game would
definitely be a lot harder, and having it is a major plus. I think all
FPSes should have automaps and am sad to see now few of newer FPSes
have them. The level design in these games stands out especially well
when compared to Jedi Knight 2 or 3, who have better looks but simpler
and less complex level designs that just do not compare at all to the
original JK.
I only have one real complaint with the gameplay system of Mysteries of
the Sith. The game changes the force powers system. Like in
JK, after each mission you can choose force powers. But this time
you can choose any, not just light or dark. And there isn't
a branching mission path for being good or evil. This means that
you can have both Force Heal and Force Grab... which just doesn't seem
right to me. You shouldn't be able to casually mix good and evil
powers in the extent you can in this game. It's not nearly as bad
as the force power mixing in JK2, and I will admit that the Star Wars
universe has provided for the possibility of people having powers from
both sides, but it also says that generally any use of many Dark Side
powers is bad and can't be just ignored. This game doesn't deal
with that. I don't know if this bothers anyone else, but it did
bother me. Because of this the gameplay gets a 9, not a 10.
They should have dealt with this better. I do understand that
because of which character you play as after Kyle that having dark side
powers is probably to be expected, but they don't deal with the issue
at all in the story or in the game. If they are going to allow
you to have powers from both side like this they definitely should make
a bigger deal of it -- it's just not okay for anyone to go around
hitting people with Force Lightning and expecting no major affect on
your light-side powers!
The story is the one
admittedly weak element. They got rid of the FMV cutscenes, probably a
good move, and replaced them with in-engine ones, but the story doesn't
flow nearly as well. The game is broken up into groups of levels
that are
each stories but only have some things in common with eachother. It
does feel like a group of mini-missions at times. It does have a story,
though, and that story is better if you have read some of the Star Wars
books, particularly Timothy Zahn's popular, and great, trilogy of books
that the games draw greatly from. If you haven't read those books,
however, a lot of things in the game just won't make as much sense. It
explains things well enough ingame, but it makes it more interesting if
you know the backstory. Still, each of the level groups really does
have a seperate theme and story that only carries over on some issues.
This is definitely the biggest flaw in the game, and don't get this if
you want a great and deep plot. It is good enough, however, and I have
read the books so I loved seeing things from them in a Star Wars game
-- that does not happen very often. AAnd when you consider how
great the gameplay is in the single player game, and how the level
designs match Jedi Knight for brilliance, I can mostly overlook the
somewhat flawed story. Single Player gets a 9. But subtract
a point or two for the story if you haven't read the Zahn trilogy.
Graphically,
as I said, the game is unmistakably old. Low polygon count, not that
great
texture detail, amazingly bad water... no one would play this game for
its looks, and if you can't get over that you will not like the game.
But I like it because it presents the Star Wars universe very well, and
allows for that massive scale. I give it an 9, considering when the
game was released. I'd like to give it a 10, but even for then the
engine was not exactly the best looking one out there. Based on today's
graphics of course it looks very bad, but judging old games by the
graphical standards of now is not fair. And anyway, none of those
better looking competitors could make levels as massive and lengthy as
this one.
The game's sound is very good. All the sounds
sound very similar to the movie sounds, which is great. And the music
can be really good. Yes, it is mostly just remixes of the movie music,
but it is presented very, very well. I especially like the music in the
last level, perhaps because of how much time I spent confused in it
before figuring out how to progress... Nothing to complain about here.
Unless you hate Star Wars music. 10.0
The final major
aspect of JK:MoTS is the multiplayer. It is essentially the same as the
multiplayer in Jedi Knight, just with some more characters and levels
to choose from. Still, given how good the multiplayer is in the main
game, again, the best thing for them to do was not change things much.
Also, some of the new levels are great, and the added force powers make
things interesting since force is one of the most unique and fun
aspects of the Jedi Knight series. The heavy multiplayer focus on force
powers and the lightsaber, and not just running around with the biggest
gun like in most multiplayer FPSes, is refreshing, and the level
designs are quite good. 10.0.
In conclusion, Jedi
Knights: Mysteries of the Sith is a brilliant expansion to one of the
greatest first-person shooters of all time. Especially if you're a Star
Wars fan, certainly, but it has enough good things about it that
everyone should try the game. The graphics haven't stood up to time
very well, and plenty of other games have done scripted events and
puzzles, but Jedi Knight and its similar expansion have held up great.
And
those last three levels... wow. Completely unique gameplay. Without
spoiling anything, the final level of this game is one of the greatest
FPS levels of all time, I would say, and is a true work of art. It is a
hard and frustrating games at time and getting lost or stuck not
knowing where to go is easy, but it is well worth it to get to the end.
Also, if you buy Jedi Knight these days Mysteries of the Sith is
included in the box, so they work as one long game. A true masterpiece,
and it's too bad that Lucasarts didn't keep this team together to do a
sequel. I'm sure they would have done a better job than Raven.
But if you aren't a hardcore gamer, keeping a FAQ handy might be a good
idea for this game. It's well, well worth it, however, so don't
give up. Fantastic game.
Overall Scores
Gameplay - 9
Single Player - 9 (if you've read Zahn's trilogy; otherwise 7 or 8)
Graphics - 9 (by the standards of the day; by today's low, a 4 or 5
maybe... but I do love the style and size of the levels...)
Sound - 10
Multiplayer - 10
Total - 47/50 or 94% (average of the five categories, not the
final score)
*Final Score: 96% (not an
average)