Talking to the Creator of Star Wars: Jedi Outcast's Lightsaber Combat - General

Someone shared this recently on a Discord group, so I guess I may as well share it here: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKVyDqFFPNw[/media]

The Jedi Knight series is very interesting because it shows its age on its sleeve and has aged a little poorly in some areas, yet because it exceeded most games of its time in terms of quality and freedom, so in reality when you actually play it, you realize that it's actually aging oddly well, better than even some games today. Over time, I think that Jedi Knight will be remembered for longer than recent Star Wars Titles (Unleashed, Battlefront) because its designed very cleverly in terms of gameplay and freedom, while those games are relatively closed off in comparison. The greatest thing about the game is its absolute raw flexibility. The ability to go full jedi and have a very complex set of powers or just fuck Troops up with guns gives it a very uniquely dynamic flavor of gameplay. You aren't locked as one thing over the other. But then you look at Unleashed, as one example and regardless of how fun it is, no matter what you're hardlocked into a game that is more about action than gameplay itself. If Jedi Outcasts large number of powers and melee combat is confusing you have other options on the table. Unleashed doesn't give you that, this isn't to say that it should of course or that this makes it a worse game, but it shows the difference between over 10 years ago and today when it comes to gaming. Today you don't see nearly the flexibility and experimentation that the early 2000's had and I think that this alone is one of the biggest issues of games today.

There has yet to be a Star Wars game released that even comes close to matching the quality of the lightsaber combat in the Jedi Knight series. It was simple enough to grasp, but was fairly complex at a high level involving several different styles and combos that were actually pretty hard to pull off. That's not even including how good movement was really half the battle. This combined with how you could take advantage of force powers and the surprisingly high difficulty really made that game rewarding. Although really cheesy by todays standards, the slow motion in this game really did make each kill satisfying as hell. Also Kyle is one of the more likable EU characters out there tbh. A shame another entry in the series will probably never happen, though with EA's track record at the moment that's probably a good thing.

Anyone remember that one total overhaul mod that added bounty hunters and robots and stuff? That one was amazing

I loved that stuff like this could happen [img]https://i.imgur.com/TmD9yXJ.jpg[/img] (Hooray for still having screenshots on my hard drive from 2003)

[QUOTE=stupid07er;52902365]I loved that stuff like this could happen [img]https://i.imgur.com/TmD9yXJ.jpg[/img] (Hooray for still having screenshots on my hard drive from 2003)[/QUOTE] I remember that stuff like this was super metal to 7 year old me. It still is now; how often do you see people literally being cut in half in video games nowadays?

in Jedi Academy I played in a 32 player free for all server with no force powers, it was just lightsaber combat, and it had 'no laming' rules, so if you weren't fighting, you weren't attacked. I probably put about 700 hours in this game on that server. There would always be 1v1 duels using the game's dueling system taking place, and massive furballs of glow bats everywhere. But the thing that stands out most is the game's lightsaber combat was done so well, everyone developed their own fighting style. It was that free. The movement, the swings, how swings changed depending on movement, the Blue/Yellow/Red stances Everyone had their own unique fighting style And some people just butterfly spammed into the mass of people and ended up with the entire server just hunting them for the rest of the game

I remember seeing silly Jedi Academy parodies on YouTube which made a fourth grade me order it on eBay. Jedi Academy (and Jedi Outcast) is my favorite Star Wars game ever. Nothing has yet to beat its lightsaber combat. Now I need to reinstall this game again. What I love is to this day, people are still playing Jedi Academy. Movie Battles 2 still has active servers and players.

[QUOTE=Flicky;52902386]I remember that stuff like this was super metal to 7 year old me. It still is now; how often do you see people literally being cut in half in video games nowadays?[/QUOTE] not really in half, but the new wolfenstein has a good dose of gore and gibbing

[QUOTE=Flicky;52902386] It still is now; how often do you see people literally being cut in half in video games nowadays?[/QUOTE] Yuu can see that in all Dishonored games.

I suggest people watch the Star Wars Retrospective from Gametrailers, it's very insightful

[QUOTE=mark6789;52903193]I suggest people watch the Star Wars Retrospective from Gametrailers, it's very insightful[/QUOTE] I agree, it is great.

I love Jedi Academy, but every time I play Jedi Outcast I get frustrated by the awful and confusing level design and I give up on playing it. Did anyone else find it confusing or am I just stupid?

[QUOTE=Mako;52908125]I love Jedi Academy, but every time I play Jedi Outcast I get frustrated by the awful and confusing level design and I give up on playing it. Did anyone else find it confusing or am I just stupid?[/QUOTE] I do remember the garbage factory on Nar Shadaa being an absolute shitfuck. [editline]a[/editline] Oh and the swamp on Yavin. Every playthrough I'd always end up running circles at some point in that place.

Daily reminder that the double light saber crouch attack was incredibly OP

[QUOTE=Mistermist;52902986]I remember seeing silly Jedi Academy parodies on YouTube which made a fourth grade me order it on eBay. Jedi Academy (and Jedi Outcast) is my favorite Star Wars game ever. Nothing has yet to beat its lightsaber combat. Now I need to reinstall this game again. What I love is to this day, people are still playing Jedi Academy. Movie Battles 2 still has active servers and players.[/QUOTE] Second this - if you love the Jedi Knight series or tbh Star Wars in general, check out Movie Battles 2. The name makes it sound lame but it's the best multiplayer Star Wars game out there imo.