by Marcuse » Sun May 07, 2017 7:26 pm
I'm going to stump for Jedi Academy as my favourite SW video game. As you might imagine I've played a lot.
KOTOR 1 and 2 have their advantages, primarily in the story and characters. I think Jedi Academy has its advantages in the gameplay and how the progression is designed. The game makes you pick a new power before each level, not after, which is satisfying for the player to be able to choose a new power and then immediately be able to use it. The level selection allows for five missions per phase, but only requires you to complete four. So if there's a mission that's really stumping you, you can avoid it. But if you do all of them, you get more powerful, so there's an incentive to complete as many as possible. The powers are designed so the first level has a bit of utility, but come with lore friendly animations (such as crouching for the heal power, the grab with the drain power, and the grip animation). The higher powers go, the more utility they gain, at the expense of some of the lore animations, which is exactly what I expect from a game progression.
The lightsaber combat is excellently rendered, even despite the slightly choppy animations. The range of lightsaber styles and versions of lightsaber available allow for impressive customisation. The game doesn't railroad you into having a doublesaber or two lightsabers, and arguably incentivises the player to use the traditional single saber with every style. The whole thing is built as probably the best Jedi simulator I've ever played. The combat is true to the lore, with one hit being able to KO an enemy in the right circumstances. This is true for both you and your enemies, which makes for tense but fair battles.
The real negative is the story, the characters (excepting Kyle Katarn) are crap and cliche. The story is ass, and serves only to give a reason to wander about stabbing people. However, I enjoy the game enough that the story doesn't bother me too much.