Shadrack Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 Well I went out and bought the 49.99 dollar game over at EB the day it came out. These are my first impressions of the game, although note that I haven't had time to put together my over all impression of the game yet. But I figured there was interest in this subject. I've always been impressed with what developers can do with the Quake III engine, and as soon as I found out that this game was going to sport this technology, I was interested in it right away. I installed the beast, and within about 15 mins I was in the game. There are two different available play modes, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, single player, and multi player. Single player will take you through the story of the Dark Forces story line. Single player offers a story line driven game where you progress through levels and collect weapons and gain abilities along the way. The first map was rather large for a beginning map, and I found myself having a hard time figuring out where the hell I was most of the time. The geometric detail of the level was rather dull, and the game play seemed a little acquired. Especially looking around corners, it just didn't seem to move a smoothly as Quake 3 or Wolfenstein. But after getting use to it I was having a lot of fun blasting storm troopers, and trying to figure out where I needed to go. It took me about an hour and a half to beet the first level (most of that time was wondering around trying to figure out where I needed to go next, but I didn't ever feel like I had reached a dead end which was good.) Lots of good cinematic effects. The different fire and explosions were amazing. But no blood or gore. The multi-player game was really the way I discovered how amazing this game really is. The multi-player game gives you the ability, of course, to play over the internet or create a skirmish with you and some bots. The menu system was very easy to follow and had a LOT of ways to customize your type of game. Each bot has its own set of skills and styles of combat. Once you have entered your Jedi "arena" you are prompted to customize your 'player.' Customization included: color of light saber, side of force (dark or light), and point distribution of the various force skills you will use. Once in the arena, it is AWESOME. Once you get the hang of using the different forces it just gets better and better. The light saber combat is by far the coolest thing I've seen in a 3rd person shootem up game. You feel like you are in the movie it seems. The different forces adds that flavor that deathmatches have been needing for awhile. The two force powers that I found very useful right away was Jump: the ability to jump really high, and Seeing: the ability to see where everyone is on the level. All of them have their uses, but some are more difficult and awkward then others. Although, the bots were kicking my ass with them. The more Jedi points you allow, the harder the bots are because they respawn being bad asses with lots of special abilities, instead of weaponless like previous 3d shooters. Playing multi-player and seeing what all is possible in this game has made me really want to go far in the single-player game. Again, the light saber action is amazing. The game automatically puts you into 3rd person view when the light saber is selected. The saber is probably the most powerful weapon. If the saber defense force is higher, you can become pretty much invisible to most laser fire. At that point, the only thing that can defeat a player wielding a light saber is either a rocket or another bad ass with a saber. The different combination of movement+attack creates a variety of fighting styles that keep the game interesting. It isn't just running and clicking a lot, it takes a lot of practice to get use to this game play feature. But it is well worth the practice. I wish the camera wasn't so jumpy while in this mode however. There is probably a way to fix that, i just haven't found it yet. All of the menu systems are very easy to use and navigate through, but there are a LOT of options for this game so it will take some time for you to set it up right for you. The display settings are very customizable for a wide range of system configurations. I'd say speed is more important in the game then graphics quality, although both would be optimal. This is a great game, you should go check it out. My system specs: Pentium 800 256 Mg Ram 32 Meg Nvidia Geforce 2 MX 220 What did you think of it? Peace, nic www.toaststudios.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 Thanks man thats one very comprhesive review, well no b/s in it anyway. Youve inspired me to go purchase this game I believe, ive ben tossing up weather to purchase it or just "Back it up" It has a really cool box too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted April 1, 2002 Author Share Posted April 1, 2002 Originally posted by Osiris Thanks man thats one very comprhesive review, well no b/s in it anyway. Youve inspired me to go purchase this game I believe, ive ben tossing up weather to purchase it or just "Back it up" It has a really cool box too. If it is of any interest to you: there is no CD-Key of any sort that came with the game. Although I have a feeling you have to have the "orginal" disc to play without a crack. Which really makes me mad because lets face it: CDs get scratched. I should have the right to back up my expensive games that I have spent hard earned cash for without getting into cracking the game. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Gates Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 i haven't played it yet, it's still... um..... pre-installing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 You don't need the original disk... Already sussed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autodefe Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 Nice review. I love this game but it runs pretty damn slow on my computer 1.3Ghz Athlon with a GF2 .. I get like 30-50 fps on any given day. I'm baffled as to why because Quake 3 runs great on my system, even at higher qualities. :dead: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimlock Posted April 1, 2002 Share Posted April 1, 2002 I also get a kick out of this game. Brings me back to when I played Dark Forces so many years ago. I'm just past the first level after you get the saber and it is a lot of fun. It does take practice to get good with the lightsaber. I went online and got my ass seriously kicked running around like a fool. The good thing is that it is still fun. The game runs great on my machine (specs in sig). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted April 2, 2002 Share Posted April 2, 2002 ahthe gamestore didnt have it. I must live under a rock or something. I may just have to "Test" it by getting it online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted April 2, 2002 Author Share Posted April 2, 2002 Originally posted by Opio Nice review. I love this game but it runs pretty damn slow on my computer 1.3Ghz Athlon with a GF2 .. I get like 30-50 fps on any given day. I'm baffled as to why because Quake 3 runs great on my system, even at higher qualities. :dead: Even though it is based on the Quake 3 Engine, take a look at how much more detailed the models are in JK2 verses Q3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted April 2, 2002 Author Share Posted April 2, 2002 Wow this game is great! You can run up walls, and do backflips off of them. I think my favorite thing that I've discovered you can do is use the grip force to pick up people and throw them off into pits. It is great. I thought I'd try and jump online with the game considering the box and the web sites say you can play online with a 56k modem. I don't know who I was fooling, it was really a joke. Pretty unplayable. Sure you can connect to the server and everything, but after that you are a lagged out sitting duck. Why are game producers still saying that their games can be played online with a 56k modem, when in reality they cannot? I'm sure there hasn't been any testing on 56k modems, considering they have their high price blazingly fast internet connections in the beta rooms. Sigh. Maybe someday DSL will be available in my area or something. Has anyone had any luck playing this game online with 56k? -Nic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phobic Posted April 2, 2002 Share Posted April 2, 2002 I've had lots of luck killing people with 56k :evil: Seriously though, this game has some really solid netcode. I don't see many people saying "Laaaaaaggggg" on the servers I've played on. Lately my pings have been as low as 8ms (which is very odd on my POS ATT cable service). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaludorm Posted April 6, 2002 Share Posted April 6, 2002 Opio, what resolution are you trying to run it in? I have and Athalon classic 900 w/512mb ram, and a GeForce 2 mx 64mb ddr. The game runs like a champ in 1024x768, no slow down at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudlington Posted April 6, 2002 Share Posted April 6, 2002 Originally posted by Opio Nice review. I love this game but it runs pretty damn slow on my computer 1.3Ghz Athlon with a GF2 .. I get like 30-50 fps on any given day. I'm baffled as to why because Quake 3 runs great on my system, even at higher qualities. :dead: Runs fine with my 1.0 Ghz Athlon with a GF2 and 384mb ram @ 1024x768 32bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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