Star Wars Jedi Knight – Jedi Academy

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a first- and third-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by LucasArts for Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox in 2003. A Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port was announced in September 2019 and published by Aspyr in March 2020. Vicarious Visions was responsible for the development of the Xbox version. The game is a sequel to 2002’s Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and the fourth and final installment in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. The single-player story, set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe two years after Jedi Outcast, follows Jaden Korr, a new student at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy under the tutelage of the previous games’ protagonist, Kyle Katarn.

As Jaden, players are tasked with investigating a Dark Jedi cult called the Disciples of Ragnos, while slowly learning the ways of the Force and committing themselves to either the light side or the dark side. Jedi Academy is set in 14 ABY, a decade after Return of the Jedi and two years after Jedi Outcast. Players take on the role of Jaden Korr (voiced by Philip Tanzini if male and Jennifer Hale if female), a talented Jedi Padawan who, after building their own lightsaber, travels to the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV to learn the ways of the Force. En route to the Academy, Jaden befriends fellow student Rosh Penin (Jason Marsden), but the students’ shuttle is suddenly shot down by an unknown enemy.

Jaden and Rosh make their way to the Academy, where the former witnesses a woman using a staff to drain energy from the Temple; Jaden subsequently gets knocked out. Jaden is woken by Luke Skywalker (Bob Bergen) and Kyle Katarn (Jeff Bennett), who welcome them to the Academy. Jaden and Rosh are assigned to study under Kyle, but during their first training session, Rosh’s over-competitiveness endangers Jaden. After the Jedi students complete their initial training, they are assigned various peace-keeping missions across the galaxy. During this time, Rosh becomes jealous of Jaden and begins to believe Kyle is trying to hold him back. After several successful missions, Luke calls the students back to the Academy to tell them he has identified the Dark Jedi who attacked the Temple as members of a Sith cult called the Disciples of Ragnos.

A member of the cult, the Twi’lek Alora (Grey DeLisle), infiltrated the Academy during the attack and stole Luke’s journal, containing the locations of numerous places strong with the Force. Believing the cult is looking to drain their Force energy, Luke sends the students to investigate each location. Jaden travels to Hoth, where they find Imperial presence at the Rebel Alliance’s abandoned Echo Base and encounter Alora, who flees after a brief duel. Returning to the Academy, Jaden reports their findings, but is saddened to learn Rosh never returned from his mission to Byss. As a first and third-person shooter set in the Star Wars expanded universe, Jedi Academy puts the player into combat wielding a variety of firearms from that universe, as well as lightsabers and Force powers. 

While using long-range, a player can choose between first-person and third-person perspectives, using a variety of projectile and energy weapons. Players have a health meter and a shield meter, which are replenished separately. Jedi Academy places a heavy emphasis on lightsaber combat. The player can create a custom lightsaber by selecting a hilt and one of five blade colors. After the first few missions, the player is allowed to choose a new lightsaber fighting style (“fast” or “strong”) and can switch between that style and the original “medium” style at any time. Later in the game, the player can choose to learn the third fighting style, or wield one saber in each hand, or wield a “saber staff” similar to the double ended lightsaber Darth Maul used in The Phantom Menace.

In multiplayer mode, one can play online or via a local area network (LAN) with other players, as well as computer-controlled bots. In line with other online-enabled games on the Xbox, multiplayer on Xbox Live was available to players until April 15, 2010. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is now playable online again on the replacement Xbox Live servers called Insignia. The player can create their avatar using a series of options, similar to the character creation in single-player. Alternatively the player can choose to play as one of almost all of the characters from Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.

Before a match begins, the server specifies the Force ranking to be used; this controls how many points the players have to invest in different Force powers. Players can then customize their powers for the match. The server can also disable normal weapons to create a lightsaber-only game. There are different multiplayer modes such as “Capture the flag”, “Power Duel” and “Siege”. Depending on the mode, players can play on their own or as part of a team. In comparison with the single-player gameplay, multiplayer requires a high level of skill and can have a steep learning curve, as stated by many. There are six multiplayer modes in total, but the most popular and most willingly modified is the “Free For All”.