Despite having reviewed and played well over a thousand PC games through the years, I still have some that I’m extremely passionate about and even replay on a nearly annual basis. Those include some RPG’s like Baldur’s Gate and Gothic 2, shooters like Soldier of Fortune 2, and pretty much the entire Jedi Knight collection. That collection is now available as a set of digital downloads individually or as a collection on Steam!

The series includes five different games and largely spans the period and time after the destruction of the second Death Star. I say ‘largely’ since the first game actually takes place during the events of the original Trilogy. Here is a quick look at each of the games, including the individual price:

Star Wars Dark Forces: (originally released in 1995, ~15 hours of game time, $4.99 on Steam) – this tells the tale of Kyle Katarn, son of a farmer on Sullust, who is studying at an agro-mechanical academy when he is told that rebels killed his father. He joins the Imperial Academy and is at the top of his class when he learns the truth of what happened to his father (Imperials masquerading as rebels), but not trusting anyone starts to work as a Mercenary doing missions for the Rebel Alliance. The first mission – and the one presented in the demo – shows Kyle infiltrating an Imperial stronghold and stealing the Death Star plans, picked up by Jan Ors at the conclusion. The relationship between Kyle and Jan figures across the entire series.

Dark Forces was a ‘standard’ shooter that added a considerable amount to the genre that we now take for granted, such as looking up and down, crouching and jumping. The missions are challenging, moreso since the game didn’t allow any in-mission saves!

Star Wars Dark Forces2: Jedi Knight: (originally released in 1997, ~25 hours of game time, $4.99 on Steam) – the Empire has fallen and Vader and the Emperor are dead, but in their place a new evil has risen: Dark Jedi Jerec, who is now known to have killed Kyle’s Father, has assembled a group of Dark Force minions in a plot to seek out the mysterious Valley of the Jedi and tap into the power of fallen Force users to gain ultimate power. Jedi Knight is famous for several things: it is one of the earliest Direct3D games, it features huge levels with a massive sense of scale, and it is one of the best examples of the then-popular use of Full Motion Video cutscenes.

Oh, and there is that bit where you get Force Powers and a lightsaber! After a few missions, you discover that your father has hidden the lightsaber of his fallen Jedi friend Rahn for you to discover, and from there you get to slowly build up your powers and abilities with the saber. The game uses a RPG-like allocation system that lets you control your destiny, and ultimately lets you choose to follow the dark side of light side of the Force, with some different missions and a different ending depending on your choice.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith: (originally released in 1998, ~15 hours of game time, $2.99 on Steam) – only six months after the release of the massive Jedi Knight, LucasArts released an expansion, Mysteries of the Sith. This is one of the all-time classic expansions, lasting ~15 hours and allowing you to play for a few levels as Kyle before taking over as his student, the popular Expanded Universe character Mara Jade (who would eventually go on to marry Luke Skywalker) as she persues Kyle into a Sith stronghold and ultimately has to rescue him from himself. Mysteries of the Sith was much more demanding that you make use of your lightsaber and Force powers, and once again had staggering levels and amazing scope. The biggest criticism is that the cutscenes are movies that were rendered using the in-game engine, and as a result didn’t age well.

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast: (originally released in 2002, ~25 hours of game time, $9.99 on Steam) – In the years following his fall to the Dark Side at the end of Mysteries of the Sith, Kyle severs his ties with the Force and he and Jan just work doing missions as mercenaries for the fledgling New Empire. But after he believes that Jan has been killed by a Dark Jedi names Desann and his protege Tavion, he seeks out the power of the Force again by returning to the Valley of the Jedi to restore his powers. This mistake allows Desann to imbue ordinary people with the power of the Force using special crystals and using the Force stream from the Valley. The rest of the game sees Kyle following the path of Desann from planet to planet until an ultimate confrontation at the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. While many felt that the scope of enemies didn’t match the 7 Dark Jedi of the original Jedi Knight, the advances in lightsaber gameplay and scale of Force use produced a gameplay feel that eclipses the earlier games.

Star Wars Jedi Academy: (originally released in 2003, ~15 hours of game time, $9.99 on Steam) – the last and lowest reviewed of the Jedi Knight games, Jedi Academy takes a much more RPG-lite approach. You create your own character, and have control over which missions to take on at what point in each plot section of the game. You are rewarded Force points to allocate after each mission, and ultimately can choose light or dark side. The lightsaber gameplay and Force powers are enhanced from Jedi Outcast, resulting in the most visceral Jedi experience to date. However, the plot felt weak and somewhat juvenile and some of the characters were rather annoying. The game also got knocked down as it was released just before the anticipated Half-Life 2 release, which was ultimately delayed for another year – the basis for that opinion was that a couple of games with nearly identical visuals released a couple of months earlier got much higher scores for graphics in reviews. Regardless, the gameplay has aged very well and it is still a blast to play.

Alternately, you can buy the entire collection for $19.99! And since everything but Dark Forces requires a CD to play (although the developers released a public no-CD method for Jedi Knight since CD drives were still not ubiquitous then), the ability to load up these classics without concern for physical media is refreshing. Also, I can confirm that all of these games are ‘netbook friendly’!

Source: Steam