Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - Extensive Star Wars Retrospective┃History and Analysis

just think of it her death and your failure will be celebrated for eons to come as the events that brought about the era of danan congratulations stop talking in the early 2000s the console Market was exploding into one of the biggest media Industries in the world and the Star Wars prequel movies were simultaneously causing the brand to soar towards Heights other brands could only look on in Envy of which meant of course that we needed a heavy-hitting Star Wars video game to release on those consoles and we're better to look than the series that was long overdue for more console representation the Jedi Knight games and so work was started on the next entry of the Jedi Knight video game series Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast [Music] Jedi Outcast is quite possibly the most popular and well-known entry from the iconic series due to a multitude of factors ranging from the time it released to the number of platforms it released on although the previous three entries of the series feel like three chapters in the same book Jedi Outcast feels like the next book in that series while reminiscent of ideas and mechanics in the previous games and featuring a lot of the same characters Jedi Outcast takes things very much in a brand new Direction the the biggest reason for this is because it's the first Jedi night game so far that wasn't developed by LucasArts but rather video game industry sweethearts Raven software I call them that because it's pretty well known that Raven knows how to make a damn good game it's also the first Jedi Knight game to be developed on a nonproprietary engine although the previous three games were developed on the Jedi and Sith engines respectively Jedi Outcast was developed on the PowerHouse idtech 3 engine an engine used for for some of the most prominent games from that time like Quake 3 return to Castle Wolfenstein multiple 007 games and even the original Call of Duty Jedi Outcast is also the first Jedi Knight game to launch on multiple platforms unless you count the original Dark Forces which released on the Sony PlayStation it is definitely the first Jedi Knight game to release on the Microsoft Xbox though and in addition to that it's all released on the Macintosh and even the Nintendo GameCube of course it received a PC release as well just like the other ENT so far but this huge expansion of the potential audiences who could actually play the game meant that it was the first game in the series that a lot of people ever got to experience which did make it a little strange that this was the only game I had next to no experience with so yeah I was pretty excited to undergo this new adventure for the first time and fill in the missing Gap I've had in my mind of this tapestry called the Jedi Night series now what you're seeing on the screen is obviously firstperson footage and although the previous two Jedi KN titles featured a third person camera capability this one is designed with a third person camera in mind that being said I actually tended to prefer how it felt to play in first person there's so few Star Wars games that let me inhabit the firstperson perspective of a Jedi and hold a lightsaber that way the immersion is so much easier this way and I can really appreciate the level design from this angle however there's some super cool animations that we only get to see in third person so I found the compromise of handling all lightsaber battles in third person and playing the rest in first person my choice for how to play and record footage of this one was of course the PC version but you know I had to make some adjustments Jedi Outcast was not designed to run in wides screen in fact it was unfortunately designed with standard definition resolutions in mind so adjusting it for WID screen came with some strange side effects the first thing I did was install the jk2 FX mod version 3.0 which adds new Shader effects for every level and fixes some incorrect surfaces and Shader issues although there were still some issues during my playthrough even after that I did still want to make a few adjustments though as I wasn't quite satisfied with the look after the mod so I applied reshade to the game and spent about an hour tweaking it to give it an HDR cinematic look I know some people hate these kinds of adjustments and some people really enjoy them if you're one of the people who does like the footage following my reshade adjustments then you can find my reshade preset available for download in the description just open reshade and apply my preset and it'll give you the look you're seeing on screen right now the base game looks great as is though in my opinion so there's really no need to drench your screen and post-processing effects unless you're just trying to have some fun so let's lead into the game story we're in the year 12 ABY 2 years after the events of mysteries of the Sith after Kyle fell to the dark side while exploring the Temple of the dark side on drumond C he nearly killed Mara Jade when she attempted to stop him he only just barely stopped himself from striking her down but after he realized how far he had fallen Kyle felt weak and Unworthy of ever being called a Jedi so he threw his lightsaber away honestly he probably left it at the bottom of that temple on drumond KAS this is not when Kyle cut himself off from the force as many believe however Kyle would go on to try and tame his inclinations towards the dark side for a brief time after this and end up severing his connection a year or so after Mysteries of the Sith and before the events of this game since then Kyle has spent the past few months working as a mercenary for the new Republic trying to emulate the life he had before finding that lightsaber hidden in his father's old home chasing the sense of normaly and cutting himself off from the force completely he and Jan have gotten their hands on a brand new ship called the Raven claw since the moldy Crow got wrecked on rousan outside the Valley of the Jedi 7 years ago together they've been living their life as agents for hire running missions for mon mothma directly since they developed a solid repertoire with her we pick up during that time just as Kyle and Jan are investigating an imperial Remnant outpost on the planet [Music] ketum preparing for Final Approach whatever's causing those Transmissions it's not showing up on any of the sensors this Imperial Outpost looks as abandoned as reported it's As Dead As the rest of Kum my mtha must be getting paranoid she never used to send Pros like us out on Blue milk runs like this Kyle Jan greetings man mothma Kyle was just talking about you no doubt I bring troubling information about your mission on Kim I hate it when you say troubling we've managed to decode a small fraction of the transmission we intercepted earlier and and well listen for yourselves I will fire [Music] Shadow we may have to the Valley of the Jedi reborn Warrior the Valley of the Jedi reborn we believe this transmission was intended for galak f the suspected leader of the remnant forces in that sector his probably nothing more than a couple of soldiers telling Tales around the glow laap but as you are the only survivors of the Valley of the Jedi incident I thought it only fair to warn you that this mission may be more dangerous than we originally anticipated your objectives however remain the same find out what you can clear out any Remnant forces you encounter and May the force be with you so much for the blue milk run well we're certainly hitting the ground running first level and we're already taking on the Imperial Remnant in a hidden base and Kum is a great choice for a hidden base too given the fact that there's nothing on it despite being a habitable planet there is nearly nothing of note to be found here on Kum just a seemingly irrelevant Planet resting with a many others of the outer rim well we get here and of course there's Imperials here with their Sleek gray Imperial Bas design which is so much fun to play I love this aesthetic in Star Wars so much now I was bracing myself going into these missions because what I had heard from the people who played it was that the first handful of missions sucked and the game didn't really get good until you became a Jedi well I won't deny that the game gets way better when you get your powers and blade back but I won't lie and say I didn't like any of these early missions either I think they're super fun the game play is smooth the weapons are tight and responsive the levels make sense and play well hell even the puzzles are a great blend of thought-provoking but solvable I can tell you right now that the obtuse design and puzzle issues of the previous entry did not carry over our objective right now is to locate the main array and to do that we'll need to retrieve three codes from the base and inut them into these colored consoles while pursuing these codes we also might accidentally blow up part of the base what was that just another day at work Jan whoops I don't know what people were talking about I'm loving this sure we don't have our lightsaber but this is some classic dark Forces action going on right now Kyle took some time to get back to his roots and with it we almost get a kind of multi-level call back to what it felt like to play the first game but now with new levels on new hardware moving deeper into the base we encounter pretty heavy resistance and I mean can we just look at how gorgeous this all looks the model and textures in this game are beautiful and it's a beloved game for a reason I'll say that much what we find deeper inside the base is a whole host of very strange equipment something tells me we're not just in some random Imperial base right now this is all serving a purpose they're experimenting with something down here we've got quite a series of environmental puzzles to navigate here too but thankfully as I said before the developers have done a great job of making them all feel fair and fun to solve although I have to admit this one had me stumped for a while while eventually I realized that the terrain itself had to be edited again in order to come back here and get the other items but it's a pretty cool puzzle speaking of now is a great time to address how this game plays differently to its predecessors starting with the jumping from the get-go dark Forces 2 felt great to play it was smooth and rewarding and everything felt great a very responsive video game all the way through of course that one was made on the Sith engine for exactly that purpose just that I Outcast of course is made on the idtech 3 engine which the devs over at Raven seemed to prefer to other competitors at the time that means that although the game plays similarly to the others it is very much its own very new and individual entry of the series from the foundation up it certainly looks like a modern version of the first Jedi Knight game but it does not feel like it at least not in these earlier missions you really can feel the lack of the force during these first missions because the jump oh the jump It's So insanely bad the idea was to Nerf the natural jump mechanic so it would feel better every new Mission you play but instead it just feels unrealistically bad like it's inhuman an average able-bodied man could jump twice this height and yet Kyle cannot because he cut himself off from the force okay whatever it's not a problem after the first few levels anyway look at all these lasers ittech everyone we do get get introduced to a brand new and very interesting albeit underutilized mechanic here though logging into this screen we're able to take control of a mouse droid to bypass an area we can't access on our own which it's actually a really neat little addition I kind of wish we'd gotten more instances like this but we really only see it across three or four levels past this Kyle finds what we've been looking for kind of these crystals they've been experimenting on here that's what this facility is for well we know what's going on at least let's grab our sample and get the hell out of here I'm afraid we haven't been able to decode any more of that transmission good if I put the Valley of the Jedi behind me Sil in the rest of the Galaxy so what were the remnant doing in that lab our scientists believe that they were trying to artificially Infuse the powers of the force into living subjects those crystals you're holding are very much like those found in a Jedi's lightsaber SP just but that's impossible isn't it you can't just give people the force with a machine right everything we know about the force tells us that such devices are nothing but the fever dreams of Fools and Mad Men Jan but try telling that to those poor beings you found in that laboratory who were they colonists from AR's prime a remote mining World on the far reaches of the new Republic's influence let me guess Crystal mining yes we lost contact with them shortly before receiving the transmission from Kim now we fear that the colony has been captured by The Remnant or Worse indeed without knowing the full extent of the remnant's plans or the colonists plight the new Republic is uneasy about sending in a full Liberation Force so so you'd like us to sneak in assess the situation and call on the fleet if necessary yes you know I don't like messing with this Force business anymore we'll double your usual fee we'll take it all right I'm clear this meteor storm gives us great cover everything's closed up they'll never see us coming good The Colony should be a few clicks out I'll Scout things out from the air while you head into the mine give me a shot when you find out what's going on we'll do well that's actually the first time we've seen corusant in this series since Kyle was storming the Imperial City all the way back in dark Forces but we really don't get any levels on it or anything it's just a cut scene background no instead we're here on the planet artist Prime another low population world in the outer rim this time from the quar sector we're here chasing down the lead on these uian crystals we found back on Kum which we now know were intended for mass-producing lightsabers let's take a little break to briefly talk about lightsaber crystals traditionally in the Old Republic the Jedi would create their individual lightsabers using the rare kyber crystals found on the planet ilum there were a few reasons for this but the two biggest ones were number one the harsh environmental hazards made it a perfect way to continue a Jedi's training and Trust in the force by turning one's retrieval of their Crystal into a trial and number two the kyber crystals of ilum focused into the most powerful and stable of the potential lightsaber blades that being said you don't technically need it to be specifically a kyber Crystal thanks to the design of the lightsaber any Focus Crystal would work so long as it could be focused into the energy blade design we see so although in the days of the Jedi Order the kyber crystals of ilum danten or the AGA system were synonymous with the Jedi's lightsaber any Crystal can technically be used fans of the young Jedi Knight novel series may have even seen how Luke allows his students to call out to the force to find all kinds of different crystals from different places to use in their blades thus making it a more personal and significant item to them so what we're seeing here in this mine the collection of these uian crystals for the purpose of mass lightsaber distribution actually lines up just fine only question is who exactly are they going to for sensitives are few and far between and remember this is Legend not everyone can decide they want to be a Jedi just because they believe real hard Force sensitivity matters to one's proclivity towards being able to call upon it as a force user well as we can clearly see the Imperial Remnant have completely taken over this mine and are using it to harvest these crystals which means they've got something planned that involves a lot of lightsabers so even though monm mothma sent us here on recon strictly to determine if New Republic forces are required to intervene I mean we're already here may as well just monmo was right Jan Remnant troops are crawling all over this place and they've taken prisoners well that should bring the Republic running I'll alert the fleet and pick you up go ahead and call in the reinforcements but I've got a mind to blow up in prisoners to rescue are you trying to justify your fee be ready for a quick pickup I've got a feeling that things are about to get pretty nasty around here who needs the Valley of the Jedi when you're already gifted with such amazing intuitive Powers just be ready to pick me up as you wish oh Jedi Master well that's that I really love this little back and forth Jan and Kyle have throughout these early missions it's clear that Jan can tell how much potential Kyle has to be a powerful Jedi and is mildly annoyed with his persistent refusal to pursue it but is trying to give him space to figure it out on his own after what happened on drumond KAS I guess it's hard to blame him but in her eyes she's probably just trying to support him while waiting for him to get over it after Kyle karing the mining part of the station we make our way deeper into the facility into the detention block there's a host of both civilians and New Republic soldiers being held hostage here so we're going to have to save them the set piece for the detention block itself is just spectacular this massive spiraling Tower of prison cells is just so cool to me outlined in red and flooded with The Shining white armor of the classic Imperial Stormtroopers the multiple I interrogator droids pouring out out from around the corners is so cool too this feels like one of the most Star Wars moments across the whole Jedi Knight series to me probably because of how aesthetically accurate everything seems to that iconic detention block moment from a new hope this is how you call back to Source material in a subtle and unique way while still feeling original and true to your own story we do finally free one of the minor captains along with a host of other prisoners but of course there's still a problem we've got access to weapons and even a few ships but the docking bay doors are locked down so there's no way for us to get out or let New Republic assistants in we'll need to find an Imperial base commander with a clearance to open the doors and uh persuade him to open them up for us in order to get there we end up making our way through these deep mining tunnels where our way is led up by these arusian crystals growing from The Rock I love how this looks and feels to play through but of course we're not alone down here A whole host of the planet's local fauna running rampant down here and they're not very happy to see us mine crabs they're called due to the planet's low population I guess there was no one around to give them a more proper name so the facilities inhabitants just call them mine crabs as you'd expect they're not overly dangerous on their own but when they start pairing up is when you start to have problems luckily for us they're not biased in their aggression and are giving the Imperial some problems too ah and there's the base commander we have to slowly and I do mean very slowly walk this officer across half the detention block into the Docking Bay control room and wait for him to open the doors which turns out to be a trap to no one's surprise least of all my own with the doing bay doors open we're able to head back out to the planet's surface and prep the situation for Evac run Kyle the Evac ships are standing by just keep those prisoners alive I'm on it and they've got it atst of course they've got an atst oh well would you look at this conveniently placed anti-air turbo laser I know you're going to say this is too small to be a turbo laser but you're wrong and you'll see why in a later video this is indeed a turbo laser we can use this to do some damage and help out those new Republic soldiers oh and take out that other atst as for those ion cannons this laser isn't doing any damage at all thanks to those deflector Shields we'll have to take the shields down before we can do do anything guess we're back to doing things the oldfashioned way it's easier than ever to run out of ammo in this game but this sequence of running into the fire of Imperial forces does feel really cool to play finally we managed to get into this small Imperial Outpost where they're keeping their extra atss and hiding the shield generator for those zon cannons taking those Shields offline is the first part now we just have to destroy the Cannons themselves easy enough thanks to the anti-air turbo lasers they've got scattered all over the base's exterior with that it's easy enough to make short work of those ion cannons and clear the way for the new Republic shuttles to land and for us to go Rendevous with Jan at the Raven's Claw a prisoner for you master danan well done Tavon secure her in the cargo hold and prepare her for processing at once Master blast them Kyle Kyle Kyle katar you're the legendary hero who destroyed jerik at the Valley of the Jedi you look like nothing more than a banther herder well you look like an overgrown kawaiian monkey lizard so I guess looks don't count for much hand her over you desire this woman come take her a Sith spit oh so that's how that feels this is clearly not going our way and danan basically toys with us for a few minutes before enough of this charade you're pathetic Katan as a Jedi you might have proven a worthy adversary without the power of the force you're not worth the effort it would take to strike you down perhaps your woman will proved to be of heartier stock she certainly couldn't be any weaker than these colonists don't you touch her on second thought Tavon killed her D that big lizard just beat the hell out of us made fun of us and is flying off with our woman which means it's time to make a rash decision to put the fate of the Galaxy in danger you want a worthy adversary I'll give you a worthy [Music] adversary well this looks familiar I wonder if Jerick skeleton is still down there oh hey it's Morgan katar Morgan katar what are you doing Kyle don't try to talk me out of this father I need the power of the Valley of the Jedi and I need it now do you believe that this stream of power will ease your pain or that you can safely wield the force with anger in your heart Jan is dead my anger is all I have left anger and revenge is that how she would want to be remembered with acts of anger and revenge no then remember as she was and May the force be with you hasn't been so [Music] far while there's no going back now Kyle is fullon utilizing the power of the valley to return the force into his body again after cutting himself off which is sure to have no imaginable repercussions right let's just hope Kyle earns this because he chose to cut himself off from the force and this is not an honorable way to undo that decision are you all right I'd forgotten what it was like it will become familiar to you again in time what will you do now find the Sun but first I need to get something I left behind I will say these pre-rendered cut scenes of The Raven claw and other ships flying are beautifully rendered I'm not showing most of them in this video but every time we see ships in these cut scenes they are just gorgeous unfortunately it gives us major Whiplash when it goes back to in engine cutcenes [Music] your plan worked Master danan yes Tavon the death of katan's woman has driven him mad and delivered the Valley of the Jedi into our hands contact Admiral F and prepare the troops in his anger and from his feeling of powerlessness Kyle returns to the Valley of the Jedi to embrace its power and restore the force into his body once again in his foolish and hypocritical Lust For Revenge he ends up leading danan straight to the valley that being said with the force now back within him there's one more thing Kyle is going to need before he can go after danan and it's currently in the possession of a certain Jedi Master welcome to the Jedi Academy sir Master Skywalker is waiting upstairs um thanks I think I can find the way the Jedi Temple of Yavin 4 also called the Jedi prium here we can watch and see the Duels of the Jedi in training and witness the slow restoration of the order once lost to the Galaxy I love this so much getting to walk around here and feel this connection to the payoff of the Original Trilogy of films this is where it was meant to go this is the culmination of the prophecy the after effect of the force being brought once again into balance it's only for a glimpse here but it feels so rewarding seeing the Fulfillment of an arc here something even bigger than anything we faced in this series and of course the finality of our meeting with the Jedi who had toppled the Empire and begun restoring the Jedi Order again Jedi Master Luke Skywalker Kyle I've been expecting you Skywalker you've come for your lightsaber yeah after all these years my Jan's been killed by a Jedi goes by the name of danan you know I said sensed a disturbance in the force I'll tell you about thean while your trial is being prepared trial a minor test to determine your Fitness to wield a lightsaber again even in your relatively unpracticed State you shouldn't find it too difficult why can't you Jedi ever do things the simple way if the ways of the Jedi were easy there'd be millions of us instead of dozens take danan for example he was born on a planet unused to the wonders of the force where his seemingly magical abilities caused him to be feared and shunned by those around him his childhood was one of loneliness and despair until a visiting traitor discovered him recognized the force within him and brought him to the Jedi Academy so he was a student yes for the first time in his life danan was at peace he'd found beings who liked him for who he was beings who encouraged him to develop his talents Over time however things changed how he became cold severe he belittled his fellow students for what he perceived to be their weaknesses and argued sometimes violently with his teachers during a training session he struck down and killed a fellow student in Cold Blood danan said he was too weak to be a Jedi he fled before we could counsel him and he has not been heard from since until now yes Kyle I I'm sorry about Jan yeah well just give me my lightsaber and I'll be out of your way as you wish your lightsaber is so somewhere in the ruin Temple to the South to find it you'll need to utilize your primary force skills during your test I'll see if I can find some information on Dan's whereabouts good luck well here we are this ancient Jedi Temple exists both as a tutorial for the player and a trial for Kyle himself taking us through a number of different challenges that Force Kyle to utilize his Jedi abilities in order to overcome them and also Force the player to pay attention to their environment Force push Force pull Force speed and of course Force jump I actually genuinely applaud the developers over at Raven because the different puzzles are all brilliantly designed they're not so easy they're pointless nor are they so hard you resent them it's a great balance of challenging and fun for each puzzle and finally there it is our lightsaber let's get it back ah it's good to have our old blue blade back again wait why is it blue wasn't Kyle's lightsaber orange after he got it from Yun back on rousan well like I said earlier Kyle abandoned his lightsaber after what he almost did to Mara J due to his falling to the dark side that wasn't when he called it quits on the force however after learning about what happened on drumond C Luke himself met with Kyle and offered to train him in the ways of the force in a place where Kyle could learn to hone his abilities in a more controlled and peaceful environment Kyle accepted the offer and joined Luke in his Academy on Yavin 4 Kyle was actually one of Luke's earlier students as this was in the earlier days of the praum but after a few months of being there Kyle's fear of falling to the dark side grew as his power did and when he watched one of Luke's other students fall to the Dark Side Kyle made the decision to sever his connection to the force and aband in the academy we aren't told which student Kyle saw fall that convinced him to leave but it's suggested in the lore that he actually saw to fall after doing what research I could I've concluded the two students Kyle watched fall that scared him away from the academy were Kip Duron and brackus both of whom have plenty of their own lore if you want to go read about them all of that is to say this is the lightsaber Kyle built here on Yavin under Luke's tutelage and now Kyle is back and seemingly unafraid of the Prospect of his potential fall to the dark side probably too bent on Revenge to care so what's next Where Do We Go From Here you've retrieved your lightsaber very good I'm ready what did you find out about the Sun not much with the help of your ship's logs and the Republic's databases we've Tracked Down the registry of danan ship to a rodian named relo baroo relo baroo you know him not personally he claimed seems to be an honest garbage hauler but he's really one of the most powerful criminal kingpins in all of Narada even the Huts won't touch him sounds like a solid lead it'll do Kyle yeah I just wanted to say how impressed I was with your performance in the trial considering how long it's been since you used the force I almost expected you to fail outright well um you've been to the Valley of the Jedi yes Kyle I know what I'm doing Skywalker if I'm going to defeat danan I'll need the full power of the force and I can't afford to spend years of my life retraining myself here Kyle I realize you're in pain but you must learn to anticipate the consequences of your actions you and Jan swore an oath to protect the Valley of the Jedi and now the Jan's dead you're the only person who knows where it is if you should fall to the dark side you could use the Valley's power for unspeakably evil purposes are you saying I can't be trusted I'm saying saying that I want you to let go of your anger before it destroys you I don't know if I can do that but I will give you the coordinates to the Valley of the Jedi just to be safe well that's a start I suppose take one of the Academy's vessels to narida it'll be less conspicuous don't worry I'll take care of the Ravens claw until you return you're not coming along I'm afraid not I have pressing business of my own to attend to Good Luck Kyle I hope you find what you're looking for May the force be with you but right isn't there just something about Narada that just feels like home as far as the vertical City goes in this series it's never looked this good we're here hunting down a junk dealer by the name of relo baroo and we know his establishment isn't far from here although he's apparently not a fan of visitors much less ones running around with a lightsaber this particular mission is actually notorious for its ridiculous difficulty so much in fact that despite being less than halfway through the game this is the hardest the game ever gets let me just get this box out of my way anyway you can clearly see the cause of the difficulty is these snipers being posted up all over the place around nearly every corner and just making it impossible to walk around outside without being tagged from across the map and not even knowing where it came from the biggest cause of difficulty I think is actually psychological because this being not only our first mission with our lights saber but also one of the coolest looking levels and platforming in the whole game just feels like we're being handicapped the player naturally wants to run around and use our new weapon and have fun jumping across balconies and fighting thugs yet the level forces us into a play style of ignoring our light saber peaking corners and fearfully progressing across each new area I am confident in calling this the game's single greatest misstep because it takes what should be one of the most fun levels of the game where we can jump across platforms and have fun feeling like a Jedi with our blade and turns it into a boring slow paced slog which I hate so much because I love how everything looks and plays if they would have just deleted the damn rodian snipers then the problem would have basically been solved eventually we do end up on a Garbage barge heading into relo's Hideout where we can finally get some Close Quarters action let's not let ourselves be crunched up into bits here pH what is that smell that Kyle is relo's garbage Crusher room this level isn't all that long or large but it is quite complicated and took me a ton of backtracking to figure out the puzzles and how to progress in fact I'd say this was probably the level that took me the longest in terms of puzzle solving but it didn't feel unfair rather just challenging there's a lot of maze likee qualities to this level where you're unlocking New Paths that tie back to the previous room but from a new entrance and that allow you to alter one thing or another to gain more ground which we are able to do but there's still no getting through this locked door without the passcode which we don't know reload which means we're going to have to find find someone who knows what the password is but I mean who would that even be we can't just torture it out of someone and it's not like we're going to just run into someone that'll tell us what it is alatan Lando what are you doing here what does it look like I'm doing I'm sitting in a Cell what about you I'm looking for relo baroo you too what's the Republic want with him a ship of his was involved in an incident on artist Prime Remnant stuff The Remnant blast now it's starting to make sense what over the past few weeks a mineral smuggling ring has infiltrated the Cloud City on bond real slick group too they commandeered half of our loading platforms and commite chamers before we knew what hit us no one knows who's behind it but it's become obvious that R's garbage haulers are handling the transports I came down here to find relo and persuade him to hand over the names of his employer persuade hey I can be a Charming guy when I want to after a few B fights and card games I hadn't gotten any closer to reload but I had begun to hear about a Remnant bigwig named danan then I was captured danan you know him he's a dark Jedi he and the remnant have been performing sick experiments on New Republic citizens among other things like I said the remnant connection makes sense these Smugglers are much more organized than the kind of scum we usually get on bbin they've got to be Imperials want me to get you out of here if it's not too much trouble you'll need the password to get into relo's command center and open the cells any idea what that might be yeah it's Ruby BS I could go for one of those yeah me too I'll be right back I'm not going anywhere looks like Lando's gotten mixed up in all this danan business after they got a little too comfortable taking over parts of besin now he's gone and gotten himself captured trying to get to the bottom of it all and that's actually really Lando too like Billy D Williams came back to reprise his role and voice Lando for the game he's the real deal which is awesome makes us EU fans feel right at home well we can't just leave our boy locked up in a Cell so using the password he gave us we're able to gain access to the deeper levels of the building and what do you know there's the old corrupted garbage dealer himself [Music] looking for something not anymore you're relo baroo in the flesh but who are you does it matter not really any last words what's a respectable gangster like you doing mixed up with a Remnant slime like danan making money of course [Music] H leave it to a fat rodian to have an audience room rigged with Blaster turrets all over the ceiling if I wasn't a Jedi this would have shredded me to bits but luckily I am a Jedi relo's gone by the time I get up into the office but we do have a few smaller rodians to take our aggression out on even if he got away we can still free Lando from his captivity from here and regroup to plan our next moon what went on up there I ran into relo did he tell you anything about the smuggling ring we didn't talk much I see listen we' better get out of here my ship's hidden nearby what about yours reo's thugs have probably already stripped it for parts by now what about Jan Jan's not with me on this one you two have had another one of your fights haven't you well come on let's go you can buy us some flowers on bond all right well relo's in the wind and every Mark in the area is is surely rushing to collect a bounty on both Kyle and Lando given the events that just transpired this is one of the simplest levels of the game actually the whole thing is just a series of errands to get Lando's ship the Lady Luck ready for departure opening the doors refueling the ship and killing everyone who gets in our way this level is pretty much exactly what I was talking about wanting earlier as we're given a much better environment to just butcher through this mercenary [Music] trash [Music] with that done we can get back to the ship and get out of here going somewhere gentlemen oh well there's relo you'd better get on the gun and hold him off I'll have this fixed in the Jiffy that's fine I wanted to settle things with him before I left anyway see you in hell trash rodian Kyle wake up no no Chad Kyle are you okay yeah yeah I I'll be fine good while you were sleeping I hail a new Republic base on solist they haven't shown much interest in our little smuggling problem in the past but now that they know Remnant forces are behind it they're eager to pitch in a Strike Team should be arriving on bond within a few hours no I thought you'd be happy to they'll tip off the sun then we'll catch him later getting danan isn't as important as clearing the city Chan's dead Lando danan and his minion killed her gri I'm sorry Kyle okay okay here's what we'll do I'll drop you off on the lower levels they've probably been overrun by Remnant troops so watch out chances are that Dan's operating from one of the loading Bays above level 10 but you'll never get in without the proper access codes try to find cight chamber 17 I've hidden an old R5 unit there with codes to every loading Bay in the city you always did plan for the worst ever since that running with Vader anyway I'll head up top and gather some old friends from the security Force we'll work our way down towards your position if we're lucky we can trap desan before the new Republic arrives well Welcome to Cloud City Lando has dropped us off on the underside of the giant Metropolis I see anyway in order to avoid detection from Remnant or reborn forces we're going to have to play this one safe getting into this elevator we make it into the guts of cloud City's tail and I know what you're thinking there's just no way this is the accurate scale well I'd say you're right and I have precisely zero explanation so we're just going to chalk this up to technological limitations and move on while scaling up the maintenance tunnels of cloud city we take out more than our share of a welcoming committee but the real main event is waiting for us just below the entrance into the main city I sense a disturbance in the forest but there's something strange about [Music] it you will die that is a dark Jedi at this point we don't even know where he came from or what he's doing here but he's not giving us time for questions it's been 2 years since Kyle's duel with Mara and 7 years since his fateful battle with Jerick and his minions at the valley so he might be rusty but he's not weak strange he looked like a Jedi and fought like a Jedi but his power felt so warped things are heating up and fast as if Dan's deal with the remnant and various Crim Lords wasn't bad enough now we've got a flurry of dark Jedi running around and there's another one of them now although they have been given the power to use the force they're clearly not trained in how to wield it and are struggling to hold their own against Kyle this little Astromech droid is going to be crucial in our ability to progress which means escorting him to the door we need unlocked and that means Crossing this balcony littered with trip mines snipers and assorted mercenaries and a sequit that nearly broke me I'm not sure if i' have been able to do it without Force speed to help me out oh great Tie fighters in the hanger can only mean one thing the remnant are here because the dozens of mercenary thugs weren't all already enough of a problem still it's so cool for me to see these storm four twinpod Cloud cars they're so uniquely Star Wars and are basically synonymous with the idea of cloud city so I just love seeing them here in High Fidelity like this really just help solidify that feeling that we're battling our way through the streets of cloud city itself oh great it's an ambush the saber combat in this game is great by the way this was the level I sort of realized that I wanted to have my cake and eat it too and although I personally felt more more immersed overall while playing in first person like in this saber Clash for instance I eventually realized that I wouldn't be able to perform any of the cool acrobatic moves from this perspective and so I decided to start playing my saber duels in third person going forward we're not out of this yet though we still have to see the best set piece of the game so far this little Arena has Kyle being ambushed by two reborn dark Jedi and just feels so epic to play I'm obviously able to take one of them out pretty quick but the other one gives me quite a bit more trouble it's very clear that some of these reborn are taking to the process giving them the force far better than others my theory is that their inherent midic choran count is determining just how well they're able to control Force powers given to them from the power of the Valley of the Jedi I'm not really sure what it all looks like but we do know that in the Legend's continuity someone's mic choran count determines their Force sensitivity meaning the higher your medoran count is the greater your potential in wielding the force so that leads me to believe that the power of the valley somehow manipulates your mid choran count possibly by imbuing more which isn't all that unfathomable given that many choran are actually just microscopic life forms called The Wills but I'm not trying to get into all of that right now what I'm saying is if all the valley does is expose you to some kind of energy that imbus you with more of the microscopic life forms called medoran then that would lead me to believe that the higher your median count going in the easier it will be for you to take to the process overall leading to varied results from the process and meaning that it's not a static power up for everyone who does it which is why all of these dark Jedi despite receiving the process at roughly the same time all seem to vary in skill and it's also worth mentioning that none of them are all that challenging as Kyle is able to take on multiple at once and they aren't really threatening the midi choran count isn't an excuse for instant skills as a Warrior without training because when we Face a real dark Jedi who's been trained in how to properly wield the force force and use her lightsaber here shortly it's significantly more challenging so no just stuffing a bunch of murans into someone isn't an excuse to suddenly make a character a powerful Jedi they still need a lot of time and training to make them genuinely formidable these reborn dark Jedi may be able to tap into the force and use a lightsaber but they can't hold a candle to someone who's been trained in the force okay with that ran out of the way we've managed to help the Cloud City security fight back the occupying forces so now we just need to find out who's in charge of the occupation and take them out hopefully we can get some answers as to the whereabouts of danan while we're at [Music] it we've pushed the occupying Remnant forces back into this building which is a good and a bad thing good because it means we've cleared out the majority of the occupation bad because it means this building is densely packed out with Imperials holding up in here and when I say densely I mean possibly more than a hundred there's a lot a good half dozen of them are these reborn dark Jedi that said with some work in the force and a well-placed trip M or two we are able to clear out the majority of the building leading us to the person who's been leading this little occupation danon's second in command a real dark Jedi named Tavon ah the prodical Jedi have you come seeking vengeance oh that's not very Jedi like where's your master Apprentice the son sends his regards but is far too busy in the Valley of the Jedi to personally dispose of his ponds what you still don't know do you desan followed you to the Valley of the Jedi even now hundreds of danon's loyal followers are drinking deeply from the Valley's power becoming reborn in the glory of the force and we owe it all to you then you killed Jan that's right we killed your woman to make you angry angry enough to cast aside your promises and rashly seek out the power of the valley just think of it her death and your failure will be celebrated for eons to come as the events that brought about the error of danan congratulations stop talking this is what I was talking about before this battle took me nearly 10 minutes and this isn't even a full dark Jedi she's just an apprentice so you see how much training matters dozens of so-called reborn dark Jedi cut through effortlessly only for a real dark Jedi Apprentice with real Jedi training to give Kyle some actual trouble no amount of micans can make up for a genuine lack of practice that's my point so let's talk about Tavon Tavon axus is something of a mystery as she was found by danan who took her as his Apprentice while she was in service to Lord heer one of the leaders of the Empire reborn Insurgency one part of what we call the Imperial Remnant Danon obviously took her under his tutelage due to her forc sensitivity but before her service under Heth reer her past is practically unknown judging by her attire and face paint there's speculation that she's descended from either the witches or night sisters of damir that may have escaped before the Imperial blockade following the great Jedi Purge there is no confirmation on this so while it is ultimately left up to speculation I would say her strong force proclivity matched with her attire and tattoos are pretty strong visual indicators of just where she probably comes from and that's damir after a long battle on this bestman platform Kyle finally gets the better of her don't Mercy the kind of Mercy you show Jan she lives I can tell you where she is liar I saw her die think what did you really see what did you really hear Do You Believe we'd risk killing one of the only two people who knew the location of the Valley of the Jedi where is she that holler we'll take you to our base in the Leno belt that's where G ship the doomgiver is docked it's also where he's keeping your woman for further interrogations why should I believe you because I'm not brave enough to die get out of my sight what you heard me go and pray that I find your master before he finds you using a stolen freighter to infiltrate an Imperial base just like that time back on fuel station Argo some things never change according to Tavon Jan is being held captive on an Imperial Star Destroyer called the doomgiver commanded by Admiral G fire not exactly the most inspired name for a ship but it does have an air of originality to it I have to admit as for the situation we're in outnumbered outgunned alone in an imperial Fortress base with no backup backup plan but at least it's not the first time Kyle's been in this situation and last time he wasn't a Jedi so technically this is an improvement at this point what could possibly surprise [Applause] us Kyle Skywalker what are you doing here Lando told me where you were going then why aren't you at the Valley of the Jedi I went to the valley right after you left hav for Kyle danan followed me I know does this mean we have a new emperor on our hands it may be worse than that remember those experiments on Kim with the arusian crystals with the Valley of the Jedi's power coursing through those crystals danan has succeeded in infusing his troops with the power of the force a Sith spit I think I ran into one of them on bespin are they still in the valley not anymore I managed to scatter desan and his reborn troops and Rogue Squadron chased away their ships for now the valley is effectively sealed off but we have no idea how many troops danan managed to empower before we got there it could be dozens but it could be thousands and all of them will have Force Powers yes but we've got an advantage due to our training and discipline look out what could I even say about this sequence that a genuine fan wouldn't feel just from seeing it we're ambushed by a horde of Imperial Stormtroopers and get to fight backto back with Luke Skywalker in his prime it's so cool and and even better we get to watch and fight alongside him against a group of reborn acolytes too this is but a brief little scene but it's honestly one of the coolest ones from the whole game after beating it this was the moment I kept remembering even Days Later a genuine gift to fans of the [Music] EU something's changed in you you seem less angry maybe there's a chance Jan may still be alive on the doomgiver sometimes even a small hope is enough to defeat the Dark Side Kyle listen Skywalker there's even more to this than you think Dan's working with a Remnant scientist named gak F they're smuggling something called cortosis here from bespin damn that's not good why well cortosis is a rare mineral that resists lightsabers great I'll try and find out what they're doing with a cortosis you find the doomgiver if you run into danan don't try to take him on alone now that he's been through the valley of the Jedi he'll be more powerful than [Music] ever don't worry I'm not totally crazy May the force be with you Kyle yeah you too Luke damn seems like things might be worse than we thought but at least it's all coming together now these arusian crystals the remnants were mining on artist Prime were for Mass manufacturing these lightsabers for the reborn to acolytes which means that danan has been planning on creating a dark Jedi Army for far longer than we might have initially assumed presumably he pitched the idea to one of the higher authority figures in one of the remnant factions in this case Lord heer and rallied enough support not only to lay the groundwork for a dark Jedi military but he got an admiral and a star destroyer too question is how did danan plan to actually manifest the acolytes they've all got matching uniforms and Sabers ready for them and it's only been a few days since danan found the valley meaning all of this has been pre-planned for a while now Danon must have known about the valley somehow and has just been waiting for a chance to strike to either go Kyle into going back to the valley or torturing it out of Jan back to this station situation though there are a lot of reborn acolytes hanging around I mean you'd expect to see a solid share of Imperials obviously but force you users just running all over the place rampantly like this is sort of a first for the Galaxy in a very long time I mean it's possibly been thousands of years since there were this many red lightsabers all Under One Roof together like this even after considering the Inquisition this new Reborn movement has already shown well over two or more dozen just that we've killed who knows how many more there are I'd guess hundreds by now it doesn't help things that Jerick already set up an entire Imperial Outpost around the valley hell all danan had to do was show up and start feeding in Prime candidates like a dark Jedi printing press I'm talking Barracks generators Munitions they even had a damned at80 ready to go hell jerrick's men basically built a small fortress on rouson at the valley by the time Kyle got there last time now granted that was s years ago at this point but still it's not like danan had to do anything when he found the valley and although some of that stuff may have withered or decayed in the last 7 years we know it's probably all still there we know for a fact that Kyle and Jan were the only people who knew the location to the valley before he told Luke so that means no one else has gone and secured any of that equipment so where does that leave us exactly did danan share the location with anyone I mean the doomgiver is here in the Leno belt system on this base with us right now which means it's not at rousan I'm guessing and this is just my speculation that danan opted to handle the the conversion process personally and fed out a few dozen Prime candidates for the conversion making multiple trips but never sharing where they were going I assume he did this because this means that he wouldn't have to give the location of the valley to anyone else since after all if the remnant could just access the valley themselves then they could print their own Jedi at will and might decide they don't want to risk a potential threat to their power from him I've gotten off topic are you seeing how utterly devastating this lightsaber is I actually couldn't believe how brutal this game is sometimes but it does add a lot of weight to just what you're doing here this isn't an adventure this is practically a war zone the dismemberment on display here Rivals even the Dead Space Games sometimes I mean we can remove hands arms legs heads or even just horizontally disassociate a torso from its lower half this game has totally up the ante in pretty much every way in terms of gameplay and of course at this point in the game the awful jump distance situation has pretty much resolved itself as we can force jump several feet into the air speaking of force jumping I've talked about platforming in every one of these games so far and Outcast is no exception so here the platforming feels okay for the most part it never feels outright bad or broken or anything but it definitely never feels buttery smooth like the previous titles either I think the clunky realism of the idtech 3 engines physics is the cause for this and I don't think it's bad either just different from the other games also are you seeing where we are I love the set piece for this level we're literally fighting through the reactor of this massive Imperial base and the enormous scale of the environment offers up such a larger than life sci-fi feeling while playing through it this for sure feels like the opening of the third act for this story in the best of ways and although the majority of our opponents are imperial Troopers we get more than our share of reborn acolytes to carve through this level also introduces us to a newer even deadlier enemy type the shadow Troopers not only are these foes reborn through the power of the Valley of the Jedi but they went into it already being highly trained stealth soldiers who specialize in acrobatics and assassination missions making them far deadlier than your average acolyte not to mention their utilization of cloaking technology this little Arena acts as a boss fight against these two Shadow Troopers and it's by no means an easy fight it shows the power they've reached in an incredibly short amount of time however and this whole operation has to be shut down before it gets any worse with the shadow Troopers out of our way the developers pull a major fast one on us by temporarily turning Jedi Outcast into a stealth game while this is something I did not see coming it kind of makes sense adding in little Half Baked stealth mechanics was kind of a trend for a few years back when this game came out and it's really not all that badly implemented we have to avoid detection through the K station's docking area or else the alarms will go off and result in an immediate Mission failed screen look I'm not going to sit here and pretend this was the best idea in the world but I don't think it's all that bad and it doesn't only offer a little extra variety to the game but also gives us an excuse to play with the force Mind Trick ability a lot more and it does kind of give off more A New Hope Vibes like when Obi-Wan was sneaking through the Death Star and overall both the stealth section and just the mission in general are pretty short so it's just a painless little experimental addition to the game's flow looking at the game's files reveals that there were two more levels planned for the car installation those being called docs 2 and stockpile however we don't know much about what was intended for these levels Beyond just their names cutting our way through a few more reborn acolytes we see a couple of familiar faces and they're both locked in a very intense duel that's Luke and the son save your strength fool save your strength [Music] fool SP what the we're [Music] [Music] moving [Music] Kyle are you there yeah I thought you said not to fight danan alone I didn't have a choice I never even felt him coming he's escaped onto a ship I know I'm on it we need to destroy the ship before danan and his army reaches its Target whatever it is try to find the ship's Communication Center and use its centur array to contact Rogue Squadron I'll keep trying Luke for can someone with Source Filmmaker or blender talents please go animate a version of this little duel between Luke and Danon to look cooler than that because while that was awesome in concept its execution was just a pinch over lackluster one of the reasons for this is because it's actually being played out in real time that duel isn't pre-rendered or scripted they just let the two two AI fight each other in front of the camera there this can actually result in one of them dying on camera during the duel if a particular move connects they really should have just scripted and animated a duel there anyway we're stranded on the Imperial Remnant Star Destroyer called the Doom giver and tasked with destroying the thing before it reaches wherever it's going and although that is Kyle's speciality this time we're calling for backup in the form of Rogue Squadron that's right another little treat for fans of the expanded unit Universe only problem is we've got to figure out a way to contact them but Evan I hear you say why doesn't Kyle just use his personal Communicator that he just talked to Luke on to call Wedge or why doesn't Luke call them for Kyle yeah and tell them what hey I'm on a star destroyer in hyperspace come help please we don't even know where this thing is going right now so that means our job is to fight our way through the ship find the comay and use it to send our location to Rogue Squadron so they know where to meet us when this thing comes out of hyperspace and hopefully stay alive while we're at it this Mission also sees the return of the series staple puzzle solving this is another one of those missions that's actually not very long once you know where to go and what to do but where the act of figuring those things out is the timec consuming part that does mean however they're bringing back a neat little mechanic from earlier in the game the ability to control a Droid remotely although this time we're not taking over a mous Droid but rather an Astromech it's a fun little mechanic and this is the only game in the series that ever lets us do this so I enjoyed the little element of uniqueness this brings to the title never mind all that though we've got a tram to catch and it's taking us straight to the communications array which unfortunately is powered down right now for some reason the Imperials thought it'd be fun to make the generators operate on a very weird system of symbol-based power selection essentially the power generators below the Comm array determined where they send the voltage to based on a series of which symbol coed panels are active getting all that squared away we're finally able to send power back to the comay call our boys and Rogue Squadron and let them lock onto our signal to find out where the hell this ship is headed Rogue leader to Kyle katar Rogue leader this is Kyle katar katar good to hear your voice we've locked onto your signal and are in Pursuit that is one whon of a ship you hooked Kyle can you bring her down maybe but I feel a lot better about our chances if somebody on the inside were working to disable the ship's shielding I'll see what I can do about those Shields but I've got some unfinished business here understood once you get the shields down make sure you get out of there in a hurry because there's not going to be much left of this ship once we're done with her don't waste any time on my account good luck Kyle Rogue leader out got it and on the way to the shields too all crew members prepare to drop out of [Music] hyperspace [Music] [Applause] great Rogue Squadron is on their way and this whole ship is going down whether we're on it or not but that's only going to happen if we can get those Shields down and open this thing up normally this might be an easier matter of setting it to self-destruct and escaping like last time but in this case Cas not only is this ship quite a bit bigger than Kyla's used to it looks like Jan is alive after all and getting her to a ship has got to be the top priority right now first things first get to the detention block and find Jan and then hopefully get to the shields before Rogue Squadron gets well they're already here damn that was fast all right well we can just and that's a Shadow Trooper they're not playing around this time if even a small handful of these shadow Troopers makes it off this ship they could wreak unimaginable chaos across the new Republic hold up are those turbo laser controls I see well well we might as well try to make Rogue squadron's life a little easier down there while we're here these last few missions are where the gloves are pretty much off you're expected to have mastered your abilities and skills and now it's time to use them to take down this little sect of the remnant and although we're all by ourselves on this ship right now it doesn't mean we can't do a few things to even the odds a little bit now now where are those detention blocks oh great more Walker droids these are a sort of technological followup to the atps used by the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War but are a bit smaller and faster in design not to mention these are totally automated as opposed to the atpd which required manual input from a pilot to operate they're also unique to the Doom givers Garrison so if we can blow this ship up we'll wipe this design off of the face of the galactic map right along with it save a few potential ones remaining on the car station finally we're able to get to the detention block and of course there's a couple of reborn acolytes standing between us and Jan all right fine let's put an end to [Music] this now we just ask this officer very nicely to open the door to the cells and see if Jan's still alive with our own eyes Jan Well you certainly took your sweet time hey it's okay I'm happy to see you too I I I thought you were dead dead no in pain yes danan and his thugs must have burned out half a dozen interrogation droids trying to get me to crack they wanted to know about the Valley of the Jedi right for the first for then they dropped the subject and started asking me about the layout of the Jedi Academy the Jedi Academy yeah danan seemed obsessed with it oh no what I think is invading the Jedi Academy we've got to destroy the Doom Giver Shields before he can deploy his troops I think I know where it is let's go I'm pretty sure the shield generators are through there I know you get an escape pod ready and wait for me this shouldn't take long don't do something stupid like die on me and put you through the same misery I've been through not on your life splitting up with Jan we're in the Doom Giver Shield generator and that is a lot of Stormtroopers it's pretty easy to see how this would have been an impossible task for a non-jedi right they're not giving up without a serious fight though my guess is that between a Jedi running around and Rogue Squadron beating the hell out of the ship's hole the whole ship is scrambling to keep the shields up and running right now and I can't say I blame them and man this game's saber combat is just brutal this is on an entirely different level than any other Star Wars game I've seen before I hope I'm allowed to show this and there's the shield generator we're in business as soon as I get this thing shut down the roges can start tearing the ship apart now it's just a matter of cutting the power lines and ah Captain Katan what a pleasure it is to finally meet you face to face the pleasure is all yours I'm sure the ozom thinks quite highly of you did you know that she must have whimpered your name on at least 17 different occasions over the last few days is that supposed to make me angry and pass that g then what if I tell you that even as we speak danan is descending on the Jedi Academy with thousands of his Force enhanced lightsaber resistant Warriors eliminating the scourge of the Jedi for all time I'd say you're insane insane then what about this Strike Force One to doomgiver Eastward assault on Academy grounds proceeding as planned Strike Force two to doomgiver establishing Beach head outside main entrance Strike Force 3 to doomgiver reborn troops advancing on Northern perimeter within hours the sun will have eradicated those annoying Jedi clearing away for my Ascent as the leader of the new Empire I galak the first the genius who conceived of the Shadow Armor will the Galaxy with a cortosis fist worlds will tremble Stars will shatter your Shields will fall awkward cut scene aside this battle is actually really hard it took me several tries to actually beat GAC and his golden Dark Trooper ripoff armor but that being said this once again does ring pretty familiar to our time in Dark Forest fighting General mock on the arch Hammer all those years ago like they rhyme but despite his shining new armor and his incredibly resilient Shields there's only so much one can do to withstand a lightsaber carving away at you in a speedy flurry with him Dead the game brings back an old mechanic for Mysteries of the Sith zero gravity as the ship's hle gets bombarded by the x-wings outside the artificial gravity gets knocked offline and we're left to try and Float our way out of here which puts us at a slight disadvantage to the multitudes of interrogation droids trying to kill us I say slight because I mean look this scene is super cool in concept and it's not even bad in execution but it does feel pretty janky to try and play I'm still glad it's here though because it feels sort of like it parallels the falling ship sequence from Dark Forces to there's Jan let's bail before the Rogues turn this whole place into a debris field [Music] [Music] [Applause] that if we get out of this alive remind me never to do that again I'm going after Dan Sun he's probably heading for the heart of the academy you coming I think I'd be more useful in the air I'll go to the hanger and join the new Republic troops okay try to avoid anyone with a lightsaber good advice [Music] Jedi and that kid is called the character Arc they used to be common in Star Wars touching down on the surface of Yavin Kyle has accepted his Destiny as a Jedi Knight and is now on his way to try and rescue who he can from the remnant Siege on the Jedi Academy this Arc will come to a more complete resolution later but we just pretty much saw it happen by this point Kyle is pretty overpowered and as you see on the screen we can pretty much terrorize the local Remnant presence without much struggle the landscape is pretty cool though it's like Po Tre if they RH I really like the swampy aesthetic and how the pouring rain occasionally hits our blade causing it to evaporate against the blade and don't give me any of that lightsaber blades aren't hot stuff they so very clearly are the popularly accepted theory is that the heat is kept within a containment field and until the field is breached via direct contact no heat is felt so these drops evaporating on the blade makes perfect sense to me back to the game though we get introduced to the swamp Troopers which are pretty cool but honestly just a [Music] resan these shadow troopers on the other hand are a constant [Music] challenge nothing we can't handle though obviously after a few respawns anyway the level feels kind of short but like I said earlier that's kind of just because your character is too overpowered to be worried about regular Imperial soldiers at this point playing on harder difficulties might offer a different experience but I'm running it on normal which is the default experience and overall it feels good to get to enjoy your power up in this Final Act once we make it into the canyon we've still got a little ways to travel before we reach the academy fortunately for us the remnant left this atst just sitting out here and I feel it would be such a shame to just leave it here like this now this mission is pretty short because most of it is just slaughtering whatever Remnant troops you can find in this Canyon on the way to the academy while inside of this atst I do have a few things to say about this sequence though this is the only real vehicle section in the game which is a first for the series actually the atst controls about how you'd expect I mean it's a slow bipedal Imperial Walker it's got two firing modes a primary laser and a secondary missile launcher both of which are supr surprisingly ineffective if I'm being honest but we can step on people which is cool we come across various opportunities to ditch the Walker and explore around a bit which is nice and adds a degree of fluidity to one's available options some games from this time period might have locked the player to the vehicle but we actually get to get in and out at will once we cut our way through to the far end of this [Music] Canyon we're able to enter the tunnels that connect around into Luke's Academy building this really is it we're maker break here we've got a small number of New Republic soldiers holding off the remnant forces but this Ambush didn't give any time for preparations or backup so they're pretty outnumbered by The Remnant Troopers deployed from the late doomgiver it's not the remnant to be worried about right now though running into one of the Jedi training rooms we saw earlier we find a couple of reborn acolytes trying to kill a Jedi Trainer and his Apprentice this is happening all over the prium and it's going to be on us to put a stop to it I was able to save several of the J Jedi in this Mission but that said a lot of them still did fall during the battle also it's pretty awesome to be fighting alongside all of these other Jedi like this it feels very epic in a way Star Wars rarely delivers on despite its own potential I did end up realizing that Force speed was one of the most valuable powers in defeating these acolytes because they can counter so many of the directly offensive abilities finally we reach the end of the prium and come upon a series of secret tunnels beneath the ancient Jedi Temple now being guarded by two Shadow Troopers we know danan is in there but it's just a matter of getting through his guards and making it to him which we finally do eventually and then give Chase into the tunnels well here we go all right danan has fled into these old temples for some reason maybe to hide from us but it didn't workc man I'm sick of this big lizard well I mean technically he's a chis story but those are literally just big talking lizards anyway finally after several obtuse puzzles we reach the end of the Maze and confront tan for the final [Music] time welcome Kyle Katan Welcome To The Future your future is looking pretty Grim to son on the contrary thanks to you the weakling Jedi who scorned me will soon be erased from history replaced by a new race of Warriors strong Warriors Warriors who know that the force is not a shield to protect the useless but is in reality a weapon to empower the worthy none of that's going to happen to son most of your Shadow Troopers are being mopped up by real Jedi I ones who've been trained to use the force the rest blew up with your ship what a pathetic rules the S far Admiral Admiral Admiral f i order you to come in at once I was wrong about you Katan your failure as a Jedi hasn't weakened you it's only made you stronger come join me you know when you're hard that you'll never truly be one of them maybe maybe not but I know I won't be alone how about to you danan even now after all this pain it's not too late come join us you s [Music] fool well that's that danan has made his decision and there's only one way left for this to end violently Luke already told us pretty much everything there is to know about Danon so there isn't much lore for me to cover he was shunned by his own people as a child and taken to Luke's Academy to learn the ways of the force after some training when he learned to control his abilities he grew in both power and aggression steadily leading him to strike down one of Luke's other students named havet Storm from there he flood the prium and sought out the Imperial Remnant where he would end up finding heer one of the many warlord likee leaders of the various Remnant factions there's a number of different ways to beat him but I decided to take advantage of this Force Nexus the prium which gives Kyle temporary invulnerability this is a risky move however as it offers the same benefits to danan if he beats you to it which is why I had to push him out of the beam and take it for myself after securing the power of the Temple's Force Nexus we're able to take him down in one final Clash of blades ending this conflict for [Music] good [Music] e Kyle Jad someday you're going to have to teach me how to do that thanks for taking care of the Raven's Claw it was the least I could do for the pair of mercenaries who saved the Jedi Academy I know you've probably heard this before but the new Republic is forever in your debt you should have known it would take a failed Jedi to take out another failed Jedi Kyle you were never a failure Luke I I know I'll be happy to hold your lightsaber for safekeeping no I think I'll keep it I knew it Lando owes me five credits are you sure this is what you want Kyle look I'm not saying I'm ready to join the academy or anything like that I mean before I do anything I figure that Jan and I have earned a long vacation on the beaches of spyra and after that well after that we'll see yeah take your time Kyle we'll still be here when you're ready thanks and May the force be with you Luke and thus ends the story of Kyle katar on his journey as a Jedi knight from lowly Imperial Academy Dropout to Rebel mercenary to Jedi Knight to Jedi Outcast and now the next time we see him he will be a Jedi master it's been a serious Journey getting to see this what is essentially his final Jedi trial as a knight but it's been a blast all the same and I'm so glad I finally get to sit down and play through this epic adventure after all these years danan is defeated the doomgiver is destroyed and the remnant are on the run and the next time we see Kyle Luke and the academy it'll be from an entirely different perspective Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast very much maintains the impressive Trend set by its predecessors of being another one of the very best games Star Wars has to offer the game play is tight-knit and feels great the story is exciting and readily marries itself to the expanded universe in a way that makes fans of the books feel right at home during their playtime I really cannot believe it's taken me so long to actually play this one and I have to say despite not really knowing what to expect from it I wasn't disappointed in any way there is technically one more Mission left to talk about but I won't give it very much time since it's not really canon in order to promote the game Raven software developed a demo level that was fully flushed out complete with its own premise objectives and even unique voice lines from Kyle and Jan taking place on a Remnant Outpost hidden on the remote planet of aelock 3 the level really serves as more of a vertical slice to show off the different mechanics of the game I say it's not canon because when you fight a couple of reborn acolytes at the end of the level if they beat you then they'll say danan will be pleased as if he's still alive which would place this before the events on Yavin and that's impossible because there's nowhere between Jan's kidnapping and the battle of the Yavin where this could take place it is possible I suppose that these acolytes are simply not aware of danon's defeat but even then Kyle's powers are noticeably weaker in this level two suggesting he's not at full power here meaning it wouldn't be after danon's death anyway on top of that nothing notable really happens in this level it's just a demo so it wouldn't add anything to the canonicity anyway as you've been hearing throughout this video I've once again replaced the music from Jedi Outcast with music from various other Star Wars properties due to Jedi Outcast once again relying heavily on the John Williams music ripped directly from the movies nothing more to say here you know my thoughts on this by now Jedi Outcast does feature a multiplayer mode just like the previous two games have before it but unlike the previous games this one offers AI Bots to play with so I can actually talk a little bit about the multiplayer there's a pretty solid variety of well made maps on offer with all of the game modes we've come to expect from the series including the return of kill the fo with the salomir mode from Mysteries of the Sith while you can run the game like a standard Arena shooter if you want you'll probably have way more fun turning lightsabers only mode on and just enjoying the chaos that ensues George really figured something out when he came up with the lightsaber seeing the various glowing Blades of the various colors clashing all across the map just looks and feels fantastic I ran several matches and had a blast but I will say that it did get old pretty quick and it could have used a bit more content I'm sure it was incredible to play this back in the day though when Jedi Outcast was released to Consumers it was overall accepted by the community pretty much right away fans were clamoring to get their hands on the brilliant new adventures set in the Star Wars Galaxy featuring The Return of fan favorite character Kyle katar the PC version currently shows an 89 on Metacritic with IGN giving it a 9 out of 10 at time and most other major reviewers such as Game Informer and Gamespot following this trend not everyone was impressed by Jedi Outcast however with xplay panning the game for its monotonous and Bloated Reliance on frivolous puzzle solving and going on to criticize the AI and even the level design sentiments like this were few and far between however with most players and reviewers alike falling in love with the game from start to finish the console versions of the game received similar praise but it was the multiplayer component and the controls drawing ey on those iterations with complaints about the Xbox version lacking not only any kind of Xbox Live support but also not even being land enabled which prevented players from hooking up their consoles for bigger matches and the GameCube version not supporting control mapping like the Xbox did meaning you had no customization for how to enjoy the experience overall the game would go on to secure the hearts of millions across the various consoles it released on who were just happy to experience such a brilliantly fun adventure within the Star Wars Universe Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast UPS the ante and every imaginable way welcoming players into the content packed world of the expanded universe as they embody the story of a powerful Jedi knight in his journey to reclaim his own destiny the story isn't all that Earth shattering or anything and in a lot of ways it feels less Grand than Kyle's Origins as a Jedi in dark Forces 2 but all the same it man manages to pay consistent tribute to all of the games that came before it while giving newer fans plenty of fanfare from the movies to pick up on as well this game loves what it is and it loves the people it has been made for it's got a little drama a little romance and a lot of action it's absolutely no wonder to me why this game has remained the fan favorite that it has been for all of these years because it's made by people who love the universe and who love the fans it's been crafted for I'm just so glad I got to finally play it and I'm elated to say that I loved it so if you're looking for a new Star Wars experience to go and play through for yourself to feel the excitement of holding a lightsaber and fighting across strange Fantastical worlds well then I can readily recommend Star Wars Jedi Night 2 Jedi Outcast what a fantastic time that was I'm so glad you were able to join me on this one as we looked at this epic title was was Jedi Outcast one of the childhood games for you if so drop a comment telling me about your experience with it I loved my time here but nothing can replicate the feeling of playing a game in its own release time so I'd really love to hear more about what it was like playing this when it came out if you enjoyed this and can't wait for more Star Wars videos then be sure to leave a like to let me know and if you aren't already I'd recommend subscribing because I'm always doing some kind of Star Wars content it seems so you'll love it here just a reminder that members get access to most of my videos early as well as interactions on member exclusive posts and polls and the like again thank you so much for watching and of course I hope to see you in the next video but until then that's all I've got for you

Channel: Evan Prince

Views: 37,838

Keywords: retrospective, star wars jedi knight 2 jedi outcast retrospective, jedi outcast, star wars jedi outcast retrospective, jedi outcast retrospective, morrowind retrospective, star wars jedi outcast review, elder scrolls retrospective, morrowind analysis, elder scrolls analysis, star wars retrospective, star wars empire at war retrospective, game analysis, assassins creed retrospective, kotor retrospective, kotor 2 retrospective, dark forces 1 retrospective

Id: xry881hy4eY

Length: 92min 35sec (5555 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024