I just tried Jedi Academy...

[Luvian]

I was in need of a Star Wars game until Kotor 2 come out, so I decided to try out Jedi Academy, since I remembered Jedi Outcast as a good FPS game.

Wow, Jedi Academy totally suck. I don't know who thought adding 3rd person to a fps engine was a good idea, but it totally suck.

The characters look horrible. They move as if they are all drunk, there are tons of cliping issues, the controls are horrible, the "melee lightsaber combat with moves in a fps engine" suck, jumping around is almost impossible since you can only barely control your avatar, and it move extremly fast.

You can feel the character avatar is not meant to be there. The camera really follow crosshair. The game was moving so fast, and the walking and sidesteping animations were so bad it looked like the characters were floating...

I don't understand, the engine is old, but in Jedi Outcast the game was stable and robust. Everything moved at a good speed, targeting was easy, the npcs mover right, I wasn't getting dizy, the textures and avatars were well made. Why the downgrade in quality? Nothing can forgive such bad controls and horrible avatars (did you look at Chewbaca!?!)...

[johnny]

I have that game for quite some time now, although i haven't looked into it yet. But this is the first negative review i heard, most people were quite optimistic about it. Was it THAT bad then ?

[Luvian]

Originally posted by johnny: I have that game for quite some time now, although i haven't looked into it yet. But this is the first negative review i heard, most people were quite optimistic about it. Was it THAT bad then ?

Have you ever tried Playing Unreal or Quake 3, and using the console comand that made you see your charcter?

This game is like that, since it is what it is. Characters avatars are not really supported. The camera angle, the speed of movements, the crosshair, all of it is made for a first person view and it isn't changed. So the character in the middle of the screen is just a nuisance. Even the movement of the avatar is bad. The way he stand and sidestep is very limited. He's not really animated. When you are playing Quake III, you don't mind if the ennemy avatar only have 4 movement animations, but when you move that character, it look horrible.

They make you jump around on platforms, but the way the camera is set behind you and following the crosshair instead of the avatar, you can't really see where you are aiming your feet. It's also very hard to aim with your lightsaber, since because the way the camera is set, it's hard to see the distance between you and the ennemy in melee.

In FPS, you only see the gun and you move fast. They didn't change that movement speed, and the character's animations are not made for that, so his animation and his movement speed seem wrong. The legs don't seem to be moving fast enough for the character's speed. The speed of the character is also way beyound any human speed, and they seem to be floating above the ground as well.

The engine isn't really made to be interacted with in 3d. In a shooter you shoot stuff, and walk on weapons to pick the up. So that's all you can really do in this game. It look really silly having to make your character stand on a medpack or weapon for him to get it. No pickup animation or nothing. Your feet touch the item, and it disseapear.

I don't know what they did, but the characters avatar are horrible. Even the characters that were in previous game of that series look worse than before.

[ 08-25-2004, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Betelgeuse]

and why can it be in first person mode for all the weapons except the lightsabre? prob to show off the acrobatics that you can't really see b/c of the camera

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Betelgeuse: and why can it be in first person mode for all the weapons except the lightsabre? prob to show off the acrobatics that you can't really see b/c of the camera

I wish you could use first person with the lightsaber, since so much of the game is made for it.

That said, even the gun first person seemed bad, in my opinion. They messed too much to make it 3rd person, and the first person is not as good.

[Dreamer128]

I own the game as well. Should have bought KOTOR instead, rather then just borrowing it. Jedi Academy must have one of the worst storylines in Star Wars history

[Hivetyrant]

Are you guyes kidding??????
I really thought this game was good. It wasnt the best game ever made for star wars, but it wasnt that bad, you could customise your character, and best of all, you dont have to control Kyle Katarn... YAY!!!

[Niadh]

I liked the game. It works well as an upgrade over Outcast with more added in. So there is no item pickup animation, same for most FPS. I thought that the movement was fine, and liked the saber combat. Third person is needed for the lightsaber really, easier to aim, reflect, use moves like the wall jumps and rolls and so on. Yeah it's a bit old, but so are half the game we own.

And the complaint about running over powerups means that in theory you are against Halo, Unreal series and just about any other FPS as so few do item pickup animations.

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Niadh: And the complaint about running over powerups means that in theory you are against Halo, Unreal series and just about any other FPS as so few do item pickup animations.

In those games, your character does it off the camera.

[Zuvio]

Heh, the best thing JA has going for it, are the cool saber fights against siths with single, double and doublebladed sabers. Endless fights and when you get bored, saber-swirl to the rescue