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Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (aka "JK") is a first person shooter computer game released on September 30, 1997, by LucasArts. It is based on the Star Wars franchise. This is also the first game in the franchise to include multiplayer capabilities over the Internet or over a Local Area Network.

Storyline

Template:Spoiler The plot of this game places the player in the role of Kyle Katarn, who made his first appearance in Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995). Jedi Knight begins several years after the events in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It begins as Kyle is being interrogated by a droid named 8t88 ('88' for short). Kyle is informed by 88 that his father was killed by a Dark Jedi named Jerec. He escapes from a gun to the head (from a Gran) and chases 88 for a stolen data disk meant only for Kyle from his father. Afterwards, he recovers a lightsaber from his father's workshop, compelling him on a journey to confront his father's murderers and to discover his own latent Force abilities. While on this journey, Kyle learns that seven Dark Jedi (Yun, Pic, Gorc, Boc, Maw, Sariss, and Jerec, the leader), his father's killers, are intent on finding the Valley of the Jedi, a focal point for Jedi power in the universe.

Kyle starts the game with no knowledge of The Force. As the player progresses through the game, Kyle gains Jedi abilities, known as "Force Powers". These powers fall in three general categories: Neutral, Light, and Dark. The game awards one "Force point" upon the completion of each level, and an additional point if the player finds all of the secret areas. These skill points can be allocated towards any Force power, boosting that power's effects.

Jedi Knight is noted for the ethical decisions integrated into the gameplay. Kyle is a neutral character for most of the game, neither fully Light nor Dark. Actions against unarmed civilians throughtout the game, as well as what Force powers a player chooses throughout the game, will sway Kyle towards the Light or the Dark sides. Eventually, the character Kyle must choose between Light and Dark; how he chooses depends on the player's actions throughout the game. A "Force meter" displays Kyle's progress towards either side during breaks in the action.

In case the player chooses the dark side, the alternate ending is triggered: Kyle kills Jan Ors and then becomes the rival of Jerec, this time for dominion over the Valley. This scenario however is alternate and not canonical.

Expansions and mods

Over time, unofficial editing tools were developed for this game, thus attracting a wide audience of level editors that still make levels for this game today. Countless modifications have been made to Jedi Knight by way of software products such as Jed, the map editor created by Alexi Novikov. Avid JK modders and fans have released new multiplayer levels, single-player levels, character models, and even weapons. The most reliable source of these mods is The Massassi Temple. Unlike many other games, Jedi Knight still enjoys a wide fanbase even after nearly nine years, primarily due to the fact that Jedi Knight and its Mysteries of the Sith companion game are extremely editor-friendly (in how nearly anything about the JK engine can be changed or modified, with only a few exceptions, plus the wide enthusiasm of level designers at Massassi and at other groups.

Shortly after Jedi Knight's initial release, LucasArts released Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, an official expansion pack which features the opportunity to play as Mara Jade for a signifigant portion of the game. This expansion significantly improved the original Jedi knight engine by adding aesthetic features such as coloured lighting, new enemies and force powers. There were several under-the-hood changes as well, the most significant being that COG, the programming language that Jedi Knight uses to create scripted in-game events and interactivity (doors, elevators, weapons, in-game cutscenes, enemy behaviour, and many other things in Jedi Knight are controlled by COG scripts) was expanded with new functions and capabilities, which the Sith engine took full advantage of. Mysteries of the Sith also featured new types of multiplayer action, and included several new weapons, such as flash grenades, a seeking railgun, and a carbonite gun. Unfortunately, Mysteries of the Sith multiplayer never was as popular as Jedi Knight multiplayer because the Sith Expansion was typically sold separately from Jedi Knight and was often difficult to come by unless it specifically came bundled with Jedi Knight. (Jedi Knight and its Sith expansion pack were sold together in the software box that is shown above.)

Online Play

An often looked over, but extremely important part of Jedi Knight's longevity was the astounding and addictive online mode. The game lacked a dedicated server and was hosted by the MSN Gaming Zone. Most games were confined to the Nar Shadda (Nar) game room which became a hillarious refuge for clan wars, recruitment, challenged and more controversially, rascist and anti-semetic slander. It was all in good fun though I'm sure ex players would tell you. Although the game itself offered a wide range of choices in play, there were only four actually played regularly. The choice of the 'elite' or those aspiring to be were, Full Force (FF) Battle Ground Jedi (BGJ) and Canyon Oasis (O) and No Force (NF) Battle Ground Jedi and JI Oasis (an add on level created by the Jedi Infantry clan). A few clans also specialised the the Capture the Flag (CTF) feature but it was a lot less popular than the four key settings. There were a small set of skills that had to be mastered to be a top player in each setting. These skills were definitely not known by most which led to a massive gap between the more skilled players and the average player. No Force Sabres was particularly guilty of this with the best known players being accused of being hackers on a regular basis.

Best Known Clans

If there was something Jedi Knight had a lot of it was clans. Even near the end of the game's life cycle on the zone at the beginning of 2005, new clans were still being formed. The key players in the Full Force settings were predominitely amongst the Darksabre (DSbr) and Wielders of the Darkside (WD) clans. There was somewhat of a rivalry noticeably present amongst the two, especially in the big tournaments such as the CWT. Other clans of note in the Full Force devision uncluded Sabres of Hell (SOJ), Bad Sith Bastards (BSB) and HDK, the latter whom were also highly skilled in No Force. A host of other Full Force clans sprung up over the years, many with aliases of known players, again something Jedi Knight was full of, that would stir trouble, keeping things interesting. As a former player of the Full Force setting, I know very little about the top No Force clans but from what I can remember, HDK, Sykotic and perhaps even Prince were noteworthy. There were hundreds of other clans in Nar Shadda but most were filled with players of no noteable skill. Note: I'm fully aware of the old skool clans that predate DSbr and WD but I can't remember the names of the clans or the players so feel free to update this if you remember.

Places visited

• Nar Shaddaa
• Sulon
• Barons Hed
• Ruusan and Valley of the Jedi

External links

• Lucasarts Official Site for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
• The Massassi Temple
• The Jedi Knight Editing Hub

• 1997 computer and video games
• First-person shooters
• Star Wars computer and video games
• Windows games