Graphics and Sound

Jedi Knight Arena

Jedi Outcast uses the Quake III Arena engine, ‘nuff said. Well, not really. You’ve seen the Quake III engine in its various incarnations; most recently Medal of Honor. Everything that’s good about the engine is here – great textures, curved surfaces, high framerate, and lots of hardware flexibility. It also has the feel of the Quake III engine, a boon for those of us that like it.

Raven did a fine job capturing the architecture and feel of the Star Wars universe. You don’t get to fight on the Death Star or Endor, but you do see the Cloud City on Bespin and various Imperial bases. The textures and the models do a nice job in capturing the feel of the original movies, i.e. lots of odd flashing lights and railing-less walkways over endless canyons. I guess the Empire wasn’t big on worker safety.

Making a toss

4 on 1 - too easy

Uh oh

I really like animations in Jedi Outcast. You can tell most of them are motion capture since they look so real. Fighting with a light saber is very fluid, whether you’re watching your own character over the shoulder or looking at your attacker. The death animations are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Enemies die depending on where you strike the moral blow. Shoot them in the legs while they run and they’ll trip and fall. If you kill someone near an edge of a platform, they’ll topple off the platform, arms and legs flailing until they hit bottom.

If you’re playing single player Jedi Outcast, do yourself a favor and hit these commands in the console (to get the console hit shift and ~ at the same time):

helpUsObi 1
g_saberRealisticCombat 1
g_dismemberment 1

This cranks the violence rating up, and allows you to hack off limbs with the light saber. Normally you can only chop off a hand once in a while, but with these settings you will always chop off a limb, a head, or separate a torso, just how you would expect a real light saber to act. This is the way Jedi Outcast should be played.

Cantina Band

Comparing the music in Star Wars games to other games isn’t even close to being fair. The John Williams scores are easily the best classical movie scores ever written. Songs like “Star Wars (Main Title)”, “The Imperial March”, and recently, “Duel of the Fates” are engrained in everyone’s mind. Jedi Outcast, obviously, uses the music from the movies. Most of them are slightly altered arrangements (so they can be looped), but all of them are just as good as the original.

Mad hops

Red saber - bad guy

Saber duels are fun

Jedi Outcast uses a technology LucasArts pioneered way back during X-Wing. As you’re playing, the music changes to fit the mood of the game. If you’re just walking around the music is tense, adding to the feeling that you don’t know what’s around the next corner. If an enemy appears the music changes – without skipping a beat – to faster, action oriented music. Since the music changes depending on your actions, it really adds a cinematic quality to the game. It’s like a soundtrack to your own personal movie.

The sound effects are also taken from the movies. Besides the familiar laser blaster sound effects, Jedi Outcast features a lot of everyone’s favorite light saber effects. From the electric crackling when two sabers meet, to the familiar “woosh” when a saber is waved; it’s all there. The sound effects also add to the feeling that you really are inside the Star Wars universe.