Multiplayer

Multiplayer Jedi Outcast is something else. While it’s the same concept that multiplayer FPS games have been since their inception, it brings together several different gameplay aspects of past FPS games. Force powers are basically runes a la Quake 1 CTF, while the light saber is just a melee weapon as in Heretic or Rune.

You’ll either love or hate force powers in multiplayer. With them you can heal your team, jump several stories up, run twice as fast, and choke your enemies. It definitely gives a super-human quality to playing a regular game of CTF. You can do things you always wished you could do, like pull a flag carrier towards you as he’s trying to run away, or redirect a missile. A high Saber Defense allows you to deflect most projectiles. Choke allows you to pick up an enemy and throw him off a cliff.

Another halving

Wall walking

More light saber fun

On the other hand, the business end of being choked and thrown off a cliff isn’t so fun. I didn’t understand what bugged me about it so much at first, but after a lot of playing I figured it out. Pushing, pulling, and choke-throwing takes control out of your hands. You can counter choking, but Push and Pull is unblockable. I find it really annoying to be pushed to your death when you can’t do anything about it – you can be full health, full shields, full ammo and still die without putting up a fight. Being shot or sabered is a different circumstance since it’s based on how well you fight, while pushing someone off a cliff takes little skill. Push and Pull is a lot more balanced on the maps without bottomless pits, where they can only trip someone up.

Light saber fighting is another love hate relationship. There’s the obvious “cool” factor that you get to be Lando “Colt 45, works every time“ Calrissian and fight people with a light saber. Deflecting projectiles is a very handy tool since normally using a melee weapon leaves you very vulnerable to ranged attacks. To balance things out, you can’t block the most powerful shots, like the secondary “grenade” on the Imperial Heavy Repeater.

Now it gets interesting

Strike a pose

Lined up neatly

Light saber fighting isn’t perfect. For starters, I think it’s too slow. In the movies (especially Phantom Menace) the light saber fighting is incredibly fast – the way it should be since you’re using a sword with a weightless blade. In Jedi Outcast it feels more like you’re heaving around a 6’ claymore, even in the “Fast” style. Like I said earlier, I also think that there isn’t enough blocking. While you do block if you’re not swinging, they should have added a block into one of the commands, so you can chain a block into a sequence of attacks. It would mimic the fighting styles in the movies more this way. Finally, I don’t like the way that attacks are linked to a movement command. This leads to committing to a movement just because you want a certain attack. What if you don’t want to move left, but that’s the only attack that will land? You’re out of luck. They really should have separated the attacks from the movement.

Besides my gripes, multiplayer Jedi Outcast is still a lot of fun. It still features everything that makes multplayer CTF games great: The adrenaline rush from making a coast to coast flag run, dodging and/or killing an entire team along the way, the long standoffs when both teams have each other’s flags, and especially the teamwork it takes to win. The nuances of the weapons and force powers are new and interesting at the very least. I think multiplayer Jedi Outcast has the lasting power to nurture an online community of clans and leagues.