Jedi Knight 2 (JK2) is the third in a series of LucasArts games about Kyle Katarn. The first, Dark Forces, was a straight-up shooter. The second, Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, gave Kyle his first taste of Jedi powers. At the end of the second game, however, Kyle gave up his powers. So you start the third game, JK2, as Kyle with no force powers. Thus, the first few levels are just like any other shooter game with a variety of weapons for Kyle to use against Imperial thugs.

Next, after Kyle meets up with a Sith and gets his butt kicked, he goes to Luke Skywalker to become a Jedi again. Unfortunately he has to start at level 1, so his force powers aren’t very good yet. Plus you get to spend a level learning how to use each one in different puzzles. The puzzles in general are the only thing I truly detest about this game. Whether it’s force puzzles or jumping puzzles, you feel like you are playing a console game and the developers are just making the level more of a challenge without adding much to the story.

In this game, your force powers increase as you progress; you have no control when you get upgraded powers, but you get them at the start of new levels. The force powers really get fun toward the end of the game when they are maxed out and you are throwing, pushing, and manipulating stormtroopers left and right. The boss battles are pretty tough in this game, especially the final battle.

The only other complaint I had was that some levels are very non-intuitive about where you need to go. One that comes to mind is in a garbage disposal plant. You have to go to one side of the plant and end up pushing some crate just to come back and go through a now open tunnel. But you would not know necessarily to go to the different areas of the level or what to do. Fortunately there are good hint files available to help you in your journey.

JK2 is a fun game even today. The graphics might not be state of the art, but they do well enough. But the fun of wielding a light saber and force powers never wears off. Jedi Academy, the last game of the series, is even better. I will review that game shortly.

I recently read PC Gamer’s February issue and was intrigued by Andy Mahood’s article in the In Simulation section titled “People Published.” In it he talks about UK developer Slightly Mad Studios development decision to solicit regular people to raise money for a game project. This isn’t just a plea for money; depending on your level of contribution you can play monthly builds of a game up to attending developer meetings and being in charge of a sub-forum (if you have $33,000 laying around). The point is, though, this could be a great way for Indie developers to make the games gamers want to play (you know, like EA before they went all corporate and answered to stock holders).

This article also made me think about two projects I had looked at before (even purchasing two licenses from one of them). Cortex Command is a popularly modded game being developed by Data Realms. It is a side-scrolling shooter with tons of weapons and enemies and environments to play with. It is currently in beta and available for the PC and the Mac. Another game under development by Goldhawk Interactive is Xenonauts, a remake of the classic strategy game X-Com.  It is in Alpha right now and only available for the PC, but the company is implementing many user requests into the final game.

Both of these companies allow you to purchase access to their games right now for around $20, which is probably cheaper than the final products will sell for. You can also spend a little more to help the developers with their projects. These games are the labor of developers who care about their fans and supporters so check out these upcoming games.