Star Wars: Jedi Knight
| Star Wars: Jedi Knight | |
|---|---|
| developer |
 LucasArts Raven Software Vicarious Visions
|
| Publisher |
LucasArts Activision Aspyr
|
| First title | Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) |
| Last title | Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003) |
| Platform (s) | MS-DOS , Mac , PlayStation , Xbox , GameCube , Windows , AmigaOS / MorphOS / AROS |
| Genre (s) | First person shooter , third person shooter |
Star Wars: Jedi Knight [ dʒɛdaɪ naɪt ] is in Star Wars is moved universe ego and later third-person shooter series, where the player in the role of different Jedi , mostly from the Kyle Katarn , slips. The series was largely developed and published by LucasArts and Raven Software . It currently consists of four parts and an extension.
In the temporal context of the films, the game series can be found mainly a few years after Episode VI. The galactic empire is in decline as some Imperial warlords fight against the forces of the rebellion and against themselves. Within the new canon that was created after the Disney takeover , the storyline of the Jedi Knight series is no longer relevant for the story of the saga.
Games
Dark Forces
Dark Forces (dt. Dark forces ) is the first commercially developed first-person shooter with Star Wars elements. LucasArts developed and published the game in 1995. In Germany, both the original English and the German were indexed on September 30 and October 20, respectively, by what was then the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors .
The main character in the game is the mercenary Kyle Katarn, a former Galactic Empire officer who joined the rebellion after Imperial soldiers killed his family. He investigates and sabotages an imperial research project, the Dark Troop Project.
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II appeared in 1997 as the successor to Dark Forces . In Germany, the title was shortened to Star Wars: Jedi Knight in order to distance itself from its predecessor, Dark Forces .
You play again from the point of view of the mercenary Kyle Katarn. During the game, Kyle gradually discovers his ability to influence the Force and has to use this power to kill several Dark Jedi. In contrast to the first part, this time you are able to use a lightsaber and the powers of power (e.g. moving objects). As in the real Star Wars saga, the hero has to choose between the light and dark side of the force. As in Dark Forces , his mate is the rebel Jan Ors.
Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
In January 1998 Lucasarts released the additional CD Mysteries of the Sith ( MotS for short ), the first and only expansion to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II . In this, the player controls Kyle Katarn in the first five missions, after that the plot changes to Mara Jade , a student of Kyle Katarn and future wife of Luke Skywalker .
The independently playable addition introduces new levels, weapons and opponents (e.g. the rancor), and the graphics engine has been improved. In contrast to the main game, the cutscenes were no longer realized with expensive film recordings, but with the help of the game graphics.
Mysteries of the Sith received good reviews and was named Best Game of the Month by PC Games magazine .
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Jedi Outcast is the first Jedi game by LucasArts to be developed by Raven Software. It was released in March 2002 and is based on the Quake 3 engine .
Here Kyle Katarn meets many friends from the Star Wars films (Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, Mon Mothma). Together with Jan Ors and the new ship "Raven's Claw" (a small self-perpetuation of the development studio) he has new adventures. The plot follows on from the predecessor "Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II". This is again about the Valley of the Jedi and the Dark Jedi Desann due to the fake murder of Jan and his attack on the Jedi Academy.
Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Jedi Academy was also developed by Raven Software and released in September 2003.
Kyle Katarn appears here only as a teacher and the player can choose many properties of the protagonist Jaden Korr himself (race, gender and lightsaber - normal lightsaber, two lightsabers or even a double lightsaber). But Jedi Academy not only brings new weapons, but also versatile fighting techniques (such as combos).
Source code approval
In April 2013, the source code of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy was published on SourceForge by Raven Software and Activision under GPLv 2. This coincided with the closure of the LucasArts development studio after it was bought by Disney .
However, the source code was removed from Sourceforge a few days after being requested by Raven. The press has speculated that the reason for this would be the existence of licensed code, such as the " Bink Video " format by Rad Game Tools , which should not have been made available.
Before the project disappeared, however, a fork called OpenJK had already been created on GitHub in which the problematic code had already been removed. The aim of this project of the play community is the maintenance ( unofficial patch ) and further development of the Raven code base . The concrete goals include standardizing the JO and JA code base, maintaining compatibility with previous publications and porting it to other platforms such as Linux . Daily builds for Windows and early Linux builds are already available.
Jedi Knight in esports
Besides the many successes of the series in the sales charts, the Jedi Knight series from starting Jedi Outcast a career in e-sports . The capture-the-flag mode in particular caused a stir in the gamer scene, at the latest when the ESL included the game in the ESL Pro Series , a German competition that was highly endowed at the time. The total prize money was 7500 euros, a sum that was never again reached in a Jedi Knight tournament. Another big league in Europe, the ClanBase , also took Jedi-Knight 2 into its offer. A community of its own developed around the capture-the-flag mode. Although the major tournaments did not materialize later, smaller competitions were held again and again.
The successor to Jedi Outcast , Jedi Academy , also managed to establish itself in esports. Initially, Capture the Flag was still actively played, but gradually the one-on-one lightsaber duels prevailed. After the release of Jedi Academy , a large number of competitive players switched from Jedi Outcast to the successor, which meant a significant slump in activity in Jedi Outcast , whose ESL section was closed in 2006 and reopened for a short time in 2008. The lightsaber duels in Jedi Academy were so popular that they got their own German national championship in the ESL . In addition, the game was part of the ESL Amateur Series and the ESL Winter Games in 2010. The game also made it into the selection for the ESL Major Series and the ESL Pro Series , but could not achieve a required majority in both cases.
Both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are still actively played today on a small scale through the self-organization of some clans and communities. The section in the Electronic Sports League for Jedi Academy was closed in 2017 and reopened for a short time in 2019 due to increased demand, but had to be finally closed after half a year. To compensate for the loss of the section in the ESL, a new league called the Epic Saber League was founded as an unofficial successor .
literature
- Dark Forces Official Player's Guide - contains information about weapons and opponents and a complete solution including maps as well as a detailed description of the development process of Dark Forces .
- The Dark Forces trilogy by William C. Dietz , consisting of the books " Soldier for the Empire ", " Rebel Agent " and " Jedi Knight ", tells the story of Kyle Katarn. In the first volume you learn more about his training as an imperial soldier, his defection to the rebel alliance and the theft of the Death Star plans (an adaptation of the first Dark Forces mission ). Part 2 and 3 adapt and expand the story of Kyle Katarn from Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II .
- The first part was published in 1997 and parts 2 and 3 were published by Dark Horse Comics and Putnam / Boulevard in 1998. The first volume was also published under the title "Star Wars Stories 1: Soldat des Imperiums" in Germany by Feest. In addition, a radio play version of the Highbridge Audio stories appeared on six CDs shortly after the books .
Web links
- Jedi Knight game series at MobyGames (English)
- Jedi Knight series on Jedipedia.net
- Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Luke Plunkett: Lucasarts' Closure Convinces Developers To Release Awesome Star Wars Source Code . Kotaku. April 3, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2013: “In the wake of Lucasarts' closure today, Raven - the developers of the thoroughly excellent Jedi Outcast - have decided to release the source code for the game. Oh, and the code for its sequel, Jedi Academy, as well. "
- ↑ Logan Booker: Just Like That, Jedi Knight Code Has Been Removed From SourceForge ( English ) Kotaku . April 13, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
- ↑ Logan Booker: Just Like That, Jedi Knight Code Has Been Removed From SourceForge ( English ) Kotaku . April 13, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013: “ In the meantime, a fork of Jedi Academy, called OpenJK, is available on GitHub with the aforementioned code already excised. "
- ↑ JACoders / OpenJK ( English ) gitHub .com. September 29, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013: " Community effort to maintain and improve Jedi Academy + Jedi Outcast released by Raven Software "
- ↑ OpenJK Builds daily windows builds from the repository
- ↑ "ESL Pro Series Germany Season I Finals (Jedi Knight 2)" , esportsearnings.com, accessed on July 27, 2020 (English)
- ^ "Ranking for the German national championship" , eslgaming.com, accessed on July 27, 2020
- ↑ "ESL Winter Games 2010" , eslgaming.com, accessed on July 27, 2020 (English)
- ↑ "ESL Major Series? It's your turn! " , Eslgaming.com, accessed on July 27, 2020 (English)