Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Get Schooled at Jedi Community College.
By Susie Vee

PLATFORM: PC

PUBLISHER: LucasArts

DEVELOPER: Raven

GENRE: 1st-Person Shooter

ESRB: Teen

SCORE:

From Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School to Jack Black in School of Rock, the trials of education have always made for stirring entertainment. Not so much in the video game area, however. After the text-only adventures in Miskatonic University from the classic The Lurking Horror, we draw a blank. (And if you get that reference, you win a lifetime membership in the GameGal Fan Club.)

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is the latest chapter in the storied FPS series that began way back with the original Dark Forces in 1995. This time, you leave behind the character of Kyle Katarn and take on a new persona. Kyle, Luke and all their Jedi buddies train you as a new recruit, and you slowly master the ways of the Force.

Although there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of actual training. Usually, you’re just sent into some deadly situation and forced to fight it out. Not that that's a bad thing.

In a nice touch, you can create your own character from several sets of male and female heads, torsos and legs, much like in Star Wars Galaxies. Your semi-customizable character even gets to choose a lightsaber hilt and color.

For anyone who’s played the most recent game in the series, Jedi Outcast, this will be familiar territory. We loved that game, and if you did, you’ll also love Jedi Academy. The same basic controls, mission types and weapons are in both games.

Unfortunately, the games are perhaps a little too similar. Jedi Academy shares the same Quake III engine, one that is starting to look very dated. Even the online-only Star Wars Galaxies engine looks better.

Missions are also a bit on the linear side, and being sent to an interesting location usually means that you’ll be stuck in some confined space rather than exploring the planet. Case in point – an early level sends you to Mos Eisley, where you get to hang out with Chewbacca. But rather than explore the town or the cantina, you spend the entire level inside a windowless hanger.

Other levels are wildly inventive, like the one on the speeding air train or the one with the giant sandworms underfoot.

All told, Jedi Academy would score a 10 out of 10 if it were an expansion pack to Jedi Outcast. As a stand-alone game, it comes up slightly short, mostly in account of the below-par graphics and a few uninspired levels.

But major bonus points to LucasArts for letting you create your own twin-lightaber-wielding butt-kicking female Jedi trainee -- a welcome advance in the basic game design.