[gets ambushed by four cultists on a narrow cliff]

• You will die.

[one by one, calmly grabs each cultist by their throat and throws them off the cliff]

• The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

Between JA, KotOR and Battlefront, the three games embody the ultimate Star Wars experience. If KotOR is story and exploration, and Battlefront is large-scale war, Jedi Academy is perhaps the most intimate as its focus is on conveying the tactility of being a Jedi.

From the get-go I feel the freedom of movement and action that other games in the franchise just don't rival. Where Outcast kind of stumbled at first, Academy throws you into a linear and colorful level and lets you practice some basic attacks, finishing off with the first lightsaber duel. This is how you start a game.

Lightsaber combat here reaches its peak with dual and double-bladed lightsaber options, as well as new acrobatics, multiplying the amount of strategies the player can employ. You will find yourself jumping around, doing rolls and somersaults, jumping off of walls and performing graceful finishing moves.

There is a community mod/source-port called Jedi Academy Enhanced. I highly recommend playing with it. On top of minor visual improvements, new weapons and customization options, you get new force powers and the ability to increase the level of dismemberment, which in turn makes the lightsabers even deadlier to a touch. With that setting, a single hit will kill anybody (including you), making the lightsaber combat as realistic as it can possibly get. It becomes all about breaking through defenses and landing a hit while preventing the enemy from doing the same. Sometimes you might get lucky and kill them with the first hit, other times they might kill you. But either way your enemies will feel like genuine Jedi rivals that are as capable (if not more so) as you.

I could sing praises to the lightsaber combat in this game all day, but it's impossible to actually convey in text how it feels. What I can describe is how Jedi Academy builds on the foundations laid by Jedi Outcast.

Right off the bat, the visuals are much nicer. Levels are no longer bland-looking, but rather very vibrant and diverse. I think this game has easily the best depiction of Korriban out of any game. The lighting has been improved as well.

The level design is very digestible now and rather simple, while still maintaining some exploration elements. But this time around the game focuses more on building interesting premises to its levels. For example, in one level you have to avoid stepping on sand because there are giant sandworms within it that will eat you alive. Another level spans huge open environments and gives you and your enemies speeders.

I think the progression here is perfect for someone who hasn't played Jedi Outcast. You create your own character and embark on an adventure. Although the game immediately gives you a lightsaber (which you get to design), it gradually introduces you to weapons and force powers. You unlock or upgrade one power after every mission, but this time around you get to choose which one. The game consists of three sets of 5 missions each, with some transitional missions in between, where major story developments happen. In each section you have to complete 4 missions of your choice, and the last one is optional (in case you want to grind more force powers or just curious). So, although Jedi Academy is not an RPG, you do get some choices.

This extends to the story, which will allow you to pick between the light and dark sides, as per tradition. I don't think the story here is very interesting, but it's still very fun from a kind of role-playing aspect. It's about how somebody starts a cult of the ancient Sith lord Marka Ragnos, with the purposes of resurrecting him. The coolest thing is how choosing the dark side here makes you not join the cult, but rather reject both the Jedi and the cult. You get to be a Darth Bane type figure and destroy everyone. It's an indescribable feeling when you jump into a crowd of Jedi and cultists fighting each other and slay all of them. Of course all this (lightsabers, missions, story decisions) gives you some replayability. You'll probably wanna beat the game at least 3 times.

I had beaten it like 50 times by now, so I've seen it all and prefer to mess around with cheats, by spawning rancors, sandworms or various jedi into cutscenes or boss battles, and watching them wreak havoc. Between this and the unpredictability of its combat, there is an infinite entertainment potential.

However, at this point in my life, the campaign feels a bit short to me. It took me about 8 hours to complete it, but they flew right by. As a kid it felt like a long journey. Probably because it was more difficult for me then. This time I played through on hard and still felt like I should've probably increased the difficulty further to the max. Now the entire 2/3 of the game I kept wanting to get to the last third where you're completely done with ranged enemies and are fighting exclusively the Jedi. Not because I didn't like the first 2/3, but because I knew how much better the game gets as it goes on.

From studying at the Jedi Academy to becoming one of the most powerful combatants and Force wielders and getting to fight entire crowds of Jedi at once, this is a memorable experience and one that doesn't disappoint throughout the entire playthrough. Truly one of the best Star Wars games ever.

P.S. in my Dark Forces review I said I hadn't seen Dark Troopers in other games except for Battlefront. But replaying this I realized that of course there are Dark Troopers in Jedi Academy. Idk why I had forgotten. Probably because they're absolute units and seem more like robots than humans. One of the force powers JA Enhanced adds, called Insanity, is a great tool to combat those. It's basically like a Jedi Mind Trick, except the target dies after like 30 seconds or so. Absolutely brutal.