On this day exactly 16 years ago, the last installment of the Jedi Knight series in the famous Star Wars franchise came out, many will say the last fair action adventure in a distant galaxy.
There are good Star Wars games and there are really good Star Wars games. The ones in the Jedi Knight series belonged to the latter category. The acclaimed Jedi Outcast just a year later was followed by Jedi Academy and brought some changes to the series.
For the first time in Jedi Knight we no longer played as Kyle Katarn, and instead took on the character of a young Padawan whose gender and appearance we could define for ourselves. Katarn, in turn, assumed the role of mentor, and we could follow or dismiss his teachings by moving to the dark side of the Force.
Changing the protagonist gave the game makers more freedom in character development, so we could choose which combination we would use light sabers and which special ones we could develop.
Jedi Academy took us to famous locations in the Star Wars universe, such as Hoth and Tatooine. As in previous games, the single-player campaign was just the beginning, as it contained a multiplayer mode that even separated the first-person gameplay from fighting lightsabers.
Older Star Wars fans will say this was the last honest multiplayer mode in a Star Wars game, given that the sword fight in the still-current Battlefront 2 looked ridiculous next to the one in the Jedi Knight series.
The Jedi Academy was also the last part of the saga. After that, Star Wars went in different directions, and we only got a somewhat similar game in 2008 when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed came out. The game has not received any modifications or upgrades since then, but at least it can still be purchased today in the digital edition for PC on Steam and GOG. Starting this year, it's also available in PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions.
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