Story is meh, an expansion to the first game, was ok for the time but really has not aged well.

STAR WARS Jedi Knight: Mysteries of where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go.

Imagine Dark Forces 2, a game with great lore and horrendous gameplay, but without the great lore and gameplay that's been tweaked a bit to be worse. By far the worst entry in the Jedi Knight franchise, don't even think about this game.

I've taken ♥♥♥♥♥ that smell better than this game. The only mysterious thing here is how they managed to make such a bad game.

-Quick Review-
This has been the worst Star Wars game I’ve played so far. Of course, there’s always a loyal fanbase willing to take the steps to mod the game to improve the gameplay, and that’s the route to go to make Mysteries of the Sith playable… (and if you want to get the game, you definitely should go that direction) but I’m not reviewing Mysteries of the Sith: the Mod. I’m reviewing the game I installed by default on steam and boy do I have stuff to say about this game… but before we do that.
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith is a story driven (toggle-able) first or third person shooter developed by LucasArts and released in 1998. You play as Kyle Katarn for the first four level then the rest of the game you play as Mara Jade. It’s part of the Jedi Knight Series, but that requires a reminder of the order of these games because the names don’t make any sense. First Game was “Dark Forces”, then “Dark Forces II”, next we have the expansion-game we’re reviewing now: “Mysteries of the Sith”, then there was “Jedi Outcast”, and lastly, we had “Jedi Academy”.

Review Video:
If you don't like reading, or are curious about watching gameplay check out my video here:
https://youtu.be/0tQR61ezMcE

-Detailed breakdown review-
Story: There’s not much to say about the story in Mysteries of the Sith. There’s a short Cutscene before and after you finish the level. Calling this an “expansion” is fair because there’s less here than in any of the other Jedi Knight Games. The game starts out with Kyle Katarn training his apprentice Mara Jade. The first few levels are played as our boy Kyle when suddenly a New Republic base gets attacked by the Empire.
After the first few levels are finished Kyle says it’s time for them to part ways because he’s discovered a Sith Temple on Dromund Kaas. You play the rest of the game as Mara Jade assisting the New Republic, you’ll deal with a Hutt and some Pirates until eventually Mara learns they’ve lost contact with Kyle on Dromund Kaas and she goes there to find him.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388036900

Gameplay: I’ve gone on the record to describe the basic gameplay experience for Mysteries of the Sith as “Run through the level until you hit a dead end… then backtrack all the way to the beginning trying to find the one small hole/vent/door. Then you do it all over again, play until you hit a dead end backtrack until you find the stupid secret tunnel which lets you move on to the rest of the game.
The combat is broken up with your choice of Lightsaber, Blaster, Force Powers, and thermal detonators. You can toggle the camera between first- and third-person view. I played mostly in first person with lightsaber combat because occasionally Mara would deflect incoming damage, and I’ll take every advantage I can get. However, there were sections where all enemies were dramatically out of my range, and then I turned to Ye ‘ol Blaster Rifle to scratch those hard-to-get-itches.
You also have the typical Jedi Knight / Dark Forces UI with the Red Health and Green Shield Icon in the bottom left of the screen, and Ammo and available Force power in the bottom right of the screen.
I only played the single player of Mysteries of the Sith, short of experimenting with character customizations and loading into a multiplayer level by myself. There aren’t any bots you can add to the multiplayer either, so you’re just wandering around by yourself.
But it’s worth noting that there is Multiplayer, and you can set up your avatar and lightsaber color. If you wanted to, you could set up a LAN game, you could probably play online too… but the network provider options are “Serial Connection”, “Modem Connection”, or “Internet TCP/IP Connection” for DirectPlay. First: I don’t have any friends who want to play this game, which we couldn’t get from playing any of the Star Wars Battlefront games. Second: IP connections are pretty hit or miss, I’m sure I’d need to troubleshoot and download something or do port forwarding to play online.
However, just note there *IS* multiplayer, there are still people online who join communities for the Jedi Knight Games and would likely play with you if you joined those communities.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3390519116

Conclusion: Apparently, when it first came out the reception for Mysteries of the Sith was generally positive, with many people saying there was room for improvement. Even now you can see the pretty standard divide between people who like Mysteries of the Sith and those that don’t; part of the blame might fall on the port available on Steam for the poor condition I found Mysteries of the Sith, but this was my least favorite game in the Jedi Knight Series.
As always you can do the work to fix the game up to make it much more functional, attractive looking, and more playable. With my review, I’m coming from the perspective of an un-modded basic installation of Mysteries of the Sith.
If you’re already a fan of the game, go ahead and grab it on a sale and fix it up with mods. For anyone else interested in playing Mysteries of the Sith, brace yourself for what you’re about to get into. I could recommend any of the other Jedi Knight Games pretty easily, but not this one. I fought my way through this game looking forward to being done with it every step of the way.

Game has horrid level design, probably the only bad Star Wars game I've played and it's up there with one of my worst games I've played. The game retains all the worst of Dark Forces II, you lose your force powers once, you lose your inventory twice, there's switches that open doors in rooms far away from where you've already been, there's switches and grates to cut open that are on angles you'd only see when you're up close, and the developers must not have known how to use lighting because playing Minecraft with no torches while underground is a brighter game than MOTS. Had to use a walk through for the last 12 levels because the level design is just that obscure and cryptic and this game loves underwater sections which Duke Nukem 3D did way better. Enemies in the last levels are all melee and you're forced to use only your lightsaber, and there must be some type of RNG going on with the damage because some enemies take 1-5 hits meanwhile they can get you in 1-2 hits all on easy

5/10, 6 hours maybe unfortunately I needed to consult guides multiple times for this. The reason for this is poor level design. There were multiple instances where new "game mechanics" were needed without any effective introduction. For instance, I did not even know how to control the scope or what I had even picked up since I missed what it said I obtained. Once I managed to get out of it I didn't know how to get it back or where to use it. Most notable mention, why the hell would I ever hold interact and walk into a wall underwater?

Game is dark as ♥♥♥♥ I had to spam force sight or boost gamma. This is not nearly as good as the previous game. Enemies became much more difficult in the last two levels. Thank you to the modders for making the graphics tolerable although I could not get it to launch through steam. The split between Mara and Kyle is not ideal because it inhibits upgrades. It is a good idea though.

Secret level is kinda trash and "mysteries of the sith" I have no idea what the hell those were because only the last level has anything to do with that.

It feel like half life but worse. The objective its unclear, there no ingame tips for how to use control. And the map is confussing there no marker at all. I get this super cheap so i guess i dont lose much

In 1998 Lucas Arts decided to release a game, where you can literally stuck in the dead end in last level if you will go in wrong direction. In 1998, the same year that saw releases of such FPS classics as Half-Life, Sin and Unreal. Game design and level design in this game is a massive step back even in comparison with original Dark Forces II. Sure, original game had some quirks with its maps, but overall it was a pleasant classic Star Wars experience. This game... this game isnt. Dont be fooled by its title, its not a Jedi Knight, its a Lab Rat the game.

As a kid there were 2 places where i saw and played the demo for this expansion. Always wanted it but didnt get it until this purchase and sad to say but in 2024 this is not a fun experience to playthrough, im not even done with it but the level design feels even more obtuse than the base game, I had to mod it to get decent visual fidelity but it still cuts away to low res in engine cutscenes, maybe im bitter because i preferred the live action. I cant fully pin down what i dont really like about this, DF 2 was very nostalgic and maybe why my recent playthrough wasnt too bad, i dont have that here i more problems just appear more prominently.

Maybe once i finish they game i might re evaluate but I certainly dont find myself rushing back to this one.