Differences to JK2 JO?

[Chick'n'Duck]

Well, what are the changes? When I take a look at the screenshots, it appears to me, that Jedi Academy might be as well just an AddOn. The size is the same, it has almost identical system-requirements.

The specific reason, why I am asking this, is, that I barely enjoyed Jedi Outcast.
I had a jolly good time with Dark Forces. Jedi Knight was merely alright for me, which means one step down, and now I reached the deepest point so far. If Jedi Academy follows this trend, I would rather skip it. Even if I would enjoy it at the same level as JO, I would rather skip it.

What are the things in JO, which I did dislike:
* The Escort mission: Protecting the droid from mines and enemies in a hallway.
I do not take enjoyment from carrying the responsibilities for someone else's actions.

* The Snipers in Nar Shaddaa: I had no clue, from where the hits came and I had to look around until I saw that one head sticking out far away on some catwalk.

* The zero-gravity part on Doom: I do not like having little control over my character.

* The platforming: If the characters moves sideways as fast as forward/backwards, it feels to soapy for me.

* Having no clue what to do/where to go: I do not need a marker, telling me were to go. But if the goals would be updated more frequently, I would be less often lost.
Example: Escaping the Doom after killing the mechaboss. My goal was completed, but no new goal has appeared. From the context I understood, that I had to leave. So I went to the start of the level. Was I irrational for doing so? The game itself wanted me to go to the end of a hallway.

* Mines being less useful: I like setting them up for enemies to come.
This requires: To know, from where they will come from.
And more importantly: To not vanish, when to much time passes or respectively I move to far away from them (I am not sure which of the both triggers this behaviour) OR to not explode into my face directly after setting them up (I suppose the enemies behind a door triggered them)

* No "last-minute" spawning: When I redo a section, I can at least use my knowledge of what will happen and take precautious steps. This possibility is reduced, when the enemy only appears, when reaching a certain point.
Example: Nar Shaddaa Streets, the two blokes on the lift. They appear only, when pressing the button to call said lift. Throwing granades up on the platform to kill them prior: not possible.

* The Stealth level with autofail (Cairn Dock 1)

* Instant-Death especially in combination with guessing (Yavin Finale)

Now, can anyone tell me, how much of this was kept or removed for Jedi Academy?
I do enjoy the lightsabre-fights. I suppose, they put most of the effort in it.

[NekoiNemo]

JA is a very different game to JO, because it's a non-linear mission-based (not level-based like JO, as in, every mission is a standalone experience rather than just a level in a continuous narrative), you get full control over your character's developement and personality, rather than playing a premade character like Katarn.

Answering your questions:
* There is one escort, but you're given a lot of characters, you only need to keep *most* of them alive, and escort section of that mission is really short.
* There are two missions with a diet version of that experience: one time you need to advance forward on the train, and some sections have sharpshooters posted ahead, who keep taking potshots at you, another is a very similar to Nar Shaddaa rooftop section, but it's not nearly as bad.
* There is some platforming. I would say about as much as in JO
* Some parts of some missions can be a bit confusing to navigate, but generally level design is leagues better than JO, so you will know where to go intuitively most of the time. Most.
* Mines are just as useless in single player as they were in JO.
* No last minute spawning, no stealth, and no insta-kill other than obvious ones like falling off the rooftop or getting eaten by a well-telegraphed sandworm.

[Chick'n'Duck]

Thank you for your answer. It gives me hope, that I may enjoy JA more.

[ナオヤ]

A little correction to what NekoiNemo said:
While most "levels" are in fact missions you can do in non-linear fashion, you need to do mostly linear "interlude" or "main quest" mission between each beatch of missions.
Each batch or "chapter" has I think 6 missions and you need to complete 5 to move to the next main quest mission. That means you can actually skip that escort mission, though you will not receive that one extra skill point you get to allocate before each non-linear mission. When I was younger, there was 1 mission in each chapter that I preferred to skip and was still able to complete the game just fine.

Also, the game has two endings and last few main quests missions can vary a lot in difficulty due to that.

There are some "stealthy" enemies - some can use camouflage, but they aren't completely invisible and you can obviously use Force Sense if needed. They aren't much of a threat most of the time (only maybe when blended in with regular enemies).

[Chick'n'Duck]

Thank you for the input. With stealth, I mean the section, in which the player has to be stealthy.

[kurganx]

the Multiplayer is very similar, while the Single Player is rather different. Basically there were some people who REALLY loved the saber mechanics of the initial release of Jedi Outcast (1.02). They were very angry about the 1.03 and 1.04 patches that "nerfed" many moves and removed several exploits (spinning certain moves with the mouse to get scratch damage, etc).

When JKA came out they didn't like it, they said it was dumbed down and random. So those guys created the Xmod2 (which I never used) which added things back more to how they wanted it.

Basically in multiplayer it's not just people running around with strong (red) stance doing huge sweeps and people with fast (blue) doing backstabs.

When you initiate a private duel, the saber damage automatically goes down and the blocking goes up so that the fight lasts longer. during the rest of the time the sabers are more powerful (unless you change it) so that they're a useful weapon against gunners.

JKA gives you a saber staff and dual saber options so that's what most people use. Saber moves cost force mana, so you can't spam them as easily as before. Also all saber types get "attack katas" that you can spam but use up a ton of force... leap into a crowd and do one and you can get some kills but someone can force push you off a cliff or dodge and then blow you away while you're flailing about.

Also you can do a roll stab.

Wall walk is replaced by wall run (and veritical wall run).

Flip kicks were a big deal for 1.02 players, but that's basically been nerfed into the ground it's barely in there. Instead you can do a wimpy side kick with the staff.

I love JKA because it has some bug fixes and because of modes like Siege which are awesome when played right. You've got (a few) drivable vehicles and turrets you can use. Not a ton of crazy stuff, but a few nice little things. Sadly not enough new siege maps but people have modded bots to work in them, mostly.

So if you thought JK2 1.02 was perfect you're probably going to not like this game. But if you are like me and you just want an FPS game that combines sabers and force with running and gunning, with a Star Wars theme, it's a ton of fun.

The single player feels short, but that's because there weren't quite so many annoying puzzles and you were jumping from planet to planet so quickly (and could skip many side missions) that you didn't have as much time to get bored... plus you started with saber and force (a little bit) right from the start, instead of having to gun down lots of stormtroopers. Somehow the straight FPS levels of the early part of Jedi Outcast just weren't as much fun as the original Dark Forces or those types of levels in Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.

There are a few mods you will need... because there were some things that were broken or left out of the game, namely some player voices, a first person lightsaber and the dismemberment was harder to get working, plus the default bots are terrible:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130718214713/http://strategy.jediknight.net/jka/downloads.shtml

[Oriflame]

Dark Forces II reigns supreme in the series for me; from story to levels to scope to art style

[kurganx]

Yes it is but it's hard for me to forget about Mysteries of the Sith! Despite the low res sound effects, multiplayer MotS was often just as much fun as JK! But I did miss CTF, so I'm glad those levels were ported over by fans very early on.