Is Jedi Knight 1 and 2 both good single player games or mostly just for multiplayer?

[Firestonex]

I'm not really into multiplayer, and I can tell that 2 has a story, but I'm far less certain about the first one.

[Luka Ray]

I can tell you that Jedi Outcast has a great story. I've personally never played Jedi Knight 1 before.

[existential transcendence]

Quake clone like Kingpin,Wolfenstein, SW: Dark Forces, etc. Quake engine reads in every movement

[DukeoftheAges]

Yes both are extremely good. Jedi knight 1 has a decent story.

[Tenshi Noyo Senshi]

This is a long post, so bear with me, but I hope it explains everything you, and others, need to know about this series of games. I avoid any major spoilers, beyond the obvious ones. I wasn't sure if you knew there were other games in the series, so here you go.

All five of the Dark Forces series of games, Dark Forces, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy (in both release and chronological order) are all single player story-based first-person shooters (with third-person lightsaber melee combat when available) that also have multiplayer on the side (excepting Dark Forces).

In my opinion, they're all good, and primarily, with some exceptions, focus on the player character of Kyle Katarn. Dark Forces, the first game, takes place before and after the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, and before Kyle Katarn learns of his connection with the Force, while all the other games take place after Return of the Jedi and obviously involve being a Jedi, as per the games' titles.

You can play the first Jedi Knight without having played Dark Forces, but if you want to see Kyle Katarn and his partner Jan Ors in their first major adventure, I'd recommend starting with Dark Forces. That said, Dark Forces is more of a run-and-gun affair with story told in text briefings and between-mission cutscenes, and features large maps with locked doors and key-hunts, as well as puzzles.

The first Jedi Knight is the first and only game in the series to have live actors portraying the characters in the game's cutscenes, and they play it up entertainingly. I especially enjoy the main villian's actor in his performance as Jerec. The story itself builds up nicely and is dramatic, with even larger, perhaps sometimes maze-like maps in a wide variety of locations. And, of course, this is really the first major LucasArts game to feature lightsaber and Force mechanics. This is also one of two games in the series that allows you to have a separate Lightside and Darkside ending.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is the direct sequel to Jedi Knight (and Mysteries of the Sith), set years later. I wouldn't really recommend playing this before Jedi Knight, as it does involve, at least at the start, major elements of Jedi Knight's plot (and events that occur to Kyle Katarn in Mysteries of the Sith). It uses an upgraded Quake III engine, and features in-engine cutscenes.

Every game after Jedi Knight follows the path set by it, with the only big differences involving Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith and Jedi Academy.

Mysteries of the Sith was originally released as an expansion, now as a standalone game, for Jedi Knight, and primarily puts you in the role of fan-favorite Expanded Universe character Mara Jade, who is training with Kyle Katarn at the start of the game. The game's story is a little more loose, with much of the middle portion of the game having Mara Jade completing various unrelated assignments for the New Republic. The end of the game, however, does tie in with the state of Kyle Katarn at the beginning of Jedi Outcast.

Jedi Academy, a game that started development as a Jedi Outcast expansion but then became standalone, puts you in the role of Jaden Korr, a customizable player character who trains under Kyle Katarn after the events of Jedi Outcast. Like Mysteries of the Sith in a way, much of the game has your character completing various assignments that may or may not be related to the overall plot, but eventually do tie up in the end. This is the only other game in the series to feature a Lightside and Darkside ending.

It's worth noting that Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith are harder to get running on modern computer systems, but that there are a lot of tools and resources available to get them working nowadays. There's helpful guides here on Steam for both games, as well as compilation packages, that may help alleviate any issues. Unfortunately, LucasArts lost the original code for these two games ages ago, so we're lucky to get these working at all.

The original Dark Forces easily runs with DosBox and comes packaged with it here on Steam and GOG.

I hope this helps, as if story is important to you then the rest of the series might be worth a look, especially if played in order.

I should also add that it's assumed that you, as the player characters, pick the Lightside choices in the games that have them, as they're the ones considered canon in the original Expanded Universe (now called "Legends" post-Disney). Jedi Outcast wouldn't occur if you go Darkside in Jedi Knight, of course.




tl;dr: Yes and yes. They have both good single player story and multiplayer. As do all the other games in the series, minus Dark Forces with its lack of multiplayer.