"Some Extra Lore For The Star Wars Saga, But A Bit Boring To Play Nowadays"
For a game released in the mid-90's, this was entertaining enough. The game uses the JEDI engine (similar to the "Build" engine from "Duke Nukem") and creates a Star Wars based story centering around a mercenary-for-hire named Kyle Katarn. The story is decent enough, with many plot points supporting the events that occur before and after "Star Wars: A New Hope", but the gameplay and visuals definitely suffer from age.
The gameplay is just "okay". Its as simple as "Doom" or "Duke Nukem", and has many of the same tropes (kill enemies, collect weapons/ammo/armor/secrets, etc.). A nice difference here is that each level has some part to play within the plot, as minor as it may be. Its nice to be able to go through locations knowing you have a separate goal besides "destroy hundreds of enemies". However, the game gets really stale, really fast. The weapon diversity is sort of there, but most are some form/variation of blaster or explosive.
The level designs are extremely convoluted and boring to the eyes. This may be due in part to the aged visuals, which makes many details squish together while edges are left extremely jagged. However, I think it has more to do with the levels themselves. They are very labyrinth-like, and it is oftentimes unclear as to where the objective/next area will be. There is authenticity in the design, sound effects, and story, but it still started to drag as I progressed and I ultimately ended up feeling burnt out and bored of the experience.
As Star Wars games go, this isn't the worst one out there that you can play, but it certainly hasn't aged the best. A remaster/remake would be awesome to see, that way many of the old-school elements could be cleaned up while the visuals could get a modern polish. I'm gonna go ahead and Not Recommend this game unless you have a lot of patience for repetitive gameplay, are a huge Star Wars fan, and love playing older MS-DOS titles.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)
For a game released in the mid-90's, this was entertaining enough. The game uses the JEDI engine (similar to the "Build" engine from "Duke Nukem") and creates a Star Wars based story centering around a mercenary-for-hire named Kyle Katarn. The story is decent enough, with many plot points supporting the events that occur before and after "Star Wars: A New Hope", but the gameplay and visuals definitely suffer from age.
The gameplay is just "okay". Its as simple as "Doom" or "Duke Nukem", and has many of the same tropes (kill enemies, collect weapons/ammo/armor/secrets, etc.). A nice difference here is that each level has some part to play within the plot, as minor as it may be. Its nice to be able to go through locations knowing you have a separate goal besides "destroy hundreds of enemies". However, the game gets really stale, really fast. The weapon diversity is sort of there, but most are some form/variation of blaster or explosive.
The level designs are extremely convoluted and boring to the eyes. This may be due in part to the aged visuals, which makes many details squish together while edges are left extremely jagged. However, I think it has more to do with the levels themselves. They are very labyrinth-like, and it is oftentimes unclear as to where the objective/next area will be. There is authenticity in the design, sound effects, and story, but it still started to drag as I progressed and I ultimately ended up feeling burnt out and bored of the experience.
As Star Wars games go, this isn't the worst one out there that you can play, but it certainly hasn't aged the best. A remaster/remake would be awesome to see, that way many of the old-school elements could be cleaned up while the visuals could get a modern polish. I'm gonna go ahead and Not Recommend this game unless you have a lot of patience for repetitive gameplay, are a huge Star Wars fan, and love playing older MS-DOS titles.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)