I don't really believe in assigning arbitrary numbers to things, but I would like to rate the Dark Forces Series, so fine, whatever:
Dark Forces - 6/10 - The first real Star Wars shooter that was actually playable. Not a great game, but paved the way for it's future titles. Nothing innovative about it, pretty much an FPS ripoff like every other game of its time.
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 - 7.5/10 - This made leaps and bounds in the gaming world. The online multiplayer was one of the most enjoyable of its time, since adding the addition of the lightsaber (although crudely controlled) was the best swordfighting in third person seen up to date. Made for a lot of great online matches and the MSN Gaming Zone culture at the time had a big modding community (Although the game was easy as shit to hack making it easy to cheat, probably its biggest downfall).
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - 9/10 - This game was near sublime in my books. Well balanced, not too complicated, easy learning curve, and just overall FUN. Best and most balanced swordfighting game to date in my opinion. I played this game for well over a decade online, joined and started a few clans, made some amazing friends, so needless to say the online community was great. Tons of mods and skins and maps made for the game, and the single player wasn't half bad either with an alright story. It was the type of game where you could practice for a decade and continually train and get better, without having to worry that some n00b could spam attack and kill you. Those people died a swift painful death. Definitely the most fun I've ever had online gaming.
Jedi Knight III - Jedi Academy - 7.5/10 - I would rate this game lower than DF2 but the single player is what made me put it on par. The single player in this is a great stand alone piece of gameplay. A mission selectable interface and good force allocation system make the game quite enjoyable. But the multiplayer made the mistake of trying to do WAY too much. The multiplayer was fun but there is a reason myself and many many other people stuck to Jedi Outcast for online play when Academy came out, even years later. The game was too unbalanced. It had the addition of dual sabers and double bladed sabers, but the moves and stances added in order to implement weren't very well thought out. The controls were intuitive but the damage system became a free for all button mashing combo spamming fest, were any number of one hit ko's could be use easily with very little penalty to the user, making any n00b able to beat someone who had been playing for years. Overall still a good game, but a step in the wrong direction for the series, which is probably why there has been no news of a return to the glory days of Kyle Katarn for some time now in the form of Jedi Knight IV.
That's my rant, thanks for reading.
