Star Wars: Jedi Outcast & Bounty Hunter

[Glaze Men’s Magazine]

Jedi Outcast – PC, Game Cube, Xbox

Bounty Hunter – Game Cube, PS2

Most people who watch the pivotal scene in Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader asks Luke Skywalker to join him, can be divided firmly into two camps: Those who cheer Luke on as he defies the Empire, and those who would say “Oh, alright.”  Well, Lucas Arts’ two newest additions to the Star Wars gaming universe, Jedi Outcast and Bounty Hunter, let you make the same kind of character defining choice, sans the John Williams score, between Bad-Ass Goody-Two-Shoes, or just plain Bad-Ass!

Okay, perhaps “Goody-Two-Shoes” doesn’t quite apply to Kyle Katarn, the protagonist of Jedi Outcast.  Gamers who played the previous Jedi Knight will remember that Kyle falls decidedly in the gray area between the light and dark sides of the force (or is that the maroon-ish area between Green and Red light sabers?).  But, to be sure, he’s definitely no villain.  After getting revenge for his father’s death and saving the Valley of the Jedi in the previous chapter of Jedi Knight, Kyle must now investigate the Empire’s “remnant army” and figure out the dilly-o!  Of course, Kyle becomes personally invested in his mission, but you’ll have to play to find out why (hint: the only kinds of “deaths” you would avenge are your parents’ or your lover’s).

Bounty Hunter, on the other hand, puts you in the jetpack of Jango Fett, fresh after the events of The Phantom Menace, in a grueling audition of sorts that will make you the prototype soldier of the clone army in Attack of the Clones.  While you’re busy hunting bounties and proving yourself, you’ll also get to find out the origins of Jango’s (then Bobba’s) pimp-mobile, Slave I.

Both of these games are straightforward, first person, mission-to-mission type deals, with far reaching story lines.  Jedi Outcast will take you through 24 levels; Bounty Hunter, 18.  And if you’re looking for exotic locations, forget Club Med or that paltry Atlantis Bahamas: Kyle gets to check out Cloud City and Yavin 4 while Jango packs through Coruscant and Tatooine, among other places.  Jedi Outcast will prove a little more distracting if you’re into checking out the scenery, as the environments look beau-t-ful.  Bounty Hunter’s numerous worlds won’t blow you away, but most are multi-leveled to take advantage of Jango’s jetpack, so there’s quite a lot to explore.

As for actually playing through all this, I can honestly say it’s a blast.  Jedi Outcast improves on the light saber techniques of its predecessor, though I never really felt like I knew what I was doing.  My basic strategy was the same as with hand-to-hand combat games: mash all the buttons like crazy and hope for the best.  Of course, you can always rely on your force powers to lend a hand.  It’s very satisfying using “lightning” to fry a group of Stormtroopers, or “grip” to break the neck of an Imperial Guard (what can I say, I’m a sadist!).  Most of the basic controls, for the Xbox version at least, are basically the same as other first-person shooters –look with one stick, move with the other— and force powers and weapons are accessed with the directional pad.  You can also map custom controls onto the colored buttons.  If you’re a fan of cut scenes, you’ll probably find the clips here a little cheesy, but if you truly want to know your motivation for breaking into a base and murdering the guards or sabotaging the equipment, then they are what they are.  All I wanted was to get back to the action, which, for the most part, feels very fluid and engrossing.

Bounty Hunter, on the other hand, took a little more time to get into.  The controls felt a little goofy at first, especially using the “cutting tool”, but I’m willing to concede that may have been a side effect of switching between Outcast with the Xbox’s gargantuan controller, to Hunter on the PS2.  By the second level though, I was into the swing of things and I was absolutely hooked.  The jetpack rocks, and hunting the secondary bounties was a fun distraction, but it doesn’t really matter to the over all goal of the game.  And did I mention the jetpack rocks?!  It’s only good for quick bursts, unless you grab a power-up, but the movement is fantastic, and you can fire from above while air-borne.  The arsenal of weapons far outshines those in Outcast, boasting poison darts, jetpack-mounted missiles, and a flame-thrower –along with an excellent targeting system.

 My only real disappointment is that when the game is over, it’s over.  Aside from the aforementioned bounties to hunt, there are no additional missions or combat modes.  Outcast on the other hand gives you a bonus mission to play when you complete the main story line, in addition to a multi-player combat mode called Jedi Arena.  Here you can choose to fight in a free-for-all (ala Unreal Championship) with lightsabers only, weapons only, or without force powers.

So choose your poison: temperamental, mal-adjusted Jedi, or temperamental, mal-adjusted Bounty Hunter.  But unless you own a Game Cube, the choice may have been made for you already.  Outcast does it’s dueling on Game Cube and X Box, while Bounty Hunter’s search is on PC, Game Cube and PS2.  Both are rated “T” for Teen and are in the stores now, just in time for Christmas.  Imagine that….