Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith

A year after the first installment of the Jedi Knight Star Wars game series, which was also the second in the Dark Forces cycle, came Jedi Knight’s expansion, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, which continues its predecessor’s storyline, although the game is a fairly flawed and only occasionally fun experience.

Gameplay is almost exactly the same as in the first Jedi Knight game, with first-person shooter mechanics, with the player’s performance graded after each mission and a few stars given as a reward that the player can invest into various Jedi powers. As with before, it is possible to get stuck with low life in a mission and have to start it from scratch, and pretty much the only way to make the game playable is with cheat codes.

Control doesn’t fare any better, with players that downloaded the game through Steam not having an instruction manual to make things easier, and thus needing to find out how to do things on their own. Dungeon design is also atrocious, with players easily able to get lost, and in most cases it’s a lot more entertaining to use a certain cheat code to skip the levels and view the story scenes.

Story again is the high point of the expansion, contributing more to the Star Wars mythos and focusing on ex-Imperial agent Mara Jade for some time, along with Kyle Katarn, though at times it doesn’t seem a good reward for suffering through the gameplay without cheating.

As with the original Jedi Knight, the voice acting and sound effects are nice, although music is pretty much nonexistent in each mission.

The graphics still look worse than in the original Dark Forces, with blocky character models, badly-textured environments, and no CG scenes present in the first Jedi Knight game.

Finally, players that wish only to experience the nice story will likely spend less than an hour with a game, although those who play without cheating are in for a much longer, less satisfying experience.

Overall, Mysteries of the Sith is for the most part a mediocre expansion, what with the gameplay largely remaining unchanged and some aspects such as the visuals actually looking a bit worse. Even hardcore Star Wars enthusiasts might have trouble enjoying the game without cheating.

The Good:
+Cheat codes can make the game enjoyable.
+Decent story.
+Good voice acting.
+Plenty lasting appeal.

The Bad:
-Can be near-impossible without cheat codes.
-Silent dungeons.
-Subpar visuals.

The Bottom Line:
Not a great expansion.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PC
Game Mechanics: 6/10
Controls: 5/10
Story: 8/10
Music/Sound: 6/10
Graphics: 4/10
Lasting Appeal: 7/10
Difficulty: Adjustable, still hard
Playing Time: Depends on whether or not the player cheats

Overall: 6/10

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