A stealth level! Arggh! Why?! It's too late in the series to introduce this type of mechanical twist. I'd gotten used to the platforming and the lightsaber duels. And now this.
I'll probably get through it, eventually. Before this latest roadblock I had to rapidly jump between a series of narrow platforms while dodging rockets and it took me a dozen or so attempts to make it through. If I can make it through that sort of aggravation, I can probably make it through anything.
Still, I don't like stealth, especially in a game that doesn't normally require it. Jedi Outcast's justification for this sequence is that there are too many troops for Kyle Katarn to take on by himself. Except that because the level is set up as a series of narrow passageways in which I tend to only run into one or two enemies at a time, I could easily take out an almost infinite number of stormtroopers. And since I have so many Force powers and high-tech weapons, even if they did attack all at once, I still might be able to pull it off.
But the game doesn't even give me the option. If the enemies are alerted to my presence and get to an alarm, it's an automatic game over. A cutscene plays and Kyle Katarn is escorted into a jail cell, to be interrogated in a very sinister manner. You know, the typical stealth game screw-job. I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and power through it.
The game's story is interesting. I enjoyed the Billy Dee Williams cameo, though Lando Calrissian didn't have much of a role (I suspect he was only there for the nostalgia factor and to give the game an excuse to have a couple of cloud city levels). The main thrust of the plot is that there's this guy who has figured out how to do some dubious sci-fi stuff with crystals that results in people getting the Force. And this new army of synthetic Jedi is helping out the remnants of the galactic empire, presumably as part of some greater scheme to which I'm not yet privy. Also, while this is all going on, Kyle is trying to get revenge for the death of Jan Ors, but it turns out that she might not be dead after all (though, who am I kidding, the "death" occurs off-screen, so she's almost certainly alive). The whole thing has that reckless, extended universe stake-raising that I tend to feel ambivalent about.
With more than 70 hours invested in the series, I'm starting to get a little antsy about moving on to something else. It was never entirely within my comfort zone and seeing it in what may be its most perfect form (though there's every chance that Jedi Academy is better) has not converted me into a fanatic. However, I think when you sink so much time into something, it starts to worm its way into your consciousness. I want to see how it ends. I need to see how it ends. I just wish the end were sooner rather than later.
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