Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast is a 2002 first- and third-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software for Windows and Mac OS. Westlake Interactive ported the game to Mac OS X, while the Xbox and GameCube versions were ported by Vicarious Visions; most versions were published by Activision and LucasArts, with only the Mac OS version published by Aspyr. The game is a sequel to 1997's Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and the third main installment in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. The single-player campaign, set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe two years after the Mysteries of the Sith expansion for Dark Forces II, follows returning protagonist Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the New Republic and former Jedi who cut his connection to the Force. Katarn must return to his Jedi ways to stop a branch of the Imperial Remnant led by the Dark Jedi Desann from empowering their army with the Force. Jedi Outcast was developed using a more powerful game engine, id Tech 3. The hack and slash combat introduced in Dark Forces II was heavily reworked, becoming the main focus of the gameplay instead of the shooter elements, which are prominent only during the first few missions of the game. Players may wield blasters, lightsabers, and Force powers to engage enemies, with the latter being recommended in later stages of the game, as numerous lightsaber-wielding enemies are introduced. Jedi Outcast also features a multiplayer mode that allows players to compete in several different game modes online or over a local area network. Upon release, the game received universal acclaim from critics, with its story and lightsaber combat being the main praised elements. A sequel and the final installment in the Jedi Knight series, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, was released in 2003. In September 2009, the game was re-released onto Steam and Direct2Drive alongside the rest of the Jedi Knight series. A Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port with no multiplayer mode was released in September 2019. In 2021, Jedi Outcast was made backwards compatible on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.