History VideoGame / JediKnightIIJediOutcast

While on a routine mission to investigate a supposedly-abandoned Imperial outpost, Kyle and Jan stumble onto a conspiracy involving the Imperial scientist Galak Fyyar, an ambitious Chistori named Desann, [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil a former student of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy that has fallen to the Dark Side]], and mysterious crystals that can artificially imbue the holder with a degree of control of the Force. Kyle soon come to realize that he may once again have to walk the path of the Jedi if he wishes to stand a chance of getting to the bottom of all of it.

* SameStoryDifferentNames: Much of the game's plot seems to take an awful lot of cues from the franchise's original installment, ''VideoGame/DarkForces''. The early levels follow an investigation-like premise known from the first game and towards the end, ''Jedi Outcast'' practically rips off the last stages of ''Dark Forces'': [[spoiler:you sneak aboard some sort of Imperial installation in order to make it to a Star Destroyer owned by an engineer genius who will actually choose to grant you a big damn BossFight dressed in a fancy armor]].
* SchizophrenicDifficulty: The game pretty much leaves its [[EarlyGameHell early hell]] once you make it to Bespin (when you're given one of the most precious Force powers that is Healing). The stages that come afterwards are mostly a breeze to get through... that is except for the three boss fights, each of which is likely to occupy you for quite a few dozen tries.

* ColorCodedWizardry: Desann's Reborn adhere to this trope. Orange Reborn can only make use of Force Speed and otherwise rely on lightsaber combat; blue ones add on Force Jump to stay mobile as they duel you; red prefer using Force powers to attack you; green are more proficient with lightsabers and can still use Force powers; and red over blue are the strongest.

* HopelessBossFight: Desaan, early on.

** TIE Fighter Pilots aboard the ''Doomgiver''.

** The "Strong" style features the Darth Vader-esque slow but extremely powerful strikes. With a careful aim, it can knock over an enemy and finish off even an EliteMook in a single blow. It does leave you open to faster enemies, however, especially to blaster fire.
** The "Fast" style is great for dispatching lightly armoured targets, and its small strikes keep you covered when under blaster fire. It's also good at overwhelming some lightsaber-wielders with rapid strikes (think Luke in the final duel against Vader).
** And the "Medium" style is a balance between the two. It doesn't suffer any particular disadvantage and will fit most situations, the only weakness being that it'll take a long while to chip through tough opponents.

Originally released for PC in March 2002, ports to UsefulNotes/MacOS X, the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, and the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} followed in November. Much later, in September 2019, it was announced a port would be released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. Followed in 2003 by ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'', which also has a popular GameMod [[https://jkhub.org/files/file/1860-jedi-academy-outcast/ which ports]] ''Outcast'' into ''Academy's'' engine.

* ColorCodedWizardry: Desann's Reborn adhere to this trope.

** The Massassi Temple Rebel base from ''A New Hope'', now serving as Luke's Jedi Academy, can be explored; with access to the X-Wing hangar, control center and throne room (the latter now Luke's office/training chamber/whatever).

Following the events of ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'', Kyle Katarn has decided to hang up his lightsaber and sworn off his connection to the Force, instead returning to his old job of hunting for the Imperial Remnant as an mercenary agent alongside Jan Ors.

When on a routine mission to mop up an Imperial outpost, Kyle and Jan stumbles onto a conspiracy involving the Imperial scientist Galak Fyyar, an ambitious Chistori named Desann, [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil a former student of Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy that has fallen to the Dark Side]], and mysterious crystals that can artificially imbue the holder with a degree of control of the Force. Kyle soon come to realize that he may once again have to walk the path of the Jedi if he wish to stand a chance of getting to the bottom of all of it.

The game also has a popular GameMod [[https://jkhub.org/files/file/1860-jedi-academy-outcast/ which ports]] ''Outcast'' into ''Academy's'' engine.

** The supposedly defensive Fast lightsaber style, which was fixed for [[VideoGame/JediAcademy the sequel]] so that it allows you to spin around showly trading really fast blows with a lightsaber-wielding enemy, here only makes you take hits all the time if you try to do the same thing.

* BadPowersGoodPeople: Kyle uses Force Grip and Force Lightning. In fact, one of the themes of this game and its sequel ''Jedi Academy'' is that no power is inherently good or evil; it's how it's used that makes it so. Somewhat of a BrokenAesop in gameplay though, as the powers are specifically categorized as "Light Side" or "Dark Side" at level-up, and multiplayer explicitly splits the two, forcing you to choose between light or dark powers.

** To some extent, Galak Fyyar's BossFight also counts. As long as he keeps the force field around his body up, he is invulnerable to all sorts of attack. The only part of his armor that is not protected by the force field is [[AttackItsWeakPoint the small and temptingly red field emitter]] itself. Most gamers would instinctively assume they need to target that particular spot in order to turn the field off and they would be reinforced in that conviction by the presence of a set of ramps enabling them to target the emitter easier. In fact, the emitter plays no role in defeating Fyyar whatsoever and the trick is to attack the very field while maintaining a safe enough distance so as not to get electrocuted (which will happen if you get just an inch closer to him). It doesn't help that the game gives you no indication that slashing at the force field is the least bit efficient until you actually get it down (which will take around five hits, after which you'll be given around ten seconds to indiscriminately throw whatever you got at Fyyar before he brings the field back up and you'll need to repeat the cycle at least a few more times to beat him for good). He's also the only BossBattle where gunplay is a viable tactic. Using the Heavy Repeater's SecondaryFire to bring his shields down and then using [[MoreDakka primary fire]] to chew through his PoweredArmor is a good strategy, especially since there's plenty of cover.

* DisintegratorRay: The disruptor rifle does this when fully powered up. It's actually banned in-universe for this reason, which is the reason why you don't get it until criminals start dropping it on Nar Shaddaa.

* DisintegratorRay: The disruptor rifle does this when fully powered up. It's actually banned in universe for this reason.

** The communication puzzle aboard the ''Doomgiver'' is probably the most infamous example. Unless one pays close attention, chances are they won't notice the slight chance of color of the button they just pressed, mostly due to the fact that it is accompanied by a distinct error-like reaction sound, suggesting that the button remains deactivated (whereas in fact it doesn't).

* JustToyingWithThem: When Desann challenges a de-powered Kyle to a fight. He mostly just stands there and lets him try to hurt him. If you're aggressive enough most of the damage he does will probably be from your own reflected blaster shots.

** Rogue Squadron's communications code written in Aurebesh translates to "THX". A reference to the THX sound studio and ''Film/THX1138''.

** Rogue Squadron's communications code in Basic translates to "THX". A reference to the THX sound studio and ''Film/THX1138''.

* HandCannon: Zig-Zagged with the Bryar Pistol. Considered as one in [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]], it remains a base weapon with relatively low damage. However, the [[ChargedAttack secondary fire]] will often one-shot enemies and even make them backflip spectacularly if the killing blow is a headshot.

** The lightsabre, while more of a complementary weapon in ''Jedi Knight'' that was mostly used for {{Boss Battle}}s, will pretty much be everyone's primary weapon the this game. It helps that Force Jump has been incorporated into the standard jump key and that the Sabre Throw power has replaced the wide swing as the secondary fire mode. Even walking up to someone with the sabre ignited will kill them.
** Zig zagged with the Heavy Repeater. It's less accurate than ''Jedi Knight'''s Imperial Repeater Rifle, but is a ''lot'' more devastating up close and comes with a concussion launcher as its SecondaryFire.

** The supposedly defensive Fast lightsaber style, which was fixed for [[VideoGame/JediAcademy the sequel]] so that it allows you to spin around showily trading really fast blows with a lightsaber-wielding enemy, here only makes you take hits all the time if you try to do the same thing.

* BondVillainStupidity: Averted with Desann. Despite having Kyle and Jan disarmed and helpless on Artus Prime, he only decides to kill Jan, sparing Kyle, who he just admitted has a reputation as the man who single-handedly [[VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII killed Jerec and his Dark Jedi and saved the Valley of the Jedi]]. [[spoiler:Then it turns out he has a good reason not to kill either Kyle or Jan; he wants Kyle to be consumed by anger at Jan's apparent death and return to the Valley to reclaim his Force powers, leading Desann right to it. Should Kyle fail, he wants to keep Jan alive as a backup, since she is the only other one who knows where the Valley is. Even after Kyle leads him to the Valley, Desann still keeps Jan alive in order to question her about the Jedi Academy, so he could complete his final plan of wiping out the Jedi.]] As for Kyle, Desann never gets him at his mercy again.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Many of the more flashy acrobatic moves, despite looking rather cool, aren't actually all that useful.

** Rogue Squadron's communications code in Basic translates to "THX". A reference to the THX sound studio.

-->'''Kyle:''' ''(brimming with fury as he turns on his lightsaber) Stop... TALKING!''

** To some extent, Galak Fyyar's BossFight also counts. As long as he keeps the force field around his body up, he is invulnerable to all sorts of attack. The only part of his armor that is not protected by the force field is [[AttackItsWeakPoint the small and temptingly red field emitter]] itself. Most gamers would instinctively assume they need to target that particular spot in order to turn the field off and they would be reinforced in that conviction by the presence of a set of ramps enabling them to target the emitter easier. In fact, the emitter plays no role in defeating Fyyar whatsoever and the trick is to attack the very field while maintaining a safe enough distance so as not to get electrocuted (which will happen if you get just an inch closer to him). It doesn't help that the game gives you no indication that slashing at the force field is the least bit efficient until you actually get it down (which will take around five hits, after which you'll be given around ten seconds to indiscriminately throw whatever you got at Fyyar before he brings the field back up and you'll need to repeat the cycle at least a few more times to beat him for good).

* DisintegratorRay: The disruptor rifle does this when fully powered up.

* Zig zagged with the Heavy Repeater. It's less accurate than ''Jedi Knight'''s Imperial Repeater Rifle, but is a ''lot'' more devastating up close and comes with a concussion launcher as its SecondaryFire.