Video Game / Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II

aka: Dark Forces II

Since the destruction of
the second DEATH STAR, the
Rebel Alliance has begun the
difficult process of building
the New Republic.

Seizing the opportunity for
control of the galaxy, new
rival armies arise. The most
dangerous of these are the
DARK JEDI. Their leader,
JEREC, seeks the legendary
VALLEY OF THE JEDI.

Within this lost battleground
he will find untold power to
destroy peace and justice in
the galaxy....

Star Wars: Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II (1997) was the first game of the Dark Forces Saga to feature first-person lightsaber battles. This story takes place after the events of the original trilogy. Here, Kyle learns of his Force potential and receives his own lightsaber, once owned by a Jedi Master named Rahn, whose spirit occasionally guides him in dreams and visions. He follows a lead to the Dark Jedi Jerec, with the intent to avenge his father's murder. Jerec seeks for a mysterious Valley of the Jedi that legend tells has monumental power, providing additional incentive to stop him. Part of the feature is a light side/dark side progression, where your actions (kill innocents or protect them) and choices and uses of Force power dictate which side you will lean to. There are two endings, light side and dark side. Word of God (and future games) say that the light side ending is Canon. Live-action cutscenes moved the plot along, elevating the game to an almost movie-like experience (albeit with daytime-soap-opera-level acting).

The game received an Expansion Pack in 1998, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, telling some of Kyle's story after he has become a full Jedi Knight. The player soon takes control of Kyle's "reciprocal apprentice" (as in, they're teaching each other), Mara Jade (who originated in The Thrawn Trilogy and married Luke Skywalker in the later Star Wars Legends canon), as Kyle goes off to find what may be the remnants of a Sith temple. He disappears from all contact, however, and Mara has to track him down, only to discover him skirting dangerously close to the dark side. After the events of this game, Kyle swears off the life of a Jedi and returns to being a hired mercenary (though now one working for the New Republic, at least).

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The main game contains examples of following tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Kyle is automatically given an additional power at the point where the two plotlines diverge late in the game; Force Protection if he remains with the light side or Deadly Sight if he falls to the dark side.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sequential sluice gates in the third level will probably haunt your nightmares the longest time.
• Alignment-Based Endings: The ending is determined by a Karma Meter shown on the Jedi Powers page.
• All There in the Manual: The tie-in short stories (and assorted materials) expanded considerably on the characterization of the villains, for example by making Jerec a Wicked Cultured former academic. They also explain why Gorc and Pic are called "twins" (a fact that confuses Rahn in-game) and "the Brothers of the Sith", since they don't look alike and aren't actually Sith but Dark Jedi (short version, they were mutated from their original forms via Sith alchemy, causing them to share DNA among other changes, by Lord Cronal — a Prophet of the Dark Side under Emperor Palpatine).
• Always Over the Shoulder: Dark Forces 2, the first game in the series with a third-person camera, has a setting to automatically change to third-person when switching to the lightsaber.
• Artifact Title: "Dark Forces" refers to the Dark Trooper project, which would make its presence in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, about a guy become a Jedi and fighting a group of Dark Side users along the way rather irrelevant... were it not for the implications of the term "Dark Force" in the Star Wars universe.
• Artificial Brilliance: While the A.I. is simple by modern standards, it's a noticeable step up from the previous generation of FPS A.I. (as seen in games like Doom and the original Star Wars: Dark Forces) where enemies would simply wander around randomly towards your general direction and periodically shoot at you. Even Quake II, released the same year as Jedi Knight, used A.I. of this type. In Jedi Knight, by contrast, enemies strafe back and forth to avoid gunfire (which can cause them to unintentionally dodge in and out of cover or retreat into different rooms), can jump between different height levels (i.e. jumping down off higher platforms or jumping to climb objects to reach you), can jump to fire over high objects, etc. It noticeably predates games like Unreal and Half-Life, which were a big advance in FPS A.I., by a full year.
• An Arm and a Leg: When making a kill with a lightsabre on humanoid enemies such as Gran, Trandoshans, Tuskens, or Imperial troops, there's a chance that their arm will be cut off in the process. The arm flies off with smoke billowing out of it.
• Anti-Frustration Features: If your health or shields are below 100 when starting a level, the game will set them to 100, to prevent the scenario of you being unable to proceed because you checkpointed with only 1 point of health.
• Armor of Invincibility:
  • The Force Protection light side power, which you get late in the game, practically makes any encounter with stormtroopers, no matter how numerous or well armed, a joke.
  • The Super Shield powerup, which renders Kyle invulnerable temporarily. The powerup itself even resembles armour.
• Artificial Stupidity: Stormtroopers, Imperial officers and mercenaries will attempt to shoot at you through blaster-proof windows and forcefields.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The third person perspective is totally useless when it comes to shooting as you have no way of knowing where it is aimed at. It does come in handy during lightsaber duels since you are able to see the enemy approaching you from the back and side though.
  • The carbonite gun in the expansion pack turns enemies into blocks of, well, carbonite, which you can destroy with your lightsaber. Sounds cool? Maybe but you'll soon find out than carbonite supplies are scarce to come by, its range is pitiful, and practically any other weapon deals with bad guys faster and safer.
  • The Bowcaster has a Charged Attack as its primary fire, making it difficult to fire rapidly. Its secondary fire allows for faster firing, but its blasts bounce off everything, making it potentially as lethal to the player as it is to the enemy.
  • Some of the darkside powers can be this. Force Deadly Sight is a literal Death Glare that kills too slowly to be of any benefit and is always on until your mana is drained. Force Destruction shoots off a fireball that is less effective than some guns and uses a lot of mana in the process. Force Grip requires keeping a single enemy in line of sight and kills quite slowly, not a great option if being shot at from several angles. Force Throw requires the use of debris, which is only available in some areas, most notably during Maw's boss fight. Force Lightning does pitiful damage for the amount of mana it drains.
  • The Concussion Rifle uses a lot of power cells per shot, even for its close range secondary attack, making it more useful as a situational artillery piece than as a primary weapon, a role that can be also fulfilled by the Rail Detonator.
• Ax-Crazy: Boc laughs like a lunatic whenever he's about to hurt you or Jan, and during the boss fight he keeps jumping around like a mad kangaroo.
• Bar Brawl: In one of the levels at Baron's Hed, a group of Grans can be seen beating up on one another in a local tavern. According to the official strategy guide, two of them started fighting because both of them wanted to pay off the group's bar tab, and the others just got caught up in the argument.
• BFG: The concussion rifle returns from the original game, now with a secondary attack more suitable for close range combat. Additionally, the mortar gun has been replaced with a rail detonator, essentially a three shot revolving rocket launcher, although this isn't really implemented since the game has no reloading mechanic.
• Black and White Magic: Kyle can use the light side (healing and support skills) or the dark side (only does damage and instant death). Choosing powers from either side pushes Kyle's alignment to light or dark and, after defeating Maw, Kyle loses all his light or dark powers depending on which side he's on and, by extension, which cutscene is triggered at the end of the boss battle.
• Book Ends: One of the first sights of the game shows Kyle Katarn viewing a recording from his deceased father. In the dark side ending, Kyle replays the recording one last time, before apparently growing disgusted with it and crushing the recorder beneath his boot.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The Bryar Pistol. Accurate, just as powerful as the Stormtrooper Rifle, consumes half as much ammo per shot, and uses the extremely common energy cells. Its only downside is its relatively slow fire rate. It's also the starting weapon.
  • The Imperial Repeater Rifle combines some of the best elements of the Bryar Pistol and the Stormtrooper Rifle, namely accuracy and More Dakka at the cost of using rarer power cells. It also comes with a shotgun-like blast for close range and compared to the Bowcaster and the Concussion Rifle, is a lot more efficient with ammo.
  • Good old Force Pull. It's not as flashy as Lightning or Destruction, but it allows you to instantly and permanently disable any gun-wielding enemy (i.e. 80% of your foes) and it's around for most of the game. It also works through forcefields, making it handy for neutralising enemies you might have to deal with later.
  • The rest of the neutral powers also count. Jump allows you to reach certain areas and can even be used to invoke a Dungeon Bypass in certain cases. Speed makes Kyle's already swift movement speed even better, allowing for better mobility. Sight, while primarily supposed to be used in conjunction with the map to spot enemies has the more practical effect of night vision, rendering the flashlight and IR goggles redundant; Why waste your batteries when you have a recharging mana pool?
  • Force Heal. Even compared to other Light Side powers, there's nothing more useful than to be able to restore hitpoints between firefights.
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • Not exactly a classic example as the kell dragons look anything but your regular enemies and there's as few as three of them in total but they still can't be considered bosses (as every boss in the game has their own separate level to fight them in). They are immune to your laser weapons (except your lightsaber, which is ironically the most efficient tool against them, although one that requires you to get close to the beast) and taking them out with explosives takes ages (it's not exactly smooth with the lightsaber either). Granted, you don't actually have to fight any of them as there's always a way to just speed past them and move over to a location they have no access to, but still.
  • AT-STs are likewise encountered sparingly but very tough opponents. They're heavily armored and immune to projectile weapons, can take a decent number of hits from explosives (5 rockets or 6 shots from the concussion rifle), and armed with a powerful blaster turret that does a lot more damage than a regular blaster rifle. Level 6 has several patrolling a large courtyard which are best avoided, and you have to fight one at the end of levels 13 and 19. Also, after you destroy it, the pilot will hop out and start shooting at you.
• Boss-Only Level: All six of the boss fights take place in their own levels.
• Charge Meter: Certain Force powers have it.
• Checkpoint Starvation: Throughout the whole game you are able to save your progress anytime you like. As helpful as it is, it also means you are left with little to no checkpoints that would really come in handy in some stages. A good example of this being a problem is levels 14, 15 and 16, the first and third of which are boss battles and the second is a mission with a time limit. Whenever you die, you are reset to the start of the particular level. That is unless you turn the game off, in which case you will need to start the game from the last savestate you made. So, for instance, if you didn't save the game immediately before finishing off the first boss, then you'll fail the timed mission that comes right afterwards (provided that you didn't save the game right after the beginning of the new level) and turn the game off, you're going to have to repeat the whole fight all over again (or even more if you didn't save before entering the elevator leading up to said boss, which, by the way, you have no way of knowing marks the end of the level). The same thing goes for the next boss fight: if she kills you, then it's off to the last savestate, which in the worst scenario might be as far as three levels back!
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Field Stormtroopers (the ones with the backpacks) come in three varieties, each with a different coloured backpack based on the weapons; Brown for the Stormtrooper Rifle, Red for the Imperial Repeater, and Yellow for the Rail Detonator.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Enemies always know your exact position once you're spotted and will actually both lead their shots and pre-fire as you strafe out of cover, so strafing in and out of cover while popping off shots isn't a reliable way to avoid taking incoming fire unlike in many other shooters, including this game's sequels.
• Continuity Nod: Kyle says to 8t88, "The dark side? I've been there. Do your worst." This is referring to dialogue in Dark Forces where Kyle says "I'll see you on the dark side" just before launching to the Executor. It may also be reference to his previous occupation as a stormtrooper prior to the series.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Some of the Dark Side powers, such as Force Grip and Force Deadly Sight don't work on any of the game's bosses. Guns aren't much use, either, as most weapons' shots can be blocked by lightsabers and the bosses will use Force Pull to disarm Kyle anyway. Even if you keep your distance or use Force Absorb to block Force Pull, all of them only take 50% damage from projectiles and 10% damage from explosives/rockets, so blasting them simply doesn't do very much damage (Yun, the weakest Dark Jedi, takes well over 100 rockets to kill).
• Cool, but Inefficient:
  • Force Lightning. Shooting electricity out of your hands like The Emperor might sound fun, but it consumes your Force energy very rapidly, which you could use for other powers. You're better off just using a gun.
  • Force Deadly Sight falls under this as well. While it burns everything in sight, literally, it cannot be switched off until your mana completely runs out, making it a waste on anything smaller than very large groups of enemies. And it doesn't work on bosses.
• Covers Always Lie: Some versions of the Mysteries of the Sith box show a lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from Luke's perspective, which never happens in the game — even though there is a bonus mission where you play as Luke in Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back, you never actually fight Vader (he's replaced by dark-side Kyle).
• Cowardly Boss:
  • Maw takes about two hits before fleeing to the other side of the area where he's fought. The third time Kyle catches up to him though, he stands his ground, ultimately resulting in his defeat.
  • Boc spends most of his boss fight jumping around like a lunatic, making him rather hard to hit. Fortunately, being zapped with Force Blinding causes him to slow down somewhat.
• Crush the Keepsake: In the Dark Side ending, Kyle crushes the holorecording of his dad under his boot just to drive home how evil he's become.
• Cutting the Knot: Force Speed and Force Jump can be used to take major shortcuts and skip puzzles, most notably in the last cargo ship level, where you can skip the entire bridge rotation section and associated key hunt by simply jumping across the gap to the other side or onto the (unrotated) bridges.
• Dark Action Girl: Sariss.
• Deadly Gaze: Force Deadly Sight, which inflicts pain and injury on anyone the user sees via channeling their hatred through their eyes, and can outright dissolve enemies (except for bosses. It's acquired as a bonus power on the Dark Side path, or used by Sariss during her Boss Battle if Kyle stays true to the Light Side.
• Decapitation Presentation: Maw mentions doing this to Kyle's father, but the actual decapitation and subsequent public display of the head on a spike occurs offscreen... unless you have the book.
• Do Not Drop Your Weapon: Played straight by the Dark Jedi, but generic mooks have no such protection. Using Force Pull to disarm enemies is a very efficient method of neutralizing them.
• Downer Ending: The (since deemed non-canon) Dark Side ending still has Jerec defeated, but Kyle Katarn lost everything he valued in the process and became He Who Fights Monsters.
• Dual Boss: Gorc and Pic. They're fought on the second boss level, and are the only paired bosses in the game.
• Duel Boss: Every boss fight other than Gorc and Pic is fought in single combat.
• Early-Bird Cameo: One of the multiplayer skins is "Dark Kyle", a version of Kyle with a more prominent beard clad entirely in black. This would become his appearance in the expansion pack, while also Foreshadowing his fall to the Dark Side.
• Easter Egg: Max appears on Baron's Hed in a building and can team up with Kyle for the rest of the level, if Kyle can get into the room he's in. He's got boss-level health and carries a Bryar Pistol, which he will use with reckless abandon.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Stormtrooper Officers/Field Stormtroopers (the ones with the backpacks and shoulder pauldrons) carry heavier weaponry such as repeaters or rail detonators. The ones with the rail detonators can be particularly troublesome since they fire explosive rockets which can't be deflected with your lightsaber.
  • Trandoshans have almost twice as much health as a Stormtrooper and carry powerful concussion rifles. Fortunately, they only appear in a single level.
  • The black-clad Imperial Commandos can take one more shot before going down compared to Stormtroopers, sometimes even able to withstand 1 light lightsaber strike, and sometimes use imperial repeaters instead of blaster rifles.
• Emergency Weapon: Your fists prior to receiving your lightsaber (though you still have the option of using your fists).
• Enemy Civil War: Mostly averted, in relation to your Imperial foes, save for some hints that stormtroopers were fed to or accidentally happened upon some kell dragons. Mooks working in the underworld seem much more prone to this sort of behavior, however. One notable example is a Bar Brawl between a number of Grans in Baron's Hed.
• Epic Tracking Shot: A particularly good one appears in the introduction to Nar Shaddaa.
• Evil Is Hammy: Christopher Neame is clearly having a lot of fun as Jerec.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The one in the middle of the city of Baron's Hed which the player has to get to the top while pursuing 8t88. It's black and sticks out high above everything else.
• Evil Versus Evil: In the Dark Side route, Kyle still opposes Jerec, but only so he can conquer the galaxy for himself.
• Exact Time to Failure: While Jerec's destroyed cargo ship falls towards the ground, its PA system announces the exact time to impact every 30 seconds, and subsequently counts the remaining 10 seconds down. Justified as the ship is only affected by gravity (as well as some (failing) anti-gravity system and (if Kyle activates them), thrusters), so that time can be calculated, assuming the ship's navigation system can measure the distance from the ship's current lowest point to the ground below.
• Excuse Plot: Not really the game as a whole, which had a rather complex story, especially for the FPS standards of the era, but the main objective of Level 2 "The Lost Disk" definitely counts. So 8t88's arm holding the disk you need fell over the edge of the landing platform? It's actually just a few dozen feet below, next to the entrance to a shaft, and you can recover it within less than a minute from starting the stage. The logical thing for Kyle to do would be to tell Jan to come back for him to the exact same spot and both of them would be ready to leave Nar Shaddaa in a matter of minutes, rather than taking a dangerous walk through yet another few layers of the goon-crawling building in order to meet her on the roof.
• Eye Beams: The dark side power "Deadly Sight" could be considered this.
• Final Boss: Jerec. Doubles as a minor Puzzle Boss and Damage-Sponge Boss.
• Game Mod:
  • Utterly loads of them. Jedi Knight is very mod-friendly with loads of user-created content available online ranging from new skins to weapons to original missions.
  • As the game is VERY unstable on modern systems, even with official fixes, unless you run it in software mode without hardware acceleration, there have been several mods made to get it to run on modern systems with modern resolutions and framerates. OpenJKDF2, an open-source project source port, seems to be the most comprehensive attempt.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Grans' taunts consist of the same two lines spoken by the Gran in the first cutscene, resulting in them taunting Kyle how Nar Shaddaa will be his grave... in Barons Hed.
  • If the player is following the Dark Side path, it's entirely possible for them to destroy WeeGee at the start of level 4. This doesn't affect the cutscene at the start of level 13, where he's still intact and is used to project the map to the Valley of the Jedi from 8t88's head.
  • Force Destruction in the capable hands of Jerec is shown to be powerful enough to fatally cripple a docked capital ship, but in actual gameplay it doesn't do much more than hit really hard.
  • Jerec is shown to be without eyes (originally, he was intended to be a human whose dark side nature caused his eyes to rot away; eventually he was retconned into an eyeless humanoid species called the Miraluka), yet Force Blinding works on him perfectly fine in-game (although you can argue that Force Blinding would cut off his ability to see through the Force as well).
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Maw runs away when you damage him enough, and you have to pursue him twice to catch up to him and finish him off.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: There's a pair of Drugons in Barons Hed's main pool for some reason. Two levels later, you can (optionally) stumble in a room of Jerec's Palace... which, for some reason hosts a Kell Dragon.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Several Dark Jedi use light side powers. Yun, for instance, uses Force Blinding (which makes Kyle unable to see his surroundings), while Pic uses Force Persuasion to make himself invisible.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Interestingly played with. Only two of the seven Dark Jedi use traditional Sith red-bladed lightsabers (Maw and Jerec). The rest use lightsaber colors typically associated with the Jedi: yellow (Yun), orange (Gorc and Pic), blue (Sariss), and purple (Boc). Kyle himself follows this trope after the alignment lock; if he stays true to the light side, Kyle switches to a yellow blade inherited from Yun, fresh off the Redemption Equals Death train, while if he falls to the dark side, he sticks with his original green inherited from Qu Rahn. Finally, on the Force powers menu screen, the light side powers are green while the dark side powers are red, with the "neutral" powers being blue.
• Guns Are Worthless: Averted for the majority of the game, where shooting enemies from a distance is safer than going toe-to-toe using the lightsaber. Played straight for boss battles, where bosses will just deflect blaster bolts and use Force Pull to disarm Kyle.
• Gunship Rescue: At the end of Level 1, Kyle has shot off 8t88's arm, but the droid has escaped in an Imperial shuttle... and then a TIE Bomber appears and shoots at Kyle. Fortunately, Jan Ors shows up in the Moldy Crow to destroy it and save Kyle's life.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Maw is cut in half at the waist by Rahn during the opening cutscene. He spends the rest of the game without his legs, using telekinesis to get around. In the instruction booklet, he's described as "a levitating incarnation of rage".
• Heel–Face Turn: Yun, over the course of the entire game, as detailed in the novellas that were based on it. Which leads to his Redemption Equals Death.
• I Can Rule Alone: Kyle to Jerec in the dark side ending.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Apprentice (easy), Jedi Knight (medium), Jedi Master (hard).
• Idle Animation: If Kyle is left to stand for long enough, he'll rest his weapon on his shoulder... unless said weapon is his lightsaber, in which case he may trim his beard with it.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Notably averted, enemies actually have decent aim this time around. They're not crack marksman, but they still do hit about 50% of their shots, which is a huge improvement compared to the previous game. They can even lead their shots if you strafe around.
• Insistent Terminology: When 8t88 tells Kyle that Jerec is a Dark Jedi, Kyle muses on the term Jedi, to which 8t88 emphasises the Dark part of the phrase. Notably, the seven Dark Jedi are referred to as Dark Jedi and not Sith (except for the title of Gorc and Pic's Boss Battle, "Brothers Of The Sith"), which makes sense, since they do not follow the Rule Of Two.
• In Spite of a Nail: Whether Kyle falls to the dark side or not, he still visits the same locales and does the same missions in the final third of the game. The only differences are which Dark Jedi he fights in Mission 16 and what he does after defeating Jerec.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Early in the game, Jan informs Kyle that his ship is going to need repairs and jokes that it's going to cost him a crate full of money that he doesn't have. Late in the light side route, Kyle rescues Jan from Jerec's forces and informs her that it's going to cost her a crateload of money that she doesn't have.
  • In the darkside ending, Kyle, now the new Emperor, sits on his throne and views the recording from his father. When the recording reaches the point where Morgan comments on how very proud he is of Kyle, a twinge of emotion seems to cross Kyle's face and he subsequently crushes the recorder beneath his boot.
• Karma Meter: A major element. You can fall to the dark side in two ways: allowing or causing the deaths of noncombatant individuals and droids, or investing too many ranks in dark side powers.
• Kill Him Already!: After their respective defeats, Yun, Maw and Jerec each try this on Kyle. Maw succeeds.
• Laughing Mad: Boc to ridiculous levels.
• Live-Action Cutscene: The cutscenes were done with live actors and CG models interacting on matte backgrounds.
• Multiple Endings: The game has two endings depending on their alignment at the end of the game. The light side ending is canon.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: After the alignment lock, you lose the ability to use Force Powers of the alignment opposite you.
• No OSHA Compliance: Par for the course, considering this is Star Wars we're talking about here. Many of the game's levels are set in high places with no guardrails to prevent falls from great heights or have ridiculously Malevolent Architecture and have Kyle take the most dangerous route possible. A notable example occurs in the third level, where Kyle must reach his father's workshop by traversing past a giant pool of battery acid. That's right; Kyle's childhood home has a massive acid pool between the house and workshop. Lampshaded, of course, by Kyle.
  Kyle: This has got to be bad for my health.
• Recurring Boss: If Kyle falls to the Dark Side, he corrects his previous mistake and destroys Yun.
• Redemption Equals Death: Yun has just enough time to complete his Heel–Face Turn before being cut down (intentionally or unintentionally, depending on the source) by his mentor.
• Required Secondary Powers: Force Jump is lacking these in two ways; Jumping in a confined space will damage Kyle if he hits his head against the ceiling and jumping too high can cause fall damage.
• Route Boss: The fourth boss fight (and fifth boss total, counting Gorc and Pic separately) is fought just two levels after the alignment lock and changes depending on the player's alignment. If Kyle is Light-sided, he fights Sariss, while if he's Dark-sided, he has a rematch with Yun.
• Save Scumming: Just because you somehow survived a particularly hot shootout doesn't mean you should continue with the game as it is unless you feel like getting into an unwinnable situation around the corner.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If Kyle chooses the Dark Side, Qu Rahn's Force ghost gives him a quick What the Hell, Hero? speech and leaves you alone for the rest of the game.
• Second Hour Superpower: The game initially starts out like a shooter, but a few levels in, and you're a Jedi.
• Shout-Out:
  • Gorc and Pic have been clearly inspired by the similar duo of "Master Blaster" from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
  • Max from Sam & Max Hit the Road makes an appearance as an Easter Egg. A demented, pint-sized lagomorph received official mention in one of the online RPG supplements.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Averted when compared to the sequels. Unlike in Outcast and Academy, where the lightsaber basically renders the rest of your arsenal utterly useless, you're going to be hard pressed to beat this game without resorting to your standard weaponry fairly often. Especially on Hard mode, taking down enemies from distance, while mundane, most of the time still proves much safer than hacking them down with your lightsaber.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Kyle and Jerec end their duel with one — after Kyle gives Jerec his lightsaber back, the two charge at one another with blades ignited. Kyle's strike is the fatal one, and Jerec's body disintegrates into nothingness.
• Soft Water: Mostly played straight save for at least one occasion, such as when the player is required to navigate a metal grid suspended over a rather distant body of water on his way to an aqueduct. In this case, if Kyle falls, he exhibits an anomalous case of Super Drowning Skills.
• So Proud of You: The opening lines to the recording made by Kyle's father. The recording shows up again in the dark side ending, where its words become an Ironic Echo.
  Morgan Katarn: I want you to remember, son, when you're at the Academy... how very proud I am of you. What a fine young man you've become. I only wish your mother were here to see it... but I know she watches over you, and is proud.
• Starter Villain: The main villain that Kyle pursues for the first part of the game is the droid 8t88, who is simply a hired information broker who presents far less of a threat than the real villains, the Dark Jedi, who simply dispose of him when he gives them the map to the Valley of the Jedi.
• Story Branch Favoritism: The Light Side route gets far more development than the Dark Side route. On the Light Side, you get several live-action cutscenes to advance the story and get Qu Rahn's narration over the remaining boss fights, while on the Dark Side, you only get the loading screen blurbs to explain why you're doing the same things as a dark sider and one cutscene to show what Kyle does after defeating Jerec.
• Take Up My Sword: Kyle is given Rahn's lightsaber. This gets destroyed by Boc in the light side path; when Yun dies shortly afterward, Kyle takes up his saber during the fight against Sariss, and uses it until some years later, when he builds his own.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Force Absorb is useless against blaster wielding enemies and melee attacks. However, against later bosses who start busting out dark side Force powers, such as Destruction and Lightning, it can be a very useful tool to survive, as not only will it nullify the effects of said powers, but also convert them into mana.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Stormtroopers and other humanoid enemies have undergone a major upgrade from Dark Forces. They're now much faster, will strafe back and forth to avoid blaster fire, are much more accurate, and fire more frequently. Stormtroopers in particular are faster and more aggressive than the Grans and Tuskens you fight in the first few levels, and will hit about half their shots, even leading their shots if you try strafing. Stormtrooper NCOs /Field Stormtroopers also carry heavier weaponry including the machinegun-like imperial repeater and the rocket launcher-like rail detonator.
  • Probe Droids now deal much more damage with their blaster attacks, now doing as much damage as a shot from an AT-ST. They also have a melee attack with their robot arms which counters fighting them with a lightsaber.
  • Trandoshans now deal much more damage with their concussion rifles and also occasionally carry rail detonators instead.
  • Kell Dragons now have bulletproof scales which deflect all non-explosive projectiles. You can now only damage them with explosives, Force powers, the lightsaber, or your fists, and they take significantly reduced damage from explosives. They also now deal 50 damage instead of 20, allowing them to kill you in just 2 bites.
• Tragic Keepsake: Kyle keeps a recording of his deceased father congratulating him on attending the Imperial Academy. He destroys it in his darkside ending.
• The Unfought:
  • After arriving on Ruusan, Kyle spies an AT-AT walker patrolling the area. It's encountered in the beginning of level 17, but it's vacant and you don't get to fight it.
  • Sariss becomes this if you choose the Dark Side. Instead, you get to fight Yun in a rematch and Sariss turns to your side in the ending.
• Unholy Nuke: Jerec and Boc can both use the "Force Destruction" Power. It's a dark side attack that consists of a fiery ball of flames and negative energy and destroys everything on its path. In-game it's basically a big fireball with a really big splash damage radius, but in cutscenes it's a wave of destruction which Jerec uses to obliterate the support structure holding up the cargo ship Kyle is on.
• Villain Protagonist: On the Dark Side path, Kyle becomes this. The game's events themselves play out almost the same as on the Light Side, with the only differences being that Kyle instead kills Jan, is abandoned by Rahn, doesn't crash the Moldy Crow and have his green sabre destroyed, must face Yun instead of Sariss, and, quite obviously, doesn't save Jan from Boc. However, upon defeating Jerec, Kyle takes the valley's power for himself and becomes Emperor.
• Warm-Up Boss: Yun is the first and easiest of the Seven Dark Jedi.
• Wham Episode: A major one from the end of Level 14 to Level 16: Kyle gets goaded into killing Maw in a fit of rage, and then Jerec comes in and reveals that Jan's been captured, and tries to get Kyle to kill her (he does in the dark side path, leading to Qu Rahn abandoning him). Kyle then has to escape the now-falling cargo ship in time, but when he does the Moldy Crow crash lands and is destroyed, and he's found by Boc, Sariss, and Yun. Boc destroys Kyle's lightsaber, and just as Sariss is about to kill him, Yun defends Kyle and gets killed instead. The dark side path is much less dramatic, with Kyle killing Jan and not crash-landing the Moldy Crow, and then fighting Yun to the death.
• Wrecked Weapon: On the Light Side path, Boc destroys Kyle's lightsaber as he lays helpless. Fortunately, Kyle gets Yun's as a replacement.
• You All Look Familiar: There seems to be as many as three male and two female civilian models in both the original game and the expansion pack.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After 8t88 tracks down the map to the Valley of the Jedi, Jerec tells him his payment is waiting for him in a cargo ship at a fuel station. But when 8t88 goes to collect it, he gets his head cut off by Jerec's minions, Pic and Gorc. Some thanks.

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The Mysteries of the Sith expansion contains examples of following tropes:

• Action Girl: Mara Jade.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The player is put in Kyle's shoes for four levels before the perspective switches to Mara Jade for the remaining ten.
• Anti-Magic: The ysalamiri block Force powers. They don't play a role in the plot but a couple are present in the swamps of Dromund Kaas, making getting to secret areas that much harder.
• Author Appeal: The developers of Mysteries clearly enjoyed The Thrawn Trilogy. Vornskrs, ysalamiri, noghri and of course Mara Jade herself all originated there.
• Bag of Spilling: Kyle starts the expansion with a small selection of powers, even compared to what he would have had in the base game, though a good few stars to allocate to more as his four levels progress. Even so, he should still have Force Protection, which he gains when he refuses to execute Jan.
• Black and White Magic: Kyle becomes The Red Mage (although he can use all the available powers) because the plot requires him to do a quick Face–Heel Turn, only to be redeemed by Mara. Mara is the same, since she was formerly on the Dark Side as well.
• Bonus Stage: A downloadable extra level unrelated to the main story, featuring Luke Skywalker arriving at Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back, for a final confrontation with a dark-side Kyle (standing in for Vader).
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The vornskrs in the expansion pack are ridiculously fast, agile and deadly, as well as immune to practically any Force power you have at your disposal, save for Destruction. To make things worse, they're pretty much the only enemy in the game that you take damage from by just touching them, they can leap at you when you're on ledges above them, and they can swim. Sounds like the kind of enemy you might want to take down from distance, right? Well, you have Force Destruction, Saber throw and all the other weapons you've collected during your journey... except they just don't happen to work in the last three levels where you meet the vornskrs. Ouch!
• Brick Joke: Mara Jade saying to herself she's having a feeling she's going to regret working with Ka' Pa. Later in the game where she encounters a Rancor in a dark room unarmed...
  Mara: I knew I was gonna regret this!
• Charge Meter: The scout pistol.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Force Lightning. It consumes energy ever second it's used, and doesn't do enough damage. It's been Nerfed from the base game, making an already poor power even less useful.
• Continuity Nod: During Mara Jade's mission to locate the Holocron, you can stumble upon 8t88's head as well as the head for a phase II dark trooper.
  Mara: This looks familiar.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted; in the last 3 missions you lose all your non-lightsaber weapons anyway, so the devs didn't bother to give Dark Mara or Dark Kyle Force Pull or damage resistance against projectile weapons, unlike the Dark Jedi from the base game. However, this is only noticeable with cheats or in the Bespin Cloud City Easter Egg bonus mission.
• Cutscene Incompetence: A few times throughout the game:
  • At the end of Level 2 Kyle is surprised by two rail troopers, the kind of whom he must have defeated a few dozen times by now. That's enough to make him run off like a wimp.
  • A bunch of Ka' Pa the Hutt's henchmen are no match for Mara Jade... as long as plot convenience doesn't require her to be forced into taking up Ka' Pa's job offer.
• Dark Action Girl: Arguably Mara Jade, given her background.
• Decoy Protagonist: Kyle is the Player Character for the first four levels. After that, the game follows Mara's adventures.
• Degraded Boss: The statues in the Sith temple that come to life are basically weaker versions of Yun and Jerec from the base game that have a lot less health and no Force powers.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Mara steals a Tusken Raider outfit in order to infiltrate Ka'Pa's palace.
• Eaten Alive: Mara's fate if she fails to kill the Rancor.
• Excuse Plot: The four main story arcs are so thinly tied together you might as well just cheat code your way to Level 12 and still wouldn't be any more lost in the narrative as any other player.
• Enemy Civil War: The palace of Ka'Pa the Hutt also has a few sequences in which mooks attack one another.
• Futureshadowing: The planet Dromund Kaas is first introduced in Mysteries of the Sith.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The first level has the imperials doing an assault for once. Cue stormtroopers barging into the rebel base and yelling "This is a restricted area!".
• Guns Are Worthless: In the last couple of levels, set on Dromund Kaas, the Dark Side Nexus in the area causes Mara's guns and explosives to all misfire, forcing the lightsabre to be used.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Kyle actually utters this very sentence at least once.
• Mirror Boss: Mara is required to fight Dark Mara before entering the Sith temple. Dark Mara is basically Mara's inner darkness manifested in physical form.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: At one point in Level 10 you need to blow up two security cameras in order to leave the room. Why that would open the doors rather than shut them for good is anyone's guess.
• Nerf:
  • The lightsaber's damage has been reduced from the base game. On the other hand, the saber throw power gives it a ranged option.
  • Force Chain Lightning is even more useless than Force Lightning from the base game, since it requires locking onto an enemy and only launches a single spark, taking all the fun out of it.
  • In the original game, Force Pull would render the disarmed enemy completely helpless. Here, they will try to punch you to death with their bare hands.
• No Canon for the Wicked: This expansion takes the Light Side ending from the base game as how it went down. In fairness, Kyle becoming The Emperor would have had serious repercussions for the continuity of the expanded universe.
• No-Gear Level: First, if you don't grab your lightsaber back at one point in Takara's stronghold, Mara must fight her way through Gamorrean guards and must evade (and later kill) a rancor. Then, when you reach the final levels on Dromund Kaas most of her weaponry is useless, and she's forced to focus on her lightsaber.
• No One Could Survive That!: At the end of Level 2 Kyle jumps into a seemingly bottomless pit, prompting one of the stormtroopers chasing after him to invoke this trope.
• Puzzle Boss: Kyle himself. Study the hieroglyphics in the room where you fight him very carefully for a hint on how to win.
• Random Events Plot: The expansion has four unconnected story arcs that break up the game. The first details Kyle's efforts to destroy the armed and mobile asteroids that are attacking the New Republic base. The second arc centres around Mara's efforts to negotiate for supplies with K'Pa the Hutt. The third arc involves Mara tracking down and recovering a holocron from some Space Pirates. Finally, the endgame has Mara travel to the Sith temple on Dromund Kaas to see what has happened to Kyle. Barring Kyle telling Mara where he's going at the end of the first story, there's no connection between any of the game's four plots, barring Mara being playable for the latter three.
• Series Continuity Error: In Mysteries Of The Sith Mara Jade's lightsaber is purple. It should be blue, as her lightsaber was Luke's first saber that he initially lost on Cloud City then recovered (long story) and gave to Mara as a gift. Not helping are the multiple Retcons, the first coming from the comic Mara Jade — By the Emperor's Hand, released later that year, which explains that she had her purple lightsaber long before receiving Luke's blue one, and later retcons saying that lightsaber was stolen from Mara by Lumiya in the years between Endor and her joining up with Talon Karrde.
• Sheathe Your Sword: You can't beat Kyle in combat. The only way to trigger the ending cutscene is to extinguish your lightsaber.
• Sniper Rifle: Hilariously, the Stormtrooper Rifle of all weapons can be converted into a highly precise sniping weapon by attaching a scope. It even automatically zooms in when an enemy is within the reticule.
• Space Pirates: Levels 9 to 11 consist of a subplot involving a very classical version of these. Not only do they look like classic pirates, but in space — they literally board the New Republic ship you've just been assigned to and loot all of its cargo, including a Jedi Holocron. You spend Levels 10 and 11 stowing away on their ship and subsequently assault their home base to take back the Holocron.
• Taken for Granite: Mysteries introduces a special carbonite rifle that freezes enemies in, well, carbonite.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: One of the new powers is the ability to throw your lightsaber at enemies. It will perform a Boomerang Comeback once its maximum range has been reached.
• Trick Bomb: In addition to the thermal detonators, the expansion adds flashbangs. They're not really all that useful, since they don't do anything Force Blind doesn't already do.
• Unique Enemy: The Rancor on level 8.

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