Unfortunately, the answer to this question is the latter. Maybe if this game came out a year ago, it would have garnered some support. But Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight is too little, too late for LucasArts. While it does manage to throw a few inventive elements into the relatively cookie-cutter land of first-person games, the basic idea behind Jedi Knight has been done many, many times. While the final version will have some nice cut-scenes and a (rumored) storyline that follows the plot of the world-famous Star Wars trilogy, the game itself is mediocre at best.
The first person 3-D engine was built from the ground up, complete with "real-life" physics and support for 3-D actors and other objects. Gameplay is remarkably similar to Bethesda's two "Terminator: Future Shock" games that were released a few years back although, in my opinion, the games by Bethesda are still superior.
Borrowing heavily from the Star Wars movies, Jedi Knight gives you a large arsenal of weapons, although I felt that many of the weapons were very similar. Also thrown in for good measure is Luke's light saber, which I always thought was much more powerful then how it's depicted in this game. Is it just me, or does Luke cut through walls with his light sabre in the movies? If he does, we should be able to do the same! Along with the light saber are your abilities to use "the force," where a specific skill can be selected (force speed, jump, etc.), then used with varied results. Sometimes jumping over a large gap requires seemingly five hands — moving the mouse, pushing forward, and hitting enter at the exact second.
If it seems like I have nothing positive to say about the game . . . well, I have to give the designers credit for the tremendous levels. Although nowhere as detailed architecturally as Quake (the engine just isn't as versatile), they sure are large, like the sprawling piping system in the demo level. They also make good use of cliffs and drops. At one point, you can recreate the famous light-sabre battle scene with Mr. Vader, standing on a narrow bridge with nothing but sky below you.
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