For the benefit of all the millennials and misinformed souls out there who've unfortunately been taken in by the glitz and glamour of Jedi Academy with all it's flashy features. It's important to understand that at the time of release this game was widely seen by the online multiplayer community as a truly unfortunate deviation from Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, mostly in terms of it's primary selling point: realistic saber combat. This iteration fell short by quite a margin...

What was once, a very precise and methodical approach to saber combat became a cheap and arcadey knock-off in JKA. In JK2 you could not only practice and "git gud" (haha) at saber combat but most importantly and especially unique to JK2; you could actually understand why damage values were dealt in the ways that they were. Hitboxes for players and sabers made sense but then JKA came along with spammy double/dual sabers and cheap kata moves that ruined what was a perfectly good formula. It wouldn't have been so bad if single blade sabers were kept the same but even they didn't escape an “upgrade”.

Try to imagine it like this: It was like transitioning from a well trained, taut and muscular fighter armed with a rapier of some notable precision, to one of those overweight American's you see in walmart on a mobility scooter armed with a balloon sword. That's how it feels to play JKA online after JK2. And while I won't go as far to say that you can't become a master at flailing a balloon sword around, I will say that it never comes close to the satisfaction felt when you master the real thing.

It's worth noting that the only reason most people began playing JKA nowadays is because they assume, mistakenly (unfortunately) that the latest version of the series will have the best looks and most polished combat. Unfortunately this was never the case and it's just a shame that most will never make the effort to look back and investigate the more superior instalment in the series.

The heyday for both these games is at an end and the last remaining online players are set in their ways. No one wants to try anything that might be a bit different or new to them and so both player bases will continue to slowly taper off and die. Unfortunately for those who know, the better game will likely die off first.

RIP JK2. You didn't deserve it like this.