Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter – Extermination Geonosis

Strap in and secure your hold-out blaster pistol. It’s time to once again set out to defend against the Trade Federation droids. Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter is a continuation of Star Wars: Starfighter, but bigger and better, with a more focused story that plays into the Star Wars movie prequel a bit more. Notable Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and specifically: the battle of Geonosis. Another difference in this game, compared to the original, is that the spot for the main character is now shared with a Jedi, who comes with unique devastating force abilities. 

Fixing things
Before we can go into the main review, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter comes with two emulation issues for the good old workhorse PCSX2 (PlayStation 2). The first problem is easily fixed by changing EE Cycle Rate to 130%, from 100%. You can find that option under the Emulation tab. The reason for this change is so the voices play in the after-mission cutscenes. Otherwise, everyone is muted and the only sound you will hear is the ominous silence of space. It’s kinda a bummer not to be able to hear the mission’s debriefing or the continuation of the story, especially after doing something heroic. So, it’s an important fix. 

The second problem is much worse, since it’s a mission scripting issue that will soft-lock your campaign. It took a while for me to realize this, which made the whole thing incredibly frustrating. I thought I was doing something wrong the whole time when playing. It’s mission 7 (Hammer & Anvil), and the issue consists of having a friendly capital ship taking the wrong turn, and with that traveling away from the combat area and destroying your campaign progress. Leaving you to circle around in a dead section of space forever and ever, like some kind of unsettling purgatory for space pilots.

To fix this, you need to download Kethor’s fix here. However, it isn’t as easy as just putting this file anywhere, considering that you haven’t installed anything. So, you need to extract the image file of the game (I did that with 7-Zip), and then put the downloaded file directly into that catalog, making it look something like this. Then you have to create the image file again, with that fix inside it. I did that, by downloading the burner software, ImgBurn. Just make sure the file size matches up, and that it has the correct name. Then you are good to go. I can confirm that this fix works, since it saved my playthrough. It’s a hassle, but worth it, if you enjoy these types of games.

Battle of Geonosis
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter is a continuation of Star Wars: Starfighter, with a new shared main character: the Jedi Adi Gallia. Nym, the space pirate, is also back to wreak havoc on the droids, both on land and in space. The rest of the crew from the first game is sadly not present, except for a brief cameo at the end. The general story is that the war against the Trade Federation continues unabated, as expected. It starts rather low-key, but eventually leads up to the famous battle of Geonosis, which you get to take part in. During the skirmishes, you are also presented with an antagonist that is hell-bent on creating a truly devastating and highly illegal weapon to get a leg up on the rebels. Think green nukes that melt people into sludge. The plot follows him, with you and your team cleaning up the droids and the manufacturing of this weapon, until the final confrontation at the end. 

The story is pretty well-told, even if not overly engaging in the beginning. I liked how the first game felt off-beat compared to the movies with you being involved in the conflict, but not at a first row seat. The more bombastic tone in the sequel is not bad at all, but it loses out on some of the charm of being a nobody in a grand, deadly conflict. It’s to be expected when you switch the main character from a random rookie pilot to a Jedi master. Once again, the game is rather short, yet, much more time and effort went into the overall presentation. The CGI cutscenes are very much improved, and there are more of them, too. 

With Adi Gallia being a Jedi, you get to interact with the top of the Jedi leadership, since Mace Windu will be your commander during these missions. Unfortunately, he is not voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, but the voice actor does a good enough job. However, she is not the only character you get to play. As mentioned, Nym makes a return. In the beginning of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, you work together as a team, but at one point, you go after different objectives. I really liked these segments with Nym, as it felt much more personal with him and his crew going after his old base to take it back from the Trade Federation – a charming nod to the first game.

Yet, being able to take part in the huge battle of Geonosis is not a bad deal. It’s actually pretty cool how it is presented, seeing as you get to witness how the landing forces came to the planet surface. There is also a pretty big battle in the skies above, that is totally omitted from the movies. Despite my minor complaints of making it more epic and involving the Jedi, the story is good fun, and maintains a grounded militaristic tone throughout.

Press X to blast
Gameplay is very similar to the first game, as you will be battling droids, and now Geonosians in the sky and on land, blasting everything from tanks to capital ships. What is cool is that the bigger ships now have targetable parts (like turrets) that you can destroy to limit their combat prowess. It’s not too involved, but it’s still a cool inclusion. In addition to that, the Jedi Adi Gallia that you get to control, come with her own force powers, with lightning being her most overpowered ability. Now you can blast and electrify whole squadrons of fighters if you time it right. I do feel this is a bit of a lore blunder, since I have never seen the Jedi, or anyone else, use force powers in this way from a fighter. If it was a common thing, we would have seen it getting used in the films. Nonetheless, it’s alright, and in combination with her force shield, it will make you very powerful and bail you out of sticky situations.

The missions are varied, and a bit more advanced when it comes to scripting. There will be a couple of twists and turns during the missions, but nothing that screws you up too badly. On that note, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter is much easier than its predecessor. There are a couple of bosses that mysteriously have all your wingmen go away for the fight, yet, they are not frustratingly bad like in the first Starfighter. All in all, the gameplay experience is still great, even if there hasn’t been too much added, beyond having a nicer presentation. It’s the same old, but I’m glad that it hasn’t changed that much, since the blend between simulator and arcade space shooter works well. 

My main issue is that it’s still way too short, with missions often not lasting more than about ten minutes or so. Even if you combine the campaigns from the two games, it would still be way shorter than most modern titles. It’s a real shame if you like the game, and setting, since it will be over before you have time to blink. You always have the secondary objectives to complete, but just that alone does not entice me to head back in for a second round. 

The look & sound
Predictably, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter looks much like the former game in the series. But improved here and there, mostly in its presentation, like I mentioned earlier in the review. It looks good, considering its age, and everything is recognizable from the movies, and that goes for both sound and the visuals. There is absolutely nothing to complain about here, as I would have been happy with it keeping the fidelity of Star Wars: Starfighter. The environments look stunning, and the variety of it is pretty impressive, even for a short game. Geonosis looks the part, however, a few more hundred units would have helped with the immersion, seeing how much of a cluster that battle was in the movie. That is just me dreaming, though.

The voice acting remains high quality, and while the radio communication chatter is still there, it felt toned down from the original. I think this is mostly due to there being less “non-important” allies taking part in the fighting. Regardless, it’s still quality, and adds to the sense of battle. The music is essentially the movie score interwoven into the action and events. It sounds fine, and you can’t really fault it, given that the soundtrack from the films are top-notch.

Conclusion
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter is a good game, and a great sequel. Now, I have listed a few issues, mainly the more bombastic plot, and it being very short. Yet, it’s still a hell of a fun game, especially if you enjoy the prequel movies with a more “grounded” take, to the eternal lightsaber swinging from other games. Well, besides the overpowered space force lightning. With it being a PlayStation 2 title, it’s “free” to play, so, you can’t go too wrong, if you want some space blasting in a fun setting when Star Wars still was good. You do have to fix the game, but it shouldn’t take more than a half an hour or so. I highly recommend Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, with a double recommendation for playing both games in a row!

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas