Several years after the Battle of Endor (at the end of Return of the Jedi), Luke Skywalker has set up a new Jedi Academy on Dantooine and there are only remnants of the Empire left around the galaxy. Kyle Katarn, one-time mercenary and now full-time Jedi, is an instructor at the Academy. You, in the form of Jaden, are one of his students.

Jaden can take quite a few forms: male or female, human or alien (Twi-Lek, Rodian, Zabrak or Kel Dor). Jaden is also gifted and unique among his (or her) classmates. He's already constructed his own lightsaber, which is unheard of without formal training. In other words, this is one game that doesn't wait until later to try to surprise you when it comes to your character being special.

The most popular complaint about Jedi Outcast was how long it took to before your character gained force powers. It was a fun game in first person shooter mode, with good weapon variety and interesting levels, but you didn't come to play just any shooter. You came to force push, grip and lightning the beejeezus out of anyone that gets in the way. Jedi Academy avoids the misstep of Jedi Outcast and throws you right into the mix.

Your missions as a new student at the Academy are pretty linear, but you'll have some choices as to how many objectives you complete within each. They're also thankfully varied, some very short and others incredibly drawn out and complicated. You don't know what to expect at the start of each mission. They're set before you in sets, and it's up to you how many you complete before taking on the ones that move the story forward. You can skip the extra ones if you like but they offer practice you may need later on, particularly if you want to master each new kick, stab and spin you can pull off with mouse movements and button presses. This creates a more leisurely story in the early going compared to Jedi Outcast, where every scene and fight was urgent and plot driven. It's also worth nothing that Kyle's adventures were more personal, and maybe that's why he's such a popular character. Jaden's trek involves the always important saving of the galaxy, but you don't get to know him the way you did Kyle.

After each mission's "must-do's" are finished, you can head back to the Academy for your pat on the head and an opportunity to advance your skills and powers. Each time you advance, you'll be forced to make some choices. Jedi Academy is not one of those games in which you'll eventually max out the skills and powers of your character across the board. You'll have to choose a path and stick with it.

The powers are familiar, from the universal powers like force push, pull, speed and saber throw, to light side powers like heal and mind trick and then dark side powers – rage and grip (the old "grab your enemy and choke 'em" power). Each power can be advanced up to three times, and most of that advancement is up to you while some happen automatically. The powers you choose don't decide what kind of Jedi you are. That comes later in the game when you'll be faced with serious temptation. Your final decision doesn't change the entire game, but it does affect your character's fate and it's a nice option in a genre where the ending is usually a forgone conclusion.

Your fighting style is also completely up to you. You can choose the classic, single lightsaber style, a two-swords style or go for the dual-bladed weapon made famous by Darth Maul in Episode One. (You can also customize your lightsaber, even the color, to take advantage of whatever path you like.) Each choice offers its own options and limitations. After playing a fair amount with as many combinations as I could muster it became clear that each style, as you might expect, gets the job done in its own way. So your choice is largely a matter of appearances.

Jaden's adventures include puzzle-solving, jumping, lots of practical uses of the force and tons of lightsaber fights. Jedi may have been rare at one point in Lucas's universe, but here they're crawling out of the woodwork. There are Dark Jedi at seemingly every turn and down every dark corridor. But that's a good thing, because even though it's satisfying to tear through the stormtroopers still working for the defunct empire (didn't they the memo?), it would get old if that was all that was standing in your way. Some of the Dark Jedi are smarter than others, though. A lot of them fall for the same tricks over and over, like getting force pushed off ledges. Others are incredibly tough, and you'll need practice to dispatch them. Mashing one attack after another is a surefire way to get dropped like a sack of potatoes. You'll actually have to use different saber strokes and think about positioning. This isn't true for all the fights, mind you, just the tough ones.

It's those tough fights where you'll appreciate all the practice with the controls. The directional movements and button presses required to pull off various maneuvers are learnable, but not as easy as you'd hope. You're doing yourself a disservice if you mash your way through the weaker opponents without learning more than one way to take out the bad guys.

Visually, Jedi Academy looks very similar to the previous games. That means it looks good, but it's starting to compare less favorably next to other games running on newer graphics engines. It's hard to say how many more Jedi Knight games can be made on this same foundation, but right now the environments, character models and detail are still very satisfying. Lightsaber battles among several Jedi are breathtakingly chaotic, but clear enough that you can still find your way.

The sound is classic Star Wars. If you don't enjoy the score, there's something wrong with you. Good voice work, excellent effects (especially those lightsaber fights) and surround sound support round out an aural experience as strong as any. There are some big battles in the game that have so much saber-clashing, taunt-shouting and force throwing goodness that it's hard to know what's going on. The sound does more than just add to the chaos, it brings the whole experience together so well it's tempting to just sit back and take it in.

Multiplayer offers typical Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Duel modes, along with an option to pit one strong Jedi against two weaklings. A new mode, Seige, puts players on separate teams and offers a series of objectives to be accomplished. Once that's done, the teams switch sides and try to beat the other's time. This is a nice addition that isn't part of every multiplayer package and it should help Jedi Academy stay on the play list after the single player adventure is over.

The amount of control you have over your character in Jedi Academy is one of those things we all asked for while we were playing Jedi Outcast. You choose not only the gender and race of your character, but also which powers and fighting styles to develop. Third person adventure games rarely offer that much customization. Jedi Academy continues the strong stories and challenging gameplay of past games in the series, while making improvements, big and small, along the way. If you long to adventure in the Star Wars universe, Jedi Academy is a sure bet.