Lady Jedi
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Lady Jedi was an official Single Player modification for Jedi Outcast, create by a Russian team - Nazar Design Group - back in 2004. The game included 12 missions of the young Force-sensitive agent of the Galactic Empire, Mariel Waterfall before and after the fall of the Republic and the Jedi Order.
Plot
The story begins with a scene, showing the Imperials, including Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader watching the pod race competition. They are approached by Mara Jade, who is partly in charge of hunting down Luke Skywalker and other Rebels. The Emperor then asks his agent to step aside and that the mission must be handled by their new addition to the Empire - Mariel Waterfall. The first level shows then the dream of the heroine, in which she is weaponless and has to fight multiple enemies, including some skeletons and Emperor's ghosts in what seems to be a lava cave.
The next missions reveal more of the backstory of Mariel, including her early years at the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, her friendship with another Jedi Padawan, Noma Tropp, as well as her first assignments for the Jedi Order and the Republic. These included the diversion operations on several Imperial installations, as well as a rescue mission on the planet of fogs, where Mariel Waterfall has to escort princess Flelin, an important witness, to her starship to present evidence of Emperor's treachery to the Galactic Senate.
The Jedi Order is later eradicated, when a group of knights, including Mariel, enter the secret lair of the Emperor. While they are successful in infiltrating the base at first, the trio is later brutally slaughtered by the Sith lords except for Mariel, who is spared only to be sent to a remote town in the desert to pass the tests.
Mariel is clueless on her current whereabouts until she is approached by a local Imperial official Torna-Jo, who then brings her into the test chambers, where the heroine starts her path towards the Dark Side of the Force. In the end the Emperor and Palpatine prepare a final trial for her, setting multiple Dark Acolytes and Dark Jedi against former Jedi Apprentice in a gladiator arena. As she passes the test, she is sent into another mission to sabotage the newly created Rebel movement activities against the Empire. It is also revealed, that the Imperial officer Dalles is conspiring with the Alliance against Palpatine and Vader.
After stopping the shipment at the ship of Python-III, Mariel is sent on a mission to eliminate the four members of the Conspiracy group: Drabba the Hutt, duke Vokkis, officer Dalles, as well as the unknown Jedi representative. The four gather for a secret meeting in a brothel and plan to start a larger Rebellion against the tyranny, but are interrupted by the heroine, who removes each of them one by one. The difficult choice stands before Mariel, when she meets Noma Tropp, who is the Jedi representative, sent to negotiate with other conspirators.
As the war is progressing further, the Emperor sends Mariel together with other forces to attack the hidden Rebel base (presumably on Yavin IV). After eliminating most of the enemy forces, the Player then moves into the base. In the very last scene Mariel encounters Luke Skywalker, and has two options - to try to kill the Jedi or surrender. In this instance, two different endings would be shown after the end of the mod.
Development
Lady Jedi was the second mod made by the Nazar Design team, the first being Communication Force for Jedi Outcast. Unlike its predecessor, the LJ project used a variety of new textures, new models and sounds.
The maps differed both in their design and atmosphere, taking place in Imperial bases, as well as crowded cities and remote villages. Most of these remind of certain Star Wars locations, like Tatooine and Corellia, while the Emperor's lair might have been inspired by the original concept of the Throne room for Episode VI. In some cases models from Soldier of Fortune II have been used to fill in the props for several missions, while the NPC models, made by other JK fans, such as Padme Amidala and Watto were used to create new characters in the story. The model of Mara Jade was used both for the character with the same name (Dark Side version) and the protagonist Mariel Waterfall.
Reception
The mod received mixed reviews by fans, with some being infuriated by the contradiction of the story to the original Star Wars films, while others criticized the project for adding too much of the mature content to the game, such as blood and gore, as well as erotic posters as textures to some of the levels. Some obscene language and a sex scene (though hidden) were also among the most disputed aspects of the game.
Certain bugs and gameplay faults raised additional complaints about the mod, graphics and level design, specifically when the Player got stuck in obviously simple areas.
However back in 2004 and later on, only a few large or even decent mods could be found, and most fans still enjoyed playing the mod, despite it's many negative sides. The diversity in enemies and levels, as well as a fresh approach to the JK series allowed Lady Jedi to remain among some of the most downloaded mods of the time.
Legacy
Two of the LJ maps – Jedi Academy on Yavin IV and the Conspiracy Brothel – were later revisited by a new character in the third mod by Nazar Design Group, Wild Force.