Continuation of Dark Forces II, Mysteries of the Sith uses an upgraded version of the Sith Engine with slight software enhancements, most notably of model’s quality and visual effects. They aren't big enough to make a great difference, but sometimes it's noticeable that things look sharper or have more particles than they used to. What's noticeable at all times - are changes to the gameplay, level design and plot.
[i][b]Gameplay[/b][/i] of the predecessor was very simple, I'd even say casual, and the main reason was intelligence of the enemies: while they would walk around and position themselves somewhat strategically, as well as have decent accuracy, it was easy to outmaneuver them, for even moderate amount of strafing around was enough to make them miss significant amount of their shots. Thus, most of the time you'd spend running around like madman, trying to always stay in motion while exercising own accuracy to land a shot on the move. It was a basic yet satisfying run-and-gun experience that required more than standing in one place and shooting until enemy dies. In addition to that, there was an option to wield a lightsaber, becoming a nigh unstoppable menace to everyone around, cutting foes with ease and quickly moving from target to target, although there were problems with consistency of landing hits.
Mysteries of the Sith changed the existing formula. By giving enemies better accuracy and introducing more robust creatures, as well as increasing the speed of projectiles, developers have turned previously casual firefights into the exact opposite: unfairly difficult. Due to these changes, enemies hit player's character almost always, even while they strafe around frantically, even with the use of force speed. This leads to firefights being frustrating because there is almost no way to avoid getting damaged, and because previously slowly traveling, inaccurate rocket-like projectiles now hit the player with extreme precision. Sometimes simply turning around the corner or entering a room is enough to get peppered with blaster bolts or blown up by rockets/grenades/concussion rifle shots in a fraction of a moment, which results either in great loss of health or immediate death.
Lightsaber wielding also has been tweaked: now it takes more time to activate the blade and its swings are slower. It's not suitable for sudden melee combat or quick blocking of incoming projectiles, for switching to it takes too long, and the main character is no longer a menace while wielding due to difficulties with blocking numerous extremely fast and precise shots, as well as often being unable to even cut the enemy down before he can repeat the volley of fire, damaging player during the swing of a lightsaber, in a split second before it lands a hit. Thus, a fine weapon of a jedi, one with which whole armies could be bested, has been turned into useless glowing stick, with only valid use case being cutting through the vents and destroying control panels.
Like if that wasn't enough, in Mysteries of the Sith new units have been added, focused on melee. They are met closer to the end of the game, fast, have great amounts of health and do massive damage with each strike, easily defeating main character in matter of moments while lightsaber takes numerous heavy swings to bring them down. They also can't be killed with ranged weapons, so player is forced to try and use unwieldy lightsaber against these extremely powerful foes - a frustrating endeavor to say at least.
Force powers have remained the same: it's still a range of different buffs/debuffs that player can learn and use when necessary. What did change is how they are unlocked: now most of the powers are locked until certain point in the game, significantly reducing the amount of powers player can use. Moreover, it's more difficult to learn and improve them due to reduced amount of stars (they are awarded for finding secrets/competion of missions and used to buy new powers) that can be found throughout the game or rewarded for completion of levels, leading to extremely slow progression and inability to learn as many powers, as well as the fact that learning certain powers restricts access to others. I personally found it quite displeasing that, while playing as a jedi, I've been very limited in usage of the Force.
[i][b]Level design[/b][/i] has been downgraded extremely: if Dark Forces II levels had easy-to-comprehend layout - in most cases it was clear where exactly main path lays and which parts lead off the main road, - Mysteries of the Sith levels have no logical structure. Rooms, corridors, doors and control panels are spread out almost randomly, every path looks the same and leads to similar places. Many times I found myself following obvious paths, being confident that they lead to the next objective, going through the series of long corridors only to bump either in dead end, locked doors, force fields or even - and that happened surprisingly often - secret locations! And when main path wasn't looking identical to any other, it was hidden in the most bizarre ways, like in complete darkness, behind a small vent obscured by a column in a giant, dark corridor full of columns that is located in-between different other paths, all of which lead to some other parts of the map, all of which are big enough to be considered main paths on their own but, eventually, lead to the dead ends, causing extreme confusion.
Moreover, sometimes it's difficult to say if you have even reached the objective, for buttons, control panels and levers, necessary for progression, can look absolutely identical to all the decorations around them, or be hidden in obscure parts of the room. And even after they are found, It can be not apparent what exactly game wants the player to do with them, for it gives only vague goals and doesn't tell, for example, that this random generator-looking thingy that doesn't stand out from all the other decorations at all should be sliced with the lightsaber to influence some door on the other side of the location, which is required for progression. Objectives and locations are often so ambiguous that looking through the manual or a playthrough video can be the only way to understand what must be done here or there, or where player needs to go. I won't be surprised if the developers were high on spice or death sticks while designing levels in Mysteries of the Sith, for it's the only possible explanation of why they were unable to repeat convenient design of levels from Dark Forces II.
[i][b]Plot[/b][/i] is pretty much nonexistent: while Dark Forces II followed short yet interesting story with sequential chain of events, Mysteries of the Sith's missions start and end abruptly, there is no proper beginning or the end to them, only very short cutscenes, and each three or four missions story makes a big jump and continues from some random point with no apparent ties to previous events and locations. Furthermore, sometimes plot is simply illogical.
Cutscenes, by the way, are very ugly, for they are fully rendered on the game's engine, contrary to slightly goofy yet mesmerizing live action cutscenes from Dark Forces II, or even professionally drawn animations from the very first Dark Forces. They are short, very static, have few visual effects and don't have anything eye-catching at all.
[i][b]In the end[/b][/i], I cannot recommend Mysteries of the Sith. It offers an unpleasant experience and adds absolutely nothing of value to the series. Moreover, it downgrades, unnecessarily changing what worked well previously. It's unfortunate that game with Mara Jade as the protagonist has been executed so poorly, her unique and beloved character deserved much better game to be a part of.
