With revolutionary enhancements to the original Jedi Knight engine, this is how saber combat is supposed to be!
First off, the single player mode on this game rocks. You have a strong storyline that leaves off where Jedi Knight left off. You are given a challenge in the beginning since you don't yet have a lightsaber. Once you get your Force skills, you must complete a Jedi obstacle course in order to get a lightsaber. Single player gets a 10 all the way for gameplay. And Desann is quite difficult at the end, believe me...
Now, we go to the multiplayer. With 3 lightsaber stances to pick from, you'll need to master all 3, or at least two because your opponent is sure to vary every once in awhile. For masters, blue is almost useless because it can't penetrate anything and always gets blocked. Yellow is a nice, happy medium but tends to be a little too slow for what it does. Red is power, and very slow. The game also includes lots of variations on traditional multiplayer games like Jedi Master duels and Team FFAs, which adds much to the value.
Now why do I knock down the 9 with my tilt at an 8? There are a couple reasons this game was an A- for me and not an A. I have been active in a JK group for a long time, 7 years now. When JO came out, I found it very slow, very hard to pull off the moves, and not as much fun as JK. I still feel that way about JO, but fortunately, JA had just enough refinements to offset this. So in many ways, this game was a step down from JK for me, even with the far more intelligent engine. It is still a great game and far better than 90% of the shooters out there with its puzzles and intelligent saber combat.