I’m a real fairweather Star Wars fan in the sense that I was deeply obsessed with it as a kid who was the prime age for prequel era stuff to be hitting real hard but how I interact with media and my relationship to concepts like fandom have radically changed over the years so that I’m not really the kind of person that big Disney franchise stuff appeals to. That said, I’m not like, anti-Star Wars; I had a great time with Andor and I’m the world’s only Cal Kestis liker (he’s nice! His ponchos are cool shut the fuck up!!). Something that’s really Activated the latent Star Wars fan in me like the world’s most annoying Manchurian Cnadidate, though, is that last year I started a podcast with a friend, a monthly book club where we read through all of the books by Matthew Stover, who has a lot of very good original work but is best known for the handful of Star Wars books he wrote, most famously the well-liked novelization of Revenge of the Sith.
So in the last three months I’ve read and talked about three really good books with my cohost who is a much bigger Star Wars person than me and they’re all occupying the old no-longer-canon extended universe stuff and man that shit really just scratches your brain. In particular was New Jedi Order: Traitor, the thirteenth book in its series set long after the original movies, occupying a similar narrative space that the current films and tv shows do but instead of interminable Disney franchise pipeline stuff they are trashy 90s sci fi schlock novels. Which is still generally very stupid, and very bad, but the WAY that they’re stupid is so much more unique, so much more propulsive and compelling as dumb art than anything anyone has made in the last decade for a franchise this big. It puts you in a mood.
Kyle Katarn.
This guy is that vibe personified. Kind of edgy but not really fake ass han solo luke skywalker in one dude ass guy in a doom game fighting What If Stormtroopers Had Black Armor And Were Big?? Fuck yeah dude this is the gamer’s star wars guy. His name’s fucking Kyle. But he does have a lot of character to him, even if it’s articulated mostly through voice lines during missions and the rare cutscene where he appears prominently. A lot of the story of this game happens around Kyle rather than to him or because of him.
But the fact that Kyle is such a distinct entity here is really noteworthy in and of itself. Dark Forces is a deceptively innovative game for something that looks like any other Doom II or Duke Nukem 3D like. A big part of that is how story driven it is. There aren’t actually that many cutscenes, maybe one every three levels or so, but they contextualize the missions well, and each individual mission has an extensive briefing beforehand that outlines everything in a lot more detail, written in character from your handler’s perspective (except for one mission where she’s captured by the empire and your goal is to rescue her – your briefing is absent because she’s gone it’s a great detail!). Missions have unique objectives and usually multiple per level that are all thematically appropriate to whatever you’re doing whether that’s stealing shit or looking for a guy to take hostage or planting bombs or finding evidence of a secret project or killing someone. This gives the game a different feel from levels that are purely Get To The End affairs, and the end NOT being get to the goal a lot of the time changes the way levels lay themselves out. Lucasarts was first and foremost an adventure game studio at this time and you definiteely feel that in the approach to puzzle design; you get a little bit of red key on the red door but there’s a lot of more esoteric navigational shit here too. Feels way more to me like Doom 64 than Doom II.
This game was actually in development BEFORE the original doom and coming out a year ahead of Duke Nukem, Dark Forces brings a lot to the mid-90s FPS table. It seems likely that Doom coming out would play heavy influence on this bad boy mid-development, but there’s a heavy emphasis on verticality in the level design here that’s explored really thoroughly through the 14 missions. Elevator puzzles, caverns, shafts, loops and cliffs, lots of different ways to explore this whole other axis of space. Platforming is a core part of this experience too and it works well. You can even like, point your gun up and down it’s wild.
The last way Dark Forces I think REALLY separates itself in this category of games (which I’m NOT an expert in and I know some of you reading are – please forgive me for not being a huge 90s shooter know stuff-er) is how aesthetically distinct it is. Levels very rarely reuse assets, and along with their distinct themes and objectives they all have distinct locations and visuals. More importantly than that though, they all try very hard to approximate real environments and the work pays off. These levels are abstract industrial spaces, they’re factories and mines and sewers and ships. Nothing like mind-blowingly innovative but it’s impressive how much these levels work as both 90s PC shooter levels and visibly true Places in a way that’s just not the case for most games like this.
It IS all in service of fighting guys called Darktroopers who are big stupid robots but that’s fine, really, that stupid shmooziness is a charm point, really. That’s the part that I WANTED from this game. The fact that on TOP of that it’s an extremely ambitious and completely successful shooter was a wholly unexpected surprise.
Next Time - STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHT - DARK FORCES II
So in the last three months I’ve read and talked about three really good books with my cohost who is a much bigger Star Wars person than me and they’re all occupying the old no-longer-canon extended universe stuff and man that shit really just scratches your brain. In particular was New Jedi Order: Traitor, the thirteenth book in its series set long after the original movies, occupying a similar narrative space that the current films and tv shows do but instead of interminable Disney franchise pipeline stuff they are trashy 90s sci fi schlock novels. Which is still generally very stupid, and very bad, but the WAY that they’re stupid is so much more unique, so much more propulsive and compelling as dumb art than anything anyone has made in the last decade for a franchise this big. It puts you in a mood.
Kyle Katarn.
This guy is that vibe personified. Kind of edgy but not really fake ass han solo luke skywalker in one dude ass guy in a doom game fighting What If Stormtroopers Had Black Armor And Were Big?? Fuck yeah dude this is the gamer’s star wars guy. His name’s fucking Kyle. But he does have a lot of character to him, even if it’s articulated mostly through voice lines during missions and the rare cutscene where he appears prominently. A lot of the story of this game happens around Kyle rather than to him or because of him.
But the fact that Kyle is such a distinct entity here is really noteworthy in and of itself. Dark Forces is a deceptively innovative game for something that looks like any other Doom II or Duke Nukem 3D like. A big part of that is how story driven it is. There aren’t actually that many cutscenes, maybe one every three levels or so, but they contextualize the missions well, and each individual mission has an extensive briefing beforehand that outlines everything in a lot more detail, written in character from your handler’s perspective (except for one mission where she’s captured by the empire and your goal is to rescue her – your briefing is absent because she’s gone it’s a great detail!). Missions have unique objectives and usually multiple per level that are all thematically appropriate to whatever you’re doing whether that’s stealing shit or looking for a guy to take hostage or planting bombs or finding evidence of a secret project or killing someone. This gives the game a different feel from levels that are purely Get To The End affairs, and the end NOT being get to the goal a lot of the time changes the way levels lay themselves out. Lucasarts was first and foremost an adventure game studio at this time and you definiteely feel that in the approach to puzzle design; you get a little bit of red key on the red door but there’s a lot of more esoteric navigational shit here too. Feels way more to me like Doom 64 than Doom II.
This game was actually in development BEFORE the original doom and coming out a year ahead of Duke Nukem, Dark Forces brings a lot to the mid-90s FPS table. It seems likely that Doom coming out would play heavy influence on this bad boy mid-development, but there’s a heavy emphasis on verticality in the level design here that’s explored really thoroughly through the 14 missions. Elevator puzzles, caverns, shafts, loops and cliffs, lots of different ways to explore this whole other axis of space. Platforming is a core part of this experience too and it works well. You can even like, point your gun up and down it’s wild.
The last way Dark Forces I think REALLY separates itself in this category of games (which I’m NOT an expert in and I know some of you reading are – please forgive me for not being a huge 90s shooter know stuff-er) is how aesthetically distinct it is. Levels very rarely reuse assets, and along with their distinct themes and objectives they all have distinct locations and visuals. More importantly than that though, they all try very hard to approximate real environments and the work pays off. These levels are abstract industrial spaces, they’re factories and mines and sewers and ships. Nothing like mind-blowingly innovative but it’s impressive how much these levels work as both 90s PC shooter levels and visibly true Places in a way that’s just not the case for most games like this.
It IS all in service of fighting guys called Darktroopers who are big stupid robots but that’s fine, really, that stupid shmooziness is a charm point, really. That’s the part that I WANTED from this game. The fact that on TOP of that it’s an extremely ambitious and completely successful shooter was a wholly unexpected surprise.
Next Time - STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHT - DARK FORCES II
Played with The Force Engine.
When I was a kid, one of the first Star Wars games I played was Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which I've since beaten like 50 times. I've always thought it was a perfect Star Wars game, and, as I aged, my opinion has only been reaffirmed.
At some point in my childhood I got a DVD anthology of Star Wars games, which featured all the Jedi Knight games, along with KotOR, Galactic Battlegrounds, Force Commander and several other old Star Wars games. I was excited to see what the older Jedi Knight entries were like, but upon playing them was left kinda unimpressed. Not that I disliked them, but they felt quite underwhelming. I remember brushing off Dark Forces as a simple Doom clone, and throughout two decades I continued thinking the same. Not that being a Doom clone is something bad, and I did attempt getting further in the game several times, but the first level always felt very off-putting to me.
I'm glad to acknowledge how wrong I was. In fact, Dark Forces is not only more than a Doom clone, it's actually a very important step in the development of first-person shooters. People often point to Duke Nukem 3D as being the first game to create realistic looking environments in a 3D space (where you could utilize the Y-axis), but I think Dark Forces beat Duke to it. In fact, it kinda beat Unreal and Half-Life to a more story-driven experience with scripted scenes. It was also one of the first shooters to have a secondary fire.
Now, that is a bit of an exaggeration ofc, but the seeds of what Duke, Unreal and Half-Life would bring were already here. The game does a remarkable job recreating the aesthetic of the movies, and most missions start or end with a scripted scene of a 3D model of a spaceship flying in or out of your location. There is also a lot of verticality throughout the levels, not just in elevators, but in straight up platforming sections that require timed jumps or crouching. Also, unlike Doom and its clones, Dark Forces mostly gives you story-related tasks instead of simple key-hunting (although there are instances of that too). Clearly a great amount of effort went into making this a realistic experience, with cutscenes, in-game characters, detailed animations and little touches like projectiles ricocheting off some of the walls and certain objects in the environment being breakable.
Of course the story is nothing to write home about. It's a simple tale of the rebels thwarting yet another sinister plan of the empire. It does its job though and definitely makes the game stand out from nearly storyless shooters of the era. In addition, it conveys really well the scale and danger of the Dark Trooper program. Honestly, having mainly seen them in Battlefront, I never thought of Dark Troopers as that threatening, but this game makes them look almost scary. And when you see one in-game, it's definitely an adrenaline-pumping experience. Not to mention general Mohc in an exoskeleton. The last level of this game is quite a rollercoaster in the best sense of the word.
However, sadly I can't say the same about all levels. The first level is indeed a bit of a slog. Which is then followed by sewers (where you have to swim in rivers of shit) with puzzles that require a lot of backtracking. The levels do get better from there, but the level design in general is pretty confusing. It's true that Doom, Quake, Duke and other such games also had a mazey level-design, but somehow they were able to pull off an organic progression. I don't think Dark Forces does as well in this regard. There were a couple of levels where I'd run around for like 40 minutes not knowing what to do, until giving up on it and resorting to a walkthrough. And even in otherwise normal levels, there'd sometimes be really boring puzzles, like the one where you have to keep running back and forth through the same tunnels, turning on and off switches. Often there's just too much extra stuff, like nearly inaccessible paths that would only lead to secret areas, which you would spend tens of minutes trying to get to only to realize you didn't have to. Not like the secret areas give you anything worthwhile (usually just ammo and health packs). I also really disliked the grenade-throwing three-eyed cow-people (i just looked it up, they're called Gran). In Jedi Outcast and Academy there is a beeping before they throw the thermal detonator, but here there's nothing. So they can just spam you with grenades that are very hard to dodge when there's more than one of them.
That being said, most of the gameplay is still solid. It still has that addictive and exciting projectile-based combat that Doom pioneered, so every shootout is a blast. The game starts really coming into its element in the later levels, when it throws huge crowds of enemies at you and give you powerful weapons to deal with them.
While Dark Forces in my opinion still doesn't reach the highs of Jedi Academy, it is definitely a solid foundation for the series. What really impresses me is how much of its DNA can be seen in the sequels, despite this being a pseudo-3D old school shooter, while the sequels focusing more on the melee combat and Force usage.
When I was a kid, one of the first Star Wars games I played was Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which I've since beaten like 50 times. I've always thought it was a perfect Star Wars game, and, as I aged, my opinion has only been reaffirmed.
At some point in my childhood I got a DVD anthology of Star Wars games, which featured all the Jedi Knight games, along with KotOR, Galactic Battlegrounds, Force Commander and several other old Star Wars games. I was excited to see what the older Jedi Knight entries were like, but upon playing them was left kinda unimpressed. Not that I disliked them, but they felt quite underwhelming. I remember brushing off Dark Forces as a simple Doom clone, and throughout two decades I continued thinking the same. Not that being a Doom clone is something bad, and I did attempt getting further in the game several times, but the first level always felt very off-putting to me.
I'm glad to acknowledge how wrong I was. In fact, Dark Forces is not only more than a Doom clone, it's actually a very important step in the development of first-person shooters. People often point to Duke Nukem 3D as being the first game to create realistic looking environments in a 3D space (where you could utilize the Y-axis), but I think Dark Forces beat Duke to it. In fact, it kinda beat Unreal and Half-Life to a more story-driven experience with scripted scenes. It was also one of the first shooters to have a secondary fire.
Now, that is a bit of an exaggeration ofc, but the seeds of what Duke, Unreal and Half-Life would bring were already here. The game does a remarkable job recreating the aesthetic of the movies, and most missions start or end with a scripted scene of a 3D model of a spaceship flying in or out of your location. There is also a lot of verticality throughout the levels, not just in elevators, but in straight up platforming sections that require timed jumps or crouching. Also, unlike Doom and its clones, Dark Forces mostly gives you story-related tasks instead of simple key-hunting (although there are instances of that too). Clearly a great amount of effort went into making this a realistic experience, with cutscenes, in-game characters, detailed animations and little touches like projectiles ricocheting off some of the walls and certain objects in the environment being breakable.
Of course the story is nothing to write home about. It's a simple tale of the rebels thwarting yet another sinister plan of the empire. It does its job though and definitely makes the game stand out from nearly storyless shooters of the era. In addition, it conveys really well the scale and danger of the Dark Trooper program. Honestly, having mainly seen them in Battlefront, I never thought of Dark Troopers as that threatening, but this game makes them look almost scary. And when you see one in-game, it's definitely an adrenaline-pumping experience. Not to mention general Mohc in an exoskeleton. The last level of this game is quite a rollercoaster in the best sense of the word.
However, sadly I can't say the same about all levels. The first level is indeed a bit of a slog. Which is then followed by sewers (where you have to swim in rivers of shit) with puzzles that require a lot of backtracking. The levels do get better from there, but the level design in general is pretty confusing. It's true that Doom, Quake, Duke and other such games also had a mazey level-design, but somehow they were able to pull off an organic progression. I don't think Dark Forces does as well in this regard. There were a couple of levels where I'd run around for like 40 minutes not knowing what to do, until giving up on it and resorting to a walkthrough. And even in otherwise normal levels, there'd sometimes be really boring puzzles, like the one where you have to keep running back and forth through the same tunnels, turning on and off switches. Often there's just too much extra stuff, like nearly inaccessible paths that would only lead to secret areas, which you would spend tens of minutes trying to get to only to realize you didn't have to. Not like the secret areas give you anything worthwhile (usually just ammo and health packs). I also really disliked the grenade-throwing three-eyed cow-people (i just looked it up, they're called Gran). In Jedi Outcast and Academy there is a beeping before they throw the thermal detonator, but here there's nothing. So they can just spam you with grenades that are very hard to dodge when there's more than one of them.
That being said, most of the gameplay is still solid. It still has that addictive and exciting projectile-based combat that Doom pioneered, so every shootout is a blast. The game starts really coming into its element in the later levels, when it throws huge crowds of enemies at you and give you powerful weapons to deal with them.
While Dark Forces in my opinion still doesn't reach the highs of Jedi Academy, it is definitely a solid foundation for the series. What really impresses me is how much of its DNA can be seen in the sequels, despite this being a pseudo-3D old school shooter, while the sequels focusing more on the melee combat and Force usage.
The Doom of Star Wars.
I've played all the Jedi Knight games and am an avowed Doom-lover, so buying this felt inevitable. Was delighted to discover early on that the game was obviously asset-stripped to make the following year's Shadows of the Empire - everything from sound effects to switches got taken forward - but was less impressed with everything else.
Somewhat painful to try and play via DOSBOX. When moving at speed through the headier action setpieces, the game becomes a painful whirl of pixels and jagged frames that I'm not willing to sit through in my old age. The sewer level was the icing on the cake - don't make me squint at brown and don't make me squint at a 320x200 map that I have to page through with arrow keys.
Might come back to this once the source port is ready, depending on what the developers can do to make it GZDoom-y. Godspeed to the rebels who stole the plans from the evil empire.
Somewhat painful to try and play via DOSBOX. When moving at speed through the headier action setpieces, the game becomes a painful whirl of pixels and jagged frames that I'm not willing to sit through in my old age. The sewer level was the icing on the cake - don't make me squint at brown and don't make me squint at a 320x200 map that I have to page through with arrow keys.
Might come back to this once the source port is ready, depending on what the developers can do to make it GZDoom-y. Godspeed to the rebels who stole the plans from the evil empire.
what if star wars was doom and also bad
Star Wars! I am not a particular fan of the franchise other than having seen the movies. Not the Disney ones the real ones. Also I generally think first person shooters are a dogshit genre. So with that in mind I think this game is pretty bad.
The Star Wars part of it actually kicks ass though. Great digitized faces. Kyle Katarn is a very funny dude who can punch things extremely hard, takes down a big lizard with just one fist. If he'd been there in the New Hope trash compactor things woulda gone different let me tell you. This sucker predates Duke 3D and like, Goldeneye, and there's a lot of elements that I associate with those games in here. Varied mission objectives, for example, even if they're never really complicating things beyond moving through areas and hitting E sometimes. Every level has a very distinct identity visually and a unique story backing with very fun mission briefings written in character. You kill Boba Fett in this which is very funny.
Unfortunately the part where you actually play the game is deeply unpleasant. Impossible to avoid damage without memorization, guesswork and pure luck. Very little weapon variety and ammo is so scarce as to be annoying. The level designs are cool at seeming like an actual place but this means you go around hunting for tiny, impossible-to-see switches for like half the game, with the way forward often completely inscrutable dogshit. The verticality of things really works against you when looking up and down is a massive bother on the hands and eyes. Some of these issues would be helped if there were mid-mission saves, but there are not. Hope you can see those tiny pixellated mines that kill you instantly. Fuck you if you fail to make a jump in an engine that is not at all designed for platforming but we filled the levels with pits
Do not like game one bit, do think it's very ambitious, do want to see more Kyle.
The Star Wars part of it actually kicks ass though. Great digitized faces. Kyle Katarn is a very funny dude who can punch things extremely hard, takes down a big lizard with just one fist. If he'd been there in the New Hope trash compactor things woulda gone different let me tell you. This sucker predates Duke 3D and like, Goldeneye, and there's a lot of elements that I associate with those games in here. Varied mission objectives, for example, even if they're never really complicating things beyond moving through areas and hitting E sometimes. Every level has a very distinct identity visually and a unique story backing with very fun mission briefings written in character. You kill Boba Fett in this which is very funny.
Unfortunately the part where you actually play the game is deeply unpleasant. Impossible to avoid damage without memorization, guesswork and pure luck. Very little weapon variety and ammo is so scarce as to be annoying. The level designs are cool at seeming like an actual place but this means you go around hunting for tiny, impossible-to-see switches for like half the game, with the way forward often completely inscrutable dogshit. The verticality of things really works against you when looking up and down is a massive bother on the hands and eyes. Some of these issues would be helped if there were mid-mission saves, but there are not. Hope you can see those tiny pixellated mines that kill you instantly. Fuck you if you fail to make a jump in an engine that is not at all designed for platforming but we filled the levels with pits
Do not like game one bit, do think it's very ambitious, do want to see more Kyle.
I've played Star Wars: Dark Forces on two separate occasions over a year apart now, but each time I start this up, I get to the sewer level and give up after being lost for close to an hour. It was only after I dropped this for good today that I'm hearing that the sewer level is infamous for making players do that. Well, I understand your frustration now, my friends.
That said, the last time I dropped this game, I wanted to play games chronologically starting in 1995. This one released February 15 and was therefore the first on my list. As a retro newcomer of sorts, this game understandably looked very bad and getting to grips with its controls (Page up/down to look down or up respectively, 5 to reset view) and its level design had me uninterested pretty quickly.
This time however, I had already started my challenge well over a year ago in 1990, so I have over 100 retro games and even more time-appropriate expectations before going into this. So how does Dark Forces compare to its contemporaries? Actually pretty well.
Star Wars: Dark Forces takes the FPS / boomer-shooter genre, accepts its fate as being called a doom-clone in every single review made for it at the time, and adds adventure game elements to it, as well as the looking up and down mechanic I talked about in the last paragraph. The adventure game elements consists of actual cutscenes and mission briefings that actually give you story details as well, which is really nice.
In doing so, the game actually brought the genre forward in a meaningful way at the time. In addition, the maze-like levels known to players from Doom I and II at this point are 'mazified' even further by adding additional floors and overall complexity to them not found in boomer shooters before this point. For the most part, I appreciated this. The complexity also means that you can more easily get lost, and I think in that regard the devs misunderstood complex for stupidly obtuse in certain levels, like the aforementioned sewer level. Add to that that in that particular level there is lots of darkness and limited amount of battery power for your NVGs and it can get pretty frustrating unnecessarily. The very low resolution in this game and poor framerate doesn't help matters as you try to figure out where to go.
Everything you can make out despite the resolution does look pretty appealing though, especially if you're into Star Wars. It often actually looks like you're in an enemy base instead of room after room with same-textured wall after wall. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Doom plenty, but when talking about bringing something new and improved to the table, Star Wars: Dark Forces does that in the visual design of its levels as well. Enemy design is another part of this. The game obviously has the immediate unmistakeable Star Wars enemies in the Stormtroopers (and Darktroopers, which is a new enemy type introduced here) as well as all the officers and commanders of the Empire you will find waiting for. But that's not all, as there are probably 20 or so enemies in the game in total, from Droids to turrets to those disgusting Dianogas in the sewer level.
Star Wars: Dark Forces will be remastered in February 2024, which means I'll definitely revisit the game at some point next year. If you're into Star Wars and don't mind retro gameplay, this game is definitely going to be a blast to the past that is well worth experiencing with that updated package.
That said, the last time I dropped this game, I wanted to play games chronologically starting in 1995. This one released February 15 and was therefore the first on my list. As a retro newcomer of sorts, this game understandably looked very bad and getting to grips with its controls (Page up/down to look down or up respectively, 5 to reset view) and its level design had me uninterested pretty quickly.
This time however, I had already started my challenge well over a year ago in 1990, so I have over 100 retro games and even more time-appropriate expectations before going into this. So how does Dark Forces compare to its contemporaries? Actually pretty well.
Star Wars: Dark Forces takes the FPS / boomer-shooter genre, accepts its fate as being called a doom-clone in every single review made for it at the time, and adds adventure game elements to it, as well as the looking up and down mechanic I talked about in the last paragraph. The adventure game elements consists of actual cutscenes and mission briefings that actually give you story details as well, which is really nice.
In doing so, the game actually brought the genre forward in a meaningful way at the time. In addition, the maze-like levels known to players from Doom I and II at this point are 'mazified' even further by adding additional floors and overall complexity to them not found in boomer shooters before this point. For the most part, I appreciated this. The complexity also means that you can more easily get lost, and I think in that regard the devs misunderstood complex for stupidly obtuse in certain levels, like the aforementioned sewer level. Add to that that in that particular level there is lots of darkness and limited amount of battery power for your NVGs and it can get pretty frustrating unnecessarily. The very low resolution in this game and poor framerate doesn't help matters as you try to figure out where to go.
Everything you can make out despite the resolution does look pretty appealing though, especially if you're into Star Wars. It often actually looks like you're in an enemy base instead of room after room with same-textured wall after wall. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Doom plenty, but when talking about bringing something new and improved to the table, Star Wars: Dark Forces does that in the visual design of its levels as well. Enemy design is another part of this. The game obviously has the immediate unmistakeable Star Wars enemies in the Stormtroopers (and Darktroopers, which is a new enemy type introduced here) as well as all the officers and commanders of the Empire you will find waiting for. But that's not all, as there are probably 20 or so enemies in the game in total, from Droids to turrets to those disgusting Dianogas in the sewer level.
Star Wars: Dark Forces will be remastered in February 2024, which means I'll definitely revisit the game at some point next year. If you're into Star Wars and don't mind retro gameplay, this game is definitely going to be a blast to the past that is well worth experiencing with that updated package.
I'm not sure why people still call this a doom clone when it has boring enemies and the back half forces you to slow down a lot (I love mines). There's lots of other little things that differentiate it, like various items that rely on a gauge, mission-based levels with briefings, exiting missions when the mission is complete with the main menu, a lot more effort into a story and cutscenes, a lives system, pretty different weapons, and more things I'm probably forgetting.
It was alright for a few hours, and I really liked some of the levels. I should just stop trying to play Star Wars games when I don't care to watch anything about them.
It was alright for a few hours, and I really liked some of the levels. I should just stop trying to play Star Wars games when I don't care to watch anything about them.
Stop right there!
I was hesitant on replaying this one on PC just due to how incompatible it would be on modern hardware but The Force Engine came in SUPER Clutch. I really enjoyed all the quality of life features this mod gave to Star Wars Dark Forces. Higher resolutions and modern controls gives it the 2nd life it needs for newcomers and veterans to enjoy and not be scared because of how this game has aged.
Now to the game, the game is nevertheless a doom clone with Star Wars Sprites IMO. It's mission design and levels certainly separates it apart from the other Clones Doom may have had. Honestly, being a doom clone is not a bad thing. I think its a good ground to improve upon and then add your own spin to it which is what Dark Forces really does well. The designs are very cool and the levels are very unique that you feel like at times the Developers tried their best to not reuse assets.
This is the debut of one of Star Wars Legends greatest Characters of all time Kyle Katarn. I think he serves pretty well in this game. I feel like his presence in cutscenes were very minor I wanna say he was present at least 3 times but you can tell a lot by his dialogue which is what shaped his character. I think all the characters served their purpose in this game albeit sometimes it just reading.
One of the most frustrating aspects of this game is the "Mine " Placement. I feel like these were intentionally suppose to be annoying and make you take damage on purpose or to disrupt the flow of the level. That would probably be my biggest issue with the game especially on the higher difficulties.
Shooting feels very good and responsive and the variety of weapons although there is a good amount, you will most likely just stick to the Stormtrooper E-15 Blaster for most of the game and use the Big boy guns on the more powerful enemies. Thermals were very hit or miss for me. Sometimes it will harm me and sometimes it will kill my enemies lol. Enemy variety was mostly in tune with what level you were on. Considering this game is heavily focused on Empire related activities, you will most likely see Stormtroopers like 80% of the game.
Overall, I think Star Wars Dark Forces PC with its improved mods certainly showcases the best of this game and honestly it was quite fun all things considered. I would recommend anyone to play this on PC rather than the PS1 port because the Port can be quite choppy. Good Atmosphere, Good Star Wars Music Cues. I think this one is worth replaying for sure and seeing how Kyle goes onto be the badass everyone knows and loves.
I was hesitant on replaying this one on PC just due to how incompatible it would be on modern hardware but The Force Engine came in SUPER Clutch. I really enjoyed all the quality of life features this mod gave to Star Wars Dark Forces. Higher resolutions and modern controls gives it the 2nd life it needs for newcomers and veterans to enjoy and not be scared because of how this game has aged.
Now to the game, the game is nevertheless a doom clone with Star Wars Sprites IMO. It's mission design and levels certainly separates it apart from the other Clones Doom may have had. Honestly, being a doom clone is not a bad thing. I think its a good ground to improve upon and then add your own spin to it which is what Dark Forces really does well. The designs are very cool and the levels are very unique that you feel like at times the Developers tried their best to not reuse assets.
This is the debut of one of Star Wars Legends greatest Characters of all time Kyle Katarn. I think he serves pretty well in this game. I feel like his presence in cutscenes were very minor I wanna say he was present at least 3 times but you can tell a lot by his dialogue which is what shaped his character. I think all the characters served their purpose in this game albeit sometimes it just reading.
One of the most frustrating aspects of this game is the "Mine " Placement. I feel like these were intentionally suppose to be annoying and make you take damage on purpose or to disrupt the flow of the level. That would probably be my biggest issue with the game especially on the higher difficulties.
Shooting feels very good and responsive and the variety of weapons although there is a good amount, you will most likely just stick to the Stormtrooper E-15 Blaster for most of the game and use the Big boy guns on the more powerful enemies. Thermals were very hit or miss for me. Sometimes it will harm me and sometimes it will kill my enemies lol. Enemy variety was mostly in tune with what level you were on. Considering this game is heavily focused on Empire related activities, you will most likely see Stormtroopers like 80% of the game.
Overall, I think Star Wars Dark Forces PC with its improved mods certainly showcases the best of this game and honestly it was quite fun all things considered. I would recommend anyone to play this on PC rather than the PS1 port because the Port can be quite choppy. Good Atmosphere, Good Star Wars Music Cues. I think this one is worth replaying for sure and seeing how Kyle goes onto be the badass everyone knows and loves.
For being essentially "Star Wars DOOM", this game is WAY better than you might guess. It handily captures the original trilogy vibe with a great MIDI version of the soundtrack and very well done, on-model art.
Beyond that stuff, the genre fundamentals are tight as well. Good weapons, good movement, fast, light pace. More plot and mission objectives here than in the average 1995 FPS but that doesn't bog things down. And most of the level design is believable and non-maze-y (with a couple ill-advised exceptions including a memorably annoying sewer level).
Again, given the mission of "make DOOM, but Star Wars", they did a pretty impressive job and it's hard to say how it could have gone much better. Holds up!
Beyond that stuff, the genre fundamentals are tight as well. Good weapons, good movement, fast, light pace. More plot and mission objectives here than in the average 1995 FPS but that doesn't bog things down. And most of the level design is believable and non-maze-y (with a couple ill-advised exceptions including a memorably annoying sewer level).
Again, given the mission of "make DOOM, but Star Wars", they did a pretty impressive job and it's hard to say how it could have gone much better. Holds up!
It's an ok shooter for the time that hasnt particularly aged well. It's got a pretty well done star wars skin, but that's the only real noteworthy thing about it.
Dark Forces bravely posed the question: What if Star Wars was about murdering thousands of dudes in inscrutable labyrinths
THAT STUPID SEWER LEVEL
OUGHH
OUGHH
A pretty decent FPS in the Star Wars universe. It is a little ridiculous when you really think about the fact that you're going around just slaughtering hordes of Imperial forces, and no one is able to stop you, but still very good. Has that Doom/System Shock style graphics that I really like. Overall still holds up decently, with only one complaint in that since it is a very old game, it can be difficult to discern where you are exactly. I did get lost a few times near the end of the game, when the map and textures looked very similar. Would be fixed if there were guide or nav point that could pop up if you're extremely lost. I'm really thinking of the last level when you're supposed to fall through a certain hole that I had no idea led to a different area than I had been previously. . . . . .. .
Cool of Night Dive to give it the KEX treatment, but a Star Wars theme only keeps you going so far through painful design.
I'm still on a boomer shooter kick, and thanks to the fan made Force Engine, now seemed as good a time as any to give Star Wars: Dark Forces a try.
Dark Forces makes a number of technical improvements over Doom, introducing more vertically oriented levels with rooms that exist over other rooms, something Doom wasn't really capable of. Environmental effects further enhance the visuals, which are much more varied per level and appropriately capture the look and feel of the original Star Wars trilogy. Blast sounds, the hiss of doors, and the filtered speech of Stormtroopers all sound authentic, though the MIDI renditions of popular Star Wars songs leave a lot to be desired (granted, they're pretty good for the standard of computer audio at the time.)
LucasArts further differentiated Dark Forces by taking a more objective-based approache to missions. Rather than simply running to an exit you'll instead need to set up explosives, redirect platforms, hijack ships, and complete a number of other unique tasks before exfiltrating the mission area. You're also able to jump, sprint, and make use of masks and goggles to survive poison gas traps and darkened rooms. While this makes each level fairly involved, some of the ways in which these features are implemented can be a little clumsy. Jumping puzzles rarely feel good, and the visual design of some levels can make certain alcoves and switches necessary for progression difficult to spot. Levels can be as labyrinthine as they are in Doom and overall I found them to be not quite as good about creating memorable landmarks to ground yourself with, and some of the puzzles and hazards you have to navigate through are more annoying than fun.
Enemies are also incredibly easy to take out. There's some great weapon variety but very rarely does it feel like you need to make use of anything other than the standard blaster. Stormtroopers and imperial officers go down easy and ammo is abundant. Dark Troopers mix things up a bit and require more specialized ammo and harder hitting weaponry, which makes these encounters a lot more engaging. I'd actually say Dark Forces does a pretty good job of ratcheting up the tension anytime a Dark Trooper appears. There's also a lot of mines! Mines everywhere! Considering you move at a million miles an hour, it's easy to just turn a corner and blow Kyle's legs off. This guy is apparently in his twenties but he looks like he's been sleeping in a cigar lounge for a couple months straight. Maybe that's why he's so resilient. Even so, I defy anyone to survive Jabba's ship without losing a limb or two. I'm not sure who designed this level but taking all of your gear and making you punch your way through two gigantic lizards is bad enough without littering mines absolutely god damn everywhere. Terrible.
This is the part of the review where I cop to having a weird health issue that sometimes interferes with FPS games: I get motion sick. It doesn't happen too often, but it has impeded my ability to enjoy some really great games, like Half Life 2 and Jazzpunk. Apparently Dark Forces is another game that makes me want to hurl after playing it for about an hour. I had rendering set to Open GL to address warping with mouse look, and it's not like I was sprinting all over the place, so I'm not sure what exactly about this game made me feel ill with such consistency. I'm not going to knock Dark Forces for this, obviously, but maybe you should take anything I say about it with a grain of salt. Getting lost in levels might have more to do with me feeling like the room is spinning than any sort of design issue, but I also can't quite be sure because I do think some levels are designed in a way that don't make them easy to navigate without referring to a map (which isn't to say it's on the level of Marathon or anything insane like that.)
Dark Forces is still good enough that I persevered through my motion sickness rather than put the game down, and I do think despite some of my criticisms against its level design (as valid or invalid as you may find them given my admission) that says a lot about the quality of the gameplay. I've yet to play a boomer shooter I didn't like, even if I have now played one that makes me want to projectile vomit.
Dark Forces makes a number of technical improvements over Doom, introducing more vertically oriented levels with rooms that exist over other rooms, something Doom wasn't really capable of. Environmental effects further enhance the visuals, which are much more varied per level and appropriately capture the look and feel of the original Star Wars trilogy. Blast sounds, the hiss of doors, and the filtered speech of Stormtroopers all sound authentic, though the MIDI renditions of popular Star Wars songs leave a lot to be desired (granted, they're pretty good for the standard of computer audio at the time.)
LucasArts further differentiated Dark Forces by taking a more objective-based approache to missions. Rather than simply running to an exit you'll instead need to set up explosives, redirect platforms, hijack ships, and complete a number of other unique tasks before exfiltrating the mission area. You're also able to jump, sprint, and make use of masks and goggles to survive poison gas traps and darkened rooms. While this makes each level fairly involved, some of the ways in which these features are implemented can be a little clumsy. Jumping puzzles rarely feel good, and the visual design of some levels can make certain alcoves and switches necessary for progression difficult to spot. Levels can be as labyrinthine as they are in Doom and overall I found them to be not quite as good about creating memorable landmarks to ground yourself with, and some of the puzzles and hazards you have to navigate through are more annoying than fun.
Enemies are also incredibly easy to take out. There's some great weapon variety but very rarely does it feel like you need to make use of anything other than the standard blaster. Stormtroopers and imperial officers go down easy and ammo is abundant. Dark Troopers mix things up a bit and require more specialized ammo and harder hitting weaponry, which makes these encounters a lot more engaging. I'd actually say Dark Forces does a pretty good job of ratcheting up the tension anytime a Dark Trooper appears. There's also a lot of mines! Mines everywhere! Considering you move at a million miles an hour, it's easy to just turn a corner and blow Kyle's legs off. This guy is apparently in his twenties but he looks like he's been sleeping in a cigar lounge for a couple months straight. Maybe that's why he's so resilient. Even so, I defy anyone to survive Jabba's ship without losing a limb or two. I'm not sure who designed this level but taking all of your gear and making you punch your way through two gigantic lizards is bad enough without littering mines absolutely god damn everywhere. Terrible.
This is the part of the review where I cop to having a weird health issue that sometimes interferes with FPS games: I get motion sick. It doesn't happen too often, but it has impeded my ability to enjoy some really great games, like Half Life 2 and Jazzpunk. Apparently Dark Forces is another game that makes me want to hurl after playing it for about an hour. I had rendering set to Open GL to address warping with mouse look, and it's not like I was sprinting all over the place, so I'm not sure what exactly about this game made me feel ill with such consistency. I'm not going to knock Dark Forces for this, obviously, but maybe you should take anything I say about it with a grain of salt. Getting lost in levels might have more to do with me feeling like the room is spinning than any sort of design issue, but I also can't quite be sure because I do think some levels are designed in a way that don't make them easy to navigate without referring to a map (which isn't to say it's on the level of Marathon or anything insane like that.)
Dark Forces is still good enough that I persevered through my motion sickness rather than put the game down, and I do think despite some of my criticisms against its level design (as valid or invalid as you may find them given my admission) that says a lot about the quality of the gameplay. I've yet to play a boomer shooter I didn't like, even if I have now played one that makes me want to projectile vomit.
On one hand, I love Star Wars and FPS games. On the other hand, I don't love getting nauseous by simply turning while moving
I hate giving up on games, but I hate sewer levels even more.
Pretty good up until Jabba's Ship level, and then the game developers are just fucking assholes up until the credits. Hope DF2 is improved.
An okay Doom-clone that does very little to stand out. The controls are good but pushing buttons is so awkward, having to stand right up to the buttons or doors to open them. Compound that with a unlikable protagonist in Kyle Katarn. At the beginning you hear him joke "A new stormtrooper that can take out a rebel base that quickly? I should've kept working for the empire." after seeing people being killed by the empire. I honestly prefer Rogue One over this, especially after Andor. Jyn Erso and Cassion Andor are far more interesting characters than Kyle Katarn. The cutscenes over all I like, it has a nice visual aesthetic. The most interesting thing i find in this is the main antagonist in Rom Mohc, a general who fought in the Clone Wars. I find it interesting because this game came out in 1995, about 7 years before Attack of the Clones came out and showed how the Clone Wars started. I wonder what the writer thought the Clone Wars was before writing this, because I could honestly see this guy in the current canon. To bad the boss fight with him was pretty underwhelming. One thing I'm glad that carried over into the canon was the Dark Trooper. Their designs are really cool and I'm glad they appeared in The Mandolorian. The level design is kind of crap. A good map should point to where your supposed to go, nonlinear or otherwise. I had to look up playthroughs to see what I was missing, which isn't a great sign. Overall, I had a decently fun time, but it could have been so much more.
Made many, many attempts to play it, but none so successful as this. Great levels, crunchy graphics, and one of the best-feeling E-11 rifles in games. Nothing quite like blasting space fash in DOS.
Having heard about the Force Engine’s full release and having played and beaten Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight as a kid years ago I decided to finally give Dark Forces 1 a try. While I never played the original Dark Forces before I can tell that the devs put a lot of great work into the Force Engine to have this run so smoothly on modern OSes. It was straight up download and play once I bought Dark Forces on Steam. The game looked real nice at 1920X1080 and it ran without a hitch. It also adds a bunch of QoL stuff like quicksaving and full mouselook. The game itself is mostly good, though some of the level design and puzzles really suck, like real strong examples of what’s considered to be bad classic shooter level design with obtuse puzzles and one of the later stages just shoves in mines everywhere in annoying trial and error ways. Though hey, it’s not nearly as terrible as that one puzzle in Marathon that made me drop the game. The game does a quality job bringing Star Wars to life within in its limits. The atmosphere evokes that kind of sci-fi cheesiness of the OG movies had that later Star Wars games didn’t really invoke as much. They also pull a whole bunch of sound effects and voice lines from the movies which is charming. The weapons are of a decent variety and I mostly used them all on the regular, though the thermal detonators are kind of janky to use. Overall Dark Forces has aged a bit poorly compared to its contemporaries but the Force Engine has breathed new life into it and I would recommend it for boomer shooter and Star Wars fans. Definitely should revisit Jedi Knight now because my memories of it is that was it was a big improvement over this game.
Dark Forces isn't just a great FPS, but a great Star Wars game too. The aesthetic, story, and missions all capture the feeling of the original trilogy perfectly, while still finding plenty of room to chart it's own path through a galaxy far, far away.
Edit: forgot to mention I played this with the new source port, The Force Engine. Had a few visual glitches but overall it's incredible and long overdue for this game. Highly recommend using it if the DOS era clunkiness turned you off from the game.
Edit: forgot to mention I played this with the new source port, The Force Engine. Had a few visual glitches but overall it's incredible and long overdue for this game. Highly recommend using it if the DOS era clunkiness turned you off from the game.
Whether Star Wars: Dark Forces is a clone of Doom or not is completely irrelevant in this review. In fact I won’t mention Doom a single time. In any case, for this review I did 4 playthroughs of this game. First, I played original DOS version on Easy, then I played The Force Engine source port on Medium, then Playstation version on Easy, and for the last one, I played DOS original on Hard.
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter from the 90s. You shoot your way through storm troopers and other unpleasantries, but it’s not a simple “get to the goal” affair, the objectives in each level are different, like getting Death Star plans in the first level, then getting to the rooftop to the space ship, or putting detonative charges in a few others. Shooting the enemies is satisfying enough, blast your enemies or shoot/throw explosives at them and strafe to dodge the incoming shots, which is especially vital on harder difficulties, since the aggression and their number increases. You have two types of health, shield that can soak energy blasts and can max out at 200, and standard health, with a max of 100, that can be damaged by physical contacts, regardless of shield, or from other attacks when that is depleted. The arsenal is gradually expanded by acquiring new guns or other weapons, such as Thermal Detonators (which are like bombs) and a Jeron Fusion Cutter which looks like a musical instument. The ammo is plentiful, so you’re unlikely to run out… unless you play on hard difficulty, since I was more proactive in dodging and shooting and I was using Stormtrooper Laser Rifle in first few levels, which is fast but not super accurate or powerful, and consumes 2 energy units per shot (though I thought it used 1 ammo until I finally noticed that on my PS1 playthrough. I guess ammo really wasn’t a concern up until that point). Even then, by the IVth mission, I had enough to get by. The selection of weapons is decent enough, I used all of them in all of my playthroughs, though obviously some more than others, for instance I saved a plasma based weapon that looks like a butterfly wing (it’s not listed in the manual for some reason, so I don’t know its name, it’s mapped to 0 key) for the toughest foes like the titular dark forces or the final boss.
Aside from weapons, there are also items that have a passive effect. From the start of the game you have a flashlight that can eliminate dark areas, but you can obtain infrared goggles that give a sort of night vision, allowing to see in the dark. There's a gas mask which really is only needed in one level and I never used it ever again. Lastly, there are Ice Cleats that remove icy physics, again only found and useful in one level. Aside from shooting, there’s also secrets to uncover, a staple of first person shooters like this, containing goodies. There are more traditional bonuses you can find, aside from usual ammo there are a few power-ups, such as Shield Supercharge, which makes your shield infinite for a short time, making you invulnerable to most damage, Weapon Supercharge which makes your weapons shoot twice as fast, revive which maxes out health & shield, and lastly 1-ups. There are lives in this game like in the good ol’ Wolfenstein 3D. I only ever lost all of them once on my initial playthrough, and all it did was send me back to the previous state I’ve been in before entering the mission. I don’t know if the punishment is more severe on harder difficulties (like losing all gear), as I’ve been conservative with my lives, particularly on hard difficulty where I only allowed myself to lose a single life per mission (2 in particularly stinky ones), though most of the time I just quit the mission, which doesn’t save your life count, which can be abused.
The enemies are eager to tear you apart, and this game contains what is probably the most inaccurate depiction of Storm Troopers. They should miss 99% of the time! But seriously, the enemies can blast you as soon as you open a door for instance, which does feel a little unfair at times. Besides the level of aggression, higher difficulties also place more enemies in levels. If you thought fisting 2 dragons in Mission X: Jabba’s Ship is bad enough how about… four? Although I did find an exploit so you can fight one dragon without alerting the other at the very beginning, but still, that’s at least 3 dragons to down. There are a few occasions where it seems like there are “infinite” enemies, particularly in mission VIII: Fuel Station, where Stormtroopers appear in corridors seemingly out of nowhere, or in a big circular area with a spinning bridge, the enemies appear at the entrances even though there’s no way for them to just appear in there. I find it odd but not game breaking. IMO the most dangerous enemies, besides Dark Troopers, are Thandoshans, with their Concussion Rifle. I still don't really know how the gun works, but it basically shoots an invisible bullet that'll burst once it hits an obstacle. They're particularly nasty on hard difficulty, where they're harder to take out and damage you a fair bit. The aformentioned Dark Troopers are a threat, which is nice. The ground ones will deflect most of your shots, I found throwing explosives at them the most efficient way to take them out. The flying ones are even more dangerous, they shoot at you with aformentioned butterfly wing gun's projectiles that hit very hard and can shoot a missile. Strafing around and dodging their shots is kind of fun, if you have enough space to strafe in that is.
One innovation this game brings is the ability to look up and down (although technically Heretic did it earlier (if you want to be even more technical, CyClones did it even earlier)). In DOS version, by default, it’s mapped Page Up and Page Down keys, which is a little unwieldy, as I have to move my hand from mouse to these buttons to look where I want. Thankfully, there aren’t many places where looking up or down is necessary, and the game automatically aims at the enemies that are below or above, though changing your vertical look can increase accuracy. You can also crouch, which is used to fit into tight areas, which is used quite a bit throughout the game. In general, the game features greater emphasis on verticality compared to other games from the time. That also brings in the ability to jump, and the game features a fair bit of platforming. It’s not too bad, and I rarely missed a jump even with lower framerate which means there’s little delay, but you still have to be wary of falling off if you don’t time your jump right.
The gameplay is honestly pretty decent… if you aren’t getting lost, which isn’t all too uncommon in this game, with its labyrinthine design. It actually made me drop the game a couple times on my first playthrough, because wandering around figuring out where to go isn’t very fun. The first roadblock is Mission III: Anoat City, where you have to go through sewage tunnels and activate switches until you figure out the correct path to the destination. Mission VI: Detention Center is a multilayered tower with some walls that can be cracked with explosives, tunnels and stuff. The path forward isn’t obvious on the first playthrough, though after you figure out the way forward, it becomes routine (the way forward I found is through some ventilation, which seems to be the safest one, there must be some other way in though). However, getting stuck and confused isn’t your only concern. Some stages feature ceiling turrets that hit hard. There are also mines, while a mild annoyance on easy, they become a more frequent problem on harder difficulties. Part of it is because of their poor placement, at times they’re buried in bonues, or around the corners, or even right next to the door you’re opening, resulting in a surprising blow to your face. The best example I can list is Mission X: Jabba’s Ship, they’re almost everywhere, and as annoying as ever. Why won't they explode other enemies? We can trip our own mine, why can't they? Besides walking close to them and backing away, you can chuck explosives at them to detonate, which is a safer strat. Their placement often ends up being cheap and unfair.
Lets move onto the game’s visuals and music, where the differences between 3 different platforms are the most apparent. The original DOS and PS1 versions run at a low resolution, with further objects being the most pixelated. DOS original does feature graphical settings to increase fidelity, at the cost of the framerate. I actually lowered them to get some frames for Hard difficulty, because I felt the FPS did hinder my ability to play the game. Mind you, I don’t really care for framerates or resolution as long as the game is playable and they don’t impede my enjoyability. Given that Star Wars: Dark Forces is a pretty old game, it can’t be helped. With that being said however, I think the graphics are honestly solid, low resolution be damned. The textures are quite nice and fairly detailed, there are even neat little details, like “EWOKS SUCK!” or “PWR CELLS” in Mission VII: Ramseed Hed or someplace else, which I find kind of cute. The level geometry is nice as well, like the canyon divide gradually expands at one point, starting with a small crack in Mission IV: Research Facility, and there are rotating, moving and spinning objects in giant ship levels and other places, not only look good and make these levels more alive, but also can hide a switch that can be activated with a timed shot. The actual polygonal models like a spaceship or turrets on the other hand look primitive, the geometry isn’t very complex and the textures are lacking on some surfaces. Not to say they look bad, but they contrast with what is otherwise a solid presentation. Of course, having a big 2D spaceship would look a bit out of place. While they look basic, they’re technically impressive, at least I would assume so, I haven’t played many 90s games that feature 3D models. For cutscenes, the game uses some FMVs, as well as 2D animated cutscenes reminiscent of LucasArts’ own point and click adventure games, and the voice acting is decent. The music takes cues from some of the films’ music, and I can’t help but think that it lacks its own identity. The music isn’t particularly memorable, aside from bits that sound like classic Star Wars music. That’s not to say it’s bad, the music tracks are fitting to the levels they’re used. One credit I can give to its implementation is that its dynamic, though not in PS1 version. The music can change to battle music if the situation gets hairy, and the transition is seamless. The music is MIDI, The Force Engine makes use of uncompressed instruments, while PS1 version seems to use fully uncompressed music. It sounds great, though there are moments where the music ends and there’s silence for a few seconds before it can play again. The sound effects are quite good however.
DOS version runs at a fairly low framerate. Now, you could argue that DOS version DOES run at 60FPS, or at least it can. And I agree, it CAN run at 60. This is a difference between the game’s distribution sites and DosBox configurations. The GOG version sets its cycle count to max, meaning it can run at 60FPS. The Steam version, which is what I played, caps cycles at 20000, which is fairly low, resulting in lowered framerate. Of course, I could’ve just set that to unlimited and play the super smooth experience. But I’m a purist like that, if the publishers set it to 20000, then they must think it should provide a good experience. Anyway, moving to PS1 version’s performance, it’s not very good. The PS1 definitely has potential, if I look at a wall, the game actually runs at 60. If the game was adapted to use PS1’s 3D capabilities, then I’m sure it would’ve made for a better time. Unfortunately, they didn’t. At times it actually runs worse than the DOS version. That is on top of PS1’s unwieldy controls, I actually dreaded playing PS1 version, the aiming isn’t precise enough and you have to hold a trigger to strafe or look up and down. Of course, The Force Engine mitigates most of the issues of the base game, you can play at a higher resolution, making the picture look sharp, and at a high framerate, and you can look with a mouse both vertically and horizontally, and other goodies like mod support. If you want to play this game, the stock DOS version is fine enough, but I can highly recommend checking out The Force Engine for the quality of life improvements. Unsurprisingly, I don’t recommend the PS1 version. PC supremacy wins! I think The Force Engine shows the potential for an official remaster, in the same vein as System Shock: Enhanced Edition or Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour. While I doubt the level design would get changed or fixed, the sharper visuals and increased framerate do make for a more enjoyable experience.
Overall, Star Wars: Dark Forces is a fine enough first person shooter on its own, and it does bring some innovations and technical achievements to the table, but it’s not perfect. The level design can be confusing and the placement of mines and hazards can be an annoyance, which age it a bit. The game isn’t bad enough for me to not play it 4 times though… well, that includes PS1 version which isn’t very good, but y’know what I mean. If you’re a fan of Star Wars and/or old First Person Shooters, I can recommend this game, but be warned of its dated design.
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter from the 90s. You shoot your way through storm troopers and other unpleasantries, but it’s not a simple “get to the goal” affair, the objectives in each level are different, like getting Death Star plans in the first level, then getting to the rooftop to the space ship, or putting detonative charges in a few others. Shooting the enemies is satisfying enough, blast your enemies or shoot/throw explosives at them and strafe to dodge the incoming shots, which is especially vital on harder difficulties, since the aggression and their number increases. You have two types of health, shield that can soak energy blasts and can max out at 200, and standard health, with a max of 100, that can be damaged by physical contacts, regardless of shield, or from other attacks when that is depleted. The arsenal is gradually expanded by acquiring new guns or other weapons, such as Thermal Detonators (which are like bombs) and a Jeron Fusion Cutter which looks like a musical instument. The ammo is plentiful, so you’re unlikely to run out… unless you play on hard difficulty, since I was more proactive in dodging and shooting and I was using Stormtrooper Laser Rifle in first few levels, which is fast but not super accurate or powerful, and consumes 2 energy units per shot (though I thought it used 1 ammo until I finally noticed that on my PS1 playthrough. I guess ammo really wasn’t a concern up until that point). Even then, by the IVth mission, I had enough to get by. The selection of weapons is decent enough, I used all of them in all of my playthroughs, though obviously some more than others, for instance I saved a plasma based weapon that looks like a butterfly wing (it’s not listed in the manual for some reason, so I don’t know its name, it’s mapped to 0 key) for the toughest foes like the titular dark forces or the final boss.
Aside from weapons, there are also items that have a passive effect. From the start of the game you have a flashlight that can eliminate dark areas, but you can obtain infrared goggles that give a sort of night vision, allowing to see in the dark. There's a gas mask which really is only needed in one level and I never used it ever again. Lastly, there are Ice Cleats that remove icy physics, again only found and useful in one level. Aside from shooting, there’s also secrets to uncover, a staple of first person shooters like this, containing goodies. There are more traditional bonuses you can find, aside from usual ammo there are a few power-ups, such as Shield Supercharge, which makes your shield infinite for a short time, making you invulnerable to most damage, Weapon Supercharge which makes your weapons shoot twice as fast, revive which maxes out health & shield, and lastly 1-ups. There are lives in this game like in the good ol’ Wolfenstein 3D. I only ever lost all of them once on my initial playthrough, and all it did was send me back to the previous state I’ve been in before entering the mission. I don’t know if the punishment is more severe on harder difficulties (like losing all gear), as I’ve been conservative with my lives, particularly on hard difficulty where I only allowed myself to lose a single life per mission (2 in particularly stinky ones), though most of the time I just quit the mission, which doesn’t save your life count, which can be abused.
The enemies are eager to tear you apart, and this game contains what is probably the most inaccurate depiction of Storm Troopers. They should miss 99% of the time! But seriously, the enemies can blast you as soon as you open a door for instance, which does feel a little unfair at times. Besides the level of aggression, higher difficulties also place more enemies in levels. If you thought fisting 2 dragons in Mission X: Jabba’s Ship is bad enough how about… four? Although I did find an exploit so you can fight one dragon without alerting the other at the very beginning, but still, that’s at least 3 dragons to down. There are a few occasions where it seems like there are “infinite” enemies, particularly in mission VIII: Fuel Station, where Stormtroopers appear in corridors seemingly out of nowhere, or in a big circular area with a spinning bridge, the enemies appear at the entrances even though there’s no way for them to just appear in there. I find it odd but not game breaking. IMO the most dangerous enemies, besides Dark Troopers, are Thandoshans, with their Concussion Rifle. I still don't really know how the gun works, but it basically shoots an invisible bullet that'll burst once it hits an obstacle. They're particularly nasty on hard difficulty, where they're harder to take out and damage you a fair bit. The aformentioned Dark Troopers are a threat, which is nice. The ground ones will deflect most of your shots, I found throwing explosives at them the most efficient way to take them out. The flying ones are even more dangerous, they shoot at you with aformentioned butterfly wing gun's projectiles that hit very hard and can shoot a missile. Strafing around and dodging their shots is kind of fun, if you have enough space to strafe in that is.
One innovation this game brings is the ability to look up and down (although technically Heretic did it earlier (if you want to be even more technical, CyClones did it even earlier)). In DOS version, by default, it’s mapped Page Up and Page Down keys, which is a little unwieldy, as I have to move my hand from mouse to these buttons to look where I want. Thankfully, there aren’t many places where looking up or down is necessary, and the game automatically aims at the enemies that are below or above, though changing your vertical look can increase accuracy. You can also crouch, which is used to fit into tight areas, which is used quite a bit throughout the game. In general, the game features greater emphasis on verticality compared to other games from the time. That also brings in the ability to jump, and the game features a fair bit of platforming. It’s not too bad, and I rarely missed a jump even with lower framerate which means there’s little delay, but you still have to be wary of falling off if you don’t time your jump right.
The gameplay is honestly pretty decent… if you aren’t getting lost, which isn’t all too uncommon in this game, with its labyrinthine design. It actually made me drop the game a couple times on my first playthrough, because wandering around figuring out where to go isn’t very fun. The first roadblock is Mission III: Anoat City, where you have to go through sewage tunnels and activate switches until you figure out the correct path to the destination. Mission VI: Detention Center is a multilayered tower with some walls that can be cracked with explosives, tunnels and stuff. The path forward isn’t obvious on the first playthrough, though after you figure out the way forward, it becomes routine (the way forward I found is through some ventilation, which seems to be the safest one, there must be some other way in though). However, getting stuck and confused isn’t your only concern. Some stages feature ceiling turrets that hit hard. There are also mines, while a mild annoyance on easy, they become a more frequent problem on harder difficulties. Part of it is because of their poor placement, at times they’re buried in bonues, or around the corners, or even right next to the door you’re opening, resulting in a surprising blow to your face. The best example I can list is Mission X: Jabba’s Ship, they’re almost everywhere, and as annoying as ever. Why won't they explode other enemies? We can trip our own mine, why can't they? Besides walking close to them and backing away, you can chuck explosives at them to detonate, which is a safer strat. Their placement often ends up being cheap and unfair.
Lets move onto the game’s visuals and music, where the differences between 3 different platforms are the most apparent. The original DOS and PS1 versions run at a low resolution, with further objects being the most pixelated. DOS original does feature graphical settings to increase fidelity, at the cost of the framerate. I actually lowered them to get some frames for Hard difficulty, because I felt the FPS did hinder my ability to play the game. Mind you, I don’t really care for framerates or resolution as long as the game is playable and they don’t impede my enjoyability. Given that Star Wars: Dark Forces is a pretty old game, it can’t be helped. With that being said however, I think the graphics are honestly solid, low resolution be damned. The textures are quite nice and fairly detailed, there are even neat little details, like “EWOKS SUCK!” or “PWR CELLS” in Mission VII: Ramseed Hed or someplace else, which I find kind of cute. The level geometry is nice as well, like the canyon divide gradually expands at one point, starting with a small crack in Mission IV: Research Facility, and there are rotating, moving and spinning objects in giant ship levels and other places, not only look good and make these levels more alive, but also can hide a switch that can be activated with a timed shot. The actual polygonal models like a spaceship or turrets on the other hand look primitive, the geometry isn’t very complex and the textures are lacking on some surfaces. Not to say they look bad, but they contrast with what is otherwise a solid presentation. Of course, having a big 2D spaceship would look a bit out of place. While they look basic, they’re technically impressive, at least I would assume so, I haven’t played many 90s games that feature 3D models. For cutscenes, the game uses some FMVs, as well as 2D animated cutscenes reminiscent of LucasArts’ own point and click adventure games, and the voice acting is decent. The music takes cues from some of the films’ music, and I can’t help but think that it lacks its own identity. The music isn’t particularly memorable, aside from bits that sound like classic Star Wars music. That’s not to say it’s bad, the music tracks are fitting to the levels they’re used. One credit I can give to its implementation is that its dynamic, though not in PS1 version. The music can change to battle music if the situation gets hairy, and the transition is seamless. The music is MIDI, The Force Engine makes use of uncompressed instruments, while PS1 version seems to use fully uncompressed music. It sounds great, though there are moments where the music ends and there’s silence for a few seconds before it can play again. The sound effects are quite good however.
DOS version runs at a fairly low framerate. Now, you could argue that DOS version DOES run at 60FPS, or at least it can. And I agree, it CAN run at 60. This is a difference between the game’s distribution sites and DosBox configurations. The GOG version sets its cycle count to max, meaning it can run at 60FPS. The Steam version, which is what I played, caps cycles at 20000, which is fairly low, resulting in lowered framerate. Of course, I could’ve just set that to unlimited and play the super smooth experience. But I’m a purist like that, if the publishers set it to 20000, then they must think it should provide a good experience. Anyway, moving to PS1 version’s performance, it’s not very good. The PS1 definitely has potential, if I look at a wall, the game actually runs at 60. If the game was adapted to use PS1’s 3D capabilities, then I’m sure it would’ve made for a better time. Unfortunately, they didn’t. At times it actually runs worse than the DOS version. That is on top of PS1’s unwieldy controls, I actually dreaded playing PS1 version, the aiming isn’t precise enough and you have to hold a trigger to strafe or look up and down. Of course, The Force Engine mitigates most of the issues of the base game, you can play at a higher resolution, making the picture look sharp, and at a high framerate, and you can look with a mouse both vertically and horizontally, and other goodies like mod support. If you want to play this game, the stock DOS version is fine enough, but I can highly recommend checking out The Force Engine for the quality of life improvements. Unsurprisingly, I don’t recommend the PS1 version. PC supremacy wins! I think The Force Engine shows the potential for an official remaster, in the same vein as System Shock: Enhanced Edition or Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour. While I doubt the level design would get changed or fixed, the sharper visuals and increased framerate do make for a more enjoyable experience.
Overall, Star Wars: Dark Forces is a fine enough first person shooter on its own, and it does bring some innovations and technical achievements to the table, but it’s not perfect. The level design can be confusing and the placement of mines and hazards can be an annoyance, which age it a bit. The game isn’t bad enough for me to not play it 4 times though… well, that includes PS1 version which isn’t very good, but y’know what I mean. If you’re a fan of Star Wars and/or old First Person Shooters, I can recommend this game, but be warned of its dated design.
Eu não sou o maior fã de Star Wars de todos, sim eu assisti alguns dos filmes e um dos meus jogos favoritos de todos os tempos é Knights of The Old Republic 2, mas no geral eu não sou alguém que ficaria hypadasso pra ver algo de Star Wars, mas eu curto muito Boomer Shooters, tipo o meu jogo favorito de todos é ULTRAKILL e eu adoro Dusk também, então com isso em mente vou fazer um desafio pra essa review, fazer uma review inteira desse jogo sem citar nenhum outro boomer shooter ou qualquer coisa relacionada a Star Wars, ainda mais da Disney, ou seja nada de "jogo ruim porque não é ULTRAKILL" ou "jogo bom porque não é da disney e não tem lacração de caixa do sedex", enfim, indo ao jogo em si, o jogo é um competente boomer shooter que certamente já viu dias melhores.
A gameplay é o que você esperaria de um jogo de FPS da época. Enf... Exceto que o jogo na verdade traz umas coisas muito interessantes que só seriam feitas lá pra frente em jogos como [CENSURADO] e [CENSURADO], como por exemplo os objetivos das fases, ao invés de você só ir do ponto A ao ponto B como na maioria dos jogos de FPS da época (e na verdade até hoje em dia), você tem que fazer coisas um pouco mais específicas em cada fase tipo roubar os planos da estrela da morte ou plantar bombas em uma fábrica em um planeta específico (vou chegar nesse ponto mais pra frente) e outros objetivos, mas calma também não é nada muito complexo. Indo para as armas em si (sabe né, o que todo jogo de FPS precisa fazer muito bem), o arsenal de Kyle Katarn (protagonista do jogo) é meio mais ou menos, algumas armas são até que legais tipo o plasma rifle, mas a maioria é extremamente situacional (e algumas talvez são completamente inúteis) e na maioria das vezes é melhor usar o blaster rifle que o jogo dá de bandeja logo nos 3 primeiros inimigos que você matar, a não ser em fases com menos soldados imperiais tipo a nave do Jabba ou Nar Shaddaa. Ah e é claro, como esse jogo foi feito pela LucasArts, a mesma de Monkey Island, é claro que esse jogo teria puzzles, apesar de serem mais escassos, alguns puzzles são bem legais como o da fase do assalto ao banco, mas a maioria não é dos melhores, e sinceramente o único jogo que conseguiu fazer a mistura entre Ação e Puzzles ao mesmo tempo bem foi CrossCode (esse eu posso citar), pois o problema da maioria assim é que os puzzles interrompem o ritmo do jogo, e aqui não é diferente, e algumas fases tem puzzles genuinamente bullshit pra caralho como a fase onde você tem que resgatar um soldado da rebelião (não direi como é pois SPOILER, mas é algo absurdo de bullshit), tanto que diversas vezes tive que checar guias pois alguns puzzles são bem obtusos, e falando em bullshit, eu falei do objetivo das fases, mas não falei sobre as fases em si, enfim, algumas são ok, esquecíveis até, como a fase da Gromas Mines, outras são extremamente bullshit tipo a fase citada (no caso Detention Center) e Anoat City, algumas fases genuinamente me fizeram eu quase desistir do jogo e fazer uma review incompleta de tão RUINS e CONVOLUÍDAS que são, e o que não ajuda é que o jogo tem VIDAS LIMITADAS, ou seja, morre algumas vezes e pronto volte para o início da fase, tá mas então vou salvar... ERRADO, você não pode salvar durante as fases, o problema é que algumas fases são bem grandes como a Detention Center e a fase final, ou seja, ou você faz tudo em uma paulada só, ou você sai e voltar pro início da fase, mas tirando essas maçãs podres, as fases têm nada demais pra falar a verdade. Ah e antes de acabar por aqui e ir logo para a história e outros aspectos do jogo, só lhe digo para PELO AMOR DE DEUS NÃO JOGAR ESSE JOGO PELA STEAM, baixe o mod do The Force Engine para jogar isso, pois a otimização do jogo na Steam é terrível, quando você usa o mapa ou corre os frames caem para um caralho, e assim os gráficos vão se esticando pra cacete, dá dor de cabeça de tão ruim, o The Force Engine não tem esses problemas e tu ainda pode botar resolução maior pro jogo.
Agora indo para a história, a história não tem nada demais em si, Kyle Katarn era um soldado do império que se juntou a rebelião (meio como o [CENSURADO] da [CENSURADO]) e é enviado pela [CENSURADO] para interromper os planos do general Rom Mohc, que está criando super soldados chamados de Dark Troopers, entendeu o por quê de eu ter escrito aquele textão na intro? Apesar da história ser básica, ele trouxe coisas muito interessantes para expandir o universo de Star Wars, tipo os citados Dark Troopers que depois apareceram no resto da franquia até mesmo fora dos jogos, o que não aconteceu com Rom Mohc infelizmente, mas apesar do Rom Mohc em si ter nada demais, algo interessante é como antes ele participou na [CENSURADO] antes dos eventos desse jogo, sendo que esse jogo foi lançado em 1995, enquanto a [CENSURADO] começou a ser planejada no mesmo ano, mas o primeiro filme foi só lançado em 1999, o que deixa ele um pouco mais intrigante, o único problema foi a boss fight dele ser broxante demais, mas enfim, apesar do jogo em si ter uma história nada demais, tipo está no nível de algo que tu veria os livros, o jogo trouxe umas coisas bem interessantes para a franquia principal, e isso eu respeito. Quanto ao Kyle Katarn em si, ele é basicamente um [CENSURADO] com Chuck Norris da Cracolândia kkkk, só isso que tenho a dizer.
Visualmente, tirando o que falei da versão da Steam, o jogo tem nada demais, sim é interessante como algumas áreas são bem fiéis a como elas são nos filmes tipo Nar Shaddaa e os Star Destroyer, mas no geral não é algo que explodiria a cabeça de alguém de tão bom, única coisa restante pra falar dos visuais é que os Dark Trooper tem uns visuais muito maneiros, ah sim e as cutscenes do jogo são bem legais até, replicando bem o tom de Star Wars, agora a trilha sonora, esse é um dos poucos jogos de toda a franquia onde a trilha sonora não é composta por músicas dos filmes, quer dizer, ela é, mas são renderizadas numa versão MIDI, e algumas músicas são muito insanas nessa versão tipo a música de combate em algumas fases, apesar de eu preferir a OST dos KOTOR (esse aqui eu vou descontar) por majoritariamente serem músicas originais e não músicas dos filmes.
Por sinal a partir daqui o desafio acabou.
Enfim, esse jogo apesar de trazer coisas muito interessantes para a franquia Star Wars e para jogos de FPS no geral, eu acho que não vale muito a pena jogar ele hoje em dia ah não ser que A - você seja fã de Star Wars, B - você seja fãs de Boomer Shooters ou C - você queira jogar o resto dos jogos da série Jedi Knight, e apesar da nota que eu estou dando por agora, ainda dá pra se divertir com esse jogo, mas ainda assim essas inovações não compensam um game design datado com level design ok no seu melhor e obtuso e malvado no seu pior, e o resto da gameplay tem nada demais, enfim, o jogo podia ser bom pra época, mas o tempo não tratou ele das melhores maneiras.
Por sinal antes da nota final, eu vou listar aqui as palavras censuradas:
Duke Nukem 3D, Rainbow Six, Finn, Trilogia Sequel, Princesa Leia, Guerra dos Clones, Trilogia Prequel e Han Solo.
Agora sim, 5.5 (quase um 6)/10
A gameplay é o que você esperaria de um jogo de FPS da época. Enf... Exceto que o jogo na verdade traz umas coisas muito interessantes que só seriam feitas lá pra frente em jogos como [CENSURADO] e [CENSURADO], como por exemplo os objetivos das fases, ao invés de você só ir do ponto A ao ponto B como na maioria dos jogos de FPS da época (e na verdade até hoje em dia), você tem que fazer coisas um pouco mais específicas em cada fase tipo roubar os planos da estrela da morte ou plantar bombas em uma fábrica em um planeta específico (vou chegar nesse ponto mais pra frente) e outros objetivos, mas calma também não é nada muito complexo. Indo para as armas em si (sabe né, o que todo jogo de FPS precisa fazer muito bem), o arsenal de Kyle Katarn (protagonista do jogo) é meio mais ou menos, algumas armas são até que legais tipo o plasma rifle, mas a maioria é extremamente situacional (e algumas talvez são completamente inúteis) e na maioria das vezes é melhor usar o blaster rifle que o jogo dá de bandeja logo nos 3 primeiros inimigos que você matar, a não ser em fases com menos soldados imperiais tipo a nave do Jabba ou Nar Shaddaa. Ah e é claro, como esse jogo foi feito pela LucasArts, a mesma de Monkey Island, é claro que esse jogo teria puzzles, apesar de serem mais escassos, alguns puzzles são bem legais como o da fase do assalto ao banco, mas a maioria não é dos melhores, e sinceramente o único jogo que conseguiu fazer a mistura entre Ação e Puzzles ao mesmo tempo bem foi CrossCode (esse eu posso citar), pois o problema da maioria assim é que os puzzles interrompem o ritmo do jogo, e aqui não é diferente, e algumas fases tem puzzles genuinamente bullshit pra caralho como a fase onde você tem que resgatar um soldado da rebelião (não direi como é pois SPOILER, mas é algo absurdo de bullshit), tanto que diversas vezes tive que checar guias pois alguns puzzles são bem obtusos, e falando em bullshit, eu falei do objetivo das fases, mas não falei sobre as fases em si, enfim, algumas são ok, esquecíveis até, como a fase da Gromas Mines, outras são extremamente bullshit tipo a fase citada (no caso Detention Center) e Anoat City, algumas fases genuinamente me fizeram eu quase desistir do jogo e fazer uma review incompleta de tão RUINS e CONVOLUÍDAS que são, e o que não ajuda é que o jogo tem VIDAS LIMITADAS, ou seja, morre algumas vezes e pronto volte para o início da fase, tá mas então vou salvar... ERRADO, você não pode salvar durante as fases, o problema é que algumas fases são bem grandes como a Detention Center e a fase final, ou seja, ou você faz tudo em uma paulada só, ou você sai e voltar pro início da fase, mas tirando essas maçãs podres, as fases têm nada demais pra falar a verdade. Ah e antes de acabar por aqui e ir logo para a história e outros aspectos do jogo, só lhe digo para PELO AMOR DE DEUS NÃO JOGAR ESSE JOGO PELA STEAM, baixe o mod do The Force Engine para jogar isso, pois a otimização do jogo na Steam é terrível, quando você usa o mapa ou corre os frames caem para um caralho, e assim os gráficos vão se esticando pra cacete, dá dor de cabeça de tão ruim, o The Force Engine não tem esses problemas e tu ainda pode botar resolução maior pro jogo.
Agora indo para a história, a história não tem nada demais em si, Kyle Katarn era um soldado do império que se juntou a rebelião (meio como o [CENSURADO] da [CENSURADO]) e é enviado pela [CENSURADO] para interromper os planos do general Rom Mohc, que está criando super soldados chamados de Dark Troopers, entendeu o por quê de eu ter escrito aquele textão na intro? Apesar da história ser básica, ele trouxe coisas muito interessantes para expandir o universo de Star Wars, tipo os citados Dark Troopers que depois apareceram no resto da franquia até mesmo fora dos jogos, o que não aconteceu com Rom Mohc infelizmente, mas apesar do Rom Mohc em si ter nada demais, algo interessante é como antes ele participou na [CENSURADO] antes dos eventos desse jogo, sendo que esse jogo foi lançado em 1995, enquanto a [CENSURADO] começou a ser planejada no mesmo ano, mas o primeiro filme foi só lançado em 1999, o que deixa ele um pouco mais intrigante, o único problema foi a boss fight dele ser broxante demais, mas enfim, apesar do jogo em si ter uma história nada demais, tipo está no nível de algo que tu veria os livros, o jogo trouxe umas coisas bem interessantes para a franquia principal, e isso eu respeito. Quanto ao Kyle Katarn em si, ele é basicamente um [CENSURADO] com Chuck Norris da Cracolândia kkkk, só isso que tenho a dizer.
Visualmente, tirando o que falei da versão da Steam, o jogo tem nada demais, sim é interessante como algumas áreas são bem fiéis a como elas são nos filmes tipo Nar Shaddaa e os Star Destroyer, mas no geral não é algo que explodiria a cabeça de alguém de tão bom, única coisa restante pra falar dos visuais é que os Dark Trooper tem uns visuais muito maneiros, ah sim e as cutscenes do jogo são bem legais até, replicando bem o tom de Star Wars, agora a trilha sonora, esse é um dos poucos jogos de toda a franquia onde a trilha sonora não é composta por músicas dos filmes, quer dizer, ela é, mas são renderizadas numa versão MIDI, e algumas músicas são muito insanas nessa versão tipo a música de combate em algumas fases, apesar de eu preferir a OST dos KOTOR (esse aqui eu vou descontar) por majoritariamente serem músicas originais e não músicas dos filmes.
Por sinal a partir daqui o desafio acabou.
Enfim, esse jogo apesar de trazer coisas muito interessantes para a franquia Star Wars e para jogos de FPS no geral, eu acho que não vale muito a pena jogar ele hoje em dia ah não ser que A - você seja fã de Star Wars, B - você seja fãs de Boomer Shooters ou C - você queira jogar o resto dos jogos da série Jedi Knight, e apesar da nota que eu estou dando por agora, ainda dá pra se divertir com esse jogo, mas ainda assim essas inovações não compensam um game design datado com level design ok no seu melhor e obtuso e malvado no seu pior, e o resto da gameplay tem nada demais, enfim, o jogo podia ser bom pra época, mas o tempo não tratou ele das melhores maneiras.
Por sinal antes da nota final, eu vou listar aqui as palavras censuradas:
Duke Nukem 3D, Rainbow Six, Finn, Trilogia Sequel, Princesa Leia, Guerra dos Clones, Trilogia Prequel e Han Solo.
Agora sim, 5.5 (quase um 6)/10
Star-Doom-Wars is a very fun retro DOS experience but the portal that Steam uses to run the game is less than ideal. The soundtrack and the interesting and nostalgic visuals make the 'good game' bells go off in my head, but I think the developers definitely had a better idea of what the title was as its own game in the later sequels.
Good game, but if bullshit level design were an art, the devs for this would be Michelangelo.
it's one of those games that's actually bad, but if you played it as a kid and if you know exactly what to do, it's pretty fun
"Some Extra Lore For The Star Wars Saga, But A Bit Boring To Play Nowadays"
For a game released in the mid-90's, this was entertaining enough. The game uses the JEDI engine (similar to the "Build" engine from "Duke Nukem") and creates a Star Wars based story centering around a mercenary-for-hire named Kyle Katarn. The story is decent enough, with many plot points supporting the events that occur before and after "Star Wars: A New Hope", but the gameplay and visuals definitely suffer from age.
The gameplay is just "okay". Its as simple as "Doom" or "Duke Nukem", and has many of the same tropes (kill enemies, collect weapons/ammo/armor/secrets, etc.). A nice difference here is that each level has some part to play within the plot, as minor as it may be. Its nice to be able to go through locations knowing you have a separate goal besides "destroy hundreds of enemies". However, the game gets really stale, really fast. The weapon diversity is sort of there, but most are some form/variation of blaster or explosive.
The level designs are extremely convoluted and boring to the eyes. This may be due in part to the aged visuals, which makes many details squish together while edges are left extremely jagged. However, I think it has more to do with the levels themselves. They are very labyrinth-like, and it is oftentimes unclear as to where the objective/next area will be. There is authenticity in the design, sound effects, and story, but it still started to drag as I progressed and I ultimately ended up feeling burnt out and bored of the experience.
As Star Wars games go, this isn't the worst one out there that you can play, but it certainly hasn't aged the best. A remaster/remake would be awesome to see, that way many of the old-school elements could be cleaned up while the visuals could get a modern polish. I'm gonna go ahead and Not Recommend this game unless you have a lot of patience for repetitive gameplay, are a huge Star Wars fan, and love playing older MS-DOS titles.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)
For a game released in the mid-90's, this was entertaining enough. The game uses the JEDI engine (similar to the "Build" engine from "Duke Nukem") and creates a Star Wars based story centering around a mercenary-for-hire named Kyle Katarn. The story is decent enough, with many plot points supporting the events that occur before and after "Star Wars: A New Hope", but the gameplay and visuals definitely suffer from age.
The gameplay is just "okay". Its as simple as "Doom" or "Duke Nukem", and has many of the same tropes (kill enemies, collect weapons/ammo/armor/secrets, etc.). A nice difference here is that each level has some part to play within the plot, as minor as it may be. Its nice to be able to go through locations knowing you have a separate goal besides "destroy hundreds of enemies". However, the game gets really stale, really fast. The weapon diversity is sort of there, but most are some form/variation of blaster or explosive.
The level designs are extremely convoluted and boring to the eyes. This may be due in part to the aged visuals, which makes many details squish together while edges are left extremely jagged. However, I think it has more to do with the levels themselves. They are very labyrinth-like, and it is oftentimes unclear as to where the objective/next area will be. There is authenticity in the design, sound effects, and story, but it still started to drag as I progressed and I ultimately ended up feeling burnt out and bored of the experience.
As Star Wars games go, this isn't the worst one out there that you can play, but it certainly hasn't aged the best. A remaster/remake would be awesome to see, that way many of the old-school elements could be cleaned up while the visuals could get a modern polish. I'm gonna go ahead and Not Recommend this game unless you have a lot of patience for repetitive gameplay, are a huge Star Wars fan, and love playing older MS-DOS titles.
Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)
It is unfortunate that Dark Forces is a bit of a dickhead to get running in 2021, with one abandoned attempt at a source port creating a myriad of bugs (enemies shooting through walls and doors!) and another WIP one not having important features like "enemy AI" switch on yet, I had to settle on some wild script that binded PgUp and PgDn to my mouse so I could get some sort of mouselook going.
Totally worth the hassle. With the exception of the sewer filled Anoat City level, Dark Forces is a bunch of tightly designed shooter maps, full of traps and puzzles and a variety of weapons that would satisfy any classic shooter fan. The fact that they're all part of a wonderfully authentic Star Wars experience just elevates them to something a bit special. Yes, it might be dated not only visually but also in regards to controls but when great midi renditions of that John Williams music and those instantly recognisable blaster sounds hit just right, the grey, pixelated blocks that apparently make up Nar Shaddaa suddenly make you feel like you're right there, cutting about its dark alleyways and into Imperial ran areas and seeing the noticeable shift in enemy type, you're bloody well IN Star Wars. The good Star Wars. The type of Star Wars some people dedicate their lives to being fans of.
When I finished this game I was suddenly absolutely raging that Disney binned all of this stuff.
Totally worth the hassle. With the exception of the sewer filled Anoat City level, Dark Forces is a bunch of tightly designed shooter maps, full of traps and puzzles and a variety of weapons that would satisfy any classic shooter fan. The fact that they're all part of a wonderfully authentic Star Wars experience just elevates them to something a bit special. Yes, it might be dated not only visually but also in regards to controls but when great midi renditions of that John Williams music and those instantly recognisable blaster sounds hit just right, the grey, pixelated blocks that apparently make up Nar Shaddaa suddenly make you feel like you're right there, cutting about its dark alleyways and into Imperial ran areas and seeing the noticeable shift in enemy type, you're bloody well IN Star Wars. The good Star Wars. The type of Star Wars some people dedicate their lives to being fans of.
When I finished this game I was suddenly absolutely raging that Disney binned all of this stuff.