STAR WARS™ Dark Forces (Classic, 1995)

In one sentence, this game can be summed up as: "An upgraded DOOM clone with Star Wars story". The story is quite well done for it's age and gender - you get animated cutscenes (voiced!) and detailed descriptions of missions that make sense as an overall plot. You get to see famous Star Wars characters like Mon Mothma or Darth Vader. Obviously the age of this game shows - early 3d graphics doesn't age well, but for me it has it's charm. Other things that we take for granted nowadays but this game lacks are in-mission saves (yes, not even checkpoints) and configurable controls. If you're a Star Wars fan and able to get over this issues, I fully recommend this game. GOG version appears to be the best one available. It's packaged with DOSBox emulator and tested for compatibility. I didn't encounter any issue I had back when I attempted to play an original version.

Travel in time

I like the idea of a Doom-era Star Wars shooter, the problem I have with this game is what's new? I don't know if the company behind this was restricted only to things from the movies or whether they just utterly lacked in all imagination but basically every enemy in the game, at least up to where I played, is from the movies. Now if you're fighting imperials, that's fine, but when you start fighting Interrogation Droids, Probe Droids and a sewer-filled with the many cousins of that that one thing on the Death Star then it gets a little tiresome. So much Star Wars stuff relies too much in the movies. Just make a new Droid! Make a new creature! There's a whole Galaxy out there, knock yourself out.

This is what happened before Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. I mean, it's fine. It's great even, as Doom clones go. The story is much better than Doom's, in that it exists outside of goofy text inserts. It has animation and voiceover and a cool main character. Established characters from the Star Wars canons that are now almost nothing but ironic memes are introduced and occupy the game world in a cool, non-cringe manner almost lost to in the current era of Star Wars. But how can you compete with the game in which we all finally got to go Full Jedi? Although the archaic lives system is a little galling, I guess it also was in Doom at the time, and there was plainly just no better option in terms of that special Star Wars pew pew feel in 1995. So if you can stomach old man games and are looking for a title that bleeds that classic Star Wars style, pick it up. But you'll probably still enjoy the sequel more. It isn't Dark Forces' fault, it's just that much better.

For Star Wars fans this could be an enjoyable adventure but for people looking for a decent FPS this game can be a bit frustrating. Pros: - Star Wars feeling is legit, the soundtrack is a huge plus - there is actual story with cutscenes, which is a rarity for a mid 90s shooter - the actual action is quite good - decent variety among the missions Cons: - there is no save option - there are mandatory platformer elements, which is even more frustrating since there is no save option - there are some puzzle elements as well, often combined with the platformer elements - level design, it is really easy to get stuck You may feel that 14 missions is not a lot, but if you are playing without a walkthrough, it will be more than enough to figure out where and how to progress in some of the levels. It is also kind of hard, I typically play games on medium/hard difficulty but here I had to play easy. If you are up to solve environmental puzzles in an fps with added platforming elements this is a 5* game for you but if you are looking for a simple shooter you might be disappointed. For me, the lack of save option combined with the puzzle solving and platformer elements worth only 3 stars.