STAR WARS™ Dark Forces (Classic, 1995)

I originally bought this game when it first came out, way back in 95. And now, it is reborn for the windows age, and I must say, it is all that I remembered and more. True, I'm having to dust off the cobwebs of my memory, but I have played 6 missions already and things are coming back to me. If you like first person shooters with a good dash of puzzle-solving, and you have never played this game before, I would say you'll like Dark Forces. NOTE - it took a bit of tweaking to get this game to work on my system, a Windows 10 laptop, but I was able to find my problem on the website support page and did not have to contact Support.

Dark Forces is a no-holds-barred epic Star Wars action game. It was created by Lucasarts circa 1995, at the highth of the company's incredible success with point-and-click adventure games such as Monkey Island, Sam & Max and favorable cash-ins on popular franchises such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, making Dark Forces an action game made by excellent story-tellers. Each mission begins with an immersive briefing that sheds light on not only the planet on which your mission takes place, but your reasons for being there and explanations for why you'll have to take certain paths and combat certain obstacles, all the while giving you a nuanced glimpse into the loyal and light-hearted working relationship between mission handler Jan Ors and player character Kyle Katarn. Level design and mission structure is very narratively based. You'll be navigating maps with a clear and realistic sense of archetecture, from bombed out cities, to sewage systems to Imperial strongholds, every corner has a story to tell. The game technically boasts large advancements for the FPS genre, being the first game to render multiple layers of world space, allowing areas and locals to be much larger and multi-floored then its competitors. Dark Forces may not be as long or as challenging as other games of its era, but it is an excellent Star Wars entry, and acts as foundation for the Jedi Knight series, which builds upon every idea started in this title. It may not feature a lightsaber, but it also doesn't blow up the entire cast with the death star in the last 10 minutes, nor does it put an over-emphasous on the narratively-uninteresting plot of stealing the plans to the death star. What other writers might tell in two and a half hours, this game conveys in 20 minutes with a fully original story containing new, longlasting characters and exciting developements afterwords. Definitely a fun time for any Star Wars fan.

This game holds up very well today in terms of design. The core of the game is you are a former Imperial who has joined the Rebellion and is going on missions for them, with the basic structure of each level being complete objectives and escape the level via ship (generally). The objectives are what really stand out for a game of the time when compared to something like DOOM where the only objective in each level was to find secrets and push a button at the end. The objectives make the missions feel interesting and lets them tell their own story. There is no save feature and the only way to advance is to clear the level in the alloted lives (usually 3 with 1 hidden in the level). It provides a strong challenge on medium but it's by no measure impossible. If you're looking for an old school FPS with a strong Star Wars theme you really can't do better than this. Plus it was nice to do such amazing things without the help of the Force (though later games do make the lead character a Jedi). Kyle the former Imeprial turned Rebel is a cool character.

I love this game. Nice miusic, early doom graphic. And also not so good map designes. After 3rd level realy easy to lost. Anyways must play for any retro gamer and Star Wars fan.

Działa bardzo dobrze na Windows 10, gra ma już swoje lata ale mimo upływu czasu i skomplikowanego sterowania daje duzo frajdy. W końcu każda misja jest nieodłączną częścią starego kanonu Star Wars, który dla wielu fanów jest ważniejszy od kanonu Disneya :) Niech Moc będzie z Wami :)