STAR WARS™ Dark Forces (Classic, 1995)

You know, back in the days this game was quite hard, mostly because no one was playing WASD+mouse. You had to play this with keyboard only, using arrow keys to move. You'd get shot by enemies standing in corners or higher up purely because you couldn't move your field of view fast enough (to look up/down, you had to hold PageUp/Down XD). Fast forward today, I thought like trying this game again with my modern god gamer FPS skills to see how it's like. First thing first: you can't remap keys or mouse! You'll have to download TheForceEngine for that. No big deal, it works well. Alright, now that I'm in with a proper config, I'm surprised at how fast, responsive and fun the gameplay is. The guns are satisfying and fun to shoot, movement is fluid and dynamic, hard diff is challenging but not impossible. the graphics and MIDI music have not aged well though, but the gun sounds are good and very star wars'y. If you're a younger gamer, this might be a dealbreaker. But if you can tolerate it, there's 10-15hours of fun solid gameplay in there, in something that has become a piece of gaming history and star wars canon.

Very enjoyable, but The Force Engine is a must if you want to play it.

Run this game with the mod (The force engine mod). Plays better, numerous options, can save anytime you want. Standard W,A,S,D control scheme like any other current FPS. Love the star-wars music. As for that sewer level, it was a pain in the butt. I ran out of ammo and was using my fist. Make sure you are patient and use the the single shot pistol, and not the automatic all the time except on the monsters. Those sewer monsters or the trash-compactor monsters from the deathstar off the film scared the crap outta me. I read not to play hard, otherwise Jabba's ship will murder you. So I am fine with medium. Shooting enemies is like watching space balls.

Back in the 90's, I liked this game quite a bit. And I've completed it a few times over the years since then. But while the nostalgia is strong with this one, it just isn't a very good game, if I'm being honest. I love old school shooters, but this one is just incredibly annoying. The level design is designed mostly with trolling in mind and I sometimes wonder if the designers even had a stroke while coming up with map layouts. There's also an over-realiance on cheap land mine placements throughout most of the game, so I'd recommend playing on easy - just to keep your blood pressure at reasonable levels. Another bad thing is that the weapons are mostly not worth the trouble. The regular stormtrooper rifle will do fine most of the time. The pistol now and then for precision shots. Later, you will get two rapid fire energy weapons that aren't much different from the rifle. Plus some grenades that are too slow to use. Mines that are entirely poinless. And a grenade launcher that is only good in open spaces, which makes it rarely relevant. There's also some sort of slightly BFG like energy weapon, but it hits inconsistently and the damage is pathetic. And in order for you to hit with your fists, you have to practically be standing on your opponent's toes. The game sounds and looks the part, as far as creating that Star Wars atmosphere, but after a while, I'm wondering if I shouldn't be playing a better shooter instead. To which the answer is "yes".

Ah when Star Wars was Star War. And games were made by LucasArts and not licensed out. I first played this game when it came out in the 90's. It was basically Star Wars Doom (Before Halo replaced the genre). Yes the game graphics are dated today but for its time they were amazing, plus it was Star Wars! No, not the garbage coming out of Disney from Krapleen Kennedy but stuff that made Star Wars cool. Anyway, the story of Dark Forces is simple. You are Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial Soldier turned Mercenary. To prove your loyalty to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, you must steal the plans for an Imperial project. After completing the first mission, the plans are given to his contact Jan Ors who transfers them to another agent who gives them to a certain Alderaanian Senator who has her own destiny to fulfill. Following that, the Empire puts into motion new plans to crush the rebellion. Enter General Mohc. General Mohc presents to Darth Vader a group of new soldiers who in a demonstration, quickly destroy a Rebel Base in a decisive victory and a few civilian casualties. Kyle Katarn is then called in to meet with Mon Mothma and hired to find out what in the Sithspawn is the Empire doing. With Jan Ors as his contact/handler Kyle Katarn goes out to undercover what is being called The Dark Trooper Project. In addition to Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett appear in this game as do infamous locations from the EU like Coruscant (this is before the Prequels came out and ROTJ Special Edition) and Nar Shadda which in the lore makes Mos Eisley look like a Daycare compared to that place. You pick up an arsenal of weapons that were familiar like the Thermal Detonator and the Stormtrooper Rifle but sadly the lightsaber was not implemented (until the sequel). Still, the game is very enjoyable and for a shooter, the violence is minimal in that there is no gore. The one thing that should have been done is remastering the graphics but at least Kyle is back,