Star Wars Dark Forces was a response by LucasArts towards the emerging First-Person Shooter gaming craze. Not surprisingly, the game looks and plays like a modified Doom clone, only changed to match the Star Wars universe. It was the first of a series of games by LucasArts which explored different facets of Star Wars character concepts with a shooter/RPG style game. But, being the first in the series, there aren’t many departures from the Doom-style or many ‘modern’ features, such as a multiplayer mode.
That is not to say this game isn’t enjoyable to play – especially for those who like anything dealing with the Star Wars universe. When I first played the game on the PC several years after its release I found it quite enjoyable, if only because I was blasting Stormtroopers.
Unlike Doom, the game centers around more of a storyline - a character named Kyle Kataran and his discovery of an advanced development program for the Imperial Stormtroopers. Given missions by many support characters, in plots that interact with the Star Wars movies in some respect, Kyle must shoot his way into a large variety of locations usually to obtain some piece of information (acquiring a diverse array of weaponry along the way) in
order to proceed to the next phase of the plot. The levels themselves are quite expansive, and the computer AI for the enemies quite challenging at times, able to give a challenge to most who play the game.
The graphics in the game are decent, especially considering the year it was released. The 3D rendering was good, and the animation (in most instances) was very fluid, though it can seem a little unrealistic and barren at times. If anything stood out over every other part of the game it was the sound. The music was wonderful, giving anyone a full immersion experience into the game. Even the little details, blaster sounds, enemy taunting, and all those other little sound effects worked well in the entirety of the game.
However, there were some annoying parts to gameplay, though most would not dissuade me from playing it again. Saving games was only done between levels, so if you happened to die you had to start over (some say that this just makes it more challenging). The animation, especially in the cut-scenes, seemed like it was very poorly done, with a lot of barely altered static images. Additionally, many of the awe-inspiring exotic movie locations we’ve come to expect from Star Wars games are missing from the gameplay. In some cases this gives the game a sense of independence, divergent from the main Star Wars plot (but it still would have been cool to be fighting inside an AT-AT, right?).
Overall, the game was a great first try in the genre. The game play was good and entertaining throughout the entire game. And after being a big fan of games such as Tie Fighter and X-Wing, as well as first-person shooters, this seemed a great way to synthesize my two loves. Its highly recommended.
