Go back to Dark Forces

Written by: Stoo
Date posted: January 25, 2022

Last year this site turned twenty, and to commemorate that milestone we’ve been looking back at some of our early reviews, pairing each one with a look at a newer but related title. Our anniversary is now apparently spilling over into the new year, largely because I’m so dreadfully disorganised.

So in this instance we’re revisiting Dark Forces, the first person shooter based on Star-Wars and released by Lucasarts in 1995 (meanwhile Rik has been working on a new review of second sequel Jedi Outcast). Our hero is Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance. His job is to investigate the creation of powerful new Imperial super-soldiers known as “Dark Troopers.” Oh and no force powers here, those were shoehorned in for the first sequel. He’s just a rough and ready guy, good in a fight, handy with a blaster, and reasonably square jawed.

Just to warn you, there are a few spoilers here, mostly in regards to which movie characters may or may not show up.

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Stoo: I was going to start by asking, had you played this one before and if so how long has it been? I don’t think I’d played it properly since the 90s. Even my review, 20 years ago, was working from memory.

Rik: Yes, but probably not since the 90s. I had a copy and could play that first demo level with my eyes closed, but got stuck soon afterwards.

Stoo: I had it on that Virgin White Label (that you wrote about a while back) but had long since lost the disks. So I recently bought it again on GOG.

Rik: I have it digitally, but kept my CD copy for some reason. I felt like I couldn’t let go of the better games I bought over the years, even while I was boxing up the rest and selling them as a job lot. Anyway, I was going to say, this is one of the oldest reviews, which surprised me somehow.

Stoo: My records from the early days are scattered but yep, definitely one of the first games I wrote about.

Rik: You gave it a 6, which seems surprisingly low, given it was an early review.

Stoo: Hmm, yes I did. “It’s not System Shock 6/10”, good grief.

Rik: We mentioned this before, but perhaps it was another nostalgia-busting review.

Stoo: Well I now appreciate it a lot more, tho i got off to a rocky start.

Not just Doom with stormtroopers

Stoo: I loaded it up, put the difficulty on medium thinking it should be simple enough at least on the first few levels, like Doom. Then 10 minutes later was cowering in a closet somewhere with no health or ammo.

Rik: I found it hard back in the day, so was expecting to struggle. But I know what you mean. The lack of mid-level saves is a killer.

Stoo: You respawn somewhere nearby but still only have a few lives.

Rik: Yes, and you pay for mindlessly blundering somewhere and not making the most of each life. Where was your first sticking point?

Stoo: When you walk outside on the first level, there’s a bunch of guys shooting down from a gallery above you. I got past it after a couple of tries, but I had to get used to the controls and handling.

Rik: I think I must have played that level so many times because of the demo. It was almost like playing on autopilot. But, for sure, the enemies on raised levels and the manual look up and down is a pain.

Stoo: Also I made the mistake of wasting too much ammo. The stormtrooper rifle is rapid-fire and super-inaccurate. So on my first attempt I sprayed fire around the level and ended up totally empty.

Rik: Because there’s a kind of auto aim, or maybe just due to the wild inaccuracy of the weapon, I just ignored the look keys at first and just fired wildly at enemies higher up in the hope of hitting them.

Stoo: I also changed tactics. If I heard “you rebel scum!” from somewhere behind then instead of immediately trying to turn and fight, I’d sprint away then approach again from a secure position, rather than turning and fighting. That might just be better for me given my bad reflexes.

Rik: I had a definite feeling of firing indiscriminately like Rambo whenever there was a room of enemies. And, for various reasons, you seem to end up back with that stormtrooper rifle quite often.

Stoo: Once I had re-famliarised myself, I actually did fine for most of the next levels, at least until the Dark Troopers come out.

Rik: I got stuck on the garbage compactor level. Or is it just sewage? Just like I did in 1996. [Edit: Mission 3, Anoat City, is what we’re talking about here].

Stoo: The one with the tunnels of sludge and the periscope monsters? (Maybe someone will comment to tell us their proper name). Yeah, that level is tough and isn’t much to look at either. I felt it was a weird choice for that early in the game. Also the periscope monsters ignore your shields!

Rik: A nightmare combination of darkness and confusing maps, definitely why I put the game down first time.

Stoo: I think I cheated past it, originally. This time I did better, but there was a lot of sprinting around in the dark and panicked shooting wherever I saw a periscope.

Rik: You finally get to the end then there’s some precision jumping to do. Cue much swearing! Also I realised that there’s a definite emphasis on exploration in this game, which I hadn’t quite grasped. I was always thinking “Star Wars shooter”. But Jedi Knight was the same, from what I remember, and so is Jedi Knight II.

Stoo: Exploration and puzzles. Like that one with the two elevators, you have to get them at the right height to climb past…

Rik: Ah yes, the prison level? I was definitely expecting more, kill stormtroopers, get red key, go through door. Not, line up lifts, retrace steps, avoid forcefields, shoot turrets…

Stoo: Right. And this is something I failed to note in my old review. It’s a step more intelligent a game than simply Star Wars Doom.

Rik: I think it’s that first level which makes it seem like more of a rollicking caper. You expect more of the same but there’s more sneaking around and other less glamorous stuff. I guess from stealing the Death Star plans, the rest is all going to be a bit less exciting.

Stoo: It’s a good basis to grab your attention for a first mission, although I think the new Rogue One movie over-writes it.

Rik: My main thoughts while watching Rogue One were about that level!

Stoo: After that you’re doing unglamorous work like hunting for bits of metal alloy in a factory somewhere.

Rik: I wrote down, “I guess not every level can be on a Star Destroyer”.

Stoo: I do think a lot of the levels look really good (but not the sludge tunnels).

Rik: There’s a good sense of scale with them, a theme which continues in the series. You definitely feel like you’re breaking into a vast prison, or whatever.

Stoo: Coruscant is especially well done. All those huge structures in blue-grey and black marble. It’s grand but oppressive, which is exactly the sort of aesthetic the Empire would go for.

Rik: There’s some repetition of textures but each level does feel distinctive. Unlike, say, Doom.

Stoo: Yes, definitely. Like the one with all those windy cliffs and chasms at the start, or the port city with the neon signs. Also Jabba the Hutt’s ship has all this sumptuous orange upholstery and curving walls…

Rik: You mentioned the Dark Trooper – when do they first turn up?

Stoo: Oh, huh. [should have taken better notes, Stoo] The type 1, with the melee attack, I think shows up on level 5 (the industrial setting on the red planet). The flying shooting one…. I don’t recall.

In 1995 we lived for VGA cutscenes

Rik: What did you make of them and that whole storyline? They’re pretty terrifying in game! Although slightly comical and Terminator-like at the same time.

Stoo: They are challenging for sure. Helps to turn their own weapon on them. In the last map they’re bloody everywhere. The plot is basically “here’s ANOTHER Imperial superweapon”, which Star Wars does a lot, but at least it’s not another big laser that destroys stars or whatever.

Rik: I think I expected a bit more plot. Again, I was possibly spoiled by the extended scene after the first level and demo. I was expecting that every couple of levels rather than every four or five. Still, from memory, that was par for the course with the likes of X-Wing and TIE Fighter too.

Stoo: That’s a good point. It’s got more of a story to it than than Doom or Descent, but that’s setting the lowest of bars. It’s just Kyle following a chain of clues to the Dark Troopers, with one or two other crises along the way.

Rik: I think I found it disappointing to hack through a particularly tough level at the third or fourth attempt, then just be straight into another briefing screen from Jan. I do like the detailed briefings, but not when expecting a bit of 90s cut-scene first!

Stoo: We do get do see Kyle thrown to the big lizard monsters at least! They probably have a proper name also.

Rik: There are enough cut-scenes sprinkled through, by 90s standards… Sorry, you just reminded me that there’s a lizard Jedi baddie in Jedi Outcast, who is utterly ridiculous.

Stoo: Yeah, it just leaves you wanting to see a few more. (Cut-scenes, not lizards)

Rik: Exactly. Especially as aesthetically they’re still quite pleasing.

Stoo: On a par with what we saw in TIE Fighter.

Rik: They remind you of a time when everything Star Wars was something hallowed and revered, because we hadn’t had the prequels yet. (Also we were 15).

Stoo: It was exciting to see a few seconds of VGA Darth Vader as a reward for finishing a level.

Rik: Yes. Also they sort of knew what to show and what not to, to keep parallel with the movies but not undermine them. So you can have Vader and Mon Mothma. But not Luke, Han, Leia etc. On the other hand, both Luke and Lando are in Jedi Outcast. Quite a lot. Which seems a bit weird.

Stoo: I can see that over-shadowing events.

Rik: But that was post-Phantom Menace, when Lucas said he wouldn’t do any sequels. Here it’s much more, “oooh we can’t show you too much, but here are some events that fit around the movies…”

Stoo: There were other heroes at work besides Han and Luke.

Rik: So it definitely brought back that old SW tingle feeling from those days. Daft as it was to consider it so holy in the first place. But it’s still far enough removed to be plausible… I don’t know if you remember Shadows of the Empire?

Stoo: Think I missed that!

Rik: That expects you to believe our heroes had a whole new adventure between Empire and Jedi, that no one ever talks about. All the main characters were involved with it except Han, who is handily replaced by a similar character. Who then dies. (Spoilers!) It was an Expanded Universe book, then they made a game of it. Anyway, I guess my point is that Dark Forces has that Lucasarts high-quality “Star Wars seal” feeling that eventually was eroded. Although saying that, there is that mildly comical battle with Boba Fett.

Stoo: He chased me across the entire map, with his homing missiles. Then I finally decided to turn and fight and he fell surprisingly fast!

Rik: I think he got stuck somewhere on mine. I couldn’t find him for ages, but when I did, he was fairly helpless.

Stoo: Oh, heh, always funny in an anti-climatic sort of way when they do that. *sad trombone noise*. I’d say it robs him of his air of mysterious menace, but Boba Fett was always kind of useless anyway.

Rik: Also kind of a minor character really, until some mystique belatedly built up around him. The boss type battles are fairly cartoony due to their zooming about, although no less tough for it.

Stoo: The last boss is daunting if you’re low on lives, basically a Dark Trooper with extra explosions.

Rik: Definitely, and you have to hack through some DTs first right?

Stoo: You kind of get the hang of them, but the choppy ones are a problem if you can’t move around, and the shooty ones can wreck you if they catch you with a missile.

Rik: It’s quite hit and miss, you can be lucky and unlucky.

Proper Star Wars (with midi fanfare)

Rik: How do you feel generally about the various non recognisable weapons on offer? I feel as if they know its not really Star Wars but also they have to conform to FPS standards somehow.

Stoo: The grenades are fun. Gently toss one off a ledge, boom, shouting, stormtroopers go flying.

Rik: They’re in the films though. I agree they’re cool.

Stoo: Ah right. The other guns are mostly assorted plasma-guns I guess. One shoots little blue bolts, another big green bolts and looks kinda like an industrial tool… The little blue bolts one is actually a good all-rounder, it’s like the stormtrooper rifle but without the scatter.

Rik: My brain is 50% thinking they need the variety in both enemies and weapons and 50% thinking it should be all fighting stormtroopers on Star Destroyers with the rifle.

Stoo: I think i liked the variety, like some levels are more about alien henchmen and bounty hunters than Imperials. The side of things represented in the movies with Mos Eisley and Jabba the Hutt.

Rik: My rational brain agrees. There are even more daft weapons in Jedi Outcast that you never need or use, here you sort of run out of ammo and end up with the rifle quite a lot anyway.

Stoo: Oh wait, I also liked that mortar although I guess it doesn’t feel especially Star Wars. The one that fires in an arc (and kaboom). How did you feel about punching giant lizards to death? I think it could be the first example of a “lol we took all your guns away” level in first person shooters.

Rik: It was tough! Yeah at first I was like, how tedious, we’ve seen this all before. Then I thought, have we though? It’s definitely a good change-up section, with different colours to look at as well as a slightly different scenario.

Stoo: Punching that first lizard to death is probably one of the toughest parts of the game. After that it’s a pretty good level, though I kind of wanted to unload every gun I had on the lizards after that.

Rik: Punching in old FPS games always felt satisfying, even if it was never very effective. There was a good healthy thud, made you feel like you were doing something. Not sure about literally punching a lizard to death though.

Stoo: We’re adding animal cruelty to Jabba’s list of crimes. Just flicking through my notes…. something you already touched on, but I think we can agree: overall this definitely feels authentic, it’s proper Star Wars. Even with the slightly non-canon guns. Or the limitations of a mid-90s game engine (tho i was wrong in my old review, it can indeed do “floors above floors”).

Rik: Yep. Not to bang on too much about Jedi Outcast, especially as you haven’t played it, but that’s all set in the post ROTJ universe. It seems much more silly with loads of Expanded Universe stuff thrown in. This seems to take place in the world of the movies. I definitely left with fonder feelings of this one vs the newer game, despite my struggles at times! (I was bad at the other one too: I think I said in my TOCA retrospective, these pieces have given me the experience of being bad at two generations of a series at once).

Stoo: You can believe you’re on a Star Destroyer, or some Imperial outpost, or even Coruscant itself (even if that last one doesn’t match the depiction in the prequels). Also the iMUSE score is excellent.

Rik: Yes, again much more stirring than in the newer game. Wasn’t that a bone of contention in the TIE Fighter re-releases, they tried to put CD audio on them?

Stoo: Yeah so I hear. iMUSE was great because it could adapt on the fly to events around you.

Rik: Probably at the time I’d have thought, of course the CD stuff is better. But you come to realise that it just fits the action better to have reactive MIDI music. I found myself humming the iMUSE versions, but maybe it’s just a case of them sparking nostalgia happy lights in my brain. The first level, in particular, took me right back to my first PC, my first issue of PC Zone, and my first demo CD.

Stoo: Well I’ll always have a soft spot for these mid-90s shooters, like Hexen and Descent. With their midi music and VGA.

Rik: Do you feel you judged it harshly back in 2001?

Stoo: I definitely failed to do it justice.

Rik: It was a different time, there was a definite feeling that things had moved on. I’m so glad I didn’t try and do an edgy slagging off of Doom or something.

Stoo: Right, like you said earlier I was still in some mindset of objectively reviewing against more modern games. Although just reading it now I was trying to compare to Doom also.

Rik: They’re more different than I might have thought back then. Doom keeps things coming. DF is more explore, observe, retrace steps.

Stoo: I think I was writing from several years’ distance, and had forgotten a lot of the substance of this game. Or had failed to appreciate it in the first place. In the review I was talking of innovation or features to differentiate a game from Doom. Which is why I liked System Shock and Hexen. This, as we’ve noted, has more puzzle solving and exploration.

Rik: When I wrote about Doom I said that I was so fed up with it being everywhere that I wanted something different, even though I was actually too impatient for most of those more sophisticated takes and actually would have got on better with Doom anyway. Even this one I abandoned back then. Did you finish it back in the day?

Stoo: I think I impatiently cheated through the tricky bits.

Rik: After hours of sweating through this time, I had a look at the JGR review, and I’m sure The J Man says something about completing it in a weekend… I was looking for some “yeah this is tricky” validation, and not finding it! But I was never an FPS master.

Stoo: I do think the combat in general is a bit trickier than Doom. You can get shot up really quickly if you blunder in somewhere. Also, I’m pretty sure you turn 10% slower than in Doom. I actually timed this. With a stopwatch.

Rik: I do remember burning lives on not paying attention to turrets.

Stoo: On the puzzles side, I did have to look up a bit of help with the big hexagon.

Rik: Yes, I looked for help occasionally, rather than give up. My retro gamer card has long been revoked anyway.

Stoo: I guess to sum up: the old review is pretty bad. There are a bunch of aspects to this game I just glossed right over.

Rik: Still, that could be said of plenty of older reviews.

Stoo: I guess so!

Rik: We were going for more general impressions in those days. The brief was about old games we’d recommend.

Stoo: In this case I should have recommended it more strongly!

Rik: I agree, I enjoyed it more than I thought. It stayed just on the right side of tough and frustrating. I think I had nightmares about that early sludge level, and returning to it. Still there’s definitely a lot more here than just a SW Doom clone.

Stoo: Agreed on all counts!

Rik: Was there anything else you wanted to add? I think my notes have been ticked off.

Stoo: Think that’s all on my list also. I’d give it 8/10 nowadays, on par with Hexen (not that I can remember what I actually gave that one).

Rik: I’d put it on a par with Doom, which I gave a 7 to. I think I got stuck in a cycle of low scoring early on which has skewed things, but I’m going to give Jedi Outcast a 6. Which is probably a rejection of the assumption that post-HL shooters have all aged better than the post-Doom ones.

Stoo: So it looks like we’re mostly in agreement on this one: it’s still very much worth playing today.

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Dark Forces can be found on gog.com for under a fiver.