Star Wars: Dark Forces

A long time ago, in a galaxy we call the Milky Way, a new medium emerged that swept through humanity. What began life confined to universities invaded arcades, was then picked up by home computer junkies, and soon after blasted off onto home consoles, attracting crowds nationwide and beyond at a black hole's strength. For the next two decades, the computer junkies were left light-years away under the space bus, until the day that first-person shooters by a new company called id Software saw the starlight and took all media attention by a meteor storm. The junkies were, for the first time, assimilated into the gaming universe, and the console and arcade aliens decided that computer gaming was cool enough.

Enough of the bad space puns, everyone - the gaming population at large, the press, the studios - wanted to hop on id Software's newfound train. No stranger to the phenomenon was LucasArts, who sought to imitate Doom's success with its first first-person shooter, Star Wars: Dark Forces. While not quite a killer app, it was successful as an early frontrunner to the genre, but part of its success owed to its having a strong story and objectives-based levels, as opposed to simply reaching the other end of the maps. On top of that, it allowed for ambient sounds, 3D models and sprites, and scripted combinations of these in ways that I will explain made the Jedi engine awesome back in the day. While the maps are still perpendicular and feature no slopes, the engine removed the infamous barrier to maps with room-over-room architecture, and players could look up and down (though only on a keyboard, but hacks and source ports work around that issue), as well as jump and crouch. Set in various scenarios, the maps have their own textures, a more practical architecture with elevators and rotating floors, and atmospheric lighting. Star Wars: Dark Forces would amass a small cult following of fans of the original and later Jedi Knight fans, and without further ado, let's find out what the devotion is about.

The game starts off with Kyle Katarn, an Imperial officer-turned-Rebel mercenary, as he infiltrates an Imperial base on Danuta to steal the Death Star plans held there and deliver them to Princess Leia on board the Tantive IV (I guess it will take time for Disney to acknowledge at least some of his canonicity). The ingredients for a Star Wars-themed FPS are in place, but some things you will notice are that Dark Forces is slower-paced than Doom, though it need not be slow, and LucasArts' proprietary iMUSE system means that the music builds up and sustains tension when many enemies are alerted to Kyle's presence before relaxing when few, if any, are alerted. Such interactive music was unusual for an FPS game. There even apparently is music that was meant to be played when fighting certain enemies, which was scrapped due to problems making iMUSE play them on cue. Anyway, Kyle starts with his Bryar pistol, a basic yet surprisingly versatile weapon that can destroy many enemies with great accuracy, considering that there are eight other weapons to pick up that deal much more damage, the very next being the E-11 blaster rifle. The stormtrooper's rifle is comically not as accurate and more ammo-hungry, but still ends up being one of the most used weapons in the game. Kyle delivers the plans to the Rebellion, and the Death Star is destroyed. Clearly, that was just the prologue. This game takes place between the first two movies, and the Rebel Alliance learns of a swift, deadly capture of one of its bases on Talay, leading them to suspect a new ongoing Imperial project. On top of that, an Imperial officer named Crix Madine wishes to defect to the Rebels and provides crucial information about the project, known as the Dark Troopers, droids larger and more powerful than a stormtrooper. The rest of the game follows Kyle's adventures of finding clues, sabotaging the project, and destroying the starship harboring the droid factory, the Arc Hammer, while bumping into opposition from Imperials, criminals, bounty hunters, and droids at nearly every corner.

As you progress, you will find more weapons that allow for alternative fire. Thermal detonators are a fairly common weapon that the player also ends up using often, and for good reasons. They are intuitive to throw, shooting farther the longer one holds down the fire button before releasing it, can be set to either explode on impact or after a 4-second delay, and can quickly clear unwanted pests. There are other weapons with similar or more firepower. Notably, mines can be set up to explode on proximity or after a delay, and there are ludicrously powerful weapons such as the Stoker concussion rifle, a.k.a. The Star Wars BFG 9000, and the Dark Trooper weapon. There are also surprises to encounter, such as the Dianoga, who hide in sewage and pop out to crunch their prey. I am not joking, they are creepy, especially after the player hears their low gargled growl, with the creepiest part only to come. The game also stars a few famous villains, and it challenges the player's problem-solving to get past puzzles without disrupting the pace. The best part is how the story is told as the levels go on, rather than in between. The levels are scripted for that purpose, requiring players to complete objectives such as picking up an item, reaching a destination, killing a boss, and so on and playing dialogue as one goes. Also, the automap is useful since sometimes I miss places I have not explored.

Everyone in the 1990s who had a DOS home computer to play games on likely knew of id Software and its slew of inventive shooters, likely realizing that they and all successful imitators followed the rule of having a copious number of levels and room for user-generated levels, each with their own textures and sound. Wolfenstein 3D had 30 maze-like levels and let players design their own. Doom initially shipped with 27 levels and let players create their WADs. Descent had 30 levels bent on throwing gamers into disarray and let players design the most bizarre, most helter-skelter mines imaginable, all ending with the player destroying the core and escaping the mines' impending self-destruction in the style of Return of the Jedi. Funny that I mention that while reviewing a Star Wars game. Star Wars: Dark Forces has a paltry 14 levels. It is not a lot, and the game can be beaten in two days on average. Worse yet is the only thing that can keep it from being certified one of the greatest games: that Dark Forces is a single-player-only game. How did you miss the news of employees playing Doom online at work, LucasArts? Oh well, at least you recognized that players would naturally create their own levels in the GOB file format, which turned out to be a very good idea for reasons I shall explain.

The Jedi engine is highly flexible, as demonstrated by the user-generated levels. I looked to the DF-21 fan website to test some of the greatest maps for the game, marking the first time I have played fan-made levels for the purpose of reviewing a game. My favorite are the Dark Tide saga and the Assassination on Nar Shaddaa mission featuring Boba Fett as the player character. The levels are not technically mods, as the core gameplay itself is unchanged (the player still behaves as Kyle Katarn, and his weapons are mechanically unchanged, as are the enemies and the world physics), but practically everything else can be modified. The Dark Tide saga has original music and full-motion video (including even an improved LucasArts opening sequence) and is particularly heavy on in-game storytelling, and Assassination features a high level of interactivity and an intricate money system for buying arms and health items not otherwise easily found lying throughout the map. In either case, the missions have original assets, more animated sprites and models, and clever scripting, such as glass walls breaking and their shards falling to the ground. The best levels I have tried are of LucasArts' standards, and my favorites may actually be better than the original game. These levels combine world sectors and models in ways that give the illusion that one is actually interacting with models or running up and down slopes, and also use plenty of sequenced visual and sound effects. Granted, the 3D engine's rendering is not perfect. The textured models when close up look as if they were viewed under a magnifying glass, and sprites over edges sometimes suffer clipping effects. Still, the skill involved makes the scenery all the impressive. I also like to turn the music off when I want the ambient sounds to fill the atmosphere for realism's sake, which there are many more of. One of the levels in the Dark Tide saga has the player controlling a droid, and another even simulates the effects of illness (in this case dizziness). The hacks used to create the levels, without once modding the game, are so creative that, from a technical standpoint, Dark Forces may be the greatest sprite-based Doom-clone ever made, greater than even - dare I say - Duke Nukem 3D and its Build engine. Praises to the Jedi Knight community for the levels and helping me review the game.

VERDICT: After over a hundred hours of playing the game, studying its engine, and viewing the inner workings of the levels, I can safely see why Star Wars: Dark Forces amassed a cult following. It is a break from the norm of thrill-killing the bad guys that, by emphasizing plot development, better justifies the violence. While not influential like Half-Life, it was ahead of its time. Also, its 3D engine was magnificent, allowing for models, smooth animations, and complex, interactive structures. A little more budget would have made this a certified all-time classic, but, luckily, the developers did exactly that for the sequel, the first true Jedi game and one of the greatest games ever.