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i still play this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: December 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

My shelf is full of games I've played all the way through one time, a few I never finished, and a few I've played through a couple of times, but I've played Dark Forces many times. It was the first first-person shooter I ever played, but it's more than nostalgia that keeps me coming back. While the graphics are dated, this game is still compelling for a number of reasons: you have *real* short- and long-term missions -- not just killing, but figuring out puzzles, achieving goals, getting artifacts, etc; the weapons and gadgets are fun; the surroundings are great -- various planets and ships in the Star Wars universe; the villains are always cool and often extraordinary (Boba Fett! Dark Troopers!); you can jump and crawl; there's a good mapping utility and there are secret stashes of ammo. I love this game.

A strength: the game is very stable. A weakness: no saving within a level! A bonus -- the music is very good.

Get this game. If you value action and creativity, enjoy the Star Wars milieu, and don't despair over dated graphics, you will probably really like it.

Very Very Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I had bought this game ooo a bunch of years back, when it first came out, but at the time i was pritty young so i never really got into it. Now that im older i can see what a fun game this is. Its a first person shooter and the controlls are very easy. The sound is amazing and the enimies guns ect. are awsome. The only thing i have to warn you about is the graphics suck major, sometimes if your foe is to far away it looks like just a rock. Putting graphics aside you will find underneath the pixels and polygons a very unique and fun game with a good plot may i add.

Dark classic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I can't believe this game is still in circulation! It couldn't have been any earlier than seven years ago that I last played this. Therefore.... my memory is a bit sketchy. But what I do remember I really liked. If you enjoyed Doom or Duke Nukem, or any kind of first-person shooter, here's one that utilizes the Star Wars name in a very effective way. While it plays no relative plot to the Star Wars trilogy, it's fun (and satisfying) to kill familiar enemies with familiar weapons. I did notice that while levels grew progressively harder, the game itself grew progressively easier. This is because you collect so much armor along the way that only direct attacks (like bites or punches) tend to hurt you. Regardless, Dark Forces is an expansive game with a large variety of weapons and gameplay. A little outdated, yes, but I always did like the classics.

oldie but goodie

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Played this game a lot when I was younger, great game and a classic FPS w/ great sound effects, awesome music!, and great gameplay plus a storyline to boot. If you can pick this up for cheap, you can't go wrong.

Old but the star wars shoot em' up that started it all!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is old but the best.Sure the graphics....sound...music.......and all that other stuff stinks for today, but the gameplay remains the best within andy star wars shoot em' up has!It is like doom, silly, fun.This game is fun and I reccomend it to any starwars gamer:).....This game was great in its day!

A Classic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Dated now I know, but games are about so much more than high-end graphics. This game was revolutionary in it's time, and is still even 10 years later, great fun to play. Very challenging and so engaging that you forget about the low quality graphics after a while.

Very little that I can criticize about the game, seeing as they pretty much put together the best they could with the technology of the time. A lot of people might be put off by the fact the background music is tinny MIDI files, but I find them amusing. They are rather *good* MIDIs at any rate.

Old-School Shooter with a Star Wars Flavor

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Many frown at the idea of old-school FPS games. "Wolfenstein 3D", "Doom", "Duke Nukem"...they all were great for their time, and are still good, but they just haven't aged very well. "Star Wars: Dark Forces" however, has not lost as much of its punch in the 10 years that have passed.

STORY
The story of Kyle Katarn is actually one of the better stories that "Star Wars" games have put out. He's not the Jedi bad-ass from the "Jedi Knight" games (by the way, those are all purchase-worthy!), but he does have a gruff attitude. I don't think nostalgia is the reason for my interest in this story. Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Jabba The Hutt, and an Imperial Commander (sorry, can't remember the name) make appearances in this chapter, where the advanced Dark Troopers obliterate planets. Kyle Katarn and partner Jan Ors are paid to eliminate this threat. It's not Shakespeare, but instead of going the for the campy sense-of-humor that "Rogue Squadron" and other "Star Wars" flight-combat games go for...this one is dark and serious. It's not heart-felt drama, but it does have a gripping tone to it.

GRAPHICS
The graphics, of course, are outdated (what game's from 10 years ago isn't?). However, I still felt comfortable with the levels' environments because they are colorful and imaginative. An icy terrain hides a factory underneath...the shadows of some sewers hide unfriendly creatures underneath...a seemingly empty room reveals a 20 soldiers ready to blast you. The graphics aren't terrific, but they don't hurt your eyes, and you can still appreciate the craftiness from back in the day.

SOUND
The music is in MIDI format, but it is excellent music. There are 6 tracks that are used for 2 levels each, plus 2 more for the intense final stages. The weapons all sound like intimidating pieces of machinery. You'll get a sadistic chuckle when a petty officer proclaims "You're not authorized to be in this area!", but your grenade says otherwise. The voice-acting is also good, but there aren't too many cutscenes to prove that. But what you get is top-notch, as LucasArts always did back then.

CONTROLS
You can customize the keyboard functions however you want, or you can use a Mouse and/or Joystick. It's all up to you. There are only basic features such as jumping (this really was a breakthrough back then), crouching, using switches, and opening doors. There's not much room for confusion.

GAMEPLAY
The level design is still pretty good, because the game doesn't get carried away with hundreds of hallways and doors just to find one key. You will traverse 14 levels that large, yes...but with a Map function and some colorful visuals, you won't feel frustrated. About the key business, you'll still be doing it, but with plenty of Stormtroopers to eliminate and 10 weapons to do it. The puzzles in this game aren't necessarily hard, but there are some brain-scramblers. Although this is nice because the game doesn't hold your hand, there are a few puzzles that seem to come out of nowhere. It's nice to know that the game is a little challenging, but the game doesn't make it clear whether you have a puzzle in front of you, or whether it's just a piece of colorful scenery. That does take its toll on a few occassion. But with the smart AI (err, tough...there's not much strategy here) and "Star Wars" feel...this FPS stands out above other shooters from the past.

This game is fun, but is a little outdated and has been outdone by countless games. But it still a lot of fun. The 14 levels are all fun, and with some bosses thrown in (who can be a real pain-in-the-ass), "Dark Forces" is worthy trip down memory lane.

An oldie, but not neccessarily a baddie

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

"Dark Forces" (or as fans say, "DF") was the prequel to "Star Wars: Jedi Knight" (JK), the game which LucasArts and Raven software expect to follow up this spring with "Star Wars Jedi Outcast". Though all of these games fit the so-called "first person shooter" category, the difference in time is marked by the relative advances in graphics, sound and overall gameplay. Unfortunately, because DF is the oldest, these weaknesses are most obvious in that game. DF introduces the character of Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial Commando who went solo rather than torture captured rebel spy Jan Ors. Not entirely won over by the rebel cause, Katarn nevertheless carries out certain high-priority, low-profile missions that require him to sneak and shoot (actually run and blast) his way into highly fortified areas. In the opening mission, Kyle breaks into an imperial fortress to steal plans for the first Death Star, allowing Princess Leia to obtain them on her way home to Alderaan. The meat of the story that forms the rest of the game has Kyle tracking down a new Imperial weapon - the "Dark Trooper", a sort of souped up version of the regular stromtroopers who've been dropping like flies since May of 1977. When a rebel outpost is mysteriously wiped out, Kyle goes in to investigate. Further levels send Kyle to other planets - ice planets, completely urbanized planets (Coruscsant is a stop), planets that appear to be all cliffs, and one planet where you spend a lot of time floating in a sewer (Anoat, which I think was the planet that Han and Leia decided not to go to in "Empire"; despite what happened in Bespin, it was still a wise choice). You also travel to Nar Shadaa (the floating city) get captured by Jaba the Hutt (you escape, but not with your weapons), and slink around various spaceships. The story doesn't carry that well into the game - if not for cutscenes and mission briefs, you wouldn't know what the point of all the shooting was. The missions themselves seem hodge-podge (you go to various planets to get clues about the new weapon and where it can be located, but little else links one level to another) but come together to form a more cohesive story by the end (the final levels are more closely linked, hinting of the climax). Though a shooter, DF is also a puzzle game, requiring you to drop your blaster and think for a moment (the power to destroy a wave of stormtrooper is nothing compared to the power you'll need to reach the center of the maze they were guarding).

Time hasn't been kind to this game, and anybody raised on the likes of "Quake 2" or DF's own sequel, JK, will likely be appalled by its low-end graphics (this game is circa 1994, and has a minimum hardware req. of a 386!) and MIDI sound (which is similarly unkind to John Williams famous music). What really kills it is how the game simulate the first-person perspective - there are separate controls for turning Kyle's head sideways AND for looking up and down. That is problematic enough when having to deal with dangers above (probe droids and mind-probe droids) and below (the sewer monsters). Combine that with the artificial feeling of Kyle's movements, and you'll feel like you're seeing the world less through his eyes and more through the windshield of a car he's driving (sustained gameplay reportedly induces nausea). Nevertheless, the thinking-shooter's aspect of the game is more than enough to warrant a shot at this pre-modern game. Those who complete the game and tire of its levels can download third-party levels designed by fans as well as mods (you can play Boba Fett). If you are stuck with something lower than a 100 Mhz Pentium and will do anything short of buying one to get the Star Wars experience, this may be the game for you.

Worth more than just ten bucks!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Whats stopping the Empire from achieving creating super soldiers? You, of course! Rush into to battles with thermal detonators, stormtrooper rifles, concussion rifles, even the occasional repeater gun. Fight through tons of different enemies each level, and encounter the brute deadly force of kell dragon! This game set the standards for first person shooters everywhere.

Star Wars: Dark Forces

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: October 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love Dark Forces. I like the graphics--not as sharp as Jedi Knight, but not as 'conical' either. I enjoy the music. But, more than anything, I love the storyline. Dark Forces is lively and fun, with interesting puzzles.

My only complaint with Dark Forces was that they never offered an expansion pack. I'm currently installing a second OS on my computer so I can run Dark Forces again--it won't run under Windows XP.

I have no interest in "Jedi: Outcast."

And since it seems to be standard in these reviews... The Empire Strikes Back--best story, best visuals. Star Wars--great story, good action. Attack of the Clones--best action, decent visuals (more is not better), ok story. Phantom Menace--good visuals, good story. Return of the Jedi--good story.

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