Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The story is set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe and begins shortly before the original Star Wars film, before flashing forward to a year after the film's events. The game's protagonist and playable character is Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance who discovers the Galactic Empire's secret Dark Trooper Project, which involves the development of a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers.
Dark Forces uses the Jedi game engine, which was developed specifically for the game. The engine adds gameplay features that were uncommon to the first-person shooter genre at the time of release, including level designs with multiple floors, and the ability to look up and down.
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Upon release, the PC and Macintosh versions of the game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its level design and technological advances, though the PlayStation version was criticized for having poor graphics and slow frame rates which make it much less enjoyable than the computer versions. The game also did well financially, selling almost 1 million copies in the United States by 1999. The game's success launched the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series, beginning with the direct sequel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II in 1997.
A remastered version of the game was developed by Nightdive Studios, and was released on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on February 28, 2024.[5] A community made port entitled The Force Engine reached 1.0 on December 20, 2022.[6][7][8][9]
Dark Forces is a first-person shooter (FPS). The player controls Kyle Katarn from a first-person perspective, with a focus on combat against various creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe, although the game also includes environmental puzzles and hazards. Dark Forces follows a central storyline outlined in mission briefings and cutscenes.[10] Each mission includes specific objectives which are related to the story.[11] The missions take place in a variety of environments across the Star Wars universe, including a Star Destroyer interior, Jabba the Hutt's yacht, and the planet Coruscant, where the player must infiltrate a computer vault.
Dark Forces' gameplay expands on the FPS standards set by Doom in 1993, and features gameplay elements that are now common in the FPS genre. These include the ability to look up and down, duck, and jump.[12][13] A variety of power-ups are made available to the player, including health, shields, weapons and ammunition. The game also features several non-combat items to aid the player. The head lamp illuminates the area in front of the player, but will reveal the player's position to enemies in dark rooms. Ice cleats provide traction in icy areas, and an air mask protects the player from areas with toxic atmosphere. Many inventory items are powered by batteries (separate from weapon ammunition types) which can be found around the levels.[11]
For combat, the player may use fists, explosive land mines and thermal detonators, as well as blasters and other ranged weapons.[14] All player weapons except the fist require ammunition, which can be collected in power-ups. All weapons, again with the exception of the fist, have a secondary mode which makes it have a different effect than in primary mode.[14] The player has health and shields which are damaged by enemy attacks and some environmental hazards, and may be replenished through power-ups.
In addition to combat, Dark Forces provides physical obstacles for the character, such as jumping from ledges or traversing across flowing rivers,[13][15] and includes multi-step puzzles such as mazes controlled by switches.
The storyline of Dark Forces follows Kyle Katarn, a mercenary employed by the Rebel Alliance. Prior to the game's events, Kyle was preparing for a career in agricultural mechanics like his father, but ended up joining the Imperial Academy after his parents were supposedly murdered by Rebels, whom he grew to hate. After graduating from the Academy and joining the Imperial Army, Kyle met Jan Ors, a double agent working for the Rebels, who had uncovered the truth about his parents' death: the Empire were the ones who had them killed, and not the Rebels as he had been told by officials. This revelation caused Kyle to distrust the Empire, and he eventually defected in order to rescue Jan, who had been found to be supplying information to the Rebels and arrested. Escaping from the Empire together, the pair became mercenaries, and eventually began taking jobs from the Rebel Alliance, because of Kyle's hatred towards the Empire.[11]
Dark Forces begins with Kyle and Jan being hired by the Alliance to recover the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's space station outfitted with a superlaser capable of destroying an entire planet. The Rebels use the plans to find a weakness in the station, and eventually destroy it.[16] One year later, the Alliance hires the pair again, this time to investigate an assault on one of their bases by a new type of Imperial soldiers. Kyle's investigation unveils the Dark Trooper Project, headed by General Rom Mohc. His mission to stop the project takes him to the sewers of Anoat City, where he captures Moff Rebus, an Imperial weapons specialist who developed the weapons used by Dark Troopers. Rebus' interrogation leads him to a weapons research facility in the mountains of Fest and the Gromas mines where minerals are extracted for the Dark Troopers.
Kyle and Jan later learn that Crix Madine, a former Imperial Commander who defected to the Alliance, has been captured by the Empire, and the former infiltrates a high security detention center on Orinackra to rescue him. After Kyle saves him from his execution, Madine informs the Alliance of an operation to smuggle Dark Trooper materials, leading Kyle and Jan to investigate the Ramsees Hed docking port on Cal-Seti. Afterward, Kyle also destroys a robotics facility on the icy planet Anteevy, the second stage of the Dark Trooper production line. Kyle and Jan's mission is temporarily halted when they are captured by the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, one of the main financiers of the Dark Trooper Project. After their escape from Jabba's clutches and an encounter with the bounty hunter Boba Fett, hired by General Mohc to kill Kyle, the pair travel to Coruscant, where Kyle infiltrates a computer vault which reveals the location of the Ergo fuel station, the final stage of the smuggling route.
Masquerading as a smuggler, Kyle infiltrates the Super Star Destroyer Executor and then the Arc Hammer starship, General Mohc's headquarters and the location of the Dark Trooper Project's final stage. After killing Mohc (who is wearing Dark Trooper armor), Kyle destroys the ship and escapes, while Darth Vader watches from the Executor, commenting that the Dark Trooper Project's destruction is an unfortunate setback and that the Force is strong with Katarn. For his bravery and heroic actions, Kyle is awarded the Star of Alderaan by the Alliance.
Development of Dark Forces was led by Daron Stinnett. The programming was led by Ray Gresko, and the graphics and storyline by Justin Chin.[11] Production began in September 1993, at a time when the first-person shooter genre was very popular.[10] The idea of creating a first-person shooter in the Star Wars universe was inspired by fan mods of Doom which had levels set on the Death Star.[17] The developers of Dark Forces wanted to adapt the FPS format into an adventure game. To do this they introduced puzzles and strategy, along with a Star Wars plot.[10] Originally Luke Skywalker was intended to be the main character in the game, however the developers realized that this would add constraints to gameplay and storyline. Instead a new character, Kyle Katarn, was created.[16]
New gameplay mechanisms that were not common in the first-person shooter genre at the time of release include the ability to look up and down, duck, jump, and swim.[13] The use of multiple floor levels is another technical advance in the first-person shooter genre.[18] To produce these new features, the developers wrote a game engine from scratch.[19] The Jedi game engine can create gameplay and graphical elements such as fully 3D objects, atmospheric effects such as fog and haze, animated textures and shading.[15] Stinnett indicated that the developers wanted these elements to be part of an "active environment," and features were included to create this: "ships come and go at the flight decks, rivers sweep along, platforms and conveyor belts move and much of the machinery functions."[10]
The Dark Troopers in Dark Forces were created specifically for the game by Justin Chin and Paul Mica. Chin notes that they were designed as a more advanced enemy when compared to standard stormtroopers: "Instead of just beefing up the stormtroopers, I designed them to be more efficient. I wanted something more terrifying and more omnipotent." Three designs for the Dark Troopers were produced for Dark Forces. Lucasfilm licensing department initially rejected two of the designs for looking too much out of character, so Chin produced new designs which were ultimately approved.[10] The development team collaborated with staff at Skywalker Ranch for the sounds, music, and costumes used in the cutscenes.[20]
Dark Forces was ported from DOS to Apple Macintosh. This presented several challenges for the developers. LucasArts requested the game to be produced for both DOS and Macintosh with the same system requirements, specifically the random-access memory (RAM). The Mac OS runs a graphical user interface which uses up RAM while DOS does not, meaning the Macintosh version has less RAM available for Dark Forces to use. Aaron Giles, who was the Macintosh programmer for Dark Forces, explained that to resolve this problem the memory had to be managed more efficiently.[19] 152ee80cbc
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