Welcome to another edition of Retro Corner and "Episode VIII" as part of the new trilogy continues to ruin the series. As you have heard, The Last Jedi is a creative disaster that inserts a political agenda for the wrong reasons. Not only does this hurt the current trilogy setup, but the entire series that has many stories under its name. Disney's canon is basically a horribly written fan fiction at best now that it's ruining a once extraordinary series. However, let's leave this horrid alternate timeline and go to the Original that actually expanded the lore with no political agendas. The Original Extended Universe incorporated many stories from the main characters of Luke to as far back as The Old Republic era. Dark Forces takes place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back and stars a mercenary named Kyle Katarn. The Rebellion once again recruited him after his previous success with assisting the Rebels against the Empire. Mon Mothma tasks Kyle with investigating a project the Imperials have developed called the Dark Troopers. The Dark Trooper project lead by an Imperial General named Rom Mohc has developed a super android and exo-armor. Gameplay Many gamers have called Dark Forces a Doom clone over time because of how similar it is to the gameplay. However, despite its shared similarities to Id's classic, that doesn't make it a lesser game. A matter of fact, Dark Forces actually progresses FPSs further in some way before Quake came out. Similar to the previous Id games, you go through the levels gunning down enemies and collecting items like card keys and vitals. The player uses switches and platforms with the card keys to progress to the next area. There are differences as after the player has completed all mission goals they have to trek back to where they started or at a different part of the level. There are a few new features designed on to Id's formula and now the player can look up or down. As you know, FPSs had limited movement during the mid-90s with an auto-aim feature. It was a rough blueprint before the mouse got implemented with angled direction especially when the developers were still learning. I find this interesting that LucasArts designed this first and not Id, the one that created the genre. They even added a jump mechanic which again, no other FPS did that during the time and it wasn't in the Doom games either. The jump feature added to the level design as sometimes the player needed to time their running and jumping to reach a platform. Next are the puzzles which was another feature that is used to progress to a different area of a level. These puzzles would have the player hit switches around multiples floors within the level. Of course, this is all thanks to the Jedi Engine, a more advanced program compared to the Doom Engine. The level design was more intricate because the software offered more tools to create rooms on top of another. It also made the levels complex, adding layers that the previous FPS titles couldn't do. Similar to Doom, the enemies are a decent variety of Imperials soldiers, droids, and aliens. The selection wasn't as good as Doom, which is weird when the lore has plenty of species to use. The weapon selection is about the same as the original Doom, but there are a couple of added features. There is the Bryar Pistol, E-11 Blaster Rifle, Imperial Repeater Gun (Plasma Gun), Mortar Gun (shotgun), and Stouker Concussion Rifle (Rocket Launcher). Each gun has a secondary fire that either shoots projectiles rapidly or through a burst of a few shots at once. They even include terminal detonators and I.M. Mines that act like grenades. Id's games didn't even have bomb functions or a secondary fire feature for the guns. As you can tell the studio took notes from Id's games and improved the genre with these ideas. Rating: 8.6/10 Graphic/Presentation At first glance, Dark Forces looks as if it uses the Doom Engine but in actuality, LucasArts created a 3D program from the ground up. The Jedi Engine was truly made for Dark Forces as this program shares some aspects of the familiar. Meaning, there is more to it than just a dimensional perspective as each level was in 3D. Sure the enemies were 2D sprites similar to the demons of Doom, however, they still are very accurate to the films. The environments are very detailed and I love how each one felt like it belongs in the lore. It's obvious LucasArts had to create new worlds so they could expand the theme of the story. Another thing the Jedi Engine has over the Doom Engine is environmental effects like fog and smoke. These effects certainly made the environments more lively in comparison to the Doom series, something it lacked. LucasArts also did a great job making these levels come off like Imperial and industrial places you would see in the movies. The cut scenes use pixel art as voice-overs are present for the characters. It's surprising that the studio didn't invest money into CGI for this game when Shadows of the Empire had it on the PC version. Each cut scene was still rendered with impressive detail which could make up for the lack of CGI. I should point out something about these 2D games that tried to emulate 3D and they would run into some problems at times. An obvious issue is how blurry some of the textures appear which are only heightened when you increase the gamma correction. Even in the darkest areas of a level, the blurry textures stick out really bad. I honestly would expect a darkened place to cover it better than to simply expose this even more. The soundtrack felt lazily put together as it sounded as if this came directly from the Super Star Wars Trilogy. For a game on the PC, why is it using MIDI files with songs developed on a 16-bit sound chip? The game is on CD so there really is no excuse to not include MP3 quality music from the Original Soundtrack. I mean the studio is a property of Lucas Films, so it's relatively easy to have access to music they already own. The animation for the cut scenes needed more frames since the characters did move in a stiff manner. You just got to love the corporate meddling these suits always do to their artists if it means getting the game out early. If the developers had time then these cut scenes would've gotten rendered with more animation. Rating: 8.5/10 Story The story takes place in the Original Trilogy and stars a mercenary called Kyle Katarn. Dark Forces, unlike Shadows of the Empire wasn't based on a novel or comic but is an original game. I love the little backstory the game gave us about Kyle and how at one point he was against the Rebellion as the man believed they were the reason his parents died. However, after Jan Ors a Rebel officer convinced him it was in truth the Empire that murdered them, this was enough to convert Kyle to aid the Rebels. It was a different backstory compared to Han Solo or Dash Rendar's own in more ways. One of my favorite personality traits from Kyle is his sarcasm he has towards most events. I also felt that Kyle's backstory and character were so much better than Dash's own. He came off more badass than even Han Solo who had at that point in the lore got reduced to a goofy guy. Another good addition was Jan Ors serving as Kyle's Commending Office for his missions. She obviously had a minor role in the story, but I still appreciated their dynamic partnership. The plot itself revolves around Kyle taking missions throughout the galaxy and facing off against the likes of the Empire. An imperial general named Rom Mohc has been working on a new project that was given the Emperor's approval. Mohc developed a new form of a robotic soldier and Exo-armor called Dark Troopers. These super droids and super armor got tested during an Imperial attack by Mohc who wanted to demonstrate his project on the world of Talay. After this attack, Mon Mothma hires Kyle once again, but this time to investigate a new weapon from the Empire. If there is a few things good about this story, it's the trivial details. Take the first mission and it's hilarious how right LucasArts got the backstory of the Rebels obtaining the Death Star I plans with Kyle's help. Yet Disney manages to make a full movie that wasn't needed with uninteresting characters, no one is going to care about from Rogue One. That is why Dark Forces' story wasn't overblown, and it's because the studio kept the background stories simple. Even a brief description of Kyle and Jan is still enough to give me an idea of what characteristics they represent. He's another example, do you remember General Crix Madine from Return of the Jedi? They completely disclosed who he was and how he converted to the Rebels on just one mission. Like I said, I appreciate the way the studio expanded on the little details from the Original Trilogy and adds to the lore. Let's talk about the main antagonist of Rom Mohc and unfortunately, he came across as some old politician. Compared to Prince Xizor from Shadows who planned to cause a conspiracy against Darth Vader makes Mohc's ideas seem generic. It makes Mohc come off like some imperial puppet trying to further the Empire's Dominance without thinking. Xizor was a crime leader of the Black Sun, one of the biggest crime organizations in the galaxy. Not only was he ambitious, but he is doing it for himself and didn't come off as some puppet. Yes, the Dark Trooper project was ambitious too, however, Mohc possessed no appealing traits to his personality. The imperial general just comes off as another high-rank officer that hardly comes close to Thrawn's or Tarkin's intellect. The story was still interesting to take the little background details from the Original Trilogy. Rating: 7.5/10 Features/Content Dark Forces has 14 missions that include the option (before a level) to play it on three difficulty settings. The only differences is there are more armored soldiers equipped with stronger weapons. What Doom style game isn't complete without secrets placed along the levels. There are plenty of secrets hidden in each stage where the player will need to explore to find them. I must commend LucasArts for following Id's standards in level design as it compels me to play these stages again. However, the secrets come off similar to Wolfenstein as they didn't feel special. I mean all that was hidden is ammo, health, and shields but no secret exits or additional weapons are not found. I find a little ridiculous that LucasArts studied concepts from Id's games, but thinks secrets exits or hidden weapons are not good enough. Another thing is there are only 14 stages which is half of Ultimate Doom that had 32 levels. Once again, I can't understand this studio sometimes as you want Dark Forces to emulate Doom's success. At the same time, though you don't want to follow its quality standards of having great content. I guess when you're spoiled by the Doom series' content then you are presumably going to have those thoughts. For a game based on a side story of the Original Trilogy still offers enough content to keep anyone entertained. Rating: 8.0/10 Final Rating Dark Forces was a nice addition to the Star Wars game library as LucasArts produced another classic. It used the gameplay style of Doom to not only produce a level design that's intricate but progressed the genre. The Newer features of looking up or down and using two bomb types are most welcome. The Jedi Engine has shown that it's more advanced compared to Id's Doom software. It allowed the studio to make the environments feel like they were Imperial and industrial places. It also gave the tools to stack rooms on top of each other and not to mention the program lets them make special effects like fog. Despite the cut scenes limited frame work, they still gave Dark Forces its cinematic feel. The game had a few problems with some blurry textures and not enough animated frames in the cut scenes. The content was another problem as 14 levels are all that's offered in the game. In comparison to Ultimate Doom's 32 maps, that's not even an episode and a half. LucasArts was diffidently a studio to look forward to regarding gaming during the 90's. Gameplay: 8.6/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.5/10 Story: 7.5/10 Features/Content: 8.0/10 Final Rating: 8.3/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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