Retro Review: Dark Forces – Steam Edition

Tomorrow is the release of the new Star Wars movie! “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”! Actually, so is today I guess if you live in one of the areas doing an early showing..But tomorrow is the official opening day! So, in honor of the films release, I decided to do a review of a classic Star Wars game! So, I dove into my Steam library and picked out Star Wars: Dark Forces!

This title is a classic FPS(or as they were called back in the day, a Doom Clone) set in the Star Wars Universe. I played this game first on the original Playstation, and it was my first encounter with the expanded universe. I quickly fell in love with the idea and started buying other EU games, the books(And Comic books) and it all started with this title.

While this game may no longer be canon, it’s still an extremely fun experience. If you are familiar with DOOM, then you know what this is. You run around, blast your enemies and press switches and gather colored keys to open doors. Typical 90’s FPS gameplay mechanics.

The game has held out really well over the years. The graphics obviously are dated, but not so much as to leave you scratching your head trying to figure out what that batch of pixels is supposed to be. Difficulty is fairly challenging. Not so much in combat, but some of the levels get downright confusing and might leave you lost.

The only major downside to this classic titles is the control system! It uses your standard arrow key controls, but looking up and down is a bit of a pain. In order to look up and down, you need to use page up and page down keys. Since you are having to move around with the arrow keys, take your hand off the movement keys in order to aim at an attacking enemy on the ledge above you can be a tad annoying.

Thankfully the game does have Auto-Aim. So, if you fire your weapon in the general direction of your enemy, it will start shooting at him, even if he is a level above you. Yes, it would be nice to aim at your foe easier, but you technically never even have to look up or down to finish the game thanks in no small part to auto-aim.

Pros

• Star Wars!
• Good graphics for the time
• Runs well on modern systems
• Auto-Aim!
• Classic look and feel adds to the Nostalgia.
• Most levels are fun
• Good UI
• Great story

Cons

• No longer Canon 😦
• Dumb AI
• Levels can get boring and repetitious. Mainly the sewer level.
• Clumsy controls.

 

RATING: 7/10

 

 

Related articles

• “The Greatest Star Wars Game Ever”: Dark Forces
• 7 Old “Good” Star Wars PC and Console Games that was (or not) Forgotten
• Star Wars Tabletop RPGs – Past & Present

KOTOR: Online?

Well, fans of the Knights of the Old Republic gaming franchise should be dancing a little jig..possibly. Apparently there’s a rumor traveling around the rumor mill that the next KOTOR game will actually be an MMORPG. Not sure if this will replace the talked about KOTOR III title, or will be produced alongside(Possibly using KOTOR III to set the stage for the events of KOTOR Online? One can only speculate.)

I am a huge KOTOR fan, and am hoping the rumors are true. I would love nothing more than to play KOTOR online. As for what the premise would be? Could be anything really, but most of the internet populace is hoping for a game set during the Mandalorian wars, and since that’s what the peoples are wanting..i’m thinking there is a fairly large chance the people will get it.

I’ll wrap this up with my speculation on what to expect. I believe KOTOR Online will be KOTOR 3 and will be the final one in the franchise(All good star wars sagas have three chapters, and what better finale than an online version? That’s been something people have been wanting since the first one was released). It will most likely be set during the Mandalorian wars. You will begin the game by waking up in a space ship without any memory of who you are.

No matter what, I am sure it will be good since it’s being released by BioWare.