Star Wars – Dark Forces. Originally a game bought for me as a reward for doing well in school, it quickly turned into a game of competition with my brother. One of the first good looking 3D games, Dark Forces employed you to run through the countless levels battling storm troopers and other various denizens from the movies. You assembled your arsenal ranging from the classic blaster to the rapid firing storm trooper rifle all the way to having grenade’s being lobbed through the levels.
The game reminded me of a classic 3D shooter that really was different from any other star wars genre. It wasn’t necessarily a game built around the movie, it rather delved you deep into the inner workings of the behind the scenes action. The story line was a bit difficult to follow, but I don’t think that it was a big part of the game. The levels were well designed within the star wars theme, and it even reminded me a bit of some of the levels from the original DOOM games. Around almost every corner there was always someone or something waiting for you to scare the crap out of you or blow you away.
One of the greatest aspects
of this game was getting your hands on some of the cheat codes for it. One of my favorites was the cheat for clipping. Where you could type this in and start walking through walls. This really gave the gamer a chance to explore the entire level and get a jump on the guys lying around the corner. Another great aspect was to be able to get a feel for a level before you actually went into it. Now one of the GREATEST things about Dark Forces was the fact that there weren’t any puzzles or jobs to do. It was all about finding the keys, opening the doors, and killing more people. You never had to worry about figuring out a tremendously difficult puzzle or where to go next. It was always, “Where’s the key, found it!!” “Kill Kill Kill!!”
Now my favorite weapon had to be the concussion rifle. Once I got that I just wanted to go after everything. The cool thing about this was being able to shoot it at an enemy of mine and watch all the stuff come out of the ground and just wipe your enemy out. Also, the Thermal Detonators were a great hit. Lob a few of these into a room and watch the devastation begin. If you saw an enemy wind up with one of these babies, you better turn and run around the corner to prevent getting killed. All in all Dark Forces was a great beginner FPS that allowed the gamer to really get into the world of star wars and try out all the cool weapons. A great game for a nice roll back into the past.
