Star Wars: Dark Forces
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| Star Wars: Dark Forces | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | LucasArts |
| Publisher(s) | LucasArts |
| Designer(s) | Daron Stinnett, Ray Gresko |
| Series | Star Wars: Jedi Knight |
| Engine | Jedi (engine), iMuse |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Apple Macintosh, PlayStation |
| Release | February 15, 1995 June, 1995 November 1996 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a video game produced by the LucasArts Entertainment Company. It was released in 1995. The game is a first-person shooter for the PC, Macintosh, and PlayStation. It was the first officially produced first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe.
Dark Forces spawned a graphic novel series, an audio drama, and three sequels: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. Dark Forces' protagonist, Kyle Katarn, appears in these sequels, Star Wars: Empire at War, and other Star Wars Expanded Universe material; Dark Troopers and the Star Destroyer Arc Hammer, both introduced in Dark Forces, also appear in later Expanded Universe material.
Gameplay
Overall, the game is a standard first-person shooter. The majority of enemies are humanoid (mainly Imperial troops and aliens such as Grans) who are easily killed, although the game also features some tougher opponents (such as the Dark Troopers and Boba Fett) who appear relatively infrequently. Dark Forces was not designed to be a gory game, and does not feature any blood.
Dark Forces included many features still new to the first-person shooter genre, such the ability to look up and down, jumping and crouching, and a headlamp and IR goggles which illuminate dark areas. In contrast to earlier games, the player does take damage from large falls. The game also features liquid surfaces, in the form of rivers and pools, in which the player and other entities can partially submerge. Levels are generally far more dynamic than in Doom, including such items as moving platforms, conveyor belts, flowing rivers, and rotating fans. These various aspects allowed for more realistic and challenging environments.
Unlike many other FPS games of its era, Dark Forces is constructed around a strong storyline. The missions follow the storyline, sometimes interrupted by cutscenes to progress the tale. Each mission has its own briefing and specific objectives, such as retrieving items or planting explosives, rather than simply killing enemies and reaching the exit. The levels were intentionally designed to present a cognitive as well as physical challenge, and thus included numerous puzzles. The player encounters numerous and varied environments such as bases, mines, cities, and other known places from the Star Wars universe such as Star Destroyer interiors, Jabba the Hutt's space yacht and Coruscant.
Weapons
Dark Forces features a range of weapons that utilize different kinds of ammunition. In early missions, the player has access to basic weapons such as the stormtrooper rifle, but as the game progresses increasingly powerful guns become available, such as a mortar gun and a concussion rifle. The game also features grenade-like thermal detonators and anti-personnel mines.
Plot
The game, which takes place both before and after the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, introduces the character of Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial agent who is now a mercenary hired by the Rebel Alliance.
The first mission, also released for the game demo, is an infiltration of an Imperial base on Danuta to steal the plans of the original Death Star. After the Battle of Yavin, Kyle is hired to investigate an assault on the Rebels' Talay Tak Base by a new type of Imperial soldier. Katarn's investigation reveals the Imperial Dark Trooper project, led 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 Dark Trooper weapon. Rebus' interrogation leads Katarn to a weapons research facility in the mountains of Fest and the Gromas mines where minerals are extracted for the Dark Trooper project.
After learning of Crix Madine's capture and imminent execution, Kyle proceeds to a high security detention center on Orinackra to rescue him. Madine provides the Rebel Alliance with information about the smuggling of Dark Trooper materials, leading Katarn to investigate the Ramsees Hed docking port on Cal-Seti. He then destroys a robotics facility on the icy planet Anteevy, the second stage of the Dark Trooper production line.
Katarn follows the smuggler trail to the streets of Nar Shaddaa but is captured by Jabba the Hutt. After escaping from Jabba's luxury yacht, he infiltrates a computer vault on Coruscant which reveals the location of the Ergo fuel station which is the final stage in the smuggling route. Katarn masquerades as a smuggler, gaining access to the Super Star Destroyer Executor, which brings him finally to the Arc Hammer starship which is the headquarters of General Mohc's Dark Trooper project.
Dark Trooper Project
The Dark Troopers are powerful battle droids constructed on the Imperial ship Arc Hammer.[1] When the Dark Trooper are deployed, they are loaded into pods and are launched from the Arc Hammer's forward section onto the planet's surface. Throughout the game they are described as highly intelligent and resourceful. Their power is first demonstrated with the destruction of Tak Base before the game's second mission, where nine Dark Troopers surpass a rebel base's shields and defenses to kill all the staff.
There are three types of Dark Trooper in the game. The first, the Phase I, is a relatively frail skeleton of a dark trooper equipped with only a metal cutting blade on the forearm for a weapon. It is also equipped with a metal shield that can deflect energy weapons fire (though not explosive attacks). The Phase II Dark Trooper is a completed unit which resembles a standard Stormtrooper in general appearance, though it is larger and equipped with jet packs, armor plating and a rocket launcher/plasma cannon. The final stage, the Phase III, is a specially designed Dark Trooper. It is even larger and more heavily armed than the Phase II, and can be worn as an exosuit. General Mohc personally dons the only completed Phase III suit to engage the player as the final boss.
Although official sources have established the Dark Troopers as droids, this is never directly stated in the game or its accompanying documentation. Mon Mothma refers to the Dark Troopers as a "new type of stormtrooper". General Mohc is described as "obsessed with the honor of personal combat." [2] However, the game includes references to the Dark Troopers' status as droids, including usage of the words "construction" and "assembly" in respect to creation of the Dark Troopers.
Characters
- Kyle Katarn - A mercenary hired by the Rebel Alliance to investigate the Empire's Dark Trooper project
- Jan Ors – Acts as Kyle's mission commander for most of the game and pilots his ship, the Moldy Crow
- Mon Mothma – Impressed by Katarn's success in obtaining the Death Star plans, the Rebel Alliance's leader solicits Katarn's services against Mohc and his army of Dark Troopers.
- Moff Rebus - An Imperial weapons specialist who developed the Dark Trooper's weapon.
- Crix Madine – General Madine, who plays a prominent role in the build up to the Battle of Endor, defects to the Rebel Alliance with Katarn's help during the Dark Forces campaign.
- Jabba the Hutt – Mohc employs the crime lord's services to transport materials for the Dark Trooper project
- Darth Vader – Vader oversees Mohc's project and appears in several cutscenes.
- Boba Fett – the bounty hunter is hired by Mohc to assassinate Katarn.
- General Rom Mohc – Head of the Dark Trooper project and the game's final boss.
The player encounters a range of enemies through the missions. These include Imperial officers, stormtroopers, Imperial commandos, probe droids, interrogator droids, targeting remotes, sewer creatures, Grans, Gammorean guards, Trandoshans, Kell dragons, and various Dark Trooper models.
Game Engine and Development
Development
Dark Forces was released on a CD-ROM which also included a demo of the LucasArts game Full Throttle. The use of CD-ROM allowed Dark Forces to include enhanced cinematic cutscenes. The improvements primarily consisted of a greater amount of audio and a longer length. The CD also contained some leftovers from development that were not actually used in the game (one example is a cutscene of the protagonist gearing up).
Technical aspects[3]
Although Dark Forces was often labeled a "Doom clone", its "Jedi engine" was considerably more advanced than the Doom engine. The most innovative feature was its ability to construct overlapping sectors ("room-over-room"), thus allowing for multi-story buildings, bridges and similar structures.[4] This ability was lacking in earlier FPS engines including Doom. The Jedi Engine was by no means perfect, however, and was impaired by problems such as lack of perspective correction when looking up and down.
Dark Forces’ level geometry was based on sectors, which were in turn defined by a series of walls (equivalent to Doom's linedefs). Each wall could be “adjoined” to one other wall, creating a link between two sectors.
Even though each wall could only be adjoined once, a number of "tricks" were utilized to give the illusion of a more fully 3D environment.
- Every sector was able to have a “second altitude”—an invisible platform at a given height above the sector's floor that the player could stand on. By positioning 3D objects appropriately, level designers could create the illusion of a bridge or elevated platform.
- Adjoins could actually be changed during gameplay. This enabled the creation of lifts with a single door that opened onto multiple floors.
- A “teleporter chute” function allowed the player to fall through the floor of one sector into a sector immediately below, with the illusion of continuity.
Dynamic level features such as elevators, doors, switches, horizontally moving platforms and flowing water were coded in an INF file. By manipulating INF code, quite sophisticated in-game effects (for that era of FPS gaming, at least) were achieved. INF code could also be used to play sounds at certain points in a level, for example the radio conversations between Kyle and Jan when an objective is achieved.
The majority of the objects and enemies in Dark Forces levels were sprites. The game also supported 3D polygonal objects, however, which could be texture mapped. 3D objects were used to create such entities as MSE-6 Droids (informally known as "mousebots"), holograms and gun turrets. Predefined scripts allowed for the Crow’s landing and takeoff sequences at the start and end of each mission, and a moving TIE Fighter in the Executor.
Each Dark Forces level possessed a unique colormap. The level artists were in some cases able to customise the colormaps to create interesting effects. Most notable was the red haze of the Gromas Mines mission.
Cutscenes and music
The cutscenes in Dark Forces were created with the scripted LFD format inherited from the early X-Wing computer game series, and are thus similar in quality. Dark Forces' sequel, Jedi Knight, took cutscenes to an entirely new level with FMV, while subsequent games in the series made use of 3D-rendered cinematics.
Dark Forces utilized LucasArts' MIDI-based iMUSE music engine to produce a real-time soundtrack based on in-game events. The various pieces of the mostly-original soundtrack were composed by renowned game composer Clint Bajakian who worked with LucasArts for many years on various game projects. The Dark Forces music was best heard with a General MIDI-supporting sound card.
Reception, sequels, and merchandise
Dark Forces was the 11th best-selling computer game between 1993 and 1999, with 952,000 copies sold.[citation needed] In March 2004, GMR Magazine rated Dark Forces the third best Star Wars game of all time.[citation needed] The game was praised for its relatively advanced technology, dangerous atmosphere and story-driven action. It was followed by novelizations and the Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy sequels. All but Jedi Academy focus on Katarn; the player customizes a new character for Jedi Academy. Additionally, Mara Jade is a playable character for part of the Dark Forces II expansion, Mysteries of the Sith.
Several aspects of Dark Forces were criticised by players, including its lack of multiplayer support, the absence of a lightsaber, and the inability to save the game during a level.
Hasbro's dark trooper toys are among the few Expanded Universe items to be turned into action figures.[5]
Editing and mods
Not long after the game was released, players discovered how to access and modify the game's data in order to produce new levels and other modifications. Much of Dark Forces' game data was coded in text files.
The first widely used level editor for the PC was DFUSE (Dark Forces Utilities and Editor), created by programmer Yves Borckmans. DFUSE enabled editors to unpack the GOB files that stored all of the game data and create new levels. Soon other utilities became available that allowed editing of sprites, textures, cutscenes, and other game data. DFUSE, a DOS program, was superseded by WDFUSE for Windows. Borckmans eventually handed WDFUSE over to the Code Alliance when he was employed by LucasArts to work on the sequel to Dark Forces. A popular level editor for Macintosh users, Dark Forge, was created by Brad Oliver.
References
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (August 2008) |
- Turner, Benjamin & Bowen, Kevin (December 11, 2003). Bringin' in the DOOM Clones (page 2). GameSpy.
- Dunnigan, James F (2000). The Complete Wargames Handbook (Year 2000 introduction)
- Loepelmann, Dr Karsten A. (July 5, 2001). The Dark Forces FAQ.
- ^ Briefing for Mission VII in the game. "The alloy is then taken to a special space cruiser, The Arc Hammer, where the final composition and assembly of the Dark Trooper takes place.".
- ^ Briefing for Mission VII in the game
- ^ Yves Borckmans; et al. (1995–96), "Dark Forces Unofficial Specifications, version 3.01
{{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=(help)CS1 maint: date format (link) Hosted on df-21.net - ^ http://justgamesretro.com/PC/darkforces.html
- ^ "Dark troopers". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
External links
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