Star Wars: Dark Forces

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: Dark Forces owes its existence to fan-made modifications of Doom. Some of those mods had levels set on the Death Star, and that sparked the idea of a Star Wars shooter built from the ground up. LucasArts, which developed and published the result, released it in 1995 as a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars expanded universe. Its hero was not a Jedi, and its enemies were not the familiar stormtroopers alone. Why did the team set aside the most famous name in the saga? What did they have to invent so the game could do more than a Doom imitation? And why did one version of the game earn such different reviews from the others?

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• 2. The Mercenary Hero

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  Luke Skywalker was originally meant to star in Dark Forces. The developers realized that using him would add constraints to both the gameplay and the storyline. So they created a new character, Kyle Katarn, who gave them far more freedom.

  Kyle's early life pointed away from soldiering. He was preparing for a career in agricultural mechanics, like his father. Then his parents were supposedly murdered by Rebels, and he joined the Imperial Academy, where he grew to hate the people he blamed.

  Jan Ors changed that picture. After Kyle graduated and joined the Imperial Army, he met her. She was a double agent working for the Rebels, and she had uncovered the truth about his parents. The Empire had them killed, not the Rebels, despite what Imperial officials told him.

  The revelation made Kyle distrust the Empire. When Jan was arrested for supplying information to the Rebels, he defected to rescue her. The two escaped together and became mercenaries. Kyle's hatred of the Empire led them to take jobs from the Rebel Alliance. Their first assignment would put them on the trail of the Empire's most feared weapon.

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• 3. The Dark Trooper Project

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  A superlaser capable of destroying an entire planet is what Kyle and Jan are first hired to deal with. The Alliance wants the plans to the Death Star, and the pair recover them. The Rebels then use those plans to find a weakness in the station and destroy it.

  A year later, the Alliance hires the pair again. This time they must investigate an assault on one of its bases by a new type of Imperial soldier. Kyle's investigation uncovers the Dark Trooper Project, headed by General Rom Mohc. It involves a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers.

  The trail begins in the sewers of Anoat City, where Kyle captures Moff Rebus. Rebus is an Imperial weapons specialist who developed the weapons the Dark Troopers use. His interrogation points to a weapons research facility in the mountains of Fest. It also points to the Gromas mines, where minerals for the Dark Troopers are extracted.

  Crix Madine, a former Imperial Commander who defected to the Alliance, is captured by the Empire. Kyle infiltrates a high-security detention center on Orinackra and saves him from execution. Madine then tells the Alliance about an operation to smuggle Dark Trooper materials. That sends Kyle and Jan to the Ramsees Hed docking port on Cal-Seti. Kyle also destroys a robotics facility on the icy planet Anteevy, the second stage of the production line.

  Jabba the Hutt halts the mission for a time. The crime lord is one of the main financiers of the project, and he captures the pair. After they escape, the bounty hunter Boba Fett, hired by General Mohc to kill Kyle, confronts him. On Coruscant, Kyle then infiltrates a computer vault. It reveals the location of the Ergo fuel station, the final stage of the smuggling route.

  Posing as a smuggler, Kyle infiltrates the Super Star Destroyer Executor and then the Arc Hammer starship. The Arc Hammer is Mohc's headquarters and the site of the project's final stage. Wearing Dark Trooper armor, Kyle kills Mohc, destroys the ship and escapes.

  Darth Vader watches from the Executor. He calls the destruction of the project an unfortunate setback and remarks that the Force is strong with Katarn. For his bravery, Kyle receives the Star of Alderaan from the Alliance.

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• 4. The Jedi Engine

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  Production began in September 1993, when the first-person shooter genre was very popular. Daron Stinnett led development. Ray Gresko led the programming, and Justin Chin handled the graphics and the storyline.

  The team did not want a straight copy of the genre. They wanted to turn the first-person format into an adventure game. To do that, they added puzzles and strategy alongside a Star Wars plot.

  That ambition required new technology, so the developers wrote a game engine from scratch. They called it the Jedi engine. It could produce fully 3D objects, fog and haze, animated textures and shading. It also allowed movement options that were uncommon in shooters at the time, including looking up and down, ducking, jumping and swimming. Levels could have multiple floors, another technical advance for the genre.

  Aaron Giles, the Macintosh programmer, faced a different problem when the game was ported from DOS. LucasArts asked for both versions to run on the same system requirements, including memory. The Mac OS graphical interface uses up RAM that DOS leaves free. Giles explained that the solution was to manage memory more efficiently.

  Stinnett described the goal as an "active environment." In his words, "ships come and go at the flight decks, rivers sweep along, platforms and conveyor belts move and much of the machinery functions."

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• 5. Troopers and Sound

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  Justin Chin and Paul Mica created the Dark Troopers specifically for this game. Chin designed them as a more advanced enemy than the standard stormtrooper. In his words: "Instead of just beefing up the stormtroopers, I designed them to be more efficient. I wanted something more terrifying and more omnipotent."

  Three designs were produced. The Lucasfilm licensing department initially rejected two of them for looking too much out of character. Chin produced new designs, and those were ultimately approved.

  Skywalker Ranch staff joined the effort on the audio side. The development team worked with them on the sounds, music and costumes used in the cutscenes.

  Clint Bajakian composed most of the music, which is original. It is nonetheless based on cues from John Williams' Star Wars scores. The iMUSE system made that music interactive. The game also carried full speech and sound effects in stereo.

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• 6. Playing Through

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  A Star Destroyer interior and Jabba the Hutt's yacht are among the settings the player passes through. Each mission has specific objectives tied to the story, which unfolds through mission briefings and cutscenes. Combat against creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe sits alongside environmental puzzles and hazards.

  Doom, in 1993, set the standards for the genre, and Dark Forces builds on them. The player can find power-ups for health, shields, weapons and ammunition. Several non-combat items help as well. A head lamp lights the area ahead but gives away the player's position to enemies in dark rooms. Ice cleats give traction on ice, and an air mask protects against toxic atmosphere.

  Batteries power many inventory items. They are separate from weapon ammunition and are scattered around the levels.

  Fists are the first weapon, followed by explosive land mines, thermal detonators, blasters and other ranged weapons. Every weapon except the fist needs ammunition. Every weapon except the fist also has a secondary mode with a different effect.

  Physical obstacles break up the shooting. The player must jump from ledges and cross flowing rivers. Multi-step puzzles include mazes controlled by switches.

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• 7. Critics and Sales

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  Publications compared the PC and Macintosh versions to Doom, then the significant name in the genre. They generally judged that Dark Forces improved on it. Common complaints were that the game was too short and had no multiplayer mode.

  Steven Kent of The Seattle Times thought the game would appeal to most computer gamers, not only Star Wars fans. He wrote: "Though most of the Dark Forces sets are original to the game, they were created in the Star Wars spirit."

  Ron Dulin, reviewing for GameSpot, singled out the puzzles: "The levels are diverse and ingenious, with plenty of creative obstacles standing between you and your goal." Next Generation was more guarded about the PC version, saying it "will be judged by Doom's standards and, in most of the crucial areas, it falls just short." Of the Macintosh version, it said: "A very classy job."

  MacUser named the game one of the top 50 CD-ROMs of 1995. PC Gamer gave it the award for best sound effects of 1995, and it was a runner-up for best action game.

  The PlayStation version arrived in 1996 and fared worse, holding a 60% aggregate score on GameRankings. GameSpot called its frame rate "horrendously choppy." IGN wrote that it was "grainier than a loaf of bread." The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly agreed that the frame rate and some control issues made it frustrating.

  More than 300,000 copies shipped ahead of launch, a record for LucasArts at that time. The game debuted at number one on PC Data's monthly computer game sales chart for March 1995. In 1998, it was the third-highest-selling game for Mac OS.

  PC Data, which tracked United States sales, counted 928,469 units and $37.1 million in revenue. That made it the country's ninth-best-selling computer game between January 1993 and April 1998. By September 1999 sales had reached 952,033 copies, and it ranked eleventh since January 1993.

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• 8. Afterlife

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  Custom levels and maps appeared on the internet soon after release, giving Dark Forces a strong following. Hasbro produced Kyle Katarn and Dark Trooper toys. They are among the Star Wars items from other media to become action figures.

  The Dark Troopers also turned up in books and comics. They later became canon in The Mandalorian, in Chapter 14: The Tragedy. William C. Dietz wrote novelizations of the storyline, and those were adapted into full-cast audio dramatizations.

  The sequel, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, arrived in 1997, and two more sequels followed. The Jedi Knight series continues Kyle Katarn's story and has been praised for its quality as a whole.

  In September 2009, Valve's Steam network began offering the game as a download. It supports Windows XP, 2000 and Vista, and OS X Mavericks. Buyers can purchase it alone or in a package with every Jedi Knight game.

  Fans kept the game running on their own terms. A community-made port called The Force Engine reached version 1.0 on the 20th of December 2022. Nightdive Studios then released a remaster on the 28th of February 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

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