♫Star Wars Theme♫ No, Katie, don't play the music, Katie, it'll hear us! KATIE! [distorted music noises] ♫Civvie's Dungeon♫ Did you guys know there's a new Star Wars coming out soon? And there's one coming out now? Is that Werner Herzog? Is that Werner Herzog in a Star Wars show? Okay?! There's one coming out in December! Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Wait, let me check here - - I don't know how they found another one, but okay? Oh, and there's a new Star Wars game too. Star Wars theme parks! Star Wars and Levi's hoodies! Star Wars pillows! Star Wars toilet paper! Spaceballs did this joke thirty years ago! [Nadine Cross (The Stand)]
We... are... dead... and... this... is... Hell! I'm not the biggest Star Wars dork. I enjoy... some Star Wars movies, like Empire, and maybe, like, three-quarters of Jedi. I feel kind of bad for J.J. Abrams, a multi-millionaire, big Hollywood success. He had to follow the last Jedi. Remember that? I'm gonna tell you a secret: I don't hate the last Jedi, 'cause it's this big, important, tentpole movie that doesn't understand how storytelling works, and that's gonna be funny forever. I've seen every franchise I've ever loved get ruined. Except Doom. Give 'em time. I may not have been a Star Wars nerd, but I was an FPS nerd with a PC, so you bet your ass I had Dark Forces. The first Star Wars FPS, to my knowledge. I'm not counting X-Wing, or TIE Fighter, or whatever the fuck this is. Star Wars games, of course, were made by LucasArts, who had a little more experience at the time with adventure games. Monkey Island, Sam and Max Hit the Road, But, as adventure games were a dying medium - - a little bit? Just a bit? - Doom came out at the end of '93 and some genius said, "Let's make Doom, but Star Wars!" Don't take that as a knock against Dark Forces. If you want to classify it as a Doom clone, it's one of the best. In 1995, It was THE best. Dark Forces was followed by Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, and then LucasArts stopped making those games, but it's okay, they gave it to Raven. Hallowed be its name. But you ain't a Jedi yet! No fancy force powers for you! No, in this game you'll be doing one thing and one thing only: killin' space Natzies. ♫MIDI-fied Star Wars music♫ Dark Forces introduced a character to the extended universe that you may have heard of: Kyle. Motherfuckin'. Katarn. Kyle's a stupid name.
For those of you out there named Kyle, I'm sorry your parents didn't love you. Kyle Katarn, or - as he's known in this Star Wars wiki that I cherry picked - "God," has a certain level of memetic infamy. The Chuck Norris of the Star Wars universe. He doesn't grow a beard until the next game, though. I'm not saying his reputation is undeserved. The first mission of Dark Forces is about Kyle Katarn infiltrating a secret base and stealing Death Star plans. You remember how they had to, like, assemble a team in Rogue One? Actually, more importantly, do you guys remember Rogue One? It's okay If you don't. And they couldn't have made a movie about Kyle Katarn, stealing the Death Star plans because it would have been over in fifteen minutes. The first mission, as it should, introduces you to a few things. One, the intro crawl, along with the MIDI-fied Star Wars music, which, in this game, ranges from "not bad" to "FUCKING AWESOME!" ♫ Fucking awesome MIDI-fied Star Wars music♫ I'm not gonna make you read this whole crawl. The gist of it is that Kyle Katarn is an ex-Imperial Officer - and now mercenary - employed by the Rebellion. Armed with only a blaster pistol, he has to infiltrate the secret Imperial base - - or, rather, we have to - - and let's time how long we have that blaster pistol. [Stormtrooper]
There he is! Stop him! Yup. And I won't be able to say enough good things about this game. The heads-up display, for example. Look how much less intrusive it is than any other FPS game at the time. It doesn't take up a fifth of the screen, and it tells you everything you need to know. You have inventory Items and such; it can be activated with the function keys; and a map, all that stuff is there. You got your battery power for those things over here, above your ammo. On the other side, you got shields, health, and lives. Yes, LIVES. No saves in this game. You got to make it through the mission in three lives, or however many you pick up during the level. When you die, you're not even sent back to the start. You basically lose no progress. And remember: you don't even use the Force in this game! You're just Jesus! He could be, they only killed Jesus once, he coulda taken it three times. Shields absorb all damage for a while, before you start losing health. Unless it's a melee attack, which will go right through. I'm playing this game on Hard, 'cause I've never done that before, and I feel like it's too easy. Having to run in DOSBox kind of sucks. There's no complete source port of it, unfortunately. Eh, DOSbox plays it fine. No vertical mouse aiming kinda sucks. You have to aim up and down with the keyboard. Auto aiming kinda helps with that, but not completely. Some of your weapons have secondary fire modes; most don't. Still a novelty in 1995. What I'm finally about to show you is what I consider the money shot of Dark Forces. That one thing that the game needed to get right, which is shooting Imperial douchebags with lasers. The death animations, where there's a little light where they get hit, as the blast burns through them? It's beautiful. See, even on Hard mode in Dark Forces, the game isn't usually that challenging. USUALLY. Remember that part in A New Hope where Han Solo runs into a room full of Stormtroopers? [Han screaming; blaster fire] And then he turns around and runs away? That ain't Kyle. You'll see as many Stormtroopers in the first levels of this game, and you will single-handedly murder every single one of 'em. The game, even in 2.5D, bleeds Star Wars atmosphere. Down to the sound effects, the chatter from the guards; It's spot-on. [Stormtrooper]
You're not authorized to- [Stormtrooper]
Surrender immediately! Now, understand, the whole "stealing the Death Star plans" is the prologue to this game. Like the beginning of a Bond movie where he infiltrates some place to show what a badass he is. Tying it to the Death Star is a nice touch. Once you've completed your mission objectives, you hit Escape, and move on. Yeah, mission objectives. I guess you aren't JUST killing space Nazis. That's really only 99% of it. 1% is collecting items, or placing charges, or solving puzzles. Most missions are pretty straightforward. BOOM! Darth Vader! The voice isn't bad, either. [Darth Vader]
"The emperor has approved your test demonstration, General Mohc." The voice isn't too bad, but it's still a tiny bit off. [Rom Mohc]
"At last, the Emperor's war will be filled only with the glory and beauty of decisive victory." [Vader]
"A noble cause, General. I hope the demonstration lives up to your claims." [Vader]
"Proceed." [Mohc]
"With pleasure." General Mohc launches these here Dark Troopers - the main thrust of the story in this game - down to a planet we're gonna see very, very soon. You notice how we have movie characters introduced without a ton of fanfare? They're, just, y'know, hangin' around, doin' their job? [Mon Mothma]
"Five days ago, the Empire attacked one of our secret bases in the city of Talay." [Rebel Transmission]
"...they broke through our shield... they broke through our shield!" [Mon Mothma]
"Tak Base was destroyed within minutes." [Kyle Katarn]
"Interesting. This looks like it could be a normal Imperial attack, except for those sounds..." [Mon Mothma]
"Very perceptive, Commander. The Rebel command is not taking this lightly." [Mon Mothma]
"They have authorized me to hire you to find out if there is a threat, and, if there is, to shut it down." [Mon Mothma]
"That is, if you are still on our side." [Katarn]
"This could be interesting." [Katarn]
"Alright. I'm in. But I think I'll need some help on this one." [Katarn]
"I want Jan Ors as my mission officer." Ah, yes, Jan Ors. Pilot, constant presence in these games, and giver of briefings. Restart hydroelectric generator? Check.
Find some clues to the Dark Trooper? check. Kill enough Stormtroopers to staff an entire Star Destroyer? You BET YOUR ASS! See that? That's the weapon supercharged. More pew pew for your pew pew, you goddamn Nazi spacemen! Playing this game makes me remember a time when Star Wars wasn't trash. Call it nostalgia, or, y'know, enjoying things that are well made and make fucking sense. Okay, well, there is ONE bad level. You have to find... ...some asshole... [ding] [another ding] [another ding] [dinging continues] [dinging increases in frequency] This is one of the worst sewer levels, in the history of sewer levels. If I didn't already know how to get through it, I'd probably add two hundred to the count for this. Ughhh... You have to go through different sections to raise the water level - - I'm sorry, the shit level - - in this area to reach this guy here, while dealing with mostly droids, who are dicks that respawn in this area, don't drop any ammo for your laser weapons, which are all you have at this point besides thermal detonators. Oh, right, And let's not forget the creatures that live in the sewage - - WHERE THEY FUCKING BELONG! - - dianogas, who are melee only and knock twenty points off your health with each hit. Which is why I'm bunny hopping through all this sludge. I want to get through this godforsaken level as quickly as possible. It's nice to get to know the droids you'll be dealing with, all straight from the movies. Probe droids. Interrogation droids. These little annoying ones. Oh, yeah, and Grans. Star Wars has stupid
[ding]
fucking names. Grans, who can punch you or throw thermal detonators. I hate them. They can throw them better than you can. Imagine tossing dynamite in Blood without that little bar, and not having mouse look, and just generally not being able to accurately judge how far or high you're throwing them. They're good if you've got the high ground. Ha... ha... ...ha. Fuck this level. Next up is the Imperial weapons research facility. Lose a life to falling off this cliff, because platforming is a little weird in this game. You don't have an "Always Run" button in Dark Forces, so you can have fun holding down the Shift key. Here's where the game hits you with the worst enemies: turrets. Yeah, those solid-colored primitive 3D shapes that take ton of punishment, and deal out so much damage, that walking up to 'em and using a thermal detonator will probably damage you less than the turrets will. Wait a minute. What did that say? "Ewoks suck!" Well, I can't argue with that. You get this nice feeling of sneaking in through this shaft here. Hit your headlight or your night vision goggles. Kill Stormtroopers. Get the repeater. [Stormtrooper]
"You're in violation of Imperial law!" A slightly better weapon than the Stormtrooper Rifle because of how there's damage fall-off on laser weapons. Not this one though. You'll see it a lot in this video. Even more once I start finding more Power Cell ammo for it. Once you find the Phrik metal - - yes, PHRIK - [ding] - I think it's used mostly in the production of Jizz instruments. You go to an imperial mining operation on Gromas, the Blood Moon, where you have to plant charges and face your very first Dark Trooper. The Phase One prototypes that are just endoskeletons. They're not too bad. They like to cause your shots to ricochet back at you. Not much of a threat to be honest. The Dark Troopers themselves aren't really a huge challenge in this game. NORMALLY. Let's talk about some tech stuff. See this platform here? This rotating thing that looks like it belongs in the Build engine? It's cool, right? You'll notice it's a flat color when you stand on it. This is 'cause the engine can't actually rotate floor and ceiling textures to match. So, solid color. It was a thing that the old 2.5D engines had trouble with. It is what it is. They did the most they could with it. And it's an admirable effort, since the game engine was primarily programmed by a man named Ray Gresko. Good work on that. Dude made an engine that could do room over room in 1995 and it wasn't all that jank. Now he works at Blizzard! (I'm not sure if that's more or less evil than Disney.) Who else we got in the credits? Wait, Winston Wolff? [Winston Wolfe (Pulp Fiction)]
I'm Winston Wolfe, I solve problems. I don't have anything else. That's just weird. What's next? Goddamn! Why even have Kyle Katarn get the Death Star plans? Why not just send him in? [Mohc]
"This contemptible excuse for an officer will no longer divulge any more information to that rebel, Kyle Katarn." [Vader]
"Katarn will not be as easy to deal with. He is very resourceful." ♫Kickstart My Heart - Mötley Crüe♫ [Mohc]
"I understand the threat, Lord Vader." [Mohc]
"Katarn was once an impressive Imperial officer, but he was weak, and gave up on the struggle for our new order." You shoulda just given up then, guys, 'cause he's gonna be kicking your asses for another two games. ...two-and-a-half. [Mohc]
"I wouldn't put much faith in his abilities." [Mohc]
"Katarn will never come near this ship. My new hire will see to that." Oh! OH! Boba Fett! It's Boba Fett! So that guy they caught was Crix Madine. [ding] We gotta go break him out of a detention center that's basically one big puzzle, I mean, you still go in and kill everybody, but you have to arrange the elevators in a way that lets you get to a certain floor by the elevator shaft itself. Get some codes from officers and find the guy. You don't have to get back out, that doesn't matter. Everybody's already dead. Thing is, a lot of places in the detention center have this, uh... ...problem where lasers ricochet off the walls, which is the worst idea ever for the Empire. It's an established meme that Stormtroopers can't shoot straight. There's like a hundred of them here and it's just a bad idea. [Stormtrooper]
"You're in violation of Imperial law!" You're also gonna run into landmines because the Empire sucks.
Fuck the Empire. They make a nice little noise and then they go off and probably kill you. but why in the living hell would you put one of these in a cell with a couple of aliens? The fucking Empire, man?! Next up is something a little more low-key. Sneaking aboard a ship and placing a tracking device on it, so you can find out which kingpin of organized crime is using a smuggler ship to take parts to a robotics facility. And you're gonna get to know those landmines real well. So you got a ton of these assholes tossing thermal detonators, along with these pig-like creatures with axes. I don't know what they're called. We'll just give them one of these anyway. They're a little spongy, but they only have a melee attack, but that melee attack cuts right through your shields. They're more of a problem later for, like, ten minutes. The ship you board is one of those,
"Oh man, this is really Star Wars"-y moments. It's reminiscent of the ship at the beginning of A New Hope, or at the end of Rogue One, whichever. It nails the style of the world, and that's what matters. Next up is the robotics facility, which is on a shitty ice planet, complete with shitty ice physics. but since Dark Forces wasn't made by hacks, you can pick up ice cleats to negate the slippery movement, which are right here. I spent a whole thirty-three seconds in this level without them, and I regret every moment of it. Whatever they're doing here, you need a gas mask. and you need to take a bad fall, so bad that the designers knew it would bone you, and left a Revive at the bottom. The Revive, a rarely seen powerup that gives you full health and shields. And you have to manually use the gas mask you get by pressing F3. Barely important, this is the only place of the game I had to use it. Get ready for Dark Trooper Phase 2. I remember these guys being pushovers, and they kinda are. They have a plasma gun and a missile launcher that, at least on Hard, will eat through your health. Don't worry, you get that weapon too.
Real soon. Oh, yeah and you nuke a huge part of another planet.
Awesome! Next up, Nar Shaddaa. If I'm pronouncing these names wrong, I want to stress: I don't care. [ding] It's a famous Star Wars place. Whatever. I don't remember why I'm here. "Find Imperial Navigation evidence." It's a bad time because of the Tran de Shan? Tron Deshaun?
(Trandoshan) [ding] Lizard-like beings that carry concussion rifles, which might as well be the BFG in this game. They're responsible for maybe a third of my deaths. The only good thing about them is that they drop a Concussion Rifle, which gives you a hundred Power Cells that can be used in the Repeater. Stun lock these pricks. Yeah, eat my ricochet! [Katarn]
"Jan, I've found an Imperial Nava card." [Jan] "Those must be smuggler routes to the Arc Hammer." [Jan]
"I think it's time to get out of here." Oh my God, it's Jabba the Hutt! I never would have suspected. [Katarn]
"Jabba, what have you done with Jan?" [Katarn]
"If any harm comes to her, I'll personally shove my blaster down your slimy throat." [Katarn]
"I wish you were here too, Jabba.
There's nothing like roast kell dragon." Welcome to Jabba's ship, a level I've never played on Hard before. This right here? Probably one of the first things I would cite on the list of badass things Kyle Katarn has done. Jabba takes your weapons away, and then you have to punch a Kell Dragon to death. In the face! Like, twenty times. His attacks go through shields so he can hit you five times. It's not the hardest thing in the world, but still, punching this thing to death? Who even thought this up on the design team? Now, on easy, there's one kell dragon. On Medium there are two. On hard, there are five of them, making this the most difficult mission in the entire game. All your gear is gone for the first section. I had to punch three of these goddamn things to death, followed by two of these guys, get up here, get a key to exit, followed by punching more of these guys, these extremely dangerous, axe-wielding pigs, all before getting my gear back. Remember those revives I talked about before? There's one right up here before you're even out of the room with the kell dragons. On Easy and Medium! You get one on Hard, too, right before you get your stuff back, all the way fucking over here! Now, I promised somebody some roast kell dragon. YEAH, YOU'RE NOT SO TOUGH AGAINST A PLASMA CUTTER, ARE YOU, MOTHERFUCKER?! Even when you get your gear back, this is the hardest mission in the game. The ship is covered in landmines, some of which you have to know beforehand are there. Explosive tossing Grans, those bastards with the concussion rifles. Took me about five restarts - only one after I got my gear back. And I ended up with a couple lives to spare before rescuing Jan. Next up: Imperial City, to plug the Nav card in and get a location - - oh, wait, no. There's a way to cheese this entire level right at the beginning. See, the land mines have stupid splash damage, and it goes through walls. And right behind this wall is one Boba Fett, just waiting to ambush you at the end of the level when this wall lowers. Now, this video isn't called "Pro Dark Forces", But this right here? You want to skip this extremely dangerous level, probably the second-hardest in the game? Just lay down some mines, and... Two ships?! She had never left!
She's picking you up now! Oh God, the time line! Oh, no! PARADOX! Katie, I feel like I should do a TNG thing, 'cuz I don't think that they do time travel in Star Wars? At least not yet. They'll probably do it in the new one. They did it in Avengers. They can just fucking do time travel.
You can get away with anything if you do time travel. I'm still gonna play the level. You have to fight through a ton of Stormtroopers. I mean, this is the Imperial City. Going there seems pretty risky... ...for the Imperial City. Dude punched three kell dragons to death! Some of the puzzles will stop you in your tracks.
Well, I guess I have to... ...let me look at this for a while. ♫Sky Land Theme - Super Maro Bros. 3♫ Cool okay. Got it. Time to download some data, go deal with Boba Fett for real, now that I have this Dark Trooper weapon. Look at the size of this gun, good Lord! Now we're really on the trail of the Dark Trooper project. You have to hijack a ship in a fuel station to get to the Executor. Then the Arc Hammer, the ship where the Dark Troopers are being built. This fuel station is a bitch. Dark Forces will occasionally have enemies that respawn out of nowhere. Ahhh FUUUCK! There were a lot of Stormtroopers before but now... there's... even more. Once you stow away on that ship, look at this - It's okay, you're not Han Solo, you can kill 'em all. Now that you're getting towards the end of the game, you're gonna see a lot more Dark Troopers, and they will fuck you up if you're not careful. They don't take a ton of punishment, but in enclosed spaces, they'll wreck you. Pew pewing a bunch of Stormtroopers while a TIE Fighter flies by, and thankfully doesn't try to shoot me? Peak Star Wars. Imagine seeing this in 1995? You couldn't top it. Get to the Arc Hammer - [Mohc]
"Katarn will never come near this ship." - a massive ship you have to blow up. Place three charges, kill all the space Natzies - Okay, that's not cool. And at the end, General Mohc himself - I just can't think of how I would, uh... ...what's the word? Uh... ...LAMPOON his name. [ding] - in a phase-three dark trooper suit. I'm told he has homing missiles. I say that because he goes down like such a bitch, I don't think I've ever died to him. [Mohc]
"It's been a long time since I've challenged a man to battle. I'm glad my opponent is so worthy." He's easier to deal than one of the Phase Two Dark Troopers. Maybe he's not the final boss? Maybe it's this one officer left on the ship standing by a shuttle, and - - oh, no, he's dead! Bye bye, Dark Trooper project! Say goodnight, like a thousand Imperial Stormtroopers, officers, and commandos. [Vader]
"This is an unfortunate setback." [Vader]
"The force is strong with Katarn." Whoa, spoilers! But that's a video for another day. Because sometimes nuking two separate planets, a star cruiser, and beating a bunch of giant reptiles to death with your bare hands isn't awesome enough; he's got to grow a beard! ♫How'd I Do? - Rise of the Triad OST♫
I've only played this game on the PS1, even though it was the inferior version it was still a lot of fun to play back then.
I feel like this game doesn’t get the attention it deserves when talking about the evolution of the FPS genre. It’s right up there with Halo:CE and Doom in how influential it was, being the first FPS with actual 3d map design (as in having multiple floors, instead of just higher/lower ground)
"Gen X guy who only reviews old shooter games and is disgruntled with the way current games are" is quickly becoming my favorite genre of YouTuber
He was spot on about the star wars feel of the game and aesthetic. It truly felt like a star wars game.
About a week ago YouTube started to recommend me Civvie11 and since then I have been watching dozens of his videos. I love this dude. He is the perfect combination of knowledgeable and funny. I also find the “backstory” to be interesting and nonintrusive.
Dark Forces was my first FPS. It was definitely difficult compared to modern singleplayer shooters, for two reasons.
Shit controls, keyboard aim
Lack of spoon-fed directions/waypoint markers, you really felt immersed in the game as a rebel spy in heavily fortified Imperial ships and outposts. This is my single gripe with games like Red Dead. Dumbed down waypoint and map stuff makes a game worse.
Why hasn't this game been rereleased after so many years? I'll give you $20 to replay this on my Switch, no problem.
so this is slightly off topic, but since this isn't the game i was looking for either i may as well ask:
i remember playing a Star Wars FPS on PC in the early 2000s, but don't remember the name
it starts you out on Hoth with a snow speeder, taking down Empire troops up to AT-ATs, then dumps you in the rebel base on foot with an AT-ST as the boss of the level
then you go to various planets and ths final boss i think was a spacebattle against a giant cross-shaped spacestation
anybody know which game this was?
I had to quit this game about 4 levels before the final level, I enjoyed the core gameplay, but I was sick and tired of the god awful level design, aimbot turrets and platforming. Still fun though, this video is pretty good summarizing it.