~Dark Forces Reviewed by Martin Keen GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING - Readers who suffer from a weak stomach or are prone to sickness due to excessive amounts of praise should not read anything beyond this point. Neither Martin Keen, Cheet Sheets, or HM Government can be help responsible for illness or injury caused by this review. Read at your own risk! Yep, I'm afraid this review is sickly sweeter than a double cholocate cake with extra sugar. I can find little to no fault at all with Dark Forces, the Doom style blaster from LucasArts. No doubt you know how these games work already, and Dark Forces is a shameless rip off of Doom with even the shield and health points working exactly as they did in the shareware classic. But the big difference is the Star Wars tie-in and the atmosphere that this creates. The most addictive aspect in Doom was the way the game could scare the living daylights out of you and give you a pulse running faster than a professional football manager watching his side in a penalty shoot-out. No other clone managed to catch that atmosphere until Dark Forces came along. The music is a nice starting point with a truely cinematic score. It plays along in the background unobtrusively but adds that extra something. The sound effects are even better. All the bad guys in this game are characters from the Star Wars universe so you're pit against Storm Troppers and even Jabba The Hut. Come into view of one of the baddies and they'll inform their mates "There he is - get him" or "Set blasters on full". This also helps you out because the louder the voice the nearer they are. In fact all sound effects are distance sensitive so its easier to work out where the noises are coming from. Dark Forces consists of just 14 levels but each one is huge and will normally take up to an hour to complete. Its not possible to save your position midway through a level so be sure to have some time on your hands before loading this game up. However these extra large levels seem to work better than the short ones in Doom. Each level here has a completely different feel and look. On one level you'll find yourself in a icy cold mountain range with gigantic drops, then next you'll be on a moving space ship, or maybe you'll be in a grafitted wall city with towering skyscrapers. No two levels are alike. Each level has a proper mission with a number of objectives which help to keep the interest level up. They range from powering up the city's electricity generator to planting explosives. Some magazines have critised Dark Forces for being too hard. Thats simply not the case. On easy level the game is about right: taxing but not fustratingly difficult. Of course on hard level its virtually impossible but thats the idea isn't it? There's the usual selection of guns to pick up along the way and although you won't find a chainsaw here there is an exciting choice. The plasma gun is probably the most satisfying. It targets enemies from a long range then sends them flying into the air to their deaths. Just be sure not to use it in confined spaces or it'll kill you too. Dark Forces has been a big seller and it deserves all the success it gets. In my opinion it beats Doom on the premise of having a decent storyline, more involved missions, and an overall better atmosphere. Others may not quite agree but everyone has to admit Dark Forces is bloody good fun (no pun intended). Don't miss this one.