The world of Doom clones has become a very crowded place, with literally dozens of games trying to out-do each other one way or another. Still, even a year before its release, one game stood out above all others: Dark Forces. This first-person offering from LucasArts was a hot topic a year ago, and the buzz surrounding the game has grown exponentially. The draw of Dark Forces should be obvious: Star Wars Doom. Ever since Doom was unleashed on the gaming public people have been thinking of new settings to play the game in. When people realized that it was possible to edit Doom's levels and monsters the patch WAD frenzy began. Before long Doom patches were available that replaced the demons with characters from movies. To no one's surprise, some of the first of these patches allowed you to kill characters from Alien, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Now that Dark Forces is here and we can play a REAL game of Star Wars Doom, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the game. LucasArts has upheld its stellar reputation once again and delivered a product of very high quality, but in almost all respects it's the exact same game I've been playing for over a year and a half, and frankly I'm getting a little sick of it. I suppose your reaction to Dark Forces will depend on what you expect to get out of it. If you're just looking for a very slick game of Star Wars Doom, you'll eat it up. But if you come into the game hoping for a major revelation or a significant advance in first-person shooter design, you're setting yourself up for a disappointment.
In Dark forces you play Kyle Katarn, a former member of the Empire who now does contract work for the Rebel Alliance. In your first mission (if you've played the demo that's been circulating you've already seen this one) you steal the plans for the Death Star, which sets up the beginning of the first Star Wars movie. From there events jump to just after the end of Star Wars. The Death Star has been destroyed, but the Rebels have a bigger problem on their hands now. It seems the Empire is developing a large robotic version of the Stormtrooper, a devastatingly powerful weapon known as the Dark Trooper. One Rebel base has already been annihilated as a test of the Dark Trooper's power, and once production is in full swing the Rebels are as good as dead. Through a series of covert missions you must locate the source of the Dark Troopers and destroy the operation before the Empire has the chance to put their new weapon to use.
The gameplay is straight out of Doom. You start the first mission with nothing but a puny blaster. You shoot a few guards. Within seconds you acquire a more powerful laser rifle. You kill some more guards and Stormtroopers, open doors, flip switches, search for secret areas, solve the occasional puzzle. You've done it many times before. The biggest selling point of Dark Forces is its setting; this IS the Star Wars universe, and a chance to play a part in this saga (even if it's a part you've played several times before in different settings) is always welcome. For many of us who grew up with George Lucas's fantastic vision, Star Wars is the ultimate science fiction fantasy, and Dark Forces, along with X-Wing and TIE Fighter, is a great way to live out part of that fantasy. That by itself makes Dark Forces worth playing.
Dark Forces may be a Doom clone, but it's a GOOD Doom clone. It's the first project to use the new LucasArts JEDI engine, a 3D engine that allows for light sourcing and diminishing, atmospheric effects, Gouraud shading, texture animation, and different viewing angles. What this boils down to is that Dark Forces is one of the most impressive Doom games since, well, since Doom. You can look up and down, crouch, jump, even turn on a helmet light to navigate through dark passages. Each mission is made up of a multi-layered complex, allowing you freedom of movement that far surpasses that in Doom. The levels themselves are very well designed, and they feature flowing water (with current), raised catwalks, air shafts, moving bridges, and of course lots of things to kill. Probably the most innovative feature of Dark Forces is the automap, which can be superimposed over your normal view. This turned out to be very handy, especially in maze-like passages and dark areas. (Your helmet light can't run without batteries.) That's a feature I'd like to see implemented in other Doom games, and I have a feeling I'll get my wish.
There's not really much bad I can say about Dark Forces, but as with any game I can find a few things I didn't like. Instead of being able to save your game whenever you want, Dark Forces gives you three lives with which to complete a mission; as you play you pass invisible checkpoints, and when you die you go back to the last checkpoint you crossed. This is certainly better than starting over from scratch, but it's a very poor substitute for a real saved game. (For example, on the fourth mission you are required to make many potentially fatal jumps from ledge to ledge, jumps you can easily mess up three times in a row; if you could save your game just before you attempt each jump the mission's frustration level would be decreased by a factor of 10.) Also, adjusting your view up or down in the heat of battle is just plain awkward, to the point where I actually longed for Doom's automatic aiming system for shooting targets above and below you. And with only 12 missions, Dark Forces weighs in as one of the briefest Doom games out there. Don't be the least bit surprised if you're finished with the whole thing in under a week. And there's no multiplayer option. A Doom clone without multiplayer? Isn't that illegal?
Yes, Dark Forces has its weak points, but it's still one of the best Doom clones out there. If you're not tired of the play mechanic, Dark Forces will enchant you. Everyone loves Star Wars, and Dark Forces lets you become a part of the action once more, which is something we aren't likely to tire of any time soon. If you're looking for something new, keep looking; but if the thought of blasting the Empire's most diligent servants into oblivion makes you smile, LucasArts will bring your fantasy one step closer to reality.
