A good remaster of a game that was more impressive for its time but hasn't aged as well as some other early FPS titles, or the later games in this series.

Dark Forces is a nearly 30 year old FPS that takes place before and after A New Hope. Former imperial officer turned mercenary Kyle Katarn takes on tasks to steal the plans for the Death Star and to destroy the Empire's new Dark Trooper project.

The remaster does a good job updating the stage and cutscene visuals, gives the old blurry or muddy look more details that couldn't be as easily noticed before (and allowing me to play a game that would have had me become ill from motion sickness if I tried to play it anytime in the last 15 years). It doesn't do anything to the music, but I found the lower quality of the more traditional Star Wars themes to be more interesting than just having the common repeated Star Wars music you've heard many times before.

For weapons you have a punch attack that can do a decent amount of damage but is rarely a practical option unless you find a lone melee enemy or find someone alone with their back turned. Kyle's pistol does not have the charged shot alternate fire function found in later games but it does fire a single accurate shot that can make it useful at mid or long range. The rifle uses the same ammo as the pistol but fires full auto while being less accurate and using two ammo for every shot. Thermal detonators are grenades that you can charge the distance thrown by holding the attack button and depending on primary or alternate fire can be thrown to explode on impact or rolled and set to detonate after a delay. The repeater fires at a rate in between the pistol and rifle while also having the pistol's accuracy, it also has an alternate fire to shoot three shots in a triangular style that can make it the closest thing you have to a shotgun. The fusion cutter is somewhat similar to the later bowcaster weapon shooting higher damaging green colored shots, the primary fire shoots one of three barrels being slightly slower to fire and for the shot to travel but doing more damaging than the repeater while the alternate fire shoots all four barrels at once for large enemies or crowd control. Mines can be set to detonate after a delay or when something is near them. The mortar gun acts like a grenade launcher and is basically a faster and potentially safer method of using thermal detonators. The concussion rifle is more unusual, firing at a rate slower than the pistol but where the shot lands does a higher damaging AoE attack, though the somewhat auto aim mechanics of the games, height issues further effecting that auto aim, and being able to hit yourself can make it more difficult to use. For some reason the actual shot of the rifle is also invisible until it hits making using it less enjoyable in general. The assault cannon can fire both fast and damaging but slower moving plasma shots or a missile with the alternate fire mode.

Enemy variety is a bit low and you aren't going to get the more gruesome Doom style deaths with blood and mangled bodies but they do visibly react to being shot and give combat lines when they engage you. The earlier missions are mostly just going to be Imperial officers, stormtroopers, and naval troopers whose main difference is that amount of health. Eventually you run into a few different kind of droid enemies like the interrogator droid that can shoot and do direct health damage at close range, probe droids that explode when shot down, the little marksman training droid Luke practiced with that is small and hard to hit but only does 1 damage when it hits you, and ceiling or wall mounted turrets. Alien enemies like grenade throwing Gran, melee equipped Gamorreans, and concussion rifle wielding Trandoshans eventually show up as well as prototype and finished dark trooper enemies.

Outdoor environments aren't at a place where they look very good or even make any sense for the environment and while indoor sections can look better, in some cases by copying classic Star Wars film style locations, there is the hidden main path design more common at the time where a tiny little staircase might be in the back corner of a room and around a wall that can make the levels more difficult to navigate than they need to be (the improved visuals of the remaster probably make it easier to spot where to go than in the original version). The more auto aim nature of where you shots are going combined with some weapons just not shooting straight by design usually works fine but can become more of an issue once height or windows get involved and it keeps firing to low to hit targets, enemy death animations still tend to treat enemies as alive for a short time that can both make them a target of your auto aim while also preventing you from walking through them or picking up ammo for a short time. While the weapons are all usable and effective in their own ways, most of the guns just don't feel, sound, or look that interesting. There's a focus in some levels of puzzle based switches to flip in the correct order, minor mazes combined with what can just be naturally confusing level design even with a good map you can overlay over your vision, or minor platforming sections that never felt great with the game's speed and how it sometimes seemed to jump perfectly and sometimes seemed to jump after a slight delay. Killing an officer might give you a keycode that you have to lookup in your PDA that shows you a three digit symbol code to enter into three computers to progress, kind of different at the time but really amounts to busywork instead of just being an auto use keycard.

Most of the game is just fine to good mechanically for the time with the more unique elements like the multi floor environments not doing as much mechanically apart from further adding to the chances of getting lost. Seeing some of the Star Wars characters and expanded narrative of the Death Star plans isn't as interesting 30 years later and after a constant influx of Star Wars content and reboots over that time and even if it were there isn't much here narratively except for Boba Fett showing up to be an embarrassment like what became common outside of books, Jabba trying to kill you, and Vader commenting on events between some missions. It's a short game played over 14 stages where a lot of that time can be figuring out where to go or just getting from place to place and occasionally running back to your ship in the starting area after your objective is complete.

Going to be more for those with an interest in games from its time, it's not going to do much for those looking to just play a great well remembered FPS and what was updated in the remaster isn't going to change that.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lc2gwwnnv22f

A good remaster of a game that was more impressive for its time but hasn't aged as well as some other early FPS titles, or the later games in this series. Dark Forces is a nearly 30 year old FPS that takes place before and after A New Hope. Former imperial officer turned mercenary Kyle Katarn takes on tasks to steal the plans for the Death Star and to destroy the Empire's new Dark Trooper project. The remaster does a good job updating the stage and cutscene visuals, gives the old blurry or muddy look more details that couldn't be as easily noticed before (and allowing me to play a game that would have had me become ill from motion sickness if I tried to play it anytime in the last 15 years). It doesn't do anything to the music, but I found the lower quality of the more traditional Star Wars themes to be more interesting than just having the common repeated Star Wars music you've heard many times before. For weapons you have a punch attack that can do a decent amount of damage but is rarely a practical option unless you find a lone melee enemy or find someone alone with their back turned. Kyle's pistol does not have the charged shot alternate fire function found in later games but it does fire a single accurate shot that can make it useful at mid or long range. The rifle uses the same ammo as the pistol but fires full auto while being less accurate and using two ammo for every shot. Thermal detonators are grenades that you can charge the distance thrown by holding the attack button and depending on primary or alternate fire can be thrown to explode on impact or rolled and set to detonate after a delay. The repeater fires at a rate in between the pistol and rifle while also having the pistol's accuracy, it also has an alternate fire to shoot three shots in a triangular style that can make it the closest thing you have to a shotgun. The fusion cutter is somewhat similar to the later bowcaster weapon shooting higher damaging green colored shots, the primary fire shoots one of three barrels being slightly slower to fire and for the shot to travel but doing more damaging than the repeater while the alternate fire shoots all four barrels at once for large enemies or crowd control. Mines can be set to detonate after a delay or when something is near them. The mortar gun acts like a grenade launcher and is basically a faster and potentially safer method of using thermal detonators. The concussion rifle is more unusual, firing at a rate slower than the pistol but where the shot lands does a higher damaging AoE attack, though the somewhat auto aim mechanics of the games, height issues further effecting that auto aim, and being able to hit yourself can make it more difficult to use. For some reason the actual shot of the rifle is also invisible until it hits making using it less enjoyable in general. The assault cannon can fire both fast and damaging but slower moving plasma shots or a missile with the alternate fire mode. Enemy variety is a bit low and you aren't going to get the more gruesome Doom style deaths with blood and mangled bodies but they do visibly react to being shot and give combat lines when they engage you. The earlier missions are mostly just going to be Imperial officers, stormtroopers, and naval troopers whose main difference is that amount of health. Eventually you run into a few different kind of droid enemies like the interrogator droid that can shoot and do direct health damage at close range, probe droids that explode when shot down, the little marksman training droid Luke practiced with that is small and hard to hit but only does 1 damage when it hits you, and ceiling or wall mounted turrets. Alien enemies like grenade throwing Gran, melee equipped Gamorreans, and concussion rifle wielding Trandoshans eventually show up as well as prototype and finished dark trooper enemies. Outdoor environments aren't at a place where they look very good or even make any sense for the environment and while indoor sections can look better, in some cases by copying classic Star Wars film style locations, there is the hidden main path design more common at the time where a tiny little staircase might be in the back corner of a room and around a wall that can make the levels more difficult to navigate than they need to be (the improved visuals of the remaster probably make it easier to spot where to go than in the original version). The more auto aim nature of where you shots are going combined with some weapons just not shooting straight by design usually works fine but can become more of an issue once height or windows get involved and it keeps firing to low to hit targets, enemy death animations still tend to treat enemies as alive for a short time that can both make them a target of your auto aim while also preventing you from walking through them or picking up ammo for a short time. While the weapons are all usable and effective in their own ways, most of the guns just don't feel, sound, or look that interesting. There's a focus in some levels of puzzle based switches to flip in the correct order, minor mazes combined with what can just be naturally confusing level design even with a good map you can overlay over your vision, or minor platforming sections that never felt great with the game's speed and how it sometimes seemed to jump perfectly and sometimes seemed to jump after a slight delay. Killing an officer might give you a keycode that you have to lookup in your PDA that shows you a three digit symbol code to enter into three computers to progress, kind of different at the time but really amounts to busywork instead of just being an auto use keycard. Most of the game is just fine to good mechanically for the time with the more unique elements like the multi floor environments not doing as much mechanically apart from further adding to the chances of getting lost. Seeing some of the Star Wars characters and expanded narrative of the Death Star plans isn't as interesting 30 years later and after a constant influx of Star Wars content and reboots over that time and even if it were there isn't much here narratively except for Boba Fett showing up to be an embarrassment like what became common outside of books, Jabba trying to kill you, and Vader commenting on events between some missions. It's a short game played over 14 stages where a lot of that time can be figuring out where to go or just getting from place to place and occasionally running back to your ship in the starting area after your objective is complete. Going to be more for those with an interest in games from its time, it's not going to do much for those looking to just play a great well remembered FPS and what was updated in the remaster isn't going to change that. Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lc2gwwnnv22f