Retrospective: Dark Forces

Finding out the way was blocked by a needed key, and heading the other way... S*** happens, doors are locked. Of course, a lot of games started to do this very poorly, but Dark Forces was smart. Generally locked doors are found halfway along your journey to the key, the backtracking only occurring after it's recovered, reminding you to return to the earlier point. You never feel manipulated, or that it's desperately padding. The levels are surprisingly large, and thanks to the Jedi Engine, on multiple floors, letting it create elaborate puzzles spanning entire buildings.

Perhaps another thing that's really sorely missed in modern-day shooters is the secret area. Born of the box-like nature of locations, having a tile on a wall hide a door leading to a bonus room stuffed with goodies was simple. It'd be slightly trickier to pull off in some photo-realistic jungle or beach, clearly, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look back at it with nostalgic sighs. Dark Forces is packed with them, often taking you on elaborate side-journeys. It rewards exploration, deviation from the main path.

So could a thirteen-year-old FPS, in which you're aiming at literally a block of fourteen pixels when enemies are far enough away, still give me vertigo? Bloody hell, yes it could. Within minutes of starting I was reeling at ledges, leaning back in my chair, and letting loose cries of, "Woah!" It's still got it.

This is partly thanks to quite how slippy the controls are. Less than ideal, edging your way down a ledge along the side of a ravine is a tricky business. The crappy textures along the cliff faces only seem to extend the sensation of height, further exaggerated by the peculiar warping effect that occurs when you use the look up/down buttons.

The vertical structures are still impressive, still far loftier than most games would aim for. Heading to the Research Facility to find Moff Rebus' designs for the Dark Trooper weaponry, you're precariously jumping and creeping your way through gigantic cliff-faces, in more danger of falling to your screaming death than from the Stormtroopers shooting at you. By the time you get to the ice planet Anteevy, on your way to Ice Station Beta and its robotics construction facilities, you're so used to the towering pathways that you get cocky, punished by the slippery frozen surfaces.

It was on Anteevy that my main goal was located. Certainly I'd been distracted by the engrossing Dark Troopers narrative, but fortunately I was able to focus and remember exactly where to look for Max's head.

There's a thing LucasArts does in its games that LucasArts won't ever speak about. Ask anyone, any developer, any producer, and they'll go stony-silent, lips thinned, making it extremely clear it's time to change subject. They hide Sam & Max's rabbit, Max, everywhere. They're not allowed to, because the copyright to Max belongs to creator Steve Purcell. They'll deny it, they'll tell you that they've no idea what you're talking about when you spot one. But Max is there. Max is on Anteevy, and without a moment's doubt I remembered exactly where.

As soon as you arrive on the level, you step off the cliff behind you, and land on a small ledge. Crouch down and you go through a tunnel in the rock, and find a hollowed out cavern, with an extra life token in the middle...

Oh yeah, sidebar: Dark Forces has no saves, and a lives system. Which is extremely strange. If you die it'll restart you moments from your death, but only three or four times, before you have to start the whole level over. A peculiarly PlayStation-like feature, despite being developed primarily for the PC, is possibly not the smartest inclusion in the game. Back to the story.

Walk around the cavern, and like everything in the game, it's a rough squarish room. Curves were still years away. However, hit Tab to bring up the overlay map (remember those?! Bring them back!) and there he is. Undeniably the outline of the foul-mouthed rabbit's head. LucasArts will claim it's just a mad coincidence, of course. Mission accomplished.

It's genuinely surprising how playable Dark Forces remains. The nostalgia is great, memories flooding back the first time a Stormtrooper shouts out, "STOP REBEL SCUM!" or "BLAST HIM!" Just hearing the words "Dark Trooper" was a buzz, and it's still a wonder that Lucas hasn't made them a larger part of the Star Wars universe. But memories aside, it turns out it's well worth giving it a go. There's still a community, there's vast piles of user-made levels to check out, and beyond a few glitches with the sound, remarkably it still seems to run.