Reliving the Classics: Star Wars Dark Forces

“Reliving the Classics” is a series where I will be reliving a classic game level by level and sharing my experience on this blog.

Mission 1: The Death Star Plans

Star Wars Dark Forces is a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars Universe. Developed and published by LucasArts in 1995 it was released on MS-DOS and Macintosh. It was also ported to the Sony PlayStation in 1996. It is the first game in the Dark Forces series which follows mercenary and later Jedi Knight Kyle Katarn. He later becomes a very beloved non-canonical character from the Star Wars Universe.

Mission Details Screen

The first mission has Senator/Leader of the Rebellion to Restore the Republic Mon Mothma contacting you for a secret mission. That mission is to infiltrate and Imperial base and steal the schematics to the Death Star. That’s right folks! Kyle Katarn stole the Death Star Plans for the Rebellion. Rogue One is just propaganda to romanticize the true story of how those plans ended up in that little R2 unit.

The mission starts with a great soundtrack and you popping out of a ventilation shaft. I really enjoy the level design. It really feels like an Imperial base from the film’s. With Bryar Pistol in hand you immediately start blasting Imperial officers and Stormtroopers. After dropping a few imperials, you can pick up a Stormtroopers blaster rifle, which is one of my favourite weapons of the series. Despite 1995 graphics the detail of the sprites are superb. One of the rooms has a holographic diagram of the space station in the same style of the first film. It gives me chills every time I see it. It makes me feel like I am truly taking part in the lore of the film.

Imperial Base with Death Star Plans

After stealing the plans, you blast your way to the roof where your trusty partner Jan Ors picks you up in your ship the “Moldy Crow”.

The first mission is an incredible introduction to an astonishing game and series.

Some material (dates and basic info) obtained by citing Wikipedia.org

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