Star Wars and Video games are two of my favorite forms of entertainment. Alone they can keep me very amused. Combined they can potentially blow me away with addictive multi media fun. So back in the day, when I heard of a PC game that was “like that great DOOM game but set in the Star Wars universe”, I was pretty hyped to give it a shot. Now, not all Star Wars video games are great as some just don’t work out, but when they do they are absolutely special. And the PC classic Star Wars Dark forces worked out very, very well in my opinion. There have been a lot of FPS “corridor shooters” out there over the years, and as a matter of fact Gunsage has done a great job with his own series covering some them right here at WPO. But not that many of those shooters can actually stand toe to toe with the likes of Duke Nukem 3D & DOOM in terms of quality, design and overall fun. Dark Forces is one of the few PC shooters of that era that actually can. The music and sound effects were great for its time and the cutscenes helped progress the story line very well. The actual Dark Troopers were really interesting characters for me. They were bad ass “Super Storm Troopers” with special amour that was made of similar materials to that of Darth Vaders own armor. It was with great nostalgia that I rediscovered the Dark Troopers all these years later in Star Wars The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360. Dark Forces is an example of a classic Star Wars game done right. There were sequels to this classic game with better technology resulting in superior visuals and sounds. But for me, I will always like the original Dark Forces the best . Obviously the sequels were “technically superior”, yet they didn’t “feel” superior to me personally and thats what matters. This title could stand with the top shooters of its time while having the unique advantage of taking place in the Star Wars universe. A match made in heaven for PatMan back in those retro PC days.

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