I've never played this and am looking forward to it. I need to remember to look into whether there are options to play a game more accurately to the way it was on release though - I'm aware that games can lose their soundtracks/scores, get updated graphics etc without it being obvious and it'd be nice to avoid those changes if possible. I'm also still at the point where I need to decide whether to use mouse-look. I'm pretty confident that all pre-Quake FPSes should be played without it, at least.
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I decided to keep this on Easy however, which turned out to be a good idea because there's a lot of trekking around and I think I'd get a bit too pissed off if I was dying constantly.
I'm not using mouse, although it only seems to work horizontally anyway which isn't that much help.
So far I am really enjoying this. I expected it to simply be DooM with a 'Star Wars' graphics and sound pack, which it is in a lot of ways but the amount of detail and accuracy to the franchise (OT of course) really gives it a different feel, extending to level design and enemy placement. Opening a little room, shooting wildly at a couple of Imperial officers then the door wooshing shut again and your lasers fizzing up against it really makes you feel like Han Solo. It also has very impressive production values, with loads of great cutscenes, character animations, 3D ships landing in-level, etc.
This is especially notable after the end boss of Doom 2 being a stationary wall texture that launches standard enemies at you until you shoot a few rockets at it. (I found this out by watching a video - my plan to skip ahead to the final episode was scuppered by the fact that Doom 2 doesn't have episodes.)
I'm finding the levels a little harder to keep my bearings within, and there are more puzzley aspects which generally revolve around switches and are a bit confusing without adding much, but it still has the map function so I'm coping.
I like the fact that it keeps the grit of the first films - you're a mercenary who used to work for the Empire, everything has that scruffy sci-fi aesthetic, and you occasionally see charred skeletons and burn-marks where the Dark Troopers have obviously been gunning down citizens.
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Gahhh, no save function at all - only autosaves and limited lives. Very annoying when you've just spent 5 minutes pressing switches then you die and you have no idea whether the presses have been saved. Also, the levels are getting ever more huge and multi-tiered, so now the map isn't helping me much.
I've got it on easy mode so I think I need to be less frugal with my ammo and make sure to take out enemies as quickly as possible.
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Okay, I think I'm going to have to give up on Dark Forces. I just can't get off this level (it's only the 4th or 5th, I think). I get all the way through it, do a great long involved thing with switches and doors and shit, then I have to get all the way back to the start of the level except I can't find a route back because I've come down a high step to get here and there are these turret things everywhere that kill me in seconds so I can't methodically search everywhere. The map doesn't even help because it only shows the floors that you're at the same height as. If the game allowed me to save, I could probably push my way through until I figured out the route, but as it is, my lives get wiped out before I'm able to.
I might take a quick look at a play-through to see if that helps, but I'm not sure even if I find out the route whether I can be bothered to go through this huge damn level yet again. It's a shame. The atmosphere is great, but the levels are really frustrating in a way that Doom's weren't.
Turns out I was right about the music - it is by Clint Bajakian, who also did Sam And Max Hit The Road. The music for this level gets very reminiscent of the Mystery Vortex music at one point!
EDIT: I watched a walkthrough and it seems I was really close to finding my way back, it's just the crappy cliff textures make everything really confusing. Also it turns out you can shoot those turrets! So I might give this one last go...The problem is that it's not too stable so if you start alt-tabbing out to watch playthroughs and stuff like that, it tends to fuck the graphics up.
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The next level (the mines) was a lot more linear but unfortunately had lots of platforming bits, which are a nightmare with these controls. I got to fight a dark trooper, which consisted of backpedaling in a circle shooting at him for 5 minutes. Then the door switch I needed to get out broke, then the game broke! I might use some level skip cheat codes to quickly make my way through the rest of the game and see any interesting bits (I seem to remember Vader shows up in this one?), then get onto Duke Nukem 3D.
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I've now given up on Dark Forces. It's cool to have such big, multi-tier levels, but after about half of the game it was starting to get repetitive enough that I didn't want to wander around lost flipping switches and shooting stormtroopers any more.
The game's main strength is its great presentation and atmosphere. Lots of different OT-reminiscent settings, including Death Star type Imperial places, a grotty city with graffiti, and even a blockade runner feeling level with the nice white walls. It was nice to eventually get some aliens as well - the triclops ones and some Gamorrean guards, as well as a load of copies of that lizard bounter hunter in the orange jumpsuit. The mission briefings and mid-level updates in your earpiece (the first appearance of this trope!) tie everything together nicely, and it has a load of nice touches, like the little mouse robots running around, TIE Fighters flying around in-level, rooms where your laser blasts bounce of the walls, mines you can lay to fling enemies up in the air and the occasional clever puzzle such as following a schematic to position lifts thereby making a path through the shafts. It's just a shame it also has enough frustration (platforming, slippy-slidey ice levels, wonky aiming etc) and repetition to end up feeling like a chore at times.
I watched through a playthrough for the rest of it and was amused to see they had an "all your weapons are taken away" level, which would also become a standard FPS trope. Also, Coruscant has wall carvings and busts of Palpatine in his hood, in a very similar way to Doom's demon murals and Wolfenstein's Hitler-drenched decor!
Rating: Orange
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