Discovering the Legacy of Dark Forces: The Pioneering Star Wars FPS Game

[@Plaguebearer818]

Every year I take some time away from my ever-expanding gaming backlog to play through the entire series from Dark Forces to Jedi Academy. The series is a reminder of what Star Wars used to be and why it was so beloved.

[@LucasJodokast]

Amen brother

[@KlausWulfenbach]

I didn't forget. Dark Forces was a great shooter. Even though they made him a Jedi later, I never forgot Kyle's shooter roots.

[@reallycool]

His later incarnation was even better, personally, and it's super sad they killed him off with their wholesale destruction of the EU

[@jadenkorr32]

@@reallycool This ☝️. Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor were very poor substitutes. IMHO

[@Serrandipity]

Truly a forgotten star wars game. For the longest time I had actually forgotten that as a kid we had a star wars game on the computer way back in the 90s, I must have forgotten about this for at least 15 years. I really like how you explain the history and context for everything!

[@reallycool]

That's my schtick and I'm schticking to it

[@LucasJodokast]

Back when starwars games would get 90% rating as a minimum & fans expected no less

[@dinobotpwnz]

There's a trilogy of books about it too if you aren't aware!

[@kkarx]

I played nearly all great fps games in the 90s. The first was heretic or DN3d, not sure anymore. I missed DF. What a shame. I managed to play it recently and I was stunned how amazing the game was. It still looks so good. The level design is awesome except sewers level and few missteps here and there.

[@reallycool]

It holds up well! The sequels are also still very playable

[@SturgusLipmonger]

Love the video but hate those "X you totally forgot!" titles. Bitch, I ain't forget shit! Speak for yaself! Any Star Wars fans alive during Dark Forces' release knows it well. All of us didn't just die lol

[@Exigentable]

Quality game

[@OpenMawProductions]

1:26 It was never a glaring flaw. Pop culture critics thought they were so smart to point out HOW OH MY GOD THIS THING IS SO STUPID AND OBVIOUS. Yeah, it's not. It's a couple meters wide, surrouded by guns. One of the dumbest elements of Rogue One is that they made this "stupid" design choice an actual plot point. It's a giant moon-sized space station, and it has this teeny-tiny 2 meter exhaust port that has to be hit nearly perfectly to do the right damage... and this is somehow a "crippling design flaw." No. It was never a stupid design flaw. It was just part of the design, and it was nesscacry. A station that big is likely to have a *lot* of ports like this. Remember the dialogue? IT's a small thermal exhaust prot "Right below the main port." This was not supposed to be some inside job bullshit. It's just a weakness in the design that, with tremendous luck and skill, could be exploited. Anyway, i'm just tired of hearing that nonsense. Years and years of people barking that the design was "SO OBVIOUSLY FLAWED LOL!" Comes off like parroting Kevin Smith material without actually thinking about what is going on in the original movie. Also Kyle Katarn stealing the plans is way more badass than Rogue One.

[@jadenkorr32]

Kyle Katarn. The original source of the Death Star plans...and the original Stormtrooper-turned-hero.The Merc with a secret Jedi heritage that actually teamed up with Luke MF’n Skywalker in a game. Epic character and arc...that Disney promptly scrapped. SMH

[@bigmitchy4026]

"You can buy this game for less than a samdwich" Just cause you were hungry while writing the script doesnt mean you have the right to make the rest of hungry

[@MisterLindsay]

Quality video. Really interesting to put it into perspective of where LucasArts were at the time, and where we are with Star Wars games today.

[@andrewa837]

Dark Forces was the game of my childhood. The puzzles were crazy and some maps (Nar Shadaa) were insanely hard, but the soundtrack and gameplay was amazing to me. And the dark troopers still scare me a little haha

[@Phantom914]

Outcast was the best one IMO

[@d.s.8227]

Your channel deserves a lot more subscribers. Very impressive content. I‘d prefer it if you spoke a bit faster, but that‘s probably just me.

[@reallycool]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm just not a fast talker 😉 If you think I should have more subscribers, consider sharing me!

[@lounowell4171]

@@reallycool ill sub if you drop the clickbaity padding / make content for ppl closer to your own intelligence, but it seems like you've got a plan here regardless the bit in the middle where you actually talked about dark forces was well written and edited, glad i saw it

[@ciupenhauer]

@@reallycool u don't need to talk faster fyi, it's just 1 guy's opinion. This video is fantastic, need to check if you did one on jk2 jedi outcast

[@Iritscen]

I upgraded the RAM on my Mac Performa 476 to play this game. Had 4MB to start with, so I bought a whopping 8MB SIMM for $100 and plugged that in so it could run Dark Forces. I TRIPLED my RAM for this game.

[@reallycool]

Isn't it funny the games we remember like that

[@roguerifter9724]

This is getting remastered soon. Hopefully the second game and Mysteries of the Sith follow soon.

[@Marc_Araujo]

Hell yeah. I like Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith almost as much as Jedi Outcast...those cutscenes were awesome.

[@chudmanrising8102]

Pfft, you can't even do a barrel roll mid jump. I hear it's a good trick so why not?

[@reallycool]

Is this a meme I don't understand

[@chudmanrising8102]

@@reallycool In my haste I mixed two memes together by accident. Star Fox's "Do a barrel roll" and The Phantom Menace's "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick."

[@dermotbresnehan6836]

I understood and enjoyed your hybrid meme!

[@NieOrginalny]

Well, it was made before the Phantom Menace, and thus the developers could not have been privy about such maneuvers being good tricks or not.

[@Billob]

This game has been on my list to play for a few years now, I keep meaning to play it just haven't made the time for it. I've heard many good things

[@reallycool]

There are many good things to say

[@prophismusic]

This needs a Switch port. Also the squeal.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

i've never played the games, mostly cause i didn't know they existed haha, my parents were very good at hiding such information for a long time. but i do remember asking my dad for years how the rebellion got the plans of the Death Star haha 😂

[@reallycool]

I think there's even a subtle nod to Kyle Katarn in the fact that his pilot's name is Jan Ors, and the character in Rebel One is named Jyn Erso.

[@julien8629]

Came here from efap. This is a very good video, but it is lacking the heartwarming sound of your hearty wheezy laugher

[@reallycool]

Fair point.

[@Tquintv]

The name Doom clone goes deeper here. They actually did reverse engineer the Doom engine and this was the framework that Dark Forces was built on. Not a rumor but difficult to verify because it was legally grey.

[@Kronknight]

Love your content! So glad I found this channel.

[@reallycool]

Glad you've been here, thanks for the kind words

[@sierrakobold6896]

I remember getting this game summer of '97 after getting PS1 for xmas cuz parents weren't able to find an N64. I loved it then not having any knowledge of it as an inferior port, it had this kind of horror/dark atmosphere to a lot of the levels I hadn't really seen done with Star Wars content at that age

[@muwuny]

A lot of these "innovations" were done by Marathon in 1994

[@Ciretako]

Ah! Thanks for being here to point that out. This video's version of events really frustrated me and I was getting really tempted to post my own, much angrier comment to the effect of, among other things, "Dark Forces came out a year after Marathon."

[@muwuny]

@@Ciretako Marathon really was revolutionary for the FPS genre (1st ever game with rocket jumping, freelook, full use of projectiles for every weapon, ballistics calculations like bullet drop, actual story), but it just gets overlooked by people who don't care as "that game before Halo", shame really.

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

7:50 *cof* Marathon *cof*

[@8bithero421]

who else is here because news on star wars games is at a zero right now?

[@LucasJodokast]

Still got my original CD

[@UntiltedName]

This game series was great. In the very early 00s I used to post on the lucas arts forums for JK2.

[@weirdo3116]

i don't get it. why is this better than knights of the old republic 2?

[@Unformed8]

Kyle Katarns story does have tism in it, like "The Valley"(Spoilers) but just like Marvel comic books have their own tism it doesn't mean nothing good can come of it: Civil War, infinity War etc Too bad Kyle Katarn will either never show up or he will be a horrific caricature of what he was, Kyle Katarn was the best Grey Jedi

[@zefft.f4010]

No, I didn't. I will never forget this game.

[@kagom6830]

This video is basically just 14 minutes of a guy just listing off facts about a game he has a nostalgia boner for and barely arguing his claim at all. Dark Forces has legitimately asinine level design with nonsensical logic, the level design is so insane because it's made by a bunch of adventure games developers from the 90s that didn't know how to design fps levels. Also, looking up and down is extremely wonky, it's borderline disorienting. Basically, time has not been kind to Dark Forces. Also, many people title it a "doom clone" when it's just an FPS, if dark forces is a doom clone then every military fps game is a medal of honor clone. Tell me, why is this game better than KOTOR games? Rogue Squadron games? Battlefront games? The sequels to this game? Empire at War? The X-Wing series?

[@bonezyjonezy3403]

Still waiting for a modern sw game that gives off a similar tone dark forces emits. I'm sure any potential has been cancelled already...

[@jakeschrier8293]

I think I played this one... All I remember was ice tunnels. Maybe it was a demo?

[@reallycool]

Sounds like you're thinking of Battlefront

[@kagom6830]

You might be thinking of Shadows of the Empire, it came out in 1996 and the second level is almost exclusively ice tunnels.

[@savageduck2613]

Every time you kept emphisisng "it" I thought you were going to say "id"

[@reallycool]

I read this and immediately got self conscious, thank you :p

[@savageduck2613]

@@reallycool oh i meant it as a joke because you were talking about doom

[@magustobias8827]

Dude! This is such a great video. You've come such a long way. And I'm delighted to always see you pop over with the EFAP crew. :D

[@reallycool]

Make sure you watch the EFAP Movies then ;)

[@kduhtdkzrt]

I did not forget Dark Forces.

[@Soulfly415]

Jedi Academy is the fourth and final game in the Dark Forces series, not the fifth! Get your facts straight! Mysteries of the Sith is an expansion to Dark Forces II

[@reallycool]

k. nice edit btw

[@Soulfly415]

@@reallycool It's an expansion, there's a difference. That's like saying Quake 4 is the 8th installment of the Quake series... because, you know, the first two games each had 2 expansions. It would be factually incorrect.

[@reallycool]

k. nice edit btw

[@Soulfly415]

@@reallycool you're an Idiot!

[@reallycool]

k. nice edit btw