
These include the ability to look up and down, duck, and jump. The missions take place in a variety of environments across the Star Wars universe, including a Star Destroyer interior, Jabba the Hutt's yacht, and the planet Coruscant, where the player must infiltrate a computer vault.ĭark Forces ' gameplay expands on the FPS standards set by Doom in 1993, and features gameplay elements that are now common in the FPS genre. Each mission includes specific objectives which are related to the story. Dark Forces follows a central storyline outlined in mission briefings and cutscenes. The player controls Kyle Katarn from a first-person perspective, with a focus on combat against various creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe, although the game also includes environmental puzzles and hazards.

The game's success launched the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series, beginning with the direct sequel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II in 1997.ĭark Forces is a first-person shooter (FPS). The game also did well financially, selling almost 1 million copies in the United States by 1999. Upon release, the PC and Macintosh versions of the game received largely favorable reviews from critics, who praised its level design and technological advances, though the PlayStation version was criticized as having graphics and slow frame rates which make it much less enjoyable than the computer versions. The engine adds gameplay features that were uncommon to the first-person shooter genre at the time of release, including level designs with multiple floors, and the ability to look up and down. The game's protagonist and playable character is Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance who discovers the Galactic Empire's secret Dark Trooper Project, which involves the development of a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers.ĭark Forces uses the Jedi game engine, which was developed specifically for the game.

The story is set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe and begins shortly before the original Star Wars film, before flashing forward to a year after the film's events. It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts.
