I am a fan of 90's to early-2000's first-person shooters. I've grown up playing games like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D. With that being said, Dark Forces is a game that has managed to fly under my radar for a very long time.

If you are familiar with games like Doom or Duke 3D, you'll probably feel right at home playing this. Theme aside, there's two things which set it apart from other games of its time: the objectives you must complete, and the lack of hitscan. Neither of which changes the experience that much: for one, the objectives tend to be as simple as 'find the thing', while the projectiles move fast enough -- and the autoaim is aggressive enough -- that I never led my shots at all while playing.

Though people talk a lot about this being 'Star Wars Doom', this game actually reminded me more of Duke Nukem 3D. Which is slightly odd, considering this came out nearly a year before Duke 3D, but that's besides the point. The levels themselves are designed in such a way that they almost seem like they don't exist for you to roam around and fight in them. Almost. But that's a lot better than Doom's abstract structures designed only for the play experience. The levels are full of unique structures and props which lend it a feeling like you really are running around Imperial bases, icey canyons, cities, etc.

As for the shooting, I quite enjoyed it. There's no end to the fun to be had killing nearly endless waves of Stormtroopers, mercenaries, droids, sea monsters, etc etc. The impact of the lasers against enemies is always satisfying, especially against those pig things which slide back quite far after being shot a bunch.

However, some of the later weapons are a tad gimmicky and I rarely got much use out of them. The rifle and repeater are good for nearly every encounter, while the last weapon would be the only thing I'd use if it's sprite wasn't so damn big. Between those, you have the thermal detonators (which I mostly used to set off mines), some three-barreled thing which isn't fun to use, mines for some reason, a mortar which is powerful but situational, and a slightly different mortar.

I mentioned the mines. Those things are probably the worst thing about this entire game. You find some shields in a corner, you rush to grab them, and blam. There were a bunch of mines hidden in the pile of shields, and you're now dead. Seemingly the only way to avoid them is to hesitate (which already goes heaviliy against my instincts) before rushing ahead, look for the small circular objects on the gound, then to toss thermal detonators at them until they get set off. Unless, of course, they're around a corner or hidden in some objects, in which case you have to either already know where they are, or nervously toss bombs everywhere you think might have a mine.

When you do die (probably bacause of a mine), the game starts off being fairly generous. You respawn at the last checkpoint you passed (of which there are plenty) with 200 HP and some ammo. Any progress you made isn't undone -- you can go ahead and resume your fight against the enemies who thought they just killed you. That is, unless you have zero lives left.

Yes, this is a game with an extra lives system. You start with three, and you can pick up little Rebel emblems off the ground to gain lives. You die, and you go back with one life lost. No lives, and you have to restart the entire damn level. Some of the levels can be a bit long if you're not familiar with them, so going all the way back can represent up to an hour of progress lost. Not fun.

Then, there are the puzzles. These range from the tedious to the obtuse to some combination of the two. They aren't always that bad, but here are some of the worst:

• A pillar with a bridge on its side. You have to rotate and raise/lower the bridge to reach the three switches on the side of the pillar. I had to run back and forth from the control room to where I could get to the bridge to complete this one.
  
• A switch at the end of a level which changes something near the start of the level. The only indication you get that something's changed is some noise you hear.
  
• That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hexagon maze.

This is a game I reccommend you go through with a walkthrough, unless you're as stubborn as I am. With all that being said, I still found this game quite fun. It's hasn't aged amazingly, but it's still a pretty well-designed game.

I reccommend this to fans of 90's first-person shooters. If you're a fan of the Star Wars Completely-Non-Canonical Universe, you might enjoy this as well, though the story takes a definite side-line to the gameplay itself.