Product description
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Behind a veil of secrecy the evil Empire is creating a doomsday
army - one that, if finished, will become the final cog in the
Empire's arsenal of terror and domination.
Your Mission?
Join the Rebel Alliance's covert operations division, infiltrate
the Empire, then battle every man and machine the Imperial Forces
can muster. Search a vast galaxy for clues, attack enemy bases -
all in a desperate attempt to stop the activation of this
fearsome new weapon.
It's you and your blaster against an entire Empire.
May the Force be with you.
From the Manufacturer
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Behind a veil of secrecy the evil Empire is creating a doomsday
army--one that, if finished, will become the final cog in the
Empire's arsenal of terror and domination. Your Mission?
Join the Rebel Alliance's covert operations division, infiltrate
the Empire, then battle every man and machine the Imperial Forces
can muster. Search a vast galaxy for clues, attack enemy
bases--all in a desperate attempt to stop the activation of this
fearsome new weapon.
* First-person, ground combat
* Call on 10 weapons to fight twenty different enemies
* Explore the virtual Star Wars universe up close and personal
* Fully interactive environments--morphing walls and floors,
moving platforms and conveyors, realistic lighting and
atmospheric effects It's you and your blaster against an entire
Empire. May the Force be with you.
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Review
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It seems to be the collective desire of most of the young men of
my generation to blow large holes in Imperial Stormtroopers. At
least it's always been a fantasy of mine. And while Dark Forces
replaces this fantasy with something tangible, the game itself
doesn't live up to the dream.
In this Playstation adaptation of the PC game, players once again
become Kyle Katarn, the unknown rebel who stole the
all-important Death Star plans before the opening of the first
Star Wars movie. (Actually the first level of the game merges
Katarn's adventures with the storyline of the films.) As the
story unfolds, we learn of an Imperial plot to build enhanced,
robotic Stormtroopers called Dark Troopers. It would seem that
the Empire tired of the human troopers' notoriously bad
marksmanship. From there on out it becomes Katarn's task to hunt
for information behind enemy lines, and eventually put a stop to
the plan single-handedly. But these single-handed heroics are
even more impressive given the game's stellarly poor frame rate
and graphics, and Lucas Arts' notoriously user-unfriendly save
feature.
Though the speed of the Playstation allows for smooth movement,
Dark Forces boasts a horrendously choppy frame rate. In addition,
the utter blandness of the individual slaying grounds make
gameplay nothing short of ting. While the mission
objectives are excruciatingly clear, thanks to the mini-movie
length cutscenes, the levels themselves are vast and confusing.
The sparse smattering of bitped, slow-moving, sprite-based
(not 3-D polygonal), Doom-monster, dumb blaster fodder means the
action is lean, not mean. Moreover, the powerups and enemies are
difficult to find because they don't pop out of the background.
It would seem that the Empire is quite stealthy and crafty
despite itself.
And then there's Lucas Arts' unholy and steadfast alliance with
its own save feature. As happens in all similar Lucas Arts
titles, players cannot choose when and where to save their game.
When the hero meets an untimely demise, he is placed back near to
where he was downed. In practical terms, this means it isn't
possible to save before trying a death-defying leap or rushing
headlong into a gang of enemies. Adding insult to injury, when
the hero is re-animated, he is back up to full but not
full firepower. Unlike Doom and its clones, Dark Forces can put
the rejuvenated hero in the middle of a crossfire without any
ammo - just where he left off - or charged with the task of
renavigating already conquered terrain. This doesn't make the
game fun; it makes the game frustrating.
Control itself isn't that terribly complicated, and in fact is
almost elegant in its simplicity. Strafing, jumping, and looking
up or down are quite easy. To the novice, however, the various
button combinations needed to perform simple tasks will provide a
steep, but short, learning curve.
To its credit, Dark Forces is a good game that doesn't "play
itself" like the Rebel Assault games do. What action the game has
is fast, and the puzzles aren't bad. Suffice to say that the Star
Wars universe alone is what will draw many people to this game -
despite the poor gameplay, corny dialogue, and misplaced
feel-good critters that ironically make George Lucas' space opera
so appealing. --Wiley Wiggins
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. -- GameSpot Review
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- Behind a veil of secrecy the evil Empire is creating a doomsday army - one that, if finished, will become the final cog in the Empire's arsenal of terror and domination..
- Your Mission?.
- Join the Rebel Alliance's covert operations division, infiltrate the Empire, then battle every man and machine the Imperial Forces can muster. Search a vast galaxy for clues, attack enemy bases - all in a desperate attempt to stop the activation of this fearsome new weapon..
- It's you and your blaster against an entire Empire..
- May the Force be with you..