Last time I played Dark Forces, I was using DarkXL. There were some areas of the late game that couldn't be completed. Now the Force Engine 1.0 makes Dark Forces fully playable, start to finish, with modern aiming as standard; a complete game changer. I couldn't resist playing it again, it's great, and each new playthrough adds to my appreciation of the game.
Lets take a look at the first three levels for anyone who has never played Dark Forces but is interested in the best Star Wars shooter, and amongst the finest of all Star Wars games (along with it's masterpiece sequel). I'm hesitant to spoil the experience, it's best to stop reading and simply play the game. Some people however may have foregone the experience, because they consider Doom-era games intimidatingly old, either graphically or mechanically. Hopefully this introduction will alleviate those concerns. Games of this era often contained exceptional art design, and are forgiving enough for anyone, at any skill level, to enjoy without hoarding ammo. LucasArts were known for their amazing art, and the game is certainly one of their finest. It is not graphically archaic where it really matters, i.e. design; featuring suggestive imaginative environments. With modern aiming in the Force Engine, it also plays like a dream.
The environments tell a story of wider processes and their spartan design fits the Star Wars aesthetic. During trips to mining facilities you may share tunnels with ore processing facilities, giant drills for extracting fuel/ore from a planet's crust. You may find yourself exploring distant outposts, alien sewers, or prisons built into the side of rocky canyons of remote worlds.
Mission 01 - Planet: Danuta | Imperial Base
You are Kyle Katarn, a mercenary, former member of the Imperial military, currently working for the Rebel Alliance. Your personal starship is the Mouldy Crow, a Corellian HWK-290 light freighter. Your sidearm of choice is the Bryar pistol, a popular modification done to Bryar rifles, where the stock and muzzle are sawed off.
Senator Mon Mothma, founder of the Rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic gives you the critical mission to steal the plans to the Empire's new Death Star superweapon. A copy is being held at an Imperial base on Danuta. Perhaps your mission runs alongside the parallel attempt to find the Death Star's plans at the Battle of Scarif.
The base is staffed with Imperial Officers (in brown uniforms with rank insignia), Imperial Navy Troopers (the marines in black uniforms with helmets), and Stormtroopers (in white body armour). We can safely assume this is an Imperial Navy facility, due to the presence of marines, and a lack of Imperial Army units. Kyle quickly picks up a standard E-11 blaster rifle from a dead marine and begins to explore the facility.
Eventually Kyle acquires the plans for the Death Star on a physical storage drive, from within a shielded room deep in the facility. Having defeated the Imperial garrison, the beautiful sight of the Mouldy Crow greets Kyle on the roof of the facility, as he prepares to return to the Rebels with news of his success.
Mission 02 - Planet: Talay | Rebel Base
Some time has passed since the destruction of the Death Star at Yavin IV. An unknown new Imperial weapon, frighteningly precise in complete antithesis to the terror-based military doctrine of the Death Star, has attacked and wiped out an entire Rebel Base on Talay. A type of new Stormtrooper, highly specialised, which can deploy at a moment's notice from space; the Dark Trooper. This is the true campaign of Dark Forces. The now legendary Dark Trooper program, has begun, and you must infiltrate Imperial planets to end it! First you must investigate the destruction of an entire Rebel facility; Tak Base, at Talay in the Mid Rim.
Kyle's scouting of the surface reveals the site of a massacre. Some scattered Imperial units remain to guard the site. Blaster shots consistent with Imperial weapons mark the walls, and the burned corpses of the base's inhabitants can be seen strewn around the streets of the small settlement. Houses are destroyed, partially burned out. Whatever type of soldier did this is capable of lauching surgical attacks on the Rebel Alliance. The overwhealming force of the Tarkin Doctrine has failed; now the empire will turn to highly focused raids. What are these new units, a special forces soldier, or a type of advanced battle droid?
Reactivating the base's hydroelectric power generator, Kyle is able to cross an aqeduct or river running through the base, to gather evidence of the Dark Trooper presense, and it's technical disposition. An Imperial repeater rifle, the weapon of the Dark Trooper, is found on the base, and returned to the Rebel fleet by Kyle; a huge intelligence victory for the Rebellion.
Mission 03 - Planet: Anoat | Anoat City
Anoat is a highly polluted regional industrial hub, also a sector capital, in the Outer Rim. It is in the same solar system as Gentes, the Ugnaut homeworld, a species which many planets use as low paid or forced labourers. The Rebellion's next lead is Moff Rebus, the weapons designer of the Repeater rifle found at Tak Base. Kyle must infiltrate Anoat City, the planetary capital, but when he arrives, he finds the streets largely deserted except for Imperial viper-class probe droids, IT-0 interrogation droids, and other small remotes.
Anoat's crumbling infrastructure consists of sludge-soaked rusting durasteel girders, and a polluted water management system. Moff Rebus is famous for his paranoia, hiding his lab somewhere deep in this sewage system. Infiltration will rely on re-directing the flow of the planet's waste water, using flood gates, until a path is opened to Rebus's underground bunker. However, what Kyle does not count on is the presence of Dianoga. Using IR goggles, he fires his blaster into the waste water, killing a handful of the creatures before proceeding deeper.
Force Engine 1.01
It works right out of the folder, just by clicking the .exe. No key config neccecary. It defaults to standard stuff; [Shift] to run, [Ctrl] to crouch, [Space] to jump, [E] to use doors and switches, [F1] for mission objectives and inventory. Mouselook is just built in, turned on as standard, although I assume it can be turned off if you really want to ignore this massive quality-of-life improvement. No installation neccecary. You literally just unzip it, click the executable, and it will play immeditably, by finding and using the Steam or GOG install. Astounding work to bring a classic to easy compatability, so that no true Star Wars fan must miss it; 10/10 for invaluable service to the Star Wars community.