Rare's freshman installment in the FPS genre brought Bond to life in video games, showing just how far modern real time rendering technology could go in realizing a beloved world from another medium. Star Wars has already seen not only its introduction to video games but the FPS genre in this blog. With Dark Forces 1 I found the game severely lacking in presentation and that presentations' ability to give me a proper Star Wars experience. In the years since 1995 however the evolution of not just rendering technology but also FPS game design and 3D art had not been lost on Lucas Arts. With Dark Forces II my inner Star Wars Flame ignited along with my joy of a well designed FPS. 1997 has been by far the most expansive and exciting year for this genre by far and I'm happy to say Lucas Arts' pleasantly surprised and excited me with this FPS.
As a fan of Star Wars who can remember the before prequel times of the franchise getting into my 1997 character wasn't hard at all. The franchise had been for over a decade spreading itself across multi media in various forms and spin offs all naturally gravitating in some way around Episodes 4-6. They inherit the visual and audio tone of the original films and both Dark Forces games where no exception. A severe problem I had with the first Dark Forces was Lucas Art's artistic and engine limitations that just made parts of the game hard to navigate and distinguish. Lucas Arts to my pleasant surprise remedies this in the sequel. 1997 has seen video games torn between the new realistic 3D worlds ushered in by Super Mario 64 and Quake. Dark Forces II's new engine would choose the path of the future. The introductory level instantly pleases the type of fan I was at the time and would be for this blog.
The cyber grunge look of Star Wars original films is well in tow with blacks, greys, neon's and all kinds of sparks and yellow lights on buildings stretching miles below or above. Artistically the game carefully recreates Star Wars environments with an impressive amount of real time rendered, textured and lit perspective correct polygons. While its not as impressive as what id Tech 2 has managed in the last year it does the job more than good enough when paired with its beautiful and exciting use of sprites with these polygons. While we've seen some sparks etc as sprites in these high end 3D games as far back as Quake, Dark Forces II uses them liberally as blaster shots and gun blast, explosions p[aired with great animated textures on water and along the walls. The engine takes ques from Build Engine allowing signs to be shot and start sparking or certain things to animate into a destroyed mode though the destruction is far behind Hexen II or even Build Engine games in the past entries of this blog. Lucas Art's new engine and great attention to art really bring Dark Forces II to life in a way the last game in the series just could not even begin to.
Dark Forces II starts in a very standard cold metal cyber grunge area typical of Star Wars circa '97. The first level introduces you to your high stakes returning character with a live action recorded video along with a very 90's low budget Sith Lord. Its heavy on the cheese but as a fan and gamer I find this awesome. I thoroughly enjoy the introduction FMV and the use of FMVs for cinematic presentation in this game. It's something I haven't seen much on this blog. Instantly Dark Forces II gives you Star Wars content in a familiar way. The rendered game matches up well with the FMV and quickly had me blasting in this well created world. The first level of the game largely sets the context for the pace of the gameplay. It uses the art and technology to show off and immerse you in a Star Wars environment. Largely doing this with art and things off the more linear and segmented path your on. Later the game does some great and innovative design choices of pushing you in the direction of progress on these linear paths, sometimes literally pushing you. Dark Forces II's game play pacing is more direct by being linear and slower than most shooters this past year. The FMVs create a very cool extend Star Wars universe story and reward for game progress. The combat is an order of magnitude above the first game in the series in my opinion. All the mentioned positive qualities and attention to detail create a fully established and thought out Star Wars shooter experience. Achieving what the first game didn't in my opinion and that is worth reason for Star Wars to exist as a FPS game and how video games and this particular genre would make for a great new Star Wars experience unique unto itself,Dark Forces II is that game and I found it very exciting for that reason. It's not as extreme in its hyper focus as say Golden Eye this year ('97) has been but it is more akin to Turok or Shadow Warrior in showing you things and presenting areas with plenty of dressing.
While Star Wars in its current ('97) state has a more limited known arsenal that requires some imagination for a full FPS game arsenal Lucas Arts did not disappoint again. The two base blasters you get early on had me worried at first. One with a more accurate slower fire and one with a fast rapid less accurate fire had simple variations on the same weapon, a long range equivalent of DOOM or Quake's shotgun vs Super/Double Barrel Shotgun in effective use difference. The cross bow allowed a more powerful albeit slower shot and the grenades make an effective comeback. Dark Forces II's slower pace means the fun 3D bunny hopping not just in id's games but also game like Turok makes the guns a bit of a drag still and only serviceable because out of minimal fun and franchise fan service.I do not wish to sound like I do not appreciate or in this case think franchise fan service in game design is not a good practice or a reason for something existing in game design. I think Dark Forces II and Golden Eye 007 prove that these games have every right to exist if nothing else as a smart and functional way to experience the fantasy of one of these franchises.
The experience mentioned is hard and almost never pulled off without an established franchise and few counter examples exist in this blog. The nuance of all this comes back into game play as a great example of what I'm talking about with Dark Forces II's implementation of the light saber. Drenched in lore you obtain a light saber with expected combat qualities. Lucas Arts was smart to essentially treat it as a gun in the fact the user just has to fire it. It auto blocks and reflects shots with I'm guessing some kind of hit scan solution and then you slice and dice through enemies and environments alike with the fire button. Also in the 90's my favorite light saber color was green and depending on the day still is so bonus points for that Lucas Arts. All this immersion and Star Wars fantasy fun is sometimes brought to a haul by what I would consider less than what I've come to expect in quality level design ('97). The highs of Dark Forces II's level design such as many well placed secrets and secret areas, intelligent if forced ways of moving the player along an area only to have them be able to loop back around after making it out of a forced path like often used water currents will do. paths are not always intuitive however and the attempt at more id Software style "got ya" moments usually fell short for me.
The complete package of Dark Forces II is one that excited me and I'm extremely glad was part of this blog. I find it so important in a year ('97) already stacked with important games in the genre. After Rare set the standard for how a first person shooter could immerse and create a video game foreign franchise Star Wars in my opinion has a great redemption story for me. Playing Dark Forces II has also reminded me of the biggest take away so far of 1997 and that is of the variety of experiences the FPS genre can now provide ('97). Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II is a fantastic Star Wars experience and a good FPS experience, a game franchise now that really shows the growth marks of a genre.
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