I just saw Dark Forces for 5 pounds, should I go and buy it?

What are you waiting for! GO GET IT! NOW! BEFORE IT'S GONE! HURRYYYYYYYY!!!! It's what started the now famed Jedi Knight series!

Dude, dont
its not worth it man
Get jedi knight or mots, but not dark forces plz!!

Oh come on, it's only a fiver, go get it! XD

At my school, 5bucks = 5 bags of chips
(which is better than dark forces, trust me:D )

Im actually in danger of losing this oppurtunity to get it.

The place I saw it at was in a shopping centre at another town that I can only visit on mondays because thats when I walk up to the college thats next to it (I go to it every monday afternoon and I walk up to it from school) and before my class starts I go looking around in the shopping centre.

So anyway I dont have any money with me and I see Dark Forces there for a fiver and so I decide to save up for it. Luckily I just went on a school trip today and therefore I went and got some money out of my bank account a few days ago. I didnt spend much (never got the chance) and so I thought "Heres my ticket to getting it". Unfortunately it just happens to be a school holiday on friday and monday and that also means no college. I had realised that when I had got back to school (from the trip) I could've gone to the shop and bought the game (because the bus had stopped near the college and because I didnt buy anything from said trip) and I told that to my teacher (he had played DF before) but thankfully before I said it was DF I quickly said Wing Commander 3 (because I saw that as well) and hoped he wouldnt catch on.

If Im lucky, it'll still be there but 10 days is a bit of a long wait.

By the way It looks like theres a neat argument starting off between you two. Keep up the good work }:¬)

DF is worth having for nostalgia value. As Pedro says, it's the game that started the Jedi Knight saga.

It was very cool for its time, and for being basically a Doom-clone. And five pounds is fairly cheap (though you may find it for cheaper if you look among "used" games; usually just the CDs and jewel boxes, no packaging or manual or anything).

OTOH, that was a while ago, and to a modern gamer, DF's graphics are boxy and cartoonish at best, and the enemies are basically cardboard cutouts that stop looking good at 20 paces, and the bosses are impossible to beat without cheating. There's no third-person option, no MP, and precious little editability (though TACC does have some fan-made DF levels).

Ultimately, it's your choice. If you're a hard-core JK fan & collector, by all means go for it.

The bosses are not impossible to beat without cheats, and why you would even want a third-person view in an FPS is beyond me.

Dark Forces is an excellent game, and definitely worth buying. If nothing else, it's far better than JK2.

Originally posted by C Shutt
and why you would even want a third-person view in an FPS is beyond me.

Peripheral vision.

Being able to see where you're putting your feet. Interacting with the environment.

3rd person view can be nice, but I sometimes find it difficult to aim when in 3rd person.

Heh. I usually find it easier...*shrug*

To each his own.

Well, JK & MotS have auto-aim, which I like 'cause it replicates the feeling of having natural (or just trained) marksmanship skill.

Other games (JO and Elite Force being the worst offenders) make it more difficult 'cause you have to play with one hand on the mouse (or switch between mouse & keyboard at a moment's notice).

Trying precision-fire with a keyboard sucks; your aim will almost always be off by exactly half the turn radius of one button-tap. Your first shots will miss to the left, then you quickly tap the "right" arrow, to make your shots miss to the right. :roleyess:

And JO sucks 'cause the enemy AI fights like 'bots. :snear:

Heh. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of the keyboard/mouse system. It drove me nuts in the Jedi Academy demo. One or the other, say I. The auto-aim thing is nice though...at least, I liked it in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. (Can't beat the bargain bin.)

I don't understand what you mean by having to switch between the mouse and keyboard. I played the Jedi Academy demo, one hand controls movement, the other controls aim with the mouse. why would you have to switch all the time?

At first it was awkward for me, but Unreal Tournament quickly familiarized me with the keyboard/mouse combo XD

Although with somethings in the first Jedi Knight I'm still more comfortable playing with both my hands on the keyboard.

The auto-aim in Infernal Machine bugged me though 'cause it was so short-range. When i'm dealing with armed enemies, I prefer to have the option to snipe at them from some reasonable distance. I don't appreciate having to run up to them and stab them with my gun (especially if they can see me coming and spray fire from 20 paces)

Originally posted by Wombat3
one hand controls movement, the other controls aim with the mouse.

I play with one hand over the arrow keys and the other over the Z key and the A & D keys (to strafe). It also lets me scroll through Force powers and inventory items and hit enter without breaking stride, and use other hotkeys at a moment's notice (especially useful for force-powers on the F_ keys). I've tried using only one hand on the keyboard, but my fingers end up getting tangled up.

I also tend to switch between saber and ranged weapons fairly frequently and quickly.

everyone one has their own control scheme. what works for you depends on your play style and also what you used the first time playing that type of game.

Yeah...s'pose so.

Meh, I'll get used to it once I've played enough hours.

I guess there's no one all-powerful control system that works for everything. *goes back to trial and error*

Indeed ^.^ different games require different control systems.

Good News. I just bought it today.

Go you! Hope you enjoy it ^.^

Enjoy!

And lemme know if I should start hunting a copy down on EBay or something. *g*

I think you should go hunt a copy down. It'll be worth it.

Thread Revival!!!!

I was in high school back when Dark Forces was released. I remember being all pumped waiting for it. I still have the old LucasArts Adventurer magazine previewing the game and interviewing the developers, and I have issues of Computer Gaming World going WAY back to the late '80s.

Damn the '90s were amazing. Gaming went from niche to mainstream. Once DOS was gone and Win95 made it so even tards could run a PC game, everything changed. :)

BTW, Dark Forces will run nicely in DOSBox.

AAAHHHHH! :zamn1:


Yeah, this thread is a little crusty to be resurrecting, eh? But whatever.

Dark Forces is a great game. I too, was in high school when the game was released and played the game constantly. There are some really great custom levels fans made too (anyone remember the Crow's Nest?). I haven't really played the game in awhile, I think the last time I played the game all the way through was in 2000 or so. Dark Forces, DFII Jedi Knight/MoTS I recommend to anyone who is a Star Wars fan.

Agreement there. :) I still count DF as one of the better FPS I've played.


As a side note: I suppose this is another thread resurrection, though a few months apart is about the average post ratio for this part of the forums, it seems. :rolleyes:

Yup, I agree. Before Dark Forces I only played FPS very sparingly, namely Doom, Ken's Labyrinth, and of course Wolfenstein 3D. I was more of an adventure gamer (Monkey Island, Fate of Atlantis, Loom etc.) and was playing X-Wing religiously at the time too. When Dark Forces came out I was flat out addicted to the game, and just when I thought my interest in the game was waning the third party levels started coming - and there are ALOT of them out there.

Dark Forces was just incredible back then. I was a Star Wars fanatic in those days, reading all the novels, mags, following the special edition movies, prequel news, and playing all of the games. Dark Forces was the first official SW first person shooter. There was Star Wars Doom before that tho and it was pretty good! :)

DF just has great atmosphere to it, brought from an obviously talented group of developers. The original music was incredible, with Bajakian, Land, and McConnell doing brilliant work just like with TIE Fighter. Man those were the days! It was just pure euphoria to be able to explore SW in the 1st person for the first time. I would love to have that kind of quality effort be put into a SW game again. LucasArts isn't even remotely the same company anymore though.

I still think DF is the best in the series. It has the premise that I most enjoy. Mercenary Katarn, hardcore ex-Imperial, but just a regular guy. The game is very military and very dark. I just dig that kind of sci-fi.

Can I ask, is this game playable in Windows XP?? if yes how can I install and play??

I have one word for you-

GOOGLE!

I already look and dont find anything, do you have any links about it?

No. Besides, DF isn't all that good. You should go get Dark Forces 2. It's a lot better. :)

DF can stand on its own. I was raised on FPS and Point and Click Adventures. I think that Dark Forces had alot of cool ideas and is worth it for the first mission alone. By the way, does anyone remember the tubby fellow that was hiding in the sewers or any of the Easter Eggs in the game?

To me, Dark Forces is one of the greatest video games of all time. Better than the sequel and most of LA's most recent projects. Everyone should have it, the PS1 version rocks!