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It would be difficult, if not impossible, to never think of Doom while playing Star Wars: Dark Forces. Both games involve an absurdly fast protagonist making his way through a series of corridors, scanning for key cards to unlock doors, dealing with enemies that pop in front of him before he knows it, discovering hidden compartments and rooms, and picking up as much health, armor, and ammo as possible. But one can't as some have tried to do, dismiss Star Wars: Dark Forces as a non-gory Doom clone that happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. The truth is far more complicated: Despite the fact that Doom is arguably the most important first-person shooter of all time, modern first-person games share more in common with Star Wars: Dark Forces.
Though novel in a first-person shooter in 1995, the ability to look up and down, to jump, or to crouch is so prevalent in gaming that we take it for granted. Similarly, no one would write home about the mere existence of a campaign of objective-driven missions with an overarching story. Despite our collected jadedness about such things, Star Wars: Dark Forces continues to stand out in history for its artistic execution on multiple fronts. Glancing up or down in a modern first-person game doesn't seem significant. It's simply the result of a habit or reflex we have developed over years of consuming similar experiences. But as I played Star Wars: Dark Forces to prepare this essay, it always felt like a big deal when I made the hero perform a simple change of perspective, whether to zap a stormtrooper standing on higher ground, to eliminate a mouse bot scurrying on the floor, or to judge a jump that initially looked improbable. This sense of importance for such a mundane mechanic exists because the game, thanks to its diabolical enemy placement and treacherous platoform design, will punish players if they misaim shots or misjudge distances. There is also no reticle to aim, so when, where, and how you turn to protagonist's head takes on a difference meaning in practice, as the game pressures you to be precise with the smallest of behaviors.
For a game only two years removed from Doom's 1993 release, Star Wars: Dark Forces is far ahead of its ancestor in terms of platforming (the Doom series wouuld not adopt jumping as a mechanic until 2016's Doom). By the time of Star Wars: Dark Forces' third level--in which you hop in and out of a complex sewer system, scouring the wretched setting for a weapons specialist--no questions should remain about the game's unique identity. As in Doom, there is as much emphasis on exploration as there is on combat, but Star Wars: Drk Forces flaunts a more dynamic environment with its addition of mulitple floor heights, which not only add to a sense of place and scale but also present different types of puzzles to solve.
During one level, the player must jump into a closet of sorts and crouch down to crawl through a tunnel to find a switch that shuts down a forcefield in another room. The force field only disappears temporarily, forcing the player to leap out of the enclosed area and jet around the corner toward the newly cleared doorway. The hurried claustrophobia of this task--something Doom couldn't quite offer--highlights the distinctive nature of the game's challenges in three-dimensional space, almost serving as a preview of more complicated situations in future first-person titles.
The more modern approach of Star Wars: Dark Forces is most apparent in how it employs narrative devices common among big-budget video games. A store runs through Star Wars: Dark Forces via cutscenes, voice-acted dialogue, and mission briefings. To be fair, one could completely ignore the tale within and be satisfied by the action and puzzles. But gloss over the words of the helpful assistant at your own risk: before each stage, you recieve information from an NPC that may prove critical to your understanding of what needs to be done to complete a goal.
There are no in-level waypoints or makers, there is no voice guiding you, hints are mostly nonexistent, and the wireframe map alternates between being helpful and perplexing. As contemporary and accommodating as Star Wars: Dark Forces may appears in certain respects, it holds no mercy for the player, which allows the game to be adventurous in a way that few first-person shooters are.
Perhaps no mission illustrates this 'int better than the sixth level, when the player infiltrates a locked-down detention center to rescue a spy. The instructions before the beginning of this stage are in-depth. Without taking the time to remember these notes (assuming one doesn't rely on online tips and videos), you may find yourself toying with two key elevators, wondering which machine will ultimately lead to the prisoner. Not recalling the facts about the elevators will elongate a mission that already offeres a lot of diversions, including destructible walls (in a nod to The Legen of Zelda) and spcial cells that can only be opened by inputting codes. Snaking through this intricate prison can be as frustrating as it is enlivening, but regardless, the experience captures why Star Wars: Dark Forces can be remembered as its own game, notwihstanding its striking similarities with other popular hits.