The early 1990s saw numerous first-person shooters trying to imitate the success of Doom. Dark Forces marked LucasArts entry into the FPS arena. Development started before Doom’s release in 1993, but they decided to delay Dark Forces so further improvements could be made. The main improvement was an enhanced game engine which allowed the player to look around, jump and crawl - gameplay elements that FPS gamers now take for granted.
Rather than recreating the original Star Wars films, the story introduces a new plotline featuring Kyle Katarn. Kyle is a former Imperial Officer turned mercenary who joins the Rebellion. He is initially hired to steal the plans for the Death Star (this game came out before the release of the film Rogue One) before investigating a series of attacks on Rebel bases by mysterious ‘Dark Troopers’ – upgraded Stormtroopers.
Despite the fact they are made from simplistic 2D sprites, Star Wars fans will instantly recognise many of the enemies encountered. Storm Troopers, Imperial Officers, Probe Droids and many others, all feature across the 14 missions as well as appearances from characters such as Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett. The levels have a very distinct Star Wars feel to them and represent bases, mines and other facilities, not to mention an Imperial Star Destroyer. However, when compared to Doom the level design causes the game to advance at a much slower pace, relying on both puzzles and combat to progress the story.
Overall, the game can probably be considered slightly more difficult than other FPS games from the time, and will appeal to those who want a more challenging experience as well as Star Wars fans.
Review By Richard
English 
Comments and reviews
hey, game is abandonware again as it is delisted on gog and steam.
please reupload here :)
The Force Engine makes it compatible !!!
Ah, I remember seeing this game so many times on the shelf at the local Wal-Mart way back when. But sadly, our family's Packard Bell (which arrived w/ a sound blaster soundcard that didn't work) only had 4MB of RAM, and this required 8MB.
Now I have 16GB! Think I'm gonna start 20 instances of this game just b/c I can now. :)
I love You... So Here's The Game For Free:
https://archive.org/details/star-wars-dark-forces_201612
Download the "Zip" located in the "Download Options" box, & save your hard earned cash. Have a great time!
Reply to WTF:
That's right. These damn greedy corporations can't let us have our games we grew up with, no, they have to nickel and dime us for everything. They see us having too much fun, UHP! Gotta stop that! is what they probably say.
Funny though how one minute its considered abandonware then some big thing shows up and everyone panics. Don't even make the game abandonware in the first place, if you aren't sure about that game being abandonware or not.
Thankfully for me I have the original CD when it came out all those years ago, but now if I want to play it, I either have to get out the CD, or buy it. And funny thing with that is, some of these companies falsely claim that X game is compatible with Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, that's a bunch of bull too. From what I've seen with GOG games, they practically install the game from original media and then they upload that to GOG, with no checking on if the game even works lol. Like Swat 3, I own it, doesn't work. GOG has it for sale claiming it works for Windows 7, but it doesn't work for Windows 7. It's a complete pain to deal with.
really ? gready .. suits cant just let old abandoned games just be we gotta pay for that too ?
For mac users, the DOS game version works nicely with the Boxer app. Here's where you can get Boxer. It's free http://boxerapp.com/
only if it would work on my computer
Why can't I get any sound? It's fine but it would just be nice to have it? But it doesn't ruin it anyway good game!!
Sounds not working on mine any way to fix ? And also how do you rub games not through dos cause I'd like to play zelda on my PC but won't work .thanks
good game i like it! :) so i like ther gzasr
very good game especially if you love star wars!
best of the series imo hate the non lore friendly oh hey look now im a jedi crap.
sound and cool factor were actually best features graphics were low par at best.
if you dont have it buy it for the sound track alone!
such a good game! amazing graphics for its time. best retro fps iv"e ever played
If your looking for the sequels for this incredible game, then you want to look up the Jedi knight series. The best jedi games ever made.
I still vividly remember this game from when it first came out, and it was revolutionary for its time. The graphics and game-play were amazing, and it really pulled you into the world.
*REVIEW*
As always, the biggest compliment I can give any retro game is that I will continue to play it. With Star Wars: Dark Forces there is a definitive ending (which I’m dangerously near!!! *gasp*) I will continue to play it and probably hunt down it’s sequels. When you are competing with fully rendered 3D war simulators, that’s a near impossible statement to make for a game practically older than the youngest member of my family… But make it, I shall.
Full Review:
http://cooldownpodcast.com/reviews/reyces-retro-reviews/star-wars-dark-forces/
Please i need help :( I can't play the game ... do you have a solution, if there is any on windows10 TT^TT ?
Try using Boxer to run the DOS version on your Mac.
thanks 46yovirginguy, I could never understand why it was always in a small window when I played it before but now it is full screen well sort of.....there are borders to the left and right but I don't care at least it is not a small window anymore. love the music in this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FYI everyone, if any games are running in a small window in the middle
of the screen or a window in the upper left corner using dosbox then just
edit the CONF FILE by double-clicking it.
try changing output from surface to overlay(or some other choice).
try changing both fullscreenresolution\windowresolution to fixed.
try changing scaler from NONE to one of the other choices.
by messing around with these values you should be able to get the game
in full screen mode.
wow, a DOS game that actually WORKS!!!!!!!
none of this DISC IMAGE SHIT/mountimage/can't find cd in drive
bullshit,i wish ALL the dos games here were this easy to get working.
sooooooooooo fond memories of this game.
played a many hours into nighttime and tired the
next day like a zombie(jajajajajaja).
best firperson game from many year ago and
is a still awesome one to this day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so much I love .
finally a game that DOESN'T need to be MOUNTED, or countless
hours lost screwing around trying to get up and going....I just unzipped
and played using dosbox.
and for those of you who hate dosbox first try tinkering with it's
CONF file, open it by double clicking it to edit stuff, under CPU change game CYCLES from auto(slow) to MAX(almost 60 fps?) and change the scaler from
the default to something else, I changed it to SUPEREAGLE and the game looks
sweet!!!!!!!!!!!
a very good game that I used to play in the 90's....ah good times.
ok for those of you who are new to dos games on windows the first thing
you need is WinRAR or a similar program(just google it) then download
and set it up..next thing you need is DosBox(again google it). WinRAR
will let you EXTRACT files you download,rightclick on the downloaded file
and select extract file...game will be extracted to a default folder.
now install dosbox, ok so the easiest way to play the games is to dragNdrop
the games .exe file onto the dosbox icon within the dosbox folder, so for dark forces you would drag the dark.exe ontop of dosbox application.exe , it's not as hard as it sounds...hope I got the instructions correct,if anyone can give a better explanation then plz do so seeing as I am not so good at explaining things.
Hi Everyone!
How can I get to run the dos version. I have windows 8.1 and no idea how I can install old games
Mac version doesnt work on el capitan apparently
Met a girl in the wasteland once, real pretty.
V.A.T.S said I had a 0% chance to hit that
10/10 realism
heel yeah!
A bit buggy with the controls. Can use either left mouse or arrow's on key board to move. Right mouse button to shoot and space bar to activate doors etc.
Will work only with a virtual dos program such as dosbox. I myself find dosbox complicated so I use dosblaster 3.0 which runs dosbox for you. You will need to also have dosbox installed but you don't need to mount drives and so on. Dosblaster does it for you
Star Wars Dark forces I give a 3.5/5 for it's time.
i have only got it today
I always heard there were X-rated Easter eggs and cheat codes in this game.
Yes sure about 7or vista. I have not played this game in many years because of the CD compatibility issues Star Wars!
As far as changing the buttons if you don't have a programmable keyboard there are 3rd party software out there for free. Some take a minute to get rite but once the profile is set your good. Just google it key remapper or something similar
@ Muzza You can emulate dos using Dosbox and play it through that.
You can find it at Dosbox.com .
how do u play it on 64bit windows 7?
The best game in my life;
councellor palpatine dù càzz!
(frase francese).
HA he HA
Best game but keys are diffrent.
It was better than Battlefront/Battlefront II in that the stormtroopers didn't roll around on the ground like some sort of super action men. Seriously, how did their helmets stay in place while they were doing that crap?
Eh, it was OK. I played it a couple times back in the day. HeXeN took up way more of my attention though so this fell by the wayside :)
So...how do you change le buttons?
is it was here all along!. . i havent play this since over 10 years!
re key config, push ctrl+F1 for dosbox key mapper tool
Still have the cd on ps1 and its very fun game but ps1 frame rate was bad. Can't wait to download here and run it on dosbox for good frame rate.
Error to read HelNum.fnd
i love dark forcs!!!!
i loved it from the day i got one for my brother,
but he is stingy and wont let me play it.
Hi how can I setup the kay configutration?
Thanks a lot it's a EPIC game
wont read my swlogo.lfd anyone know how to fix?
Currently doing a Let's Play on it. xD
Yeah! One of the best Star Wars games I played ever! Even if not a real Star Wars enthusiast, I enjoyed this game very much. It was a decent and solid made shooter with great varying missions and enemies...
I can't really say what engine it uses, but it can compete with other great FPS games of it's time (including Doom, of course)... ;)
Love this game!
you will tell me where the rebels are ! This game is awesome
This game is really fun lol
One Word DOSBOX Google It
I remember having the demo from the disk and it would loop you around this one level, when you've finished looping it says Level complete.
This was the best FPS back in the day and was surpassed by its sequel Jedi Knight which is the best FPS in the history of mankind. I remember how revolutionary Doom was when it first came out and this game was just so much better with its awesome storyline and choice of weapons. Despite the fact your character was not a jedi yet and could not carry a lightsaber like its sequels this game still managed to be one of the best, most memorable, and fun FPS's I ever played. The level designs and graphics were very well done and the sound was superior. The dark troopers were nasty and you got to fight Boba Fett. I had both the Dos version CD for this and the win95 version CD but neither will work on Windows XP. Many abandonware sight downloads have the same problem with their download. This download does work in xp which is just fantastic. Not sure about 7or vista. I have not played this game in many years because of the CD compatibility issues. Now I can finally play it again!
Amazing game, a FPS at least as good as Doom.
Dark Forces was great. Simply fantastic.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.