“No Steps Forward, Two Steps Back”
I was pretty excited to try out the second “Dark Forces” title, especially since it was considered one of the best shooters to play at the time of its’ release. The graphics progressed a decent bit, and the ability to wield a lightsaber in the title was an interesting new addition to the formula. My issues with the first game included its repetition and overall level design which felt maze-like and lacked cohesion, making the experience drag down as a whole after a few levels. Therefore, I would be looking forward to this title’s improvement in those areas in order to make it a smoother ride. Unfortunately, it seems that the developers mistook that as “make more complicated level structures”, and my enjoyment of this title plummeted very fast.
The opening level is not horrible but not very good, with some introduction to the gunplay and maze-like level structures. The shooting felt a bit weird, since many of the weapons don’t fire in a straight line. Therefore, gunfights are a bit artificially lengthened - accurate to the low proficiency of most Star Wars blasters in the movies, but not so fun for gameplay. As for the level design, this is where it started to concern me. I was constantly trying to figure out where to go, and the levels were very dry to look at while also being insanely large in both horizontal and vertical directions. There were many times where jumps needed to be made where it looked like you would die from an out-of-bounds condition, but many times it was the correct way to go. I did NOT enjoy this much and hoped that it was just a coincidence that the first level was complicated to navigate, but I would see it all come crashing down with the very next level…
The second level is MUCH harder than the first, and there are many reasons for this. To start, the level structure is super convoluted, with hallways that twist and turn on each other and no map to help guide yourself through labyrinth-esque settings. It wasn’t very interesting to look at as well, so different parts of the level felt indistinct from each other. I also found myself really frustrated with the shooting by this point, as I felt I took more damage than I should have because of the inconsistency of the spread of each weapon. There were many enemies that would silently chuck grenades around the map, and this led to sections of the level where I took way too much damage and had to save-scum in order to progress. All of these components combined together with the slow story start put me off of wanting to progress further.
This is where reviewing games becomes difficult for me. While the game has some objective strengths in having a dynamic story, huge leaps in level design for the time, and some nice graphics for its era, I have a subjective opinion of the experience that is filled with frustration and disappointment. The story might be something worth experiencing in many people's eyes, but I don’t want to put up with gameplay that is not that fun to me in order to experience it. For others, this obviously will vary. Still, I have learned not to treat my reviews as an objective truth but rather a subjective perspective (at least most of the time - there are some truly quality, middling, and trash games that I have strong opinions about).
With that being said, I just didn’t like this game much at all. The only redeeming qualities were its decent enough graphics and neat new concepts. Just about everything else felt dull, repetitive, frustrating, and lazily slapped together. This title actually has started to make me view “Star Wars” games in a different light, and as I get more and more exposure to them through the “Dark Forces/Jedi Knight” series I’ve come to believe they aren’t that great across the board. This leads me to Not Recommend this game, as it was a poor experience for me and led to me viewing “Star Wars” of all things (a franchise I generally like) in a bit less of a positive light. Fans may disagree, but this one just didn’t sit right with me.
Final Verdict: 2/10 (Bad)
I was pretty excited to try out the second “Dark Forces” title, especially since it was considered one of the best shooters to play at the time of its’ release. The graphics progressed a decent bit, and the ability to wield a lightsaber in the title was an interesting new addition to the formula. My issues with the first game included its repetition and overall level design which felt maze-like and lacked cohesion, making the experience drag down as a whole after a few levels. Therefore, I would be looking forward to this title’s improvement in those areas in order to make it a smoother ride. Unfortunately, it seems that the developers mistook that as “make more complicated level structures”, and my enjoyment of this title plummeted very fast.
The opening level is not horrible but not very good, with some introduction to the gunplay and maze-like level structures. The shooting felt a bit weird, since many of the weapons don’t fire in a straight line. Therefore, gunfights are a bit artificially lengthened - accurate to the low proficiency of most Star Wars blasters in the movies, but not so fun for gameplay. As for the level design, this is where it started to concern me. I was constantly trying to figure out where to go, and the levels were very dry to look at while also being insanely large in both horizontal and vertical directions. There were many times where jumps needed to be made where it looked like you would die from an out-of-bounds condition, but many times it was the correct way to go. I did NOT enjoy this much and hoped that it was just a coincidence that the first level was complicated to navigate, but I would see it all come crashing down with the very next level…
The second level is MUCH harder than the first, and there are many reasons for this. To start, the level structure is super convoluted, with hallways that twist and turn on each other and no map to help guide yourself through labyrinth-esque settings. It wasn’t very interesting to look at as well, so different parts of the level felt indistinct from each other. I also found myself really frustrated with the shooting by this point, as I felt I took more damage than I should have because of the inconsistency of the spread of each weapon. There were many enemies that would silently chuck grenades around the map, and this led to sections of the level where I took way too much damage and had to save-scum in order to progress. All of these components combined together with the slow story start put me off of wanting to progress further.
This is where reviewing games becomes difficult for me. While the game has some objective strengths in having a dynamic story, huge leaps in level design for the time, and some nice graphics for its era, I have a subjective opinion of the experience that is filled with frustration and disappointment. The story might be something worth experiencing in many people's eyes, but I don’t want to put up with gameplay that is not that fun to me in order to experience it. For others, this obviously will vary. Still, I have learned not to treat my reviews as an objective truth but rather a subjective perspective (at least most of the time - there are some truly quality, middling, and trash games that I have strong opinions about).
With that being said, I just didn’t like this game much at all. The only redeeming qualities were its decent enough graphics and neat new concepts. Just about everything else felt dull, repetitive, frustrating, and lazily slapped together. This title actually has started to make me view “Star Wars” games in a different light, and as I get more and more exposure to them through the “Dark Forces/Jedi Knight” series I’ve come to believe they aren’t that great across the board. This leads me to Not Recommend this game, as it was a poor experience for me and led to me viewing “Star Wars” of all things (a franchise I generally like) in a bit less of a positive light. Fans may disagree, but this one just didn’t sit right with me.
Final Verdict: 2/10 (Bad)