If the name Kyle Katarn rings a bell, you’ve probably been into Star Wars for a very long time. First introduced in the first-person shooter video game Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995), he became one of the biggest heroes of the old Star Wars Legends continuity. Now, 30 years later, his original adventure can still teach casual players and diehards of Star Wars games many lessons.
By and large, Dark Forces was considered a ‘Doom clone’ when it first came out due to its 2.5D perspective (cutting edge at the time) and the accompanying sprite and level design work. To this day, that remains a pretty logical way of describing it, key differences aside. For example, LucasArts’ Jedi Game Engine brought a number of big innovations to the table that greatly affected the level design. However, the basic mechanics and overall gameplay loop remained remarkably similar to those of other contemporary shooters.
Last year, Nightdive Studios resurrected the game – which was readily available on PC anyway – with a pretty fantastic Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster not only for PC, but consoles as well. So, there are no good excuses not to check this one out, especially if you love blasting away stormtroopers and the idea of accidentally blowing yourself up with a thermal detonator.
Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2.
The original Rogue One
Star Wars: Dark Forces is commonly referred to as “the game in which you steal the Death Star plans.” But wait, didn’t a ragtag team of Rebels do that in the live-action spinoff movie Rogue One? Well, this was way before the (admittedly messy) canon was rebooted beyond the movies and the 3D Clone Wars Star Wars TV series. Back then, lingering questions were simply answered with video games, comic books, or novels. It’s widely known that George Lucas never paid much attention to all those stories though.
So, Dark Forces doesn’t really hold much weight nowadays on the narrative front. Who cares though? Canons are as made-up as the stories that are part of them, so Dark Forces still has value as part of an old continuity that remains fun and quite wacky at times. It’s just a different flavor of Star Wars, and LucasArts’ FPS classic was much more than a quick trip to an Imperial base with poor security. After delivering the Death Star plans, Kyle Katarn stumbles upon a far larger threat: the Dark Trooper Project. That’s when the real journey begins.
Throughout 14 levels, Dark Forces is unpredictable and offers more variety than many of its FPS contemporaries: New enemies pop up in almost every mission; the locations directly influence the Jedi Engine-powered level layouts; and there’s a genuine effort to actually tell a cohesive story that was rare to see in the genre back in the day. Newbies might find it too old and hard to digest (though it’s a breezy experience), but most Star Wars fans should have plenty to chew on.
With an average length of around eight hours (if you don’t get stuck on a puzzle or hard-to-navigate level), Dark Forces doesn’t ask for too much of your time. In return, you get to experience one of the most influential Star Wars stories of all time and learn about Kyle Katarn’s pre-Jedi Knight antics.
“Blast them!”
As stated before, Doom’s DNA was all over this game. Back in the 1990s, the ‘gaming arms race’ moved extremely fast. In 1992, everyone who didn’t hate video games was blown away by Wolfenstein 3D. Less than a decade later, the original Half-Life looked (and behaved) totally different and presented highly complex 3D levels to explore with much more advanced enemy AI and animations.
In the six or so years between those two launches, the FPS genre underwent changes at a relentless pace, and Star Wars: Dark Forces played a key role in the transition from a rigid 2.5D model to what we’ve widely accepted as first-person shooters since the late ’90s. It was a new frontier, and LucasArts’ developers were at the center of innovation. There are plenty of good reasons why fans worked on refreshing Dark Forces and its Jedi Engine with The Force Engine long before Nightdive Studios’ remaster. This game’s importance extends beyond the confines of the galaxy far, far away.
Now, in 2025, does this all translate into an enjoyable experience? I’d say so. Then again, my childhood was tied to the rise of the FPS genre and video games for home consoles and desktop PCs. Dark Forces, especially in its remastered form, is a smoother (albeit not as expertly designed) experience than the first two Doom games, so anyone who enjoys those shouldn’t skip this one. As for veterans scared of being let down by a game they haven’t revisited in ages, chances are it’ll play better and look more stylish than a good chunk of the beloved 3D Star Wars video games released in the early 2000s. There was something magical about these 2.5D shooters, and quick modern fix-ups have taken care of most of the rough edges.
A long shadow
The fact we find ourselves circling back to Dark Forces three decades later is enough proof of its importance on two levels: for the gaming industry and for the Star Wars universe that’s been in conversation with itself for a long time. While it was eclipsed by its 3D sequels (Dark Forces 2 did something a bit weird and spawned the Jedi Knight series) in the gaming arena, Kyle Katarn’s first adventure is one of the most fascinating Star Wars video games to dissect and study in relation to other pieces of media.
The Force Awakens’ Finn going from stormtrooper to Force-sensitive good guy? Kyle already did that. The suicide mission to recover the Death Star plans? Been there, done that. A shadowy Imp project to develop fearsome super soldiers? Jon Favreau borrowed it from Dark Forces. Much of the ‘modern Star Wars’ you know and love can be traced back to this scrawny FPS. It was no Knights of the Old Republic, but sometimes less is more.
The Mandalorian and his pals needed Luke Skywalker and his lightsaber to save the day when Moff Gideon’s dark troopers were activated in The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale. Good ol’ Kyle’s solution? Shooting at them more and harder. Mind you, the original dark troopers were still plenty scary, which half-explains why their iconic design stuck around for too long and was barely altered for their huge live-action debut.
Trips down memory lane, especially when Star Wars video games are involved, can be deceiving. Maybe Dark Forces was a hit back then because of the IP it was built on top of. Maybe it wasn’t that revolutionary. Well, I don’t think that’s the case after doing my research inside and outside the franchise, but I’ll admit I’m biased. What say you?
Star Wars: Dark Forces and its remaster are currently available to purchase on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.