Star Wars: Dark Forces

The Good
Dark Forces was and is a classic. Taking the role of mercenary Kyle Katarn, the players engage in fourteen levels of Imperial slaughtering. On top of that, there is thought required; some of the puzzles are tricky. On top of THAT, there are some really cool effects in this game: a Death Star hologram rotates in place; TIE fighters launch and land in the Super Star Destroyer Executor's bay; spotlights pan the rooftops of Coruscant as you try to reach the Imperial Security building. Incredibly details for something so old.

The Bad
It's age has shown, however. LucasArts has refused to release the source code, which would allow a 3D-accelerated version to be created by users. Stuck in 320 x 200 mode for PC users, the game does become badly pixelated. Macintosh users are better off; they get to play Dark Forces in 640 x 480 glory.

The Bottom Line
The staying power of this old game lies not only with the wonderfully crafted universe LucasArts created for us. Rather, hundreds of user-made levels have propagated the Internet and our hard drives, ranging from the epitome of laziness known as "Mines" to the glory and wonder known as "Condition Red," "Mt Kurek," and "Dark Tide." While the Dark Forces community has shrank in size, it still lives at www.df-21.net where forums are still active and downloads are still available. Few games have had such a lasting, creative community. In this old engine, users have created effects to rival the newest of games. So, even if you're bored with the originals, don't throw that CD...check out what others have done.

You just may decide that Dark Forces is, just maybe, the greatest game of all time.