Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995)
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a 1995 shooter video game made by LucasArts and Bullet-Proof Software.
Kyle Katarn used to wear stormtrooper armor. Now he takes jobs for the Rebel Alliance, and his first is slipping into an Imperial facility to steal the plans for a battle station. From there he chases a bigger threat: the Empire's secret Dark Trooper program, a line of heavy combat droids meant to crush the Rebellion for good. This was the shooter that dragged the Doom formula into the Star Wars galaxy in 1995, adding real level design, ducking and climbing, and a lone-gun-for-hire hero years before the movies caught up to that idea.
Quick answers
What is Star Wars: Dark Forces about?
Kyle Katarn used to wear stormtrooper armor. Now he takes jobs for the Rebel Alliance, and his first is slipping into an Imperial facility to steal the plans for a battle station. From there he chases a bigger threat: the Empire's secret Dark Trooper program, a line of heavy combat droids meant to crush the Rebellion for good. This was the shooter that dragged the Doom formula into the Star Wars galaxy in 1995, adding real level design, ducking and climbing, and a lone-gun-for-hire hero years before the movies caught up to that idea.
When was Star Wars: Dark Forces released?
Star Wars: Dark Forces was released on 28 February 1995.
Who made Star Wars: Dark Forces?
Star Wars: Dark Forces was made by LucasArts, Bullet-Proof Software and Sony Computer Entertainment.
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Star Wars: Dark Forces in our writing
- Companion guide: LucasArts: The SCUMM Adventures & the Star Wars Empire
A few thoughts on Star Wars: Dark Forces
For that same view of the war from the ground, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story follows expendable Rebel operatives on exactly this kind of steal-the-plans mission, grim and grounded. Star Wars - Death Star tells the station's story from the inside, the engineers and gunners who built and crewed it.
The shooters that raised the bar
Dark Forces dragged the Doom formula into Star Wars in 1995, adding real level design, ducking, climbing, and a proper story. These are the landmark shooters that kept pushing after it, the Half-Life games rewriting the rules, and BioShock proving the genre could carry big ideas, a twist, and a world worth studying.
One merc, the Death Star plans
Kyle Katarn's first job is slipping into an Imperial base to steal the plans for a battle station, a gun-for-hire caught between two sides. Rogue One tells that exact heist on film, while the Death Star novel, Inferno Squad, and Return of the Jedi follow the soldiers and spies fighting the same war up close.
Inside the Empire's dark projects
Katarn's real target is the Dark Trooper program, the Empire's secret line of heavy combat droids. These go deep into that world of Imperial scheming and Sith ambition, Darth Plagueis and the Thrawn trilogy plotting in the shadows, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, and Maul turning a prison into a game.
Guns for hire and lone outlaws
Before the Rebellion trusted him, Katarn was a mercenary working for whoever paid. These hand you that same lone-gun freedom, Fallout: New Vegas letting you sell your loyalty to any faction, the outlaw drift of Red Dead Redemption 2, and the criminal climbs of Grand Theft Auto V and San Andreas.