The first in the first person perspective Star Wars games, this game was a serious contender to the Doom crown. Read on to find out more:

This game was absolutly amazing for its time but looks dated by todays standards. It featured a 'proper' 3d map (ie levels could go above and under each other) admitadly with some exceptions but this was still revolutionary. Also you have the ability to look up and down, crouch, and jump. A whole load of weapons appear here (most of which have made it to Jedi Knight but there is no Light Sabre, this was a major disapointment initially but you get over it. The graphics are entirely sprite based which tends to make them look blocky when close up and makes the movement look less realistic.

Dark Forces has a good learning curve with the ability to play each level at either Easy, Medium or Hard. A major ommision in this game is the lack of a mid game save feature. It save feature works much like on many platform games (ie when you die you are restored to a position earlier in the level, rather than starting the level over again). Also there is no multiplayer capability, this lost the game quite a few points in most reviews as this was seen be been a big failure especially when compared to games such as Doom.

Dark Forces IS Star Wars from start to finish, from the quality MIDI music (for its' time) to the digitised voices of the storm troopers

The story behind Dark Forces is the introduction of a new storm trooper the 'Dark Trooper', your mission involves discovering all there is to know about it and finally destroying the production factory. The story moves along at a reasonable pace but is let down by having too few cutscenes which can some times leave you wondering what's going on.

To play Dark Forces you're going to need at least a 483-33 but it runs well on a 486-66 and if you give it a Pentium it just flies. You also need a local bus video card. Any computer made in the last three or four years should be fine.

Dark Forces costs from between £10 to £12 and is available on the Virgin White Label. This is very good value as the game will keep you hooked for hours.

All in all I'd recomend this game to anybody whose computer isn't good enough for Jedi Knight