Completed Dark Forces.
There’s a few slightly weaker levels in the middle. Vertical city is still amazing, though. It’s not too vertical, the engine has its limitations, but the bridge hanging above the abyss of the cosmos and some flying scrap and the sound of the wind still feels right.
Speaking of the sound and music, I took it for granted, but the developer of the engine has a whole post explaining how music was a separate program, that the game interacted with to get that interactive music that changes with game events, and not just a simple music loop. And the music sounds right. Guess because it’s either the authentic music tracks or composed by the same author. After all, this was made by Lucas Arts themselves.
A few things blew my mind at the Imperial City. First, they actually implemented spotlights on the roof.
And second, the moment you walk in to the imperial building, and there’s a ton of Imperial Commandos there. What a show.
Also, I would have been surprised by Boba Fett, but I actually remembered this part, although slightly differently. I remember that he used his pistols, and here I was blown away by his rockets.
On the final level, there’s a conveyor belt that I remember felt very difficult back in the day. But on WASD, it’s almost trivial.
What’s less trivial is the amount of Dark Troopers the game throws at you in the last two levels. Luckily, by that time I had plenty of ammo for Assault Cannon. But still I found those to be more difficult than the final boss battle, mostly because the final battle takes place in an open hangar with plenty of space to maneuver, while some encounters with Dark Troopers are almost face-to-face.
Last bit that I forgot – the sewage monsters. I hated them as a kid. But back in the day I played on an old monitor which was very dark, and I think I didn’t know there’s a flashlight in the game. So that eye popping out of the water followed by a bite scared me. Noways, the only difficult part with those is that they bite through your shields.
