Diaries of a Jedi Knight: Dark Forces Epilogue

The destruction of the Arc Hammer right under the nose of Lord Vader was a major victory. The Dark Trooper project has been shut down by the Emperor after the recent defeats and the huge costs of losing both the Death Star and the Arc Hammer. General Mohc should be glad he died aboard the factory ship, for the Emperor’s rage was the stuff of legends.

I rendezvoused with Jan a few parsecs from the exploding Arc Hammer; we abandoned the Imperial shuttle and jumped back to Alliance space. From there, we returned to an outpost in the Outer Rim. Mon Mothma awarded me the Star of Alderaan, and despite the secrecy of my mission the rebels partied like a war had ended.

But the war had only just begun…

With that, Dark Forces closes and the first part of the Jedi Knight series has ended. I really enjoyed most of the game, and playing something that was released before I was actually born has been an interesting experience. Some of the levels - the level set on Nar Shaddaa in particular - were difficult to write up, and I ended up spending around two hours on each level on multiple playthroughs. The first couple to build the narrative, and then at least one more to get the screenshots.

Throughout this journey through Kyle Katarn’s first series of missions, I have been guided by Wookiepedia and KLoepelmann’s Star Wars: Dark Forces FAQ/Guide. The FAQ was invaluable for helping me name weapons, enemies and also finding the extra lives that let me be a lot less cautious when taking screenshots. As you can probably tell from the screenshots, I decided not to use DarkXL. I wanted to experience the game as it was when it was published, and DarkXL changes a lot about how the game runs and looks. I did make use of a third party software tool called Glove to give better mouse control - some comforts I can’t do without!

Come back here in two weeks time for the beginning of a new adventure, one where we delve into Kyle’s past and meet a truly Dark Force...