The need to catch a nineties video game phenomenon had rippling impacts throughout the old Star Wars lore. It’s exactly the sort of thing we need now more than ever!
“A Star Wars ‘What-If?'”
What if Luke Skywalker left for the Imperial Academy the year before? It’s an intriguing question, and one that the members of Lucasarts no doubt wrestled with when building Dark Forces.
DOOM released on December 10th, 1993 and instantly revolutionized gaming. Tantalizing previews had been published in computer magazines for months, whetting the appetite of the audience. The game play loop was incredibly satisfying, and the ability to create .WADs with custom maps, skins, and weapons led to a huge modding scene.
It’s likely that the creation of .WADS with unauthorized Star Wars re-skins led to the development of Dark Forces: a Lucasarts answer to the Doom craze.
Dark Forces released on February 28th, 1995 and included a number of improvements to the Doom Formula – including level verticality (and the ability to look up and down); more complex mission objectives and a new unique story that started off with the retrieval of the Death Star plans from an Imperial Research Base on the planet Danuta. After the theft of the plans, they would be beamed to Princess Leia’s consular ship, the Tantive IV.
This was Operation Skyhook, and was first conceived for the Star Wars Radio Drama broadcast by National Public Radio in 1980, and scripted by Brian Daley – himself the author of 3 great Han Solo novels. The NPR Star Wars Radio Drama included several scenes that had been cut from the movie, and expanded on several others. One of these scenes involved Princess Leia becoming aware of the capture of the plans, and receiving precise coordinates at which to intercept the beamed transmission – the SECOND part of Operation Skyhook. Dark Forces was the “official” explanation for FIRST part of Operation Skyhook prior to the release of Rogue One.
The remainder of the game campaign involved the Empires efforts to develop the Darktrooper project, designed to root out and annihilate rebel cells located on dissident planets at the behest of Darth Vader and General Rom Mohc.
But I’m getting ahead of myself — why is Kyle Katarn a cornerstone of the EU?
What could have Been and What Became
During development of Dark Forces, the initial pitch was for the action to follow Luke Skywalker, but this idea was quickly shelved. Lukes character progression wouldn’t make sense for a run-and-gun game, and Jedi Powers at this point would likely be pushing the Jedi Engine on which the game ran too far.
The writers no doubt asked themselves the question posed above. What if Luke Skywalker attended the Imperial Academy and afterwards found out that his Aunt and Uncle had been killed by the Rebel Alliance? Would he become a stormtrooper? And if he learned that their supposed murder at the hands of an alliance was a deception – thanks to a rebel agent – what would he do then?
With Luke as the template, Kyle became the answer to this “What if” scenario.
Growing up on the moon of Sulon orbiting the planet Sullust, Kyle sought to escape his fathers farm through improving his education in all things technical. He joined the Imperial Academy as a way to improve his skills and station in life. Rather than losing his aunt and uncle, Kyle lost his father. The shock and anger at his fathers death caused him to enlist in the stormtrooper corps. When Rebel Agent Jan Ors leaks information to Kyle that his father was secretly a rebel sympathizer and was killed by Imperial troops during a raid, his world was further rocked. Lacking trust in all authority, he became a mercenary with leanings towards rebellion.
What Came Next
The game was a smash success, and sequels were inevitable. A brand new engine was developed for the followup title (Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight), in which force powers and a lightsaber were the biggest draws.
Further articles in this series will explore Kyle Katarn and his outsized (though largely forgotten) influence on the EU.
In these articles, I hope to lay the foundation of the argument that much of the old EU (and even the current canon) owes a debt of gratitude to Kyle Katarn.
For instance:
Did you know…
…that the Inquisitors predated Rebels? (Dark Forces did not originate them, but Jedi Knight was the first exposure that most people ever got to see.) (Admiral Thrawn even makes an appearance with one of them!)
…Jedi Knight arguably contains the first example of a “Force Vergence” that predates the prequels.
…the Dark Forces games create an important story seed that allowed for explorations into Darth Banes “Rule of Two” – and further retcons in the continuity tie all the way back to Darth Revan, the Sith Emperor Darth Vitiate/Emperor Valkorian, and the Sith Capital World of Dromund Kaas.
…that the Darktroopers from the Mandalorian Season 2 had their debut in Dark Forces?
The Three Aspects of the Character that Disney Canon “borrowed” from:
The Mercenary: Cassian Andor
The Cowboy Jedi: Kanan Jarrus
The Jedi Archaeologist: Cal Kestis
Bonuses:
An engine replacement for Dark Forces recently hit their milestone 1.01 release! This is the Force Engine, and is a complete engine replacement for the game. Improvements include upscaled textures, mouse support, a “save-anywhere” feature, among others. You’ll need a purchased copy of Dark Forces for this MOD to function, but once you unzip the new launcher, it should detect your Dark Forces Installation, and you can jump right into the action.
Get it here: Dark Forces: The Force Engine Replacement
Also, if you’d like to see an example of it in action (and a quick run-through of the first level), check out my first gameplay vid for That Park Place here:
Did you play Dark Forces upon release? Did you follow the character in other games or media? Share your memories of the adventures of Kyle Katarn below! And, as always, keep coming back for all the latest news, reviews and commentary that should be fun.
