204-526: Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts . It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Macintosh , and in 1996 for the PlayStation . The story is set in the Star Wars expanded universe and begins shortly before the original Star Wars film, before flashing forward to a year after the film's events. The game's protagonist and playable character
408-410: A FPS game engine as well as a customizable HUD , an auto-map , jumping, swimming, flying, shapeshifting with each metamorphosis featuring its own characteristics to adapt to each situation. Then it got enhanced with redbook audio narration , voiced dialogues which replaced the text boxes, two new levels, and 3D rendered cutscenes , then re-released on CD-ROM in 1994. ShadowCaster started
612-711: A mercenary employed by the Rebel Alliance . Prior to the game's events, Kyle was preparing for a career in agricultural mechanics like his father, but ended up joining the Imperial Academy after his parents were supposedly murdered by Rebels, whom he grew to hate. After graduating from the Academy and joining the Imperial Army, Kyle met Jan Ors, a double agent working for the Rebels, who had uncovered
816-427: A periscope viewfinder similar to submarine shooting arcade games such as Midway 's video game Sea Wolf (1976) and Sega 's electro-mechanical game Periscope (1966). Battlezone became the first successful mass-market game featuring a first-person viewpoint and wireframe 3D graphics , with a version later released for home computers in 1983. MIDI Maze , a first-person shooter released in 1987 for
1020-438: A sci-fi setting about a British secret agent named Blake Stone pursuing a mad scientist through his facilities like a sci-fi James Bond , a similar Wolf3D's gameplay of exploring mazes while battling various foes to find keycards required to unlock doors to reach each floor's exit all while searching every wall for secret areas filled with treasures for a higher score until each episode's last floor's boss but with
1224-598: A thesaurus to search synonyms for the word " construction ", and named his new game engine "Build". Apogee Software wanted Build since id Software went their own way and didn't want to license their new Doom engine (yet). Both Epic MegaGames and Apogee Software attempted to contract Ken Silverman who chose Apogee Software which he never explained his reasons however Epic Games expressed no regret since not relying on Ken Silverman motivated them to develop their own technologies, which paid off. Most shooters in this period were developed for IBM PC compatible computers. On
1428-567: A SNES by itself which is why the SNES game cartridge was actually an adapter cartridge which required another licensed SNES game cartridge to be inserted into it in order to get Super 3D Noah's Ark to work despite being unlicensed. Star Wars: Dark Forces was released the 6th of February 1995 after LucasArts decided Star Wars would make appropriate material for a game in the style of Doom . However, Star Wars: Dark Forces improved on several technical features that Doom lacked, such as
1632-561: A character. Medal of Honor , released in 1999, gave birth to a long running proliferation of simulative first-person shooters set during World War II. Valve 's Half-Life was released in 1998, based upon Quake ' s graphics technology. Initially met with only mild anticipation, it went on to become a commercial success. While most of the previous first-person shooters on the IBM PC platform had focused on visceral gameplay with relatively weak or irrelevant plots, Half-Life placed
1836-504: A cult following; 1UP.com called it the "first multi-player 3D shooter on a mainstream system" and the first "major LAN action game". Id Software's Hovertank 3D pioneered ray casting technology in May 1991 to enable faster gameplay than 1980s vehicle simulators; and Catacomb 3-D introduced another advance, texture mapping , in November 1991. The second game to use texture mapping
2040-407: A durable close friendship between id Software and Raven Software as id will always share their technologies with Raven who will continuously use and upgrade them. Apogee Software , the publisher of Wolfenstein 3D , followed up its success and released another FPS game based on its engine titled Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold from another developer Jam Productions 5 December 1993 which featured
2244-401: A dystopian 3D first-person dungeon shooter, has been argued to be the first true FPS. This is due to the combination of a fully perspective-shifting 3D maze with enemies ahead, and what may be the earliest representation of weapons appearing in perspective in front of the player. A slightly more sophisticated first-person shooting mainframe game was Panther (1975), a tank simulator for
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#17327828052712448-482: A far bigger focus on strong narrative; the game featured no cut scenes but remained in the first-person perspective at all times. It capitalized heavily on the concepts of non-enemy characters (previously featured in many other titles, such as the Marathon series and Strife ) and wider in-game interactivity (as first introduced by the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and System Shock ) but did not employ power-ups in
2652-606: A far more believable 3D environment than Wolfenstein 3D 's levels, all of which had a flat-floor space and corridors. Doom allowed competitive matches between multiple players, termed "deathmatches", and the game was responsible for the word's subsequent entry into the video gaming lexicon. According to creator John Romero , the game's deathmatch concept was inspired by the competitive multiplayer of fighting games such as Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury . Doom became so popular that its multiplayer features began to cause problems for companies whose networks were used to play
2856-435: A far wider diversity of enemies, and added textured floors and ceilings, switches to find and to press to open new areas, traps, an auto-map , stats tracking, a grenade launcher, limited-use vending-machines , teleporters , enemies spawners, back-tracking to previous levels as well as some friendly NPCs in the form of scientists who would give the player hints and supplies provided the player didn't kill them. The game
3060-486: A first-person shoot-'em-up in the Star Wars universe", and said the character has the same rogue-with-a-heart appeal as Han Solo . On the other hand, GamesRadar was critical of Katarn, calling him the third worst character in video gaming, saying "he's bearded, he's boring, he's bland and his name is Kyle Katarn," comparing his outfit to that of a "beige-obsessed disco cowboy." They also commented that while "originally
3264-510: A futuristic missions-based FPS game called CyClones . The name referred to Cybernetic Clones , the minions of aliens who had ravaged and devastated Earth . The game was in first person 3D , as was most other Raven games, so reusing the ShadowCaster engine and its tools was a natural choice. But within a short time, the team found that they wanted to do more with the game and engine than they had done before. A new, 100% in-house engine
3468-458: A greater emphasis on narrative, problem-solving and logic puzzles. In addition to shooting, melee combat may also be used extensively. In some games, melee weapons are especially powerful, as a reward for the risk the player must take in maneuvering his character into close proximity to the enemy. In other games, instead, melee weapons may be less effective but necessary as a last resort. " Tactical shooters " tend to be more realistic, and require
3672-487: A large scale by Doom . While its combination of gory violence , dark humor and hellish imagery garnered acclaim from critics, these attributes also generated criticism from religious groups and censorship committees, with many commentators labelling the game a "murder simulator". There was further controversy when it emerged that the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre were fans of
3876-551: A lightsaber. Jedi Outcast ' s gameplay is similar to that of its predecessors, with some small additions, such as access to gun turrets , or the use of combos unique to each of the three lightsaber styles in the game; fast, medium and strong. As with Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith , the use of Force powers is restricted by a "Force Meter", which depletes when the powers are used. Jedi Academy features very similar gameplay to Jedi Outcast , although one new feature
4080-401: A loaf of bread. Close up, everything is blocky and pixelated, but even from far away the walls and textures look like big, chunky blocks. Even worse than the graphics, though, is the frame rate. Or lack thereof. The choppy motion takes so much away from the enjoyment of actually playing the game." The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly agreed that the choppy frame rate interferes with
4284-456: A medieval-themed/dark fantasy game using a modified version of id's Doom engine . Raven considered themselves as typical D&D fans and initially drafted the game with role-playing elements. They then took instruction from id programmer John Carmack to simply "do it like Doom , and add the fantasy flavor." Raven Software then used and upgraded the Doom engine and released Heretic
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#17327828052714488-508: A multiplayer mode has been included in every game, in which up to eight people can compete with one another via a LAN or up to four people online. In Jedi Knight , the player creates an avatar , and then selects a ranking, with higher rankings having access to more Force powers. There are two types of multiplayer game available; " Capture the flag " and " Jedi Training ". Mysteries of the Sith includes fifteen multiplayer maps, four of which only allow players to battle with lightsabers, and
4692-575: A nearly fully destructible environment since the flamethrower could set people and environments on fire, which could make movement extremely hazardous for the player, especially since the fire randomly spread, and the grenade-launcher too could destroy any wall (with some hard coded exceptions). OBC also featured textured floors and ceilings and an auto-map like Blake Stone however, unlike BS , OBC featured more than one floor texture per level although its floors and ceilings' graphics were partially parallax meaning that they appeared to "warp" as
4896-458: A new standard for first-person-shooter video-games widely emulated, improved, and still applied to this day. Tom Hall originally designed it to be a first-person infiltration game including stealth, hiding dead bodies, disguises and alarms, following the legacy of its predecessors, and the game engine does include these original features, however John Romero and John Carmack wanted a simple shooter and Tom Hall had to fight hard to even include
5100-564: A new type of Imperial soldiers. Kyle's investigation unveils the Dark Trooper Project, headed by General Rom Mohc. His mission to stop the project takes him to the sewers of Anoat City , where he captures Moff Rebus, an Imperial weapons specialist who developed the weapons used by Dark Troopers. Rebus' interrogation leads him to a weapons research facility in the mountains of Fest and the Gromas mines where minerals are extracted for
5304-417: A newly designed aiming system that allowed players to aim at a precise spot on the screen. Though not the first of its kind, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six started a popular trend of tactical first-person shooters in 1998. It featured a team-based, realistic design and themes based around counter-terrorism , requiring missions to be planned before execution and in it, a single hit was sometimes enough to kill
5508-807: A particularly potent power-up . These match types may also be customizable, allowing the players to vary weapons, health and power-ups found on the map, as well as victory criteria. Games may allow players to choose between various classes , each with its own strengths, weaknesses, equipment and roles within a team. There are many free-to-play first-person shooters on the market now, including Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory , Apex Legends , Team Fortress 2 , PlanetSide 2 , and Halo Infinite Multiplayer . Some games are released as free-to-play as their intended business model and can be highly profitable ( League of Legends earned $ 2 billion in 2017), but others such as Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade begin their life as paid games and become free-to-play later to reach
5712-452: A place of honor. A very classy job." MacUser named Dark Forces one of the top 50 CD-ROMs of 1995. PC Gamer gave Dark Forces the award in the best sound effects of 1995. It was also a runner-up in the best action game category. Dark Forces shipped more than 300,000 copies in preparation for its launch, a record for LucasArts at that time. It debuted at #1 on PC Data 's monthly computer game sales chart for March 1995. In 1998, it
5916-551: A protagonist who delivers regular one-liners , commenting upon the situation at hand. Much of the humor is derived from over-the-top, stereotypical portrayals of Asian culture . Based on the James Bond film , Rare 's GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997, and as of 2004 it was still the best-selling Nintendo 64 game in the United States. It has been the first landmark first-person shooter for console gamers and
6120-452: A ranking system that tracks the player's experience. The multiplayer mode allows the use of pre-set characters featured in both Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith , as well as characters from the Star Wars films, such as Luke Skywalker , Darth Vader and Boba Fett . In Mysteries , the "Capture the flag" mode is altered, with the gradual reduction of the Force powers of the player who
6324-455: A realistic and tactical approach aimed at simulating real life counter-terrorism situations. GoldenEye 007 , released in 1997, was a landmark first-person shooter for home consoles , while the critical and commercial success of later titles like Perfect Dark , Medal of Honor and the Halo series helped to heighten the appeal of this genre for the consoles market, straightening the road to
Star Wars: Dark Forces - Misplaced Pages Continue
6528-581: A rifle, or even limiting the players to only one weapon of choice at a time, forcing them to swap between different alternatives according to the situation. In some games, there's the option to trade up or upgrade weapons, resulting in multiple degrees of customization. Thus, the standards of realism are extremely variable. The protagonist can generally get healing and equipment supplies by means of collectible items such as first aid kits or ammunition packs, simply by walking over, or interacting with them. Some games allow players to accumulate experience points in
6732-435: A role-playing game fashion, that can generally be used to unlock new weapons, bonuses and skills. First-person shooters may be structurally composed of levels , or use the technique of a continuous narrative in which the game never leaves the first-person perspective. Others feature large sandbox environments, which are not divided into levels and can be explored freely. In first-person shooters, protagonists interact with
6936-561: A secret door. It also included vertical aiming, jumping, various missions objectives as well as one of the first training modes in a FPS game. Apogee Software 's Rise of the Triad: Dark War , released the 21th of December 1994, began as a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D , but was soon altered and became a stand-alone game . The game included "ludicrous" gibs, bullet holes persisted, and sheets of glass could be shattered by shooting or running through them. Bungie Software released
7140-602: A short extension for Wolfenstein 3D titled Spear of Destiny released the 19th of September 1992 to tease the players with the Hell to come in Doom as Spear of Destiny concluded into Hell, then two years later, Doom 2 included two secret levels featuring Wolfenstein in Hell while re-using Spear of Destiny 's Hell final level's music to close the loop. Ken Silverman decided to develop his own game engine after he played Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. His first game , that he named Walken as in "Ken's Walking simulator",
7344-429: A similar genre with a first-person perspective which uses dedicated light gun peripherals, in contrast to the use of conventional input devices. Light-gun shooters (like Virtua Cop ) often feature "on-rails" (scripted) movement, whereas first-person shooters give the player complete freedom to roam the surroundings. The first-person shooter may be considered a distinct genre itself, or a type of shooter game, in turn
7548-493: A still active community. Many sci-fi games both from Bungie themselves and from other studios have cited the Marathon trilogy as a huge influence on their stories and settings such as the series Halo , Destiny , Mass Effect and Warframe . After having provided a modified Wolfenstein 3D engine to Raven Software for ShadowCaster and being impressed by the final result, id Software requested that Raven develop
7752-488: A subgenre of the wider action game genre. Following the release of Doom in 1993, games in this style were commonly referred to as " Doom clones "; over time this term has largely been replaced by "first-person shooter". Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992, the year before Doom , has been often credited with introducing the genre, but critics have since identified similar, though less advanced, games developed as far back as 1973. There are occasional disagreements regarding
7956-488: A team of American scientists which opened a portal and connected Earth to another world from which an alien invasion started into the research facility . Corridor 7 added animated textures such as computer screens, distant shading which darkened distant areas to limit the player's sight's distance, dark areas and night vision mode to see into them, some invisible aliens and traps which could only be seen through infrared vision mode, some energy stations to recharge
8160-571: A time when the first-person shooter genre was very popular. The idea of creating a first-person shooter in the Star Wars universe was inspired by fan mods of Doom which had levels set on the Death Star . The developers of Dark Forces wanted to adapt the FPS format into an adventure game . To do this they introduced puzzles and strategy, along with a Star Wars plot. Originally Luke Skywalker
8364-513: A varying number of enemies. Because they take place in a 3D environment, these games tend to be somewhat more realistic than 2D shooter games, and have more accurate representations of gravity, lighting, sound and collisions. First-person shooters played on personal computers are most often controlled with a combination of a keyboard and mouse . This system has been claimed as superior to that found in console games, which frequently use two analog sticks : one used for running and sidestepping,
Star Wars: Dark Forces - Misplaced Pages Continue
8568-419: A weapon in a game was "extremely satisfying," and stated that lightsaber usage had been refined as the series continued. Kyle Katarn has also received a positive reception. IGN placed him as their 22nd top Star Wars character, praising him as "a gamer's reliable blank state," a feature which they felt made him one of the most "human" Star Wars characters. They also stated that Katarn's endearence with fans
8772-436: A wider audience after an initially disappointing reception. Some player communities complain about freemium first-person-shooters, fearing that they create unbalanced games, but many game designers have tweaked prices in response to criticism, and players can usually get the same benefits by playing longer rather than paying. The earliest two documented first-person shooter video games are Maze War and Spasim . Maze War
8976-546: Is Kyle Katarn , a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance who discovers the Galactic Empire 's secret Dark Trooper Project, which involves the development of a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers . Dark Forces uses the Jedi game engine , which was developed specifically for the game. The engine adds gameplay features that were uncommon to the first-person shooter genre at
9180-541: Is a sci-fi story revolving around a neural drug named Tek and the Matrix, a virtual reality (four years before the first Matrix movie ). The video-game featured FMVs, digitized live-actors and actresses, a stun gun to neutralize people in a non-lethal fashion , and gibs and dropped the player into a lively open-world future Los Angeles , making it the first FPS game which featured an open-world modern city, full of civilians, cops and enemies where civilians panicked if
9384-413: Is a first-person shooter (FPS). The player controls Kyle Katarn from a first-person perspective , with a focus on combat against various creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe, although the game also includes environmental puzzles and hazards. Dark Forces follows a central storyline outlined in mission briefings and cutscenes . Each mission includes specific objectives which are related to
9588-412: Is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe . The series focuses primarily on Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial officer who becomes a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance , and later a Jedi and instructor at Luke Skywalker 's Jedi Academy. While the first game is set a year after the events of A New Hope , the sequels take place in
9792-482: Is available to purchase individually or as part of a package including all of the games in the Jedi Knight series. The PC and Macintosh versions of Star Wars: Dark Forces were well received. Publications compared Dark Forces to Doom , a significant video game in the first-person shooter genre at the time, but also indicated that Dark Forces improved upon Doom ' s features. Criticisms tended to focus on
9996-592: Is based upon the abilities the player develops. A new game engine, the Sith engine , was developed for Dark Forces II , which uses both 3D graphics and sound . It was one of the first games to adopt the use of 3D graphics hardware acceleration using Microsoft Direct3D . Another development was that Dark Forces II moved on from the static images between levels used in Dark Forces to full motion video cutscenes. The characters are represented by live actors while
10200-724: Is carrying the flag. Jedi Outcast features several multiplayer modes, which, in the PC and Mac versions, can be played over a LAN or the internet . Multiplayer mode is limited to two players on the Xbox and GameCube versions of the game. Game modes include "Free-For-All", "Team Deathmatch", "Capture the Flag", "Power Duel" and "Siege", all of which can be played with other players, bots , or both. Jedi Academy introduces several multiplayer modifications, such as Movie Battles II which allows players to take part in lightsaber duels that featured in
10404-427: Is composed primarily of first/third-person shooter gameplay elements, with a number of variation on the norms of the genre within each game. All of the games use a level based system which contains a series of objectives that must be completed before the player can continue. From Dark Forces II onwards, the games have included lightsaber combat and the use of Force powers, which have been tweaked and modified as
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#173278280527110608-399: Is happening at any given moment in the game. Lucasarts developed the Jedi game engine to power Dark Forces , adding features to the first-person shooter genre that were uncommon at the time, such as multi-level floors and free look , as well as athletic abilities such as running, jumping, ducking and swimming. Original plans for the game had Luke Skywalker as the main character, but due to
10812-560: Is that the player may customize their lightsaber at the outset of the game. Later, the player has the option of choosing dual sabers, or a "saber staff", similar to Darth Maul 's double ended lightsaber in The Phantom Menace . Instead of moving linearly from one level to the next, the player chooses from a selection of different missions which can be played in any order. The game also introduces player-controllable vehicles and vehicle-based levels. Starting with Jedi Knight ,
11016-470: Is the "Tome of Power" which acts as a secondary firing mode for certain weapons, resulting in a much more powerful projectile for each weapon, some of which change the look of the projectile entirely, then Raven added two more episodes and re-released it as Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders the 31st of March 1996. Super 3D Noah's Ark , developed on Wolf3D engine and published by
11220-451: The Halo and Destiny series which took a lot from the Marathon trilogy which is no more exclusive to Mac since Bungie Software open-sourced it in 2000 then released the original trilogy as freeware in 2005, some fans have source-ported it to Windows and Linux as well as remastered them using the open-source engine Aleph One and have even been developing many new scenarios, total conversions, and multiplayer maps sustaining
11424-509: The PlanetSide series allow thousands of players to compete at once in a persistent world . Large scale multiplayer games allow multiple squads, with leaders issuing commands and a commander controlling the team's overall strategy. Multiplayer games have a variety of different styles of match. The classic types are the deathmatch (and its team-based variant) in which players score points by killing other players' characters; and capture
11628-487: The Quake III: Team Arena game engine, with modifications for the use of a lightsaber and The Force. Jedi Academy is the only game in the Jedi Knight series that does not give the player control of Katarn at any point. Instead the focus is on Jaden Korr, a student of the Force under Katarn. The decision to change protagonist was made by the developers for gameplay reasons. Many years later, games from
11832-521: The Atari ST , featured maze-based gameplay and character designs similar to Pac-Man , but displayed in a first-person perspective. Later ported to various systems—including the Game Boy and Super NES under the title Faceball 2000 —it featured the first network multiplayer deathmatches , using a MIDI interface. Despite the inconvenience of connecting numerous machines together, it gained
12036-494: The Build engine for MS DOS , but was later spun off into releases for Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation using developer Lobotomy Software 's in-house SlaveDriver engine. While the PC version is a traditional linear first-person shooter, the console versions feature non-linear progression and unlockable player abilities reminiscent of a metroidvania . Strife , developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Velocity Inc.
12240-478: The Dark Forces storyline were adapted to full-cast audio dramatizations. LucasArts extended Dark Forces with Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II in 1997, and later two more sequels. The Jedi Knight series continues the story of Kyle Katarn and has been praised for its quality as a whole. In September 2009, Dark Forces was re-released as a downloadable version on Valve 's Steam network for Windows XP, 2000 and Vista, and OS X Mavericks . The game
12444-664: The Doomsday engine and completely remastered by its modding community . The 12th of March 1994, the Japanese company Exact released Geograph Seal for the Sharp X68000 home computer. An obscure import title as far as the Western market is concerned, it was nonetheless an early example of a 3D polygonal first-person shooter, with innovative platform game mechanics and free-roaming outdoor environments. CyClones
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#173278280527112648-601: The Imperial army , where he soon met Jan Ors , an undercover double agent working for the Alliance. Ors uncovered the real information about Katarn's parents; they had actually been killed by the Empire. Shortly thereafter, Ors' cover was blown, and she was taken prisoner. Katarn helped her escape, thus ending his career with the Empire. He then became a mercenary, and due to his hatred for the Empire, regularly took on jobs for
12852-636: The Macintosh side, Bungie released its first shooter, Pathways into Darkness in August 1993, which featured more adventure and narrative elements alongside first-person shooter gameplay. Pathways had been inspired by Wolfenstein 3D , and born out of an attempt to take their previous top-down dungeon exploration game Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete into a 3D setting. ShadowCaster , developed by Raven Software and published by Origin Systems
13056-544: The PLATO system . Atari's first-person tank shooter arcade video game Battlezone (1980), modeled closely after PLATO Panther, was released for arcades and presented using a vector graphics display , with the game designed by Ed Rotberg. It is considered to be the first successful first-person shooter video game, making it a milestone for the genre. It was primarily inspired by Atari's top-down arcade shooter game Tank (1974). The original arcade cabinet also employed
13260-420: The PlayStation console, called Jumping Flash! , which placed more emphasis on its platform elements. Witchaven , developed by Capstone Software and published by their parent company IntraCorp the 20th of September 1995, was the first commercial game licensed on Apogee Software rebranded 3D Realms ' Ken Silverman 's new Build engine to rival id Software 's John Carmack 's Doom engine and
13464-449: The SNES version was itself a mere reskin from Wolfenstein 3D's SNES version as well however the PC version did upgrade some things upon Wolfenstein 3D such as textured floors (like Blake Stone ) along with higher resolutions graphics and MIDI music, and added a new gameplay feature such as quizzes which tested the player's religious knowledge whose rewards were more ammo to keep playing
13668-420: The Star Wars films. Movie Battles also lets players choose different classes of character, ranging from Jedi Knight to Wookiee . Another popular modification, Evolution of Combat , allows players to use more movie-realistic saber combat along with other additions such as a movie accurate class system featuring tens of new characters. The Jedi Knight video games are set in the Star Wars universe. For
13872-424: The action games category. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have proven fundamental to allow a reasonable level of immersion in the game world , and this type of game helped pushing technology progressively further, challenging hardware developers worldwide to introduce numerous innovations in the field of graphics processing units . Multiplayer gaming has been an integral part of
14076-466: The christian video-games company Wisdom Tree (formerly named Color Dreams ) the 1st of January 1995, was the first non-violent FPS game along with being the first religious FPS game ( Doom was already based on christian mythology as well since the enemy was christian's Hell however unlike Super 3D Noah's Ark , it merely used it as a setting and didn't attempt to teach religion) which featured Noah from Abrahamic mythology 's Noah's Ark as
14280-428: The crosshair was not fixed at the center of the screen on which it could move freely as opposite to nowadays standard fixed aiming, CyClones 's aiming was comparable to Metroid Prime ' s years later. CyClones used the mouse not only for aiming but also for picking up objects and interacting with the environment such as doors and switches and even revealed secret doors since the crosshair changed color upon pointing
14484-416: The protagonist and re-used Wolfenstein 3D 's gameplay and level-design while replacing enemies' death animations by seemingly friendly animals falling asleep upon being hit by the player's weapon which was a slingshot shooting food to feed the unresting hungry animals aboard goats filled Noah's Ark made of the recycled original maps from Wolfenstein 3D including the same items' placements and even
14688-420: The sci-fi FPS game Marathon the 21th of December 1994 still exclusively on Mac , which streamlined concepts from their previous game Pathways Into Darkness by eliminating role-playing elements in favor of the shooter action spurred by Doom 's success. Marathon was highly successful, leading to two sequels Marathon 2: Durandal released the 24th of November 1995 then Marathon: Infinity released
14892-560: The 15th of May 1996, was the last commercial game which used and modified the Doom engine before id released the new Quake engine the following month and it introduced some RPVG 's features into the standard FPS formula such as an actual lively open-world filled with NPCs , dialogues with choices of answers, some of them were even voiced, trade, reinforcements who engage the enemies in battle, mandatory and optional quests, character's evolution of his abilities, an intriguing plot branching into different routes and conclusions according to
15096-514: The 15th of October 1996 to form the Marathon Trilogy , and becoming the standard for FPS games on Mac which pioneered or was an early adopter of several new gameplay features such as default freelook , ammo clips and weapons reloading though not manually, forcing the player to keep an eye on their ammo clips to anticipate the next reloading, dual-wielded and dual-function weapons, a motion sensor to detect both enemies and allies in
15300-425: The 17th of March 1995 ), a game in which the player pilots a spacecraft around caves and factory ducts, was among the earliest truly three-dimensional first-person shooters. It abandoned sprites and ray casting in favour of polygonal models and allowed movement through all of the six possible degrees of freedom . The 28th of April 1995, the Japanese company Exact released the successor to Geograph Seal for
15504-476: The 1990s, the genre was one of the main cornerstones for technological advancements of computer graphics, starting with the release of Quake in 1996. Quake was one of the first real-time 3D rendered video games in history, and quickly became one of the most acclaimed shooter games of all time. Graphics accelerator hardware became essential to improve performances and add new effects such as full texture mapping , dynamic lighting and particle processing to
15708-414: The 23th of December 1994 which introduced larger maps , vertical aiming, flying, gibs , randomized ambient sound effects, interactive environments such as rushing water and winds which push the player along, an inventory system to store and select many different items which range from health potions to the "morph ovum" which transforms enemies into chickens and one of the most notable item that can be found
15912-567: The 27th of October 1993, used a heavily modified version of Wolf3D engine made by John Carmack during summer 1992 who offered it to Raven Software after he was impressed with their first RPVG Black Crypt because he was curious about how Raven would use his game engine to make a RPVG instead of a FPSG. ShadowCaster was the first commercial game released with classic "2.5D Doom engine " improvements such as distance fogging, non-orthogonal walls, textured ceilings and floors, etc before Doom itself came out. It introduced some RPG elements into
16116-553: The 3D engines that powered the games of that period, such as the iconic id Tech 2 , the first iteration of the Unreal Engine , or the more versatile Build . Other seminal games were released during the years, with Marathon enhancing the narrative and puzzle elements, Duke Nukem 3D introducing voice acting, complete interactivity with the environment, and city-life settings to the genre, and games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Counter-Strike starting to adopt
16320-402: The 5th of May 1992 in which the player had to explore mazes while battling Nazis to find keys required to unlock doors to reach each floor's exit all while searching every wall for secret areas filled with treasures for a higher score until each episode's last floor's boss and was an instant success because of its first episode's distribution and spread as shareware whereas the second and
16524-457: The 6th of May 1996, was a sequel to the first Witchaven which set the knight from the first game onto an even more perilous quest to rescue the princess abducted by the witch 's sister seeking vengeance, still licensed on 3D Realms ' Build engine , it added dual weapons wielding or wielding a shield in the place of the second weapon as well as a map editor to let players create and share their own maps , however Capstone didn't fix
16728-524: The Alliance, however, Katarn does not join their cause. Dark Forces II begins several years after the destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi , when Katarn is informed of the exact details of his father's death. His father, Morgan Katarn, had discovered the location of "The Valley of the Jedi", a source of great Force power, but a Dark Jedi named Jerec murdered Morgan in an attempt to find
16932-548: The Alliance. In the first level of Dark Forces , which is set prior to A New Hope , Katarn recovers the plans to the Death Star , a heavily armed space station capable of destroying entire planets. The Rebel Alliance uses the plans to find a weakness in and then destroy the Death Star. Katarn then aids the Rebels in stopping the threat of the Imperial "Dark Trooper" project. Despite the successful missions on behalf of
17136-505: The Dark Troopers were produced for Dark Forces . Lucasfilm licensing department initially rejected two of the designs for looking too much out of character, so Chin produced new designs which were ultimately approved. The development team collaborated with staff at Skywalker Ranch for the sounds, music, and costumes used in the cutscenes. Dark Forces was ported from DOS to Apple Macintosh. This presented several challenges for
17340-402: The Dark Troopers. Kyle and Jan later learn that Crix Madine , a former Imperial Commander who defected to the Alliance, has been captured by the Empire, and the former infiltrates a high security detention center on Orinackra to rescue him. After Kyle saves him from his execution, Madine informs the Alliance of an operation to smuggle Dark Trooper materials, leading Kyle and Jan to investigate
17544-668: The Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and cooperative campaign) and a map editor for players to create and share their own maps for the games. The Marathon games also had a strong emphasis on storytelling in addition to the action, which revolved around evolving relationships between the human player's character and some AIs during a surprise invasion and subsequent war against a hostile alien Empire which already conquered and enslaved some other alien species, much like Bungie's future projects such as
17748-503: The Jedi Academy. However, Katarn defeats Desann and discovers his true path, becoming a tutor at the Academy. In Jedi Academy , Katarn takes on two students: Jaden Korr and Rosh Penin. The protagonist of the game is Jaden, who is dispatched on various peace-keeping missions across the galaxy, sometimes with Katarn, sometimes alone. Jaden eventually encounters a Sith cult led by Tavion (Desann's former apprentice) who plans to restore
17952-504: The PC-exclusive Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II to be the last, only game in the series to not be available on any consoles or remastered for later platforms. The Jedi Knight series as a whole has been well received. The series itself has been described as "highly acclaimed," and has been noted by IGN as one of few Star Wars themed video game franchises that is of consistently high quality on
18156-499: The PC. GamersMark.com called the series "rather entertaining," whilst GameNOW rated it as "consistently great." Individually, each game in the series has been generally well received. In 1995, Dark Forces became LucasArts' highest sell-in with more than 300,000 copies accounted for at launch. Games in the series have achieved consistently favorable review scores from most publications, and hold high aggregate scores on both Metacritic and GameRankings . The only exceptions are
18360-640: The PlayStation version of Dark Forces , which was perceived to have graphical problems and the GameCube version of Jedi Outcast , which was seen as considerably inferior to the PC and Xbox versions. Games in the Jedi Knight series have also received specific commendation and awards. Dark Forces II was judged the best game of the year for 1997 by five publications, and was number one in PC Gamer ' s "50 best games ever" list in 1998. Jedi Outcast
18564-637: The Ramsees Hed docking port on Cal-Seti. Afterward, Kyle also destroys a robotics facility on the icy planet Anteevy, the second stage of the Dark Trooper production line. Kyle and Jan's mission is temporarily halted when they are captured by the crime lord Jabba the Hutt , one of the main financiers of the Dark Trooper Project. After their escape from Jabba's clutches and an encounter with the bounty hunter Boba Fett , hired by General Mohc to kill Kyle,
18768-535: The Rebel Alliance, because of Kyle's hatred towards the Empire. Dark Forces begins with Kyle and Jan being hired by the Alliance to recover the plans to the Death Star , the Empire's space station outfitted with a superlaser capable of destroying an entire planet. The Rebels use the plans to find a weakness in the station, and eventually destroy it. One year later, the Alliance hires the pair again, this time to investigate an assault on one of their bases by
18972-645: The Sith to power by using stolen Force energy to resurrect an ancient Sith Lord, Marka Ragnos. After learning that Rosh has betrayed the Jedi and joined Tavion, Jaden may either kill him and turn to the Dark Side or let him live and remain on the Light Side. If Jaden chooses the Dark Side, they kill Tavion, defeats Katarn, and flees with Tavion's staff, which is capable of absorbing the Force. The game ends with Katarn setting out in pursuit of Jaden. If Jaden chooses to spare Rosh, they ultimately defeat both Tavion and
19176-522: The Valley of the Jedi in an attempt to reconnect to the Force so as to stop Desann. Eventually, it is revealed that Ors' death is a ruse by Desann for the express purpose of having Katarn return to the Valley, so Desann may learn of its location. Desann, in league with the Imperial Remnant , uses the power of the Valley to endow his troops with Force power, before using them to launch an attack on
19380-477: The ability to crouch, jump, or look and aim up and down. Dark Forces also was one of the first games to incorporate 3D-designed objects rendered into the game's 2.5D graphics engine. The game's success launched the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series, beginning with the direct sequel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II the 9th of October 1997. Descent (released by Parallax Software
19584-417: The ability to look up and down, duck, and jump. A variety of power-ups are made available to the player, including health, shields, weapons and ammunition. The game also features several non-combat items to aid the player. The head lamp illuminates the area in front of the player, but will reveal the player's position to enemies in dark rooms. Ice cleats provide traction in icy areas, and an air mask protects
19788-408: The additional support and encouragement for game modifications attracted players who wanted to tinker with the game and create their own modules. According to creator John Romero, Quake ' s 3D world was inspired by the 3D fighting game Virtua Fighter . Quake was also intended to expand the genre with Virtua Fighter influenced melee brawling , but this element was eventually scrapped from
19992-493: The appearance of a rat running through a maze. Another crucial early game that influenced first-person shooters was Wayout . It featured the player trying to escape a maze, using ray casting to render the environment, simulating visually how each wall segment would be rendered relative to the player's position and facing angle. This allowed more freeform movement compared to the grid-based and cardinal Maze War and Spasim . Among PLATO games, Witz and Boland's 1977 Futurewar ,
20196-429: The area, gravity alterations, swimming, interactive environments such as healing stations, oxygen stations, save points , teleporters , many computer terminals spread all around the levels as plot devices which provided messages, informations, various objectives and maps to the player's character as well as friendly defense drones and non-player characters (NPCs), versatile multiplayer modes (such as King of
20400-483: The atmosphere was gripping, the aliens were more appreciated than the stereotypes of Arabian people, the AI was improved with some enemies patrolling routes and some others camouflaging into environments or being invisible and not attacking until the player was close enough to ambush them, providing an actual challenge to players, and the game was considerably more evolved than Wolfenstein 3D and Blake Stone , however it
20604-426: The backgrounds are pre-rendered . The cutscenes included the first lightsaber footage filmed since Return of the Jedi in 1983. Dark Forces II also introduced multiplayer gaming to the series, allowing players to play online or via a LAN. Nearly four years after the release of Dark Forces II , LucasArts announced at E3 2001 that Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast would be released in 2002. Unlike previous games in
20808-433: The case of Portal , the 'gun' the player character carries is used to create portals through walls rather than fire projectiles). Some commentators also extend the definition to include combat flight simulators and space battle games, whenever the cockpit of the aircraft is depicted from a first-person point of view. Like most shooter games, first-person shooters involve an avatar , one or more ranged weapons , and
21012-628: The character they are controlling (usually from behind, or above). The primary design focus is combat, mainly involving firearms or other types of long range weapons. A defining feature of the genre is "player-guided navigation through a three-dimensional space." This is a defining characteristic that clearly distinguishes the genre from other types of shooting games that employ a first-person perspective , including light gun shooters , rail shooters , shooting gallery games , or older shooting electro-mechanical games . First person-shooter games are thus categorized as being distinct from light gun shooters,
21216-526: The choppy frame rate and slowdown "plague most of the game", and compared the game unfavorably to Doom and PowerSlave . Next Generation noted that " Dark Forces fails on some technical levels as a port", but commented positively on the variety of level designs, challenge level, and use of audio, and concluded more favorably, "Not quite as intense as Doom or Disruptor , but surely better than crap like Kileak , Dark Forces will certainly satisfy Star Wars fans looking for their own little touch of
21420-582: The computer versions. The game also did well financially, selling almost 1 million copies in the United States by 1999. The game's success launched the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series, beginning with the direct sequel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II in 1997. A remastered version of the game was developed by Nightdive Studios , and was released on Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , and Xbox Series X/S on February 28, 2024. A community made port entitled The Force Engine reached 1.0 on December 20, 2022. Dark Forces
21624-416: The construction of complex cinematic storylines with a well defined cast of secondary characters to interact with. Furthermore, certain puzzle or platforming games are also sometimes categorized as first-person shooters, in spite of lacking any direct combat or shooting element, instead using a first-person perspective to help players immerse within the game and better navigate 3D environments (for example, in
21828-431: The context, other first-person shooters may incorporate some imaginative variations, including futuristic prototypes, alien-technology or magical weapons, and/or implementing a wide array of different projectiles, from lasers, to energy, plasma, rockets, and arrows. These many variations may also be applied to the tossing of grenades, bombs, spears and the like. Also, more unconventional modes of destruction may be employed by
22032-457: The current tendency to release most titles as cross-platform, like many games in the Far Cry and Call of Duty series. First-person shooters are a type of shooter game that relies on a first-person point of view with which the player experiences the action through the eyes of the character . They differ from third-person shooters in that, in a third-person shooter, the player can see
22236-447: The decade following Return of the Jedi . The Jedi Knight series began in 1995 with the release of Star Wars: Dark Forces for DOS , Macintosh , and PlayStation . This was followed in 1997 by Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II for Microsoft Windows , in which Katarn learns the ways of a Jedi. In 1998, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith was released as an expansion pack for Dark Forces II , this time giving
22440-495: The developers. LucasArts requested the game to be produced for both DOS and Macintosh with the same system requirements , specifically the random-access memory (RAM). The Mac OS runs a graphical user interface which uses up RAM while DOS does not, meaning the Macintosh version has less RAM available for Dark Forces to use. Aaron Giles, who was the Macintosh programmer for Dark Forces , explained that to resolve this problem
22644-584: The earlier platformers Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II ), released as shareware the 29th of January 1996, which ran on the then new Build engine developed by Ken Silverman with the support of John Carmack . Duke Nukem 3D won acclaim for its humour based around stereotyped machismo as well as its adrenalinic gameplay and graphics. However, some found the game's (and later the whole series') treatment of women to be derogatory and tasteless. Witchaven 2: Blood Vengeance , developed by Capstone Software and published by their parent company IntraCorp
22848-444: The enemy attack dogs with giant rats to allow it to be released on SNES because of their anti-violence policy. id Software released a map editor to let players create and share online their own home-made maps for the game which started the players' modding communities who blossomed with Doom and maintain their games alive continuously sustaining new content for them. During Doom 's development, id Software quickly developed
23052-832: The environment to varying degrees, from basics such as using doors, to problem solving puzzles based on a variety of interactive objects. In some games, the player can damage the environment, also to varying degrees: one common device is the use of barrels containing explosive material which the player can shoot, harming nearby enemies. Other games feature environments which are extensively destructible, allowing for additional visual effects. The game world will often make use of science fiction, historic (particularly World War II ) or modern military themes, with such antagonists as aliens , monsters , terrorists and soldiers of various types. Games feature multiple difficulty settings; in harder modes, enemies are tougher, more aggressive and do more damage, and power-ups are limited. In easier modes,
23256-529: The exception of the fist, have a secondary mode which makes it have a different effect than in primary mode. The player has health and shields which are damaged by enemy attacks and some environmental hazards, and may be replenished through power-ups. In addition to combat, Dark Forces provides physical obstacles for the character, such as jumping from ledges or traversing across flowing rivers, and includes multi-step puzzles such as mazes controlled by switches. The storyline of Dark Forces follows Kyle Katarn ,
23460-407: The experience, and became even more prominent with the diffusion of internet connectivity in recent years. Although earlier games predate it by 20 years, Wolfenstein 3D (1992) was the highest-profile archetype upon which most subsequent first-person shooters were based. One such game, considered the progenitor of the genre's mainstream acceptance and popularity, was Doom (1993), often cited as
23664-580: The final game. Shadow Warrior , developed and published by 3D Realms the 13th of May 1997, introduced 3D voxels instead of 2D sprites for weapons and inventory items as well as weapons' secondary firing mode, climbable ladders, true room-over-room situations, transparent water, some vehicles to drive, and a brand new Asian hero named Lo Wang into a brand new Asian setting in contrast to its predecessor Duke Nukem 3D's occidental atmosphere and Shadow Warrior, just as its predecessor, features deliberately immature and politically incorrect humor, as well as
23868-424: The first game's issues and it was their last game before going extinct as they were developing a Build-based sequel to their previous Wolf3D -based game Corridor 7 when their parent company IntraCorp went bankrupt . Witchaven 2 was open-sourced in 2006 then source-ported into BuildGDX by its community which fixed most of its original issues in 2018. The game PowerSlave was initially designed using
24072-445: The first-person shooter genre. To produce these new features, the developers wrote a game engine from scratch. The Jedi game engine can create gameplay and graphical elements such as fully 3D objects , atmospheric effects such as fog and haze, animated textures and shading. Stinnett indicated that the developers wanted these elements to be part of an "active environment," and features were included to create this: "ships come and go at
24276-420: The flag , in which teams attempt to penetrate the opposing base, capture a flag and return it to their own base whilst preventing the other team from doing the same. Other game modes may involve attempting to capture enemy bases or areas of the map, attempting to take hold of an object for as long as possible while evading other players, or deathmatch variations involving limited lives or in which players fight over
24480-527: The flight decks, rivers sweep along, platforms and conveyor belts move and much of the machinery functions." The Dark Troopers in Dark Forces were created specifically for the game by Justin Chin and Paul Mica. Chin notes that they were designed as a more advanced enemy when compared to standard stormtroopers: "Instead of just beefing up the stormtroopers, I designed them to be more efficient. I wanted something more terrifying and more omnipotent." Three designs for
24684-430: The floor, and Ken himself voiced the protagonist and filled his game with pictures of himself which hurt the player if they dared to shoot them, which made his game personal. Epic MegaGames , then Wolfenstein 3D 's publisher Apogee Software 's main competitor, noticed it, saw potential, then signed a commercial agreement with Ken's father, as Ken was still minor. However, the original Advanced Systems' Ken's Labyrinth
24888-422: The force." Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, and stated that " Dark Forces will be judged by Doom' s standards and, in most of the crucial areas, it falls just short." Next Generation reviewed the Macintosh version of the game, and stated that "Purposeful mission objectives [...] and various neato features [...] lift Dark Forces out of the faceless swamp of first-person crawlers and into
25092-495: The form of up to 12 players' deathmatch and team deathmatch modes (believed to be the first FPS game to allow that many players) and 8 additional maps made specially for it. In deathmatch, the player could choose among 12 of the game 's characters both humans and aliens who had different speed and health stats, however all characters used the same weapons though. Corridor 7 was a significant improvement after Capstone's previous FPS game Operation Body Count (read above),
25296-412: The game along with some score 's points. This is not what Wisdom Tree had originally designed though, since they originally designed a FPS game based on the horror movies Hellraiser themselves adapted from Clive Barker 's novels , until they realized that this was in contradiction with their christian social image then designed Super 3D Noah's Ark instead. A popular rumor has it that Wolf3D engine
25500-406: The game being too short, as well as lacking a multiplayer feature. Steven Kent of The Seattle Times believed that the general aspects of the game appeal to most computer gamers, not just Star Wars fans. Kent argued that the Star Wars setting is a high point for the game, saying that the level designs recreate the Star Wars style well: "Though most of the Dark Forces sets are original to
25704-412: The game requires a strategic method to progress, often involving manipulation of the environment. This style of gameplay has remained constant in all Jedi Knight games. Another aspect that has remained the same since Dark Forces is the use of John Williams ' soundtrack from the Star Wars films. In Dark Forces the music was implemented using iMuse , software that alters the music depending on what
25908-418: The game to eventually name his black metal band after it. Witchaven was open-sourced in 2006 then source-ported into JFBuild by JonoF and into BuildGDX by its community which fixed most of its original issues in 2018. William Shatner's TekWar , developed by Capstone Software and published by SoftKey Multimedia Inc. the 30th of September 1995, barely ten days after Witchaven (read above),
26112-510: The game's code with him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where with help from Dave Lebling to create an eight-player version that could be played over ARPANET , computer-run players using artificial intelligence, customizable maps, online scoreboards and a spectator mode. Spasim had a documented debut at the University of Illinois in 1974 on the PLATO mainframe system. The game
26316-409: The game, causing frequent bandwidth reductions. Doom has been considered the most important first-person shooter ever made. It was highly influential not only on subsequent shooter games but on video gaming in general, and has been made available on almost every video gaming system since. Multiplayer gaming, which is now integral to the first-person shooter genre, was first successfully achieved on
26520-612: The game, they were created in the ' Star Wars ' spirit." Dark Forces ' gameplay has been described as "challenging" and has generally received praise. Ron Dulin, reviewing the game for GameSpot , highlights the implementation of puzzles within levels: "The levels are diverse and ingenious, with plenty of creative obstacles standing between you and your goal. While they can be occasionally frustrating, Dark Forces ' diverse gameplay requirements make this title more mentally challenging than your average key hunt." The graphics and sound were both praised as helping to immerse
26724-491: The game; the families of several victims later unsuccessfully attempted to sue numerous video game companies - among them id Software - whose work the families claimed inspired the massacre. John Carmack explained how he designed his Doom engine to Ken Silverman that he considered his only equal which inspired Ken who was in the process of developing his Build engine . Operation Body Count , developed on Wolf3D engine and released by Capstone Software on 1 January 1994,
26928-458: The gameplay leaning more towards ranged combat. In Dark Forces II , the player has the option of a third-person view , plus an option to switch automatically to third-person when the lightsaber is the selected weapon. Three types of Force powers are introduced in this game: Light powers provide non violent advantages, Dark powers provide violent ones, while Neutral powers enhance athletic abilities. The game has two endings, depending on whether
27132-402: The gameplay, which in combination with some control issues make the game frustrating to play, and a disappointment in light of its strong performance on PC. Alex Constantides of Computer and Video Games offers the same view, saying that the game is "visually dated." GamePro ' s Major Mike praised the action, depth of gameplay, weapons, sound effects, music, and graphic effects, but said
27336-602: The internet, and custom levels and maps were created for the game. The popularity of characters from Dark Forces resulted in LucasArts licensing toys based on the game. Hasbro produced Kyle Katarn and Dark Trooper toys, which are among Star Wars in other media items to be turned into action figures . The Dark Troopers were also included in books and comics, and later became canon in The Mandalorian ' s Chapter 14: The Tragedy . William C. Dietz 's novelizations of
27540-467: The limitations this would impose on the story, the developers designed a new character, Kyle Katarn. Even before the release of Dark Forces , Justin Chin had planned out Katarn's role in Dark Forces II , indicating that Katarn would face a "big trial" in a game that would be a "rite of passage." Chin became project leader for Dark Forces II . In the game, the digital audio from Dark Forces
27744-523: The location. Katarn travels to the Valley of the Jedi while learning the ways of the Jedi himself. Eventually, he confronts and defeats Jerec, avenging his father's death. However, Katarn still does not join the Jedi Order, instead using his powers for the New Republic , and taking on an apprentice with a similar history to himself; Mara Jade . During this time, Katarn learns of a Sith temple on
27948-457: The majority of the series, the player controls Kyle Katarn, who begins as a mercenary , eventually learning the ways of The Force, becoming a Jedi Master and teaching at the Jedi Academy. Prior to the events of Dark Forces , Katarn was a student studying to follow in his father's career of agricultural mechanics. However, while at an academy, he was told by officials that the Rebel Alliance had killed his parents. His anger led him to enlist in
28152-573: The market as 3D Realms thanks to Ken Silverman and some personality. Doom , released the 10th of December 1993, refined Wolfenstein 3D's template by adding support for higher resolution, improved textures, variations in height (e.g., stairs and platforms the player's character could climb upon), more intricate level design ( Wolfenstein 3D was limited to a grid based system where walls had to be orthogonal to each other, whereas Doom allowed for any inclination) and rudimentary illumination effects such as flickering lights and areas of darkness, creating
28356-450: The market while a challenger Captone Software persisted at attempting to be original and compete with them and failed every time for diverse reasons where another challenger LucasArts succeeded and Bungie Software made FPS games featuring a complex plot, the modding communities who sustain life into their games blossomed starting from Doom, 2D sprites were replaced with 3D polygons starting from Descent then Quake and Apogee Software returned on
28560-530: The market, with Apogee Software/3D Realms and Epic MegaGames being their main competitors. This technological race, monopoly, and three-ways rivalry started during the Wolfenstein 3D's era from 1992 to 1993. Wolfenstein 3D was the first episodic FPS game developed by id Software , as a successor to the successful 1980s 2D infiltration video-games Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein from Muse Software , and published by Apogee Software
28764-404: The memory had to be managed more efficiently. Music for Star Wars: Dark Forces was mostly original works composed by Clint Bajakian , though they are based on cues from John Williams ' original Star Wars works through the utilization of the iMUSE system to create interactive music. The game also features full speech and sound effects in stereo. Dark Forces achieved a strong following on
28968-407: The most influential game in this category; for years, the term "Doom clone" was used to designate this type of game, due to Doom ' s enormous success. Another common name for the genre in its early days was "corridor shooter", since processing limitations of that era's computer hardware meant that most of the action had to take place in enclosed areas, such as corridors and small rooms. During
29172-469: The only way to get rid of some invulnerable enemies, water fountains which slowly restored health (much like in Duke Nukem 3D three years later), changed the goal from the original's merely escaping the labyrinth to rescue the player's abducted dog Sparky and save the world, added the requirement to have Sparky follow the player to the exit of each floor to be able to reach the next floor, which made
29376-439: The other for looking and aiming . It is common to display the character's hands and weaponry in the main view, with a heads-up display showing health, ammunition and location details. Often, it is possible to overlay a map of the surrounding area. First-person shooters generally focus on action gameplay, with fast-paced combat and dynamic firefights being a central point of the experience, though certain titles may also place
29580-635: The pair travel to Coruscant , where Kyle infiltrates a computer vault which reveals the location of the Ergo fuel station, the final stage of the smuggling route. Masquerading as a smuggler, Kyle infiltrates the Super Star Destroyer Executor and then the Arc Hammer starship, General Mohc's headquarters and the location of the Dark Trooper Project's final stage. After killing Mohc (who is wearing Dark Trooper armor), Kyle destroys
29784-513: The planet Dromund Kaas . There, Katarn is corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force. However, Jade is able to convince him to return to the Light and they leave together. This incident causes Katarn to distance himself from the Force and return to mercenary missions with Jan Ors. In Jedi Outcast , Ors is captured by Desann , a former pupil of Luke Skywalker who has turned to the Dark Side. Katarn believes Desann to have killed Ors, and so he returns to
29988-403: The playable character, such as flames, electricity, telekinesis or other supernatural powers, and traps. In the early era of first-person shooters, often designers allowed characters to carry a large number of different weapons with little to no reduction in speed or mobility. More modern games started to adopt a more realistic approach, where the player can only equip a handheld gun, coupled with
30192-495: The player can succeed through reaction times alone; on more difficult settings, it is often necessary to memorize the levels through trial and error. First-person shooters may feature a multiplayer mode, taking place on specialized levels. Some games are designed specifically for multiplayer gaming, and have very limited single player modes in which the player competes against game-controlled characters termed "bots". Massively multiplayer online first-person shooters like those in
30396-416: The player chooses to focus on the Light Side or the Dark Side. Unlike its predecessor, Mysteries of the Sith has a single, morally positive course, as the player progresses through the game in a linear fashion. The game includes most of the enemies featured in Dark Forces II , plus some new monsters. The player has access to Force powers and projectile weapons such as a blaster or railgun , as well as
30600-426: The player control of Mara Jade as well as Katarn. In 2002, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was released. Jedi Outcast was developed by Raven Software and powered by the id Tech 3 game engine . It was released for Windows, Mac, Xbox and GameCube . Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy followed in 2003 on Windows, Mac and Xbox. It was powered by the same game engine as its predecessor. Jedi Academy
30804-537: The player drew a weapon who they begged to not shoot while holding their hands up and ran away for their life whereas cops drew their gun onto the player and ordered him to drop their weapon and enemies shot him on sight from everywhere without the cops ever reacting whereas they shot the player if he dared to shoot back at the enemies, which is the main issue with this game: everyone is allowed to shoot you but you are not allowed to shoot anyone. Some civilians were actually kamikaze androids who self-destructed when close to
31008-419: The player from areas with toxic atmosphere. Many inventory items are powered by batteries (separate from weapon ammunition types) which can be found around the levels. For combat, the player may use fists, explosive land mines and thermal detonators, as well as blasters and other ranged weapons. All player weapons except the fist require ammunition, which can be collected in power-ups. All weapons, again with
31212-468: The player have to pay attention to another character beside their own, and commercialized Ken's Labyrinth v2 still as shareware the 21st of March 1993. All versions of Ken's Labyrinth got to be source-ported many times and even onto Nintendo Switch by a fan. As soon as id Software showed off some previews of Doom in the middle of its development, Ken Silverman started to develop his own game engine to rival with John Carmack once again, used
31416-463: The player in the environment. The PlayStation version of Dark Forces received less positive reviews. It held an aggregate score on GameRankings of 60%. GameSpot wrote, "Though the speed of the Playstation allows for smooth movement, Dark Forces boasts a horrendously choppy frame rate ." IGN made a similar point; "Unlike the PC and Mac versions, PlayStation Dark Forces is grainier than
31620-576: The player is an unnamed mercenary (sometimes referred to as the Strifeguy) who joins the Front to fight the Order's oppressive rule while being remotely assisted by a Front's radio operative woman nicknamed Blackbird who occasionally comments with humor the situations that the player encounters. However despite all of its innovations, Strife went relatively unnoticed because it was released right between
31824-466: The player moved around. Despite some of its original ideas , it was badly made, the terrorists were stereotypes of Arabian people, the AI was not smart enough to make nor the enemies pose any challenge nor the squad's teammates be actually useful, and being based on Wolf3D engine after Doom was released made it already technologically outdated and "doomed" from the start as opposite to Blake Stone which did enjoy one week of glory before Doom
32028-451: The player though. During the Doom & Quake's era from 1993 to 1997, FPS games were still all about their game engines as original and innovative games were ignored for the only reason that their game engine was outdated. FPS games were simplistic shoot them all without any complex plot however their gameplay started to evolve and the combo id Software & Raven Software still dominated
32232-531: The player to find other weapons and save the strongest weapons for the strongest foes, evolving stats from earned experience where each level up unlocked new spells and abilities such as lockpicking in the form of an unlocking spell as well as dual wielding some weapons. The campaign involved a knight on an epic quest to defeat a witch who cast a curse of never-ending darkness onto his land. In order to complete this quest, he had to battle hordes of minions with both medieval weapons and magical spells to reach
32436-425: The player's approach, weather effects, some destructible objects, scripted environmental changes such as earthquakes, different character classes to allow different playstyles as well as interconnected maps through hub maps instead of the standard linear succession of maps which granted a taste of open-world in a FPS game. Apogee Software , then renamed 3D Realms , followed up with Duke Nukem 3D (sequel to
32640-492: The player's choices and actions, some burning effects as well as some infiltration gameplay such as stealth, disguises and alarms. The plot takes place in a medieval world struck by a comet which released a virus which wiped out almost all life on the planet and corrupted most of the remaining people who created a high-tech theocratic new world order known as "The Order" whereas the few remaining free people organized into an underground resistance known as "The Front" and
32844-459: The player, taking them into their explosion . Half of the game also took place into the Matrix. William Shatner's TekWar was the worst of Capstone's FPS games however it still got to be source-ported into BuildGDX. Raven Software upgraded the Doom engine further and released Hexen: Beyond Heretic the 30th of October 1995 which added jumping, more immersive environments with effects such as swirling leaves or scattering bats upon
33048-583: The players to use teamwork and strategy in order to succeed; the players can often command a squad of characters, which may be controlled by the A.I. or by human teammates, and can be given different tasks during the course of the mission. First-person shooters typically present players with a vast arsenal of weapons, which can have a large impact on how they will approach the game. Some games offer realistic reproductions of actual existing (or even historical) firearms, simulating their rate of fire, magazine size, ammunition amount, recoil and accuracy. Depending on
33252-446: The range of all weapons at once, also replaced the original final boss with Ken himself, added diverse monsters, temporary power-ups such as reflecting enemies' projectiles, kill enemies on contact, and invincibility, as well as treasures for buying these power-ups from vending-machines and for paying doors' toll, slot-machines to win coins instead of finding treasures in secret areas, death-traps such as holes in floors which were
33456-437: The release of Duke Nukem 3D , id Software released the much anticipated Quake the 22nd of June 1996. Like Doom , Quake was influential and genre-defining, featuring fast-paced, gory gameplay, within a completely 3D game environment, and making use of real-time rendered polygonal models instead of sprites. It was centered on online gaming and featured multiple match types still found in first-person shooter games today. It
33660-441: The same color within the floor whereas some computers were traps which triggered an alarm which attracted nearby enemies to the player. Capstone Software released Corridor 7 first as floppy disks , then as a CD-ROM the 6th of May 1995 which featured a different soundtrack , randomization of placements within floors, and added 10 more levels into the alien homeworld with new weapons and alien types along with multiplayer in
33864-618: The same in Catacomb 3-D . Catacomb 3-D also introduced the display of the protagonist's hand and weapon (in this case, magical spells) on the screen, whereas previously aspects of the player's avatar were not visible. The experience of developing Ultima Underworld would make it possible for Looking Glass to create the Thief and System Shock series years later. From Wolfenstein 3D to Quake, FPS games were all about their game engines. id Software & Raven Software completely dominated
34068-399: The secret areas. Despite its violent themes, Wolfenstein largely escaped the controversy generated by the later Doom , although it was banned from Germany due to the use of Nazi iconography which is a sensitive topic there where Wolfenstein has been forbidden until 2022 and Nintendo too required id Software to remove blood , gore, and all Nazi iconography as well as replace
34272-429: The series has progressed. In the first game, Dark Forces , the focus is on combat against various creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe, and includes environmental puzzles and hazards, whilst following a central storyline outlined in mission briefings and cutscenes . For combat, the player may use fists, explosive land mines and thermal detonators, as well as blasters and other ranged weapons , with
34476-467: The series were remastered for later high-definition generations of video games, starting with remasters of Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2019 and 2020 respectively by Aspyr . In 2024, the first game in the series, Dark Forces , was remastered on all major eighth and ninth-generation consoles released after the Wii U by Nightdive Studios , currently leaving
34680-535: The series, Jedi Outcast was not developed in-house by LucasArts, but by Raven Software. The subsequent success of Outcast led LucasArts to continue the partnership with Raven, leading to the development of Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy a year later; "With the overwhelming success and critical acclaim of Star Wars: Jedi Outcast , continuing an alliance with Activision and Raven Software was a clear and very easy decision," said then-president of LucasArts, Simon Jeffery . Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are both powered by
34884-633: The ship and escapes, while Darth Vader watches from the Executor , commenting that the Dark Trooper Project's destruction is an unfortunate setback and that the Force is strong with Katarn. For his bravery and heroic actions, Kyle is awarded the Star of Alderaan by the Alliance. Development of Dark Forces was led by Daron Stinnett. The programming was led by Ray Gresko, and the graphics and storyline by Justin Chin. Production began in September 1993, at
35088-534: The specific design elements which constitute a first-person shooter. For example, titles like Deus Ex or BioShock may be considered as first-person shooters, but may also fit into the role-playing games category, as they borrow extensively from that genre. Other examples, like Far Cry and Rage , could also be considered adventure games , because they focus more on exploration than simple action, they task players with multiple different objectives other than just killing enemies, and they often revolve around
35292-411: The spirit of Ragnos, and is lauded for their actions by Katarn and Luke. Production of Star Wars: Dark Forces began in September 1993, with Daron Stinnett as project leader and Justin Chin as lead writer. The developers wanted to adapt the first-person shooter format to include strategy and puzzles, which at the time, had never been done. Dark Forces thus features numerous logic puzzles and parts of
35496-409: The story. The missions take place in a variety of environments across the Star Wars universe, including a Star Destroyer interior, Jabba the Hutt 's yacht, and the planet Coruscant , where the player must infiltrate a computer vault. Dark Forces ' gameplay expands on the FPS standards set by Doom in 1993, and features gameplay elements that are now common in the FPS genre. These include
35700-413: The third available after registration; and the three last prequel episodes available as a separate mission pack, to the point that it has since been credited for having single-handedly invented the concept of first-person-shooter as a genre of video-games. It was built on John Carmack 's ray casting technology already experimented into id's previous games Hovertank One and Catacomb 3D to create
35904-402: The time of release, including level designs with multiple floors, and the ability to look up and down. Upon release, the PC and Macintosh versions of the game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its level design and technological advances, though the PlayStation version was criticized for having poor graphics and slow frame rates which make it much less enjoyable than
36108-439: The traditional sense, making for a somewhat more believable overall experience. The game was praised for its artificial intelligence , selection of weapons and attention to detail and "has since been recognized as one of the greatest games of all time" according to GameSpot. Its sequel, Half-Life 2 , (released in 2004), was less influential though "arguably a more impressive game". Kyle Katarn Star Wars: Jedi Knight
36312-414: The truth about his parents' death: the Empire were the ones who had them killed, and not the Rebels as he had been told by officials. This revelation caused Kyle to distrust the Empire, and he eventually defected in order to rescue Jan, who had been found to be supplying information to the Rebels and arrested. Escaping from the Empire together, the pair became mercenaries, and eventually began taking jobs from
36516-456: The two other overwhelmingly popular games Duke Nukem 3D and Quake which made the Doom engine already outdated by then. Still, players who discovered it many years after its original release appreciated its originality for its time and even compared it to Deus Ex and Marathon . Doom 's modding community source-ported Strife into GZDoom to update and upgrade it from its original version to modern standards. Shortly after
36720-435: The visor's battery, some aliens who camouflaged into the environments (like Blake Stone: Planet Strike released half a year later), screen jumpscares whenever the player was idle for 10 seconds, body armors , limited-use healing chambers, force fields which hurt the player if they walked into them, mines to trap corridors, maps of the floors, and replaced keys with security computer screens which unlocked all doors of
36924-504: The witch on her volcanic island . It featured digitized graphics , however the characters made of clay didn't appeal to everyone and the environments were empty, as well as adjustable level of gore, the same Corridor 7 's trick to spawn a screen jumpscare whenever the player is idle, and it is known for game logic issues, dumb AI , hazardous map triggers and game physics that cause slippery player movement, sudden deaths, and faulty hit detection. That didn't stop an original fan of
37128-467: Was Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss , a March 1992 action role-playing game by Looking Glass Technologies that featured a first-person viewpoint and an advanced graphics engine. In October 1990, id developer John Romero learned about texture mapping from a phone call to Paul Neurath. Romero described the texture mapping technique to id programmer John Carmack , who remarked, "I can do that.", and would feel motivated by Looking Glass's example to do
37332-524: Was Capstone's first FPS game, was all about a terrorist attack on the UNO tower, and was an early attempt at making a tactical FPS game since the player was in command of an anti-terrorist squad that they could order around and even switch to any of their body at any time as long as they were not dead and featured some digitized graphics , transparent textures such as breakable glass, randomization of enemies and items' placement, body armors , booby-traps , and
37536-446: Was a medieval fantasy First Person Slasher game as in a melee -focused FPS game, reminiscent of Raven Software 's Heretic including an inventory system, both a single-player campaign and multiplayer, but far harder as it was far more tactical , making use of environmental hazards such as magma and traps against enemies, while implementing more of a RPG gameplay such as weapons' durability which broke after many uses, requiring
37740-623: Was a finalist in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences "Interactive Achievement Awards" in the 2002 Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year category. The game also received commendations from PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World . Gameplay aspects of the series have also been well received. The lightsaber charted at number 7 in UGO Networks 's countdown of the 50 best weapons in video games. The publication commented that using such
37944-498: Was a rudimentary space flight simulator for up to 32 players, featuring a first-person perspective. Both games were distinct from modern first-person shooters, involving simple tile-based movement where the player could only move from square to square and turn in 90-degree increments. Such games spawned others that used similar visuals to display the player as part of a maze (such as Akalabeth: World of Doom in 1979), and were loosely called "rat's eye view" games, since they gave
38148-424: Was because of his "mishmash of quirks and dispositions." In GameSpot 's vote for the all-time greatest videogame hero, Katarn was eliminated in round two when faced against Lara Croft , garnering 27.5% of the votes. In round one he defeated Dig Dug , with 67.6% of the votes. Previewing the PlayStation version of Star Wars: Dark Forces , Electronic Gaming Monthly called Katarn "a perfect character to star in
38352-460: Was begun in February 1994 and published by Raven Software the 1st of November 1994, marking the beginning of a new period for Raven who split into two groups: One which worked with id 's new DOOM engine to create Mage , a fantasy action game, which would eventually evolve into the game Heretic . The other team started on a project that was to use the engine from ShadowCaster to create
38556-662: Was close to Wolf3D engine . Then he improved his game with his friend Andrew Cotter, added narration to each floor , renamed it Ken's Labyrinth , and released it on Internet as shareware under his brother's company Advanced Systems on 1 January 1993. The game was about escaping a bizarre dream labyrinth full of people shooting projectiles at the player while projectiles were more balls than bullets, meaning they had limited range and were slow enough to dodge them as opposite to Wolfenstein 3D whose weapons were hitscan firearms , some walls reflected projectiles, killed enemies vanished without any death animation nor remnant body on
38760-480: Was created that could handle moving platforms, catwalks, sloped areas, and transparent textures. The engine, by Carl Stika, was nicknamed STEAM. A small budget was granted for full-motion video sequences to be created for the game, to be presented between missions as briefings. CyClones allowed to use the mouse to aim without moving, as opposite to other FPS games from the time which bound the mouse to both aiming and moving simultaneously, and without turning either, as
38964-474: Was given to Wisdom Tree by id Software as a kind of " revenge " against Nintendo for all the censorship that Wolfenstein 3D had to go through to be on the Super Nintendo. However, there's no proof of this, and Wisdom Tree bought a license for the game engine like everybody else instead of having it "given" to them. The SNES version was not licensed by Nintendo and therefore couldn't be played on
39168-457: Was highly acclaimed for its atmospheric single-player campaign and well designed multiplayer maps. It featured a sniper rifle , the ability to perform head-shots, and the incorporation of stealth elements (all of these aspects were also included in the game's spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark ) as well as some Virtua Cop -inspired features such as weapon reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocents, and
39372-484: Was initially well-received but sales rapidly declined in the wake of the success of id's Doom , released a week later. It still got a sequel Blake Stone: Planet Strike the 28th of October 1994 which integrated the auto-map into the HUD as a rotating mini-map which revealed secret doors at the cost of consuming auto-mapper charges and added some enemies who camouflaged into the environment or were cloaked to surprise
39576-424: Was intended to be the main character in the game, however the developers realized that this would add constraints to gameplay and storyline. Instead a new character, Kyle Katarn, was created. New gameplay mechanisms that were not common in the first-person shooter genre at the time of release include the ability to look up and down, duck, jump, and swim. The use of multiple floor levels is another technical advance in
39780-404: Was made from Ken and Andrew's limited resources to the point that Ken made the sound effects with his mouth, therefore Epic MegaGames made use of their resources to revamp the game, replaced the projectiles balls with bubble gum balls , starbursts which bounced off walls, and homing missiles , while collecting more of the same weapon increased their range and collecting thunderbolts increased
39984-414: Was originally developed in 1973 by Greg Thompson, Steve Colley and Howard Palmer, high-school students in a NASA work-study program trying to develop a program to help visualize fluid dynamics for spacecraft designs. The work became a maze game presented to the player in the first-person, and later included support for a second player and the ability to shoot the other player to win the game. Thompson took
40188-484: Was released. OBC still got to be source-ported into GZDoom and remastered by its modding community eventually though. Corridor 7: Alien Invasion , developed and published by Capstone Software the 1st of March 1994, was their second attempt to make a FPS game. Still based on Wolf3D engine , the plot reminds strikingly of Half-Life 's, four years later, since it was about scientific experiments with gamma beam on an alien artifact brought from Mars by
40392-407: Was replaced with CD audio . Dark Forces II adds two "Jedi" aspects to the series; the use of The Force and the lightsaber. The Force plays an integral role in how the player plays the game. The method of allocating credits to Force powers was designed with an RPG style in mind, allowing the player the choice of which powers to improve. Chin said in an early interview that progress through the game
40596-414: Was still based on the then outdated Wolf3D engine after Doom was released and therefore was "doomed" from the start too even if it did better than its predecessor, it was still not technologically on par with Doom and Capstone moved onto another new game engine after this game. Still, Corridor 7 was so appreciated that it got to be source-ported only five years after its original release into
40800-437: Was the country's 11th-best-selling computer game since January 1993. First-person shooter A first-person shooter ( FPS ) is a video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a first-person perspective , with the player experiencing the action directly through the eyes of the main character . This genre shares multiple common traits with other shooter games , and in turn falls under
41004-468: Was the first FPS game to gain a cult following of player clans (although the concept had existed previously in MechWarrior 2 ' s Netmech , with its Battletech lore as well as amongst MUD players), and would inspire popular LAN parties and events such as QuakeCon . The game's popularity and use of 3D polygonal graphics also helped to expand the growing market for video card hardware; and
41208-481: Was the first game in the series where the player does not control Katarn at any point, although he is featured prominently in the storyline. The games in the Jedi Knight series have received generally favorable reviews. Multiple publications have commented on the quality of the series as a whole. The use of the lightsaber in the series, a prominent gameplay element in all but the first game, has received specific praise for its implementation. The Jedi Knight series
41412-452: Was the second commercial game licensed on Apogee Software rebranded 3D Realms ' Ken Silverman 's new Build engine to rival id Software 's John Carmack 's Doom engine and was a FPS game adapted from William Shatner 's TekWar novels and TV series who personally contributed to the video-game to the point of live-acting the player's boss during briefings and debriefings. William Shatner's TekWar , both novels, TV series and video-game,
41616-420: Was the third-highest-selling game for Mac OS . According to PC Data, which tracked sales in the United States, Dark Forces had sold 928,469 units and earned $ 37.1 million in revenue in the United States. This led PC Data to declare it the country's ninth-best-selling computer game for the period between January 1993 and April 1998. Sales in the region rose to 952,033 copies by September 1999; by that time, it
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