Basic Details
- Title: DarkForce
- File Name: hl1-sp-dark-force.7z
- Original File Name: darkforce_v10.exe
- Size : 14.8Mb
- Author: THIEF
- Date Released: 26 December 2001
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Meta Review Data
Statistics based on 4 comment(s) with meta review data.
Installed:
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 54 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Dmitry
Longest: 1 Hours, 5 Mins by monster_urby
Total Time Played: 3 Hours, 35 Mins
Using Gauge: Users
Manually: 4 Users
Time Taken:
Average: 0 Hours, 54 Mins
Shortest: 0 Hours, 30 Mins by Dmitry
Longest: 1 Hours, 5 Mins by monster_urby
Total Time Played: 3 Hours, 35 Mins
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I’m stuck at the very beginning of the Frozen Land chapter. What do I need to do ?
I don’t know, I can’t run HL at the moment and I haven’t played it. I suggest you try the Ten Four Forums. Sorry I can’t be more help. Can anybody else help?
You probably already know but DarkForce is a preview release of: Escape From the Darkness, so you shouldn’t spend too long worrying about it.
thank you phillip. I find it a great release to play these mods. will start this one today.
finished dark force, the ending is the pit’s. hehe. boxes are very hard to open I guess bamming with a m-16 isnt as good as a crowbar.
all in all not bad.
megaman951 shoot the rock face to the left of the computer high above use a grenade in will cut the power took me a few times to figure it out
Good mod. Difficult to work out what to do some times, but you get used to Thief’s way. Modified HUD and weapon sounds. Original idea for a replacement for the crowbar. Same level of play throughout but in varied environments. No real climax and a weird end. No bugs. Good installer.
3.5/5
As Phillip says, this is a rehearsal for ‘Escape from the Darkness’ which is basically the same but with much better graphic content, and even more different HUD and weapon sounds.
“Sneak preview” of “Escape From The Darkness” (“EFTD”). It’s not that long (~30 mins) and has some original ideas and great mapping with new textures, sounds etc.
I suggest to play “EFTD” instead this version, so it’s sort of pointless to play “DarkForce” after the final mod was released.
Nonetheless it contains solid, tough combat but many essential are missing (which are included in “EFTD”).
There’s no story and it indeed feels like rehearsal version, as it feels just strange.
Puzzles are missing also, there are only a few. The good combat, mapping, graphics, layouts and the urge to move on saves it from worse rating.
A funny thing is the boss enemy at the end, sarge-like grunt with a minigun.
However, play “EFTD”, it’s much better, longer and absolutely worth playing.
(Dark Force is a preview release of the Escape From The Darkness project. The final version of that has now been released.)
If it weren’t for the brief info on FilePlanet, Dark Force would be a completely anonymous release because it doesn’t have a readme file of any sort. With a scant story and little else to differentiate it, it might seem to be a map pack at first glance best skipped. But skip not, because it turns out to be actually good.
Story aside, this map pack manages to be above-average almost everywhere else. The combat scales well with the skill settings, appropriately challenging on Difficult. As usual, Medium is recommended. There’s a good assortment of aliens and Marines in a variety of intriguing set-pieces, although these set-pieces are usually underwhelming. There are even a few nice Marine-alien battles that you can view (or at least listen to) from the sidelines.
Level design is remarkably good for an unknown author. Hard to tell if this is even a first release, because it lacks any noticeable beginner trademarks – clean and neat construction with no visible errors, good variation in texturing and architecture (including room dimensions), and overall the sort of polish one would expect from ambitious releases. In fact, based on level design alone this map pack starts looking suspiciously like the latest winner among the smaller partial conversions. And that’s not all, there are also the obligatory puzzles (some more mentally challenging than others), a variety of entertaining scripted sequences, liberal use of the Half-Life CD soundtrack (so make sure the CD is in there), and some well-composed custom music. Top this off with the custom sound effects that actually add to the experience (like the new walking sound, for example, which is a lot more realistic) and we have a map pack that could almost be a certifiable hit.
If only it weren’t for the lack of a good background threading the action together. It’s completely inconsistent that gameplay is so much more than the ridiculous excuse for a story, because gameplay like this usually goes hand-in-hand with an inspired story. It simply feels like half an experience, especially considering the head-scratching nature of the intro and finale. Still, Dark Force is a fine release worth playing.
Notes
This review is republished here by permission and was originally published Wednesday, 6th February, 2002 by Calyst.
This review was originally posted on the Ten Four Website, which is now offline. Permission has been granted to republish the full review and more details can be found on the About page.
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Manually
Medium
1 Hour
It was pretty okay, had some original ideas but most of the time it felt like running around the level without anything remarkable.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour
Dark Force happens in a Dark Ambient. Your crowbar is a black empty MP-5 weapons. Most of enemies are mostly soldiers, which is dark, because they are dangerous. Everything happens in Frozen Lands, dangerous and dark places with insane cold. Some cliffs are dangerous and you can fall easily from them to the ice water, that is dark. Sometimes there’re too many controllers in a small room, this is really dark and dangerous with even dead cliffs and electrified water. An alien enclosed in a tube under water, that is dark. Even music is dark. The last boss has a cigarette and is smoking while firing a minigun from the bridge. It cannot be darker!
Manually
Hard
30 Minutes
If I were to describe Dark Force in a single word, it would be “inconsistent.” The environments look great, except when they don’t. You can break open crates for weapons and ammo, except when you can’t. You are over-equipped and the combat is trivial, until it isn’t. It seems that rules which apply in one map do not carry over to the next and this is constant throughout the mod.
It has to be said, that when the environments look good, they really do shine. Some sections have the tell tale signs of an early Half-Life mod, where others look far more advanced. The outdoor sections especially are quite an accomplishment in Goldsource. There are some occasions where the environment doesn’t make a great deal of sense when examined closely. The hole in the storage room floor with a cactus growing out of it for instance? What happened here? And how long ago? In fact, cacti appear to be a recurring prop throughout the mod, even when you go to the frozen environments of chapter two.
The loadout granted to the player is quite trim in this mod. By the time I reached the end, I only had five weapons including the crowbar. Oh… on that note. The crowbar model in this game is quite frankly ridiculous. It’s an unloaded M4 which you never acquire any ammo for so it remains your only melee weapon throughout. Strange lore implications aside, it’s also a ridiculous screen hog, diagonally cutting across your entire field of view. This means that you sometimes cannot see the enemy you are charging towards and in vents it’s damn near useless. There are also moments where you are spammed by xen aliens with no ammo refills to hand, which lead to a situation where I was peaking out of a pipe, attempting to snipe a mounted 50cal with my shotgun. This was PAINFUL.
It’s quite amusing with the random letter capitalisation in all on screen text, suggesting a very early 2000s “edginess,” but the mod itself is frequently (and I expect unintentionally) silly. This is only amplified during the final credits; Clearly tied to a func_door entity, slowly scrolling while bit crushed music from The Matrix screeches away. Once the credits have rolled, and the mod naturally doesn’t return you to the menu, the credits slowly and awkwardly scroll back in the opposite direction.
I learned while playing that this is actually an early version of the mod Escape from the Darkness, which I have reviewed previously and was none too kind to. Screenshots shared by a fellow mod enjoyer show the exact same areas (including their issues) with additional details and texture changes. I was surprised to see that a lot of the gripes I mentioned in my EftD review were NOT present in this earlier version. I am almost tempted to replay it now, having played Dark Force, to see how the two line up and if my opinion changes. I did play it on Hard last time, where I played DF on Medium. May be a factor? We’ll see.
As for Dark Force, overall, I would say it’s fine. Frustrating at times but not overly long and at even pretty nice to look at on occasion. Your enjoyment of the game play will hinge purely on your tolerance for inconsistency.
Manually
Medium
1 Hour, 5 Minutes