When it was first released in 1997, LucasArts’ masterpiece Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II was hailed as “the best first-person shooter since Doom.” Its large-scale world design and seamless blend of puzzles and combat pushed the genre in bold new directions, moving players from narrow corridors to a wide open, interactive world and setting the stage for games like Half-Life and Thief: The Dark Project. While more visible gameplay elements grabbed players’ attention more readily, the sounds of Dark Forces II were what truly enabled LucasArts to create a fully immersive experience unlike anything gamers had seen to date. In this essay, I explore the use of sound in Dark Forces II: how it established the atmosphere; how it paid tribute to Doom, Quake, and the existing Star Wars universe; and how it distinguished itself from anything that had come before.
…
Read the full article on Deep Hell.