History VideoGame / DarkForcesSaga

** If there aren't any convenient pits nearby, it is also possible to use Lv.3 Force Grip to lift an enemy off the ground, hold them up towards the ceiling/sky, and Force Push them high into the air. You can also Force Jump above them, then use Force Pull for the exact same thing. And that's not even getting into painfull electrocution via [[ShockAndAwe Force Lightning]] or [[AndIMustScream making them kill their friends and allies with their own hands, while they're unable to control their own bodies]]. Suffice it to say that a creative player can be ''very'' sadistic even without the dark side.

* ColonCancer: The full title of the latest installment should arguably be ''Star Wars: Dark Forces IV: Jedi Knight III: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy''.

A series of ''StarWars''-based FirstPersonShooter VideoGames, with accompanying novellas. They take place during and after the original trilogy, and revolve around Kyle Katarn, a Stormtrooper-turned-mercenary-turned-Jedi who roams around the seedy side of the galaxy. Kyle is one of the most popular ExpandedUniverse-only StarWars characters, due to his DeadpanSnarker dialogue combined with fun BadAss qualities.

* NeverTrustATrope: The famous "Never trust a bartender with [[{{Pluralses}} bad grammar]]."

** [[MonkeyIsland Murray]] does have powers after all.

* RecycledScript: Jedi Outcast. An imperial officer is building a [[Super Soldier]] army on a big [[Cool Starship]], like in Dark Forces. The Imperial Remnant invades Yavin 4 to destroy Luke's academy, like in the novel Darksaber.

* DemonicSpider: The Shadowtroopers.
** ''Academy'' introduces the player to a heavily armored Stormtrooper variant that utilizes the concussion rifle, and they are almost always seen in groups of 3 or more.

** In Academy, [[spoiler:Kyle Katarn]] gets a lot of unique moves if you fight him after going Dark Side. One is to grab your sword arm with one hand and ''punch you in the face'' with the other; it's unblockable and delivers a knockdown.
** These can be given to the player by using the console commands "give weapon_melee" and either "meleedebug 1" or "debugmelee 1" (it's one of the two). iknowkungfu also works, but gives max force powers, breaking the game (by locking you in the next coming level-up screen, because you don't have anything more to level) in single player.

* HyperspaceArsenal:

** An offshoot of the TropeNamer. Averted in ''Outcast,'' though, in which stormtroopers are ''much'' smarter and deadlier (not helped by the engine's fuzzy blaster hit detection). The levels taking place before you get Force powers will leave you in tears.

** If it comes to it, the Stormtrooper blaster rifle is generally not a very accurate weapon in the games even for the player. Only some weapons in ''Outcast'' and ''Academy'' are accurate enough that a shot flies exactly where you were aiming even at a distance; the blaster rifle is certainly not one of these, though with Force Sense at rank 2 or above you can force it to be perfectly accurate (somehow[[note]]The idea may be about "using your feelings" or whatever to aim better, but that doesn't really work when you can one-hand a blaster pistol with perfect accuracy no matter what, not to mention the millions of contradictory explanations in the series for ''why'' exactly the stormtrooper's rifle is so inaccurate in the first place[[/note]]).

** Most of the Force Powers in ''Jedi Outcast'' and ''Jedi Academy'' are like this, but Force Lightning is the most notable. At level 1, it fires a single weak bolt that can barely kill a single stormtrooper using your entire Force bar. At level 3, it fires a massive arc of lightning that can wipe out an entire roomful of stormtroopers in a second or two. It also sends them flying. You can even pin them against walls by maintaining the attack.

** [[EvilGenius Admiral Fyaar]] fights Kyle wearing a large suit of PoweredArmor as a boss battle about 3/4ths of the way through ''Jedi Outcast''.

** Levels in the games are generally built in such a way that they're a challenge to your ''current'' power set but would be a breeze for what you'll have later - take for example the low amount of platforming early in ''Outcast'' and ''Academy'' that could be bypassed in an instant with level 3 Force Jump, compared to ''extremely'' long jumps you have to make when you do get that power later. Incidentally, since non-core powers are unlocked at a rate that the player decides rather than at a set rate in ''Academy'', levels aren't built with those powers in mind - allowing you to, say, totally break the Rancor encounter on Nar Kreeta just by using Mind Trick on it, or instantly kill the assassin droids on Coruscant with Lightning.

* NintendoHard:
** ''Jedi Outcast,'' generally.

** A couple classes of PoweredArmor wearing stormtroopers appear as [[GiantMook giant mooks]] in ''Jedi Academy''. Namely, the 7-foot tall Rocket Troopers, who had jetpacks and heavy armor, and the 9-foot tall Hazard Troopers, who wear extremely heavy powered armor and are armed with {{BFG}}s.

** Also, in ''Outcast,'' retrieving your lightsaber involves a combination of depressing a switch, using Force speed, and Force-pulling it to you, even though the gaps in the bars are ''huge'' and Kyle could realistically just reach in and grab it--or use the Force to switch it on and cut the bars away.

* CraniumRide: A ridable Rancor can be summoned via cheat code on the PC version of ''Jedi Academy.''

** Kyle tells you that powers are not necessarily good or evil in the training level of ''Academy'', and you can choose between a light- or dark-side ending regardless of your power set. However, both Kyle and Luke still worry about you if you focus on dark-side powers, and in actual gameplay nobody (except Kyle and [[spoiler:Rosh]]) will use powers outside of their own alignment - in fairness, having every dark-side opponent able to use Heal, especially combined with their infinite Force pool, would probably make the game too difficult. Taken a step further in multiplayer, where, without mods, you're only allowed to pick one side's powers.
* FisticuffsBoss: In one level of ''Dark Forces'', Kyle is captured and stripped of his weapons by Jabba the Hutt, then forced to fight at least one kell dragon unarmed. (On hard mode, it's two.) After he is done punching it to death with his bare hands, another kell-dragon infested part of the level opens up, but the odds can end up a little more balanced in his favor if he chooses to force some grenade-carrying {{Mooks}} to part with their weapons.

'''Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight''' (1997) was the first game to feature first-person lightsaber battles. This story takes place after the events of the original trilogy. Here, Kyle learns of his Force potential and receives his own lightsaber, once owned by a Jedi Master named Rahn, whose spirit occasionally guides him in dreams and visions. He follows a lead to the Dark Jedi Jerec, with the intent [[YouKilledMyFather to avenge his father's murder]] (which he recently learned was not done by the Rebels, as the Empire had told him, but by an agent of the Empire itself). Jerec seeks for a mysterious [[ForgottenSuperweapon Valley of the Jedi]] that legend tells has monumental power, providing additional incentive to stop him. Part of the feature is a light side/dark side progression, where your actions (kill innocents or protect them) and choices and uses of Force power dictate which side you will lean to. There are two endings, light side and dark side. WordOfGod (and future games) say that the light side ending is {{canon}}. Live action cut scenes moved the plot along, elevating the game to an almost movie-like experience ([[NarmCharm albeit with daytime-soap-opera-level acting]]).

** If it comes to it, the Stormtrooper blaster rifle is generally not a very accurate weapon in the games even for the player. Only some weapons in ''Outcast'' and ''Academy'' are accurate enough that a shot flies exactly where you were aiming even at a distance; the blaster rifle is certainly not one of these, though with Force Sense at rank 2 or above you can (somehow[[note]]The idea may be about "using your feelings" or whatever to aim better, but that doesn't really work when you can one-hand a blaster pistol with perfect accuracy no matter what, not to mention the millions of contradictory explanations in the series for ''why'' exactly the stormtrooper's rifle is so inaccurate in the first place[[/note]]) force it to be perfectly accurate.

** Also, in ''Outcast,'' retrieving [[spoiler:your lightsaber]] involves a combination of depressing a switch, using Force speed, and Force-pulling it to you, even though the gaps in the bars are ''huge'' and Kyle could realistically just reach in and grab it--or use the Force to switch it on and cut the bars away.
** Levels in the games are generally built in such a way that they're a challenge to your current power set and not what you'll have later - take for example the low amount of platforming in the first set of missions in ''Academy'' that could be bypassed in an instant with level 3 Force Jump, compared to ''extremely'' long jumps you have to make when you do get that power in the third set.

* NeverForgottenSkill: ''Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast'' has a lot of years go by and Kyle Katarn seems to have lost his Force abilities. However, judging from the way he uses his lightsaber and the speed of regaining his Force abilities, he clearly didn't forget how to use them.

** Levels with Hazard Troopers in ''Academy''.

** Max from ''SamAndMaxHitTheRoad'' makes an appearance in the Dark Forces game. A demented, pint-sized lagomorph received official mention in one of the online RPG supplements.
** Some EnemyChatter from the ''Academy'' level on the hovertrain copies a cutscene from Raven Software's earlier ''Soldier of Fortune'' series. That particular character is the only one of his type in the game to carry the Heavy Repeater (i.e. machine gun, as opposed to energy weapon).

--> '''Baldarek:''' (''with Kyle holding a lightsaber to his face'') Please! Noble Jedis! [[NotInTheFace Not in the faces]]!

* SuperpoweredMooks: Reborn, Shadow Troopers, Sith Cultists

* PossessionBurnout: [[spoiler:How Tavion dies in the light side ending of ''Jedi ACademy'']].

* EpicTrackingShot: A particularly good one appears in ''Jedi Knight'''s and ''Jedi Outcast'''s respective introductions to Nar Shaddaa.