In the first Dark Forces, mercenary and former Imperial Officer, Kyle Katarn was tasked with several infiltration missions to uncover intelligence on a new type of Stormtrooper; the 'Dark Trooper'. Dark Forces 2 follows on and progresses Kyle Katarn's story. Katarn's father has been murdered by a Dark Jedi over the location of 'The Valley of the Jedi' and so Katarn sets off to locate the Valley and find his father's killers.
In the games 21 missions, Kyle Katarn takes on numerous types of enemies including Stormtroopers, Imperial Commandos, Imperial Officers, Probe Droids, Trandoshans, Gamorreans, Grans. The main levels are similar to that in Dark Forces where you travel around the environment, flicking switches and gunning down your foes. There are also dedicated light-sabre duels which will only last a few minutes but act as boss battles.
You move around using WASD on the keyboard, hold shift to sprint, Z and X to jump and crouch, and space-bar to interact with switches. Number-keys switch weapons and equip items. Force powers have been introduced as Kyle Katarn discovers his Jedi abilities. Q/E scrolls through these and F uses them.
The original game suffered from many problems in its design. The improvements here are drastic, although it's still not perfect. The main advantages are driven by the vastly improved graphics. Textures are much better and sharper, meaning switches are much easier to distinguish from walls, although some are still easily missed. This is the case for doors too, especially when it's a completely different style door to what you are used to (eg looks more like a sloped wall). The amount of backtracking has been cut down which means you won't get lost as much, and the game's objectives are more linear, rather than making you trek all the way back to your ship.
New problems have arisen due to the new features. You are given the option to assign attribute points to available force powers that are unlocked as you progress through the levels. However, the level design demands use of force powers, like using speed to travel over a bridge before it retracts, or using jump to reach new heights. It seems silly to give you the option of making the level impossible for you, but if you spend your points straight away, it shouldn't be a problem. There's also light-sabre battles and I still have no idea how the block function works. It seems automatic, but only occasionally works, so you just end up getting shot/chopped to pieces.
The guns are still fairly inaccurate but the enemies have no problem ripping you apart. Health packs and shields are frustratingly infrequent and the game loves to put you in situations where you have to take a hit. So travelling down a lift to find a Stormtrooper at point-blank range who can shoot first. If you don't have enough health to survive the bullet, then you are doomed.
There's plenty of switches, platform jumps to add to your frustrations, but it isn't as bad as the previous game. Still, it's supposed to be a first-person shooter, so I'd rather these be kept to a minimum.
In darkened areas you need to activate your night vision goggles which is a nice touch, although can be frustrating when you run out of batteries. Still, there's is a force sight power, although fumbling through your list of powers in the heat of battle isn't exactly fun.
You can save at any point which you need to do given that there's danger round every corner. If it isn't enemies that are causing a problem, it's the environment. Floors and atmosphere can hurt you even if it doesn't look dangerous; you just have to keep your eye out on your health. Using force powers can hurt you to. Force jump without landing on something higher will incur fall damage, jumping and hitting your head on the roof also hurts you, although that one does make sense.
I found Dark Forces 2 to be a frustrating experience. Everything about it is an improvement on the original, but it's still damn annoying. It still seems to be regarded as cult classic, but for me, it's not a great game.