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Fans of the 90s classic first person shooters are having a delight of releases as of late, with titles like both Quake and Quake 2, Doom 64, Turok and Turok 2 getting remasters, all courtesy of Nightdive Studios. Now, another classic FPS joins the ranks of the remasters by Nightdive, with the latest title announced being Star Wars: Dark Forces.

Star Wars: Dark Forces was originally released for MS-DOS and Macintosh back in 1995, and then got a port to the original PlayStation 1996 (1998 for EU). The game's similar in gameplay to that of Doom, and it was originally inspired by a Doom mod which changed the game's assets to that of Star Wars. The plot focuses on Kyle Katarn, a mercenary contracted by the Rebel Alliance to go through several missions that could give the Rebels an advantage against the Galactic Empire, led by Emperor Palpatine and his enforcer, Darth Vader. One of the game's first missions focuses on what was the original story of how the Rebels got their hands on the plans for the Death Star, previous to Disney's acquisition of the franchise and rewriting all known material outside TV and movies as what's known today as "Legends" (or non-canon material).

The remaster by Nightdive Studios was made in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games; the original developers for the game, and the remastered will make use of their proprietary KEX engine. As with their other remasters, we can expect similar improvements and enhancements to the original game, like resolutions up to 4K at 120FPS, advanced 3D rendering, modern gamepad and controllers support, trophies and achievements, remastered cutscenes and more.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster will be released for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
The remaster doesn't have a release date announced as of yet.

 

[pustal]

Still have my original CD. Does this mean the Kyle Katarn saga is being re-canonized? Doesn't this interfere with the sequels crap of a story?

 

[duwen]

...advanced 3D rendering...

Unless it's a full remake, I can't see 'advanced 3D rendering' being a game changer for a title that was sprite and 2D texture based.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Still have my original CD. Does this mean the Kyle Katarn saga is being re-canonized? Doesn't this interfere with the sequels crap of a story?

Highly doubt it.
Rogue One effectively overwrites the whole Kyle Katarn stuff, I think this is just Lucasfilm catching on that extra money that they can from older titles, which is rare given how they treat their classic games.

 

[Foxi4]

Nightdive hitting a home run yet again - all of the games in the Jedi series have received a re-release or remaster *except* Dark Forces and Dark Forces 2, this is very nice to see. I hope the sequel is next in line, it’s one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Nightdive hitting a home run yet again - all of the games in the Jedi series have received a re-release or remaster *except* Dark Forces, this is very nice to see.

Agree, this is the one title from the classic FPS era that I was really looking forward to getting a remaster.
I'm really happy this one got the care it deserved, it'll be a purchase from me for sure.

 

[duwen]

I hope the sequel is next in line, it’s one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time.

Agree. And hope they'll also include the "Mysteries of the Sith" expansion too.

 

[brunocar]

Unless it's a full remake, I can't see 'advanced 3D rendering' being a game changer for a title that was sprite and 2D texture based.

nah you are failing to understand what they are getting at, much like the quake 1 and 2 remasters this means they can have modern 3D lighting and the limits on polygons for the parts that ARE 3D are nowhere near as low

 

[pedro702]

great games to get a remastered now we only need dark forces 2 to get the entire collection on current gen systems.

 

[eyeliner]

Will this be better than KEX?

 

[pedro702]

Will this be better than KEX?

kex? kex engine is nightdive studio engine they use to remaster old games.

 

[ShadF0x]

Unless it's a full remake, I can't see 'advanced 3D rendering' being a game changer for a title that was sprite and 2D texture based.

Pretty much the same deal as with Doom Absolution 64 and Powerslave Exumed - the original game was 2.5D, but the new engine is fully 3D, which allows to do away with a lot of hacks the original game would use.

Funny how no one seemed to be bothered with Dark Forces right until a source port was released.

 

[Disco]

They've been helped by the dev of the awesome The Force Engine which can already run DF on modern PC's.
https://theforceengine.github.io/downloads.html

I can see the only difference in NightDive's version are the enhanced (AI?) cutscenes, didn't notice anything else in trailer (there are probably other things too).

 

[Mike_77712]

Wondering how this will stack up against the Force Engine gimmicks

 

[RedoLane]

Nightdive are working hard this year.
I played the game on The Force Engine earlier this year, and I don't mind playing it again.
That and the Turok 3 remaster they announced as well!

 

[Explosive_K]

Didn't play this one back then, but I am interested

 

[ShadF0x]

I can see the only difference in NightDive's version are the enhanced (AI?) cutscenes, didn't notice anything else in trailer (there are probably other things too).

The only real difference (and the reason for this release, arguably) is that the KEX engine version can be ported to and sold on consoles.

The same can be done to the source port, sure, but there are no money to be made that way.

 

[17hitcombooo]

hoping they can get to do jedi knight and academy later on, both of them still bangers

 

[AndorfRequissa]

if they do this with dark forces 1 then it has to be done with dark forces 2. this also makes me wonder how much this has to do with the fanmade project already doing most the rework on a remaster. wonder if it is the now the same project or a totally new remaster not using anything from the fan made force engine.