Nightdive Studios is breathing new life into a classic Star Wars series, as Star Wars: Dark Forces is getting a fresh lick of paint for all systems. We previously reported a revamp of LucasArts’ 1995 game last year, but now, it’s official.
First arriving on MS-DOS and Macintosh, Dark Forces hit the OG PlayStation in 1996 and has the honour of introducing Kyle Katarn to the galaxy far, far away. Dark Forces is still held as one of the greatest Star Wars games of all time and kickstarted the Jedi Knight series. If you haven’t played before, you’re in for a treat.
Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster on the way from Nightdive
IGN announced Star Wars: Dark Forces from Gamescom 2023, with Nightdive showing off some impressive screenshots. Hyping the remaster, Nightdive’s Larry Kuperman told the site, “I think the audience will appreciate the degree of challenge.”
28 years after we first took flight with the series, the Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster overhauls the cutscenes just like how the developer did with the in-house Kex Engine for the recent Quake 2 remaster. As well as giving us modern controls, it boasts 4K resolution and 60 FPS.
“What we really try to do is bring back the way you felt when you played the original,” added Kuperman. “That’s our mission, our mantra is always about preservation. And you don’t preserve things by changing them.” Following a recent 4K fan remaster, it’ll be interesting to see how Nightdive’s work compares.
Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster is already better than Red Dead Redemption
Click to enlargeIGN | Nightdive Studios
As you know, we were recently disappointed by the announcement of Rockstar Games Presents: Red Dead Redemption. Double Eleven Studios’ maligned port brought the 2010 title to Nintendo for the first time and also landed on PlayStation 4, although it didn’t do much else.
Considering the Red Dead port was stuck at 30 FPS, a Star Wars: Dark Forces remaster already has it licked there. Double Eleven Studios was known for its work on Minecraft Dungeons, Goat Simulator, and Rust, whereas Nightdive has become known as a remake studio following System Shock and Quake 2.
If all of this wasn’t enough, Kuperman has promised the Dark Forces remaster will be “popularly priced” and could be somewhere between $20 and $30. As Rockstar was called out for charging $50/£40 for the Red Dead port, it’s another big win for Dark Forces.
We’ve seen older Star Wars games come back into fashion, and although Jedi: Survivor’s Senior Producer Blair Brown saying he’d love to tackle a remake set our imaginations racing, having Nightdive attached to a Dark Forces remaster is the next best thing. All we need now is Kyle Katarn to make his debut in live-action Star Wars.