Nightdive Studios, who recently remastered classic first-person games System Shock and Quake 2, is doing the same to another first-person legend: Star Wars: Dark Forces. It is in development for all major platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Watch the announcement trailer above.
The single-player-only Star Wars FPS first released in 1995 for PC and was the first adventure for players as Kyle Katarn, who would go on to become a Jedi in Jedi Knight and its sequels. You don't ever get your hands on a lightsaber in Dark Forces, but it's remembered fondly for its memorable missions and difficult boss fights. "I think the audience will appreciate the degree of challenge," Nightdive's Larry Kuperman told IGN.
The remaster cleans up the 28-year-old Dark Forces gameplay and cutscenes similarly to how Nightdive approached the recent Quake 2 remaster: with its in-house Kex Engine, thus allowing modern controls and features like 4K resolution, widescreen support (the original was in the old 4:3 aspect ratio days with 1024x768 resolution), and 60fps. "What we really try to do is bring back the way you felt when you played the original," Kuperman said. "That's our mission." He added, "Our mantra is always about preservation. And you don't preserve things by changing them." It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the recent 4K fanmade remaster.
Kuperman also told IGN that the Dark Forces remaster will be "popularly priced," which he suggested would mean somewhere between $20-$30. And while Dark Forces was the first Star Wars FPS, the latest Star Wars FPS (of which nothing is known, though it's unlikely to have any connection to Dark Forces, as Dark Forces/Jedi Knight came before the canon reset when Disney took over the franchise) is in development at Respawn Entertainment, makers of the excellent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the outstanding Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
