Nightdive Studios To Remaster 90s First-Person Shooter Video Game 'Star Wars: Dark Forces'

[Outsiders]

Nightdive Studios has announced the company will be remastering the 90s first-person shooter game Star Wars: Dark Forces.  With the announcement, the studio has revealed an official reveal trailer for Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster that will be fully remastered through their KEX engine, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster supports up to 4K at 120FPS, and features advanced 3D rendering, modern gamepad support, trophies and achievements, and more!

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is coming soon to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam). Stay tuned for a release date announcement later this year!

 

[McYote]

I’ve been looking forward to this!  

[Outsiders]

Lucasfilm Games and Nightdive Studios have made an official announcement regarding the release date of Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster. The updated version, set to launch on February 28, 2024, has been highly anticipated by fans of the original 1995 game. The remastered edition remains true to its roots while incorporating modern functionalities and enhanced graphics for both consoles and PCs. According to a press release, the game boasts an impressive ability to run at 4K resolution with a smooth 120FPS.

In this first Star Wars FPS video game, players assume the role of Kyle Katarn, a defector of the Galactic Empire turned mercenary for hire. Katarn joins the Rebel Alliance’s covert operations division tasked with infiltrating the Galactic Empire, where he discovers the secret Dark Trooper Project. The development of this powerful new series of Imperial battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers stands to strengthen the Empire’s grip on the galaxy unless Katarn and the Rebel Alliance intervene.

 

[Bespin refugee]

Thanks to Lucasfilm Games and Nightdive Studios, a new generation of Star Wars gamers can experience Kyle Katarn’s first adventure on consoles and PC with updated high-resolution graphics, realistic lighting and atmospheric effects, a new playable level, and more in Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster.

With upgraded gameplay, enhanced lighting and texture rendering, and support for modern consoles, Nightdive Studios’ work to update the original game was extensive — but it’s not a remake.

“We have the original source code to the game,” Waine explains. “We still have such a strong foundation in the original. [While] we have higher-res versions of things like the sprites, the textures, the cut scenes, all of the original stuff is still there as options… It is still very much the same game. We haven't made just about any alterations to the original levels, for instance, which is something that a remake probably would do.”

Dark Forces veterans who will definitely notice the visual upgrades might be delighted to (literally) hear that one thing remains exactly the same: the music and voice files are unchanged. However, Nightdive Studios took the audio experience one step further for anyone looking for a healthy dose of nostalgia. “We provide the users with two options of how to play back MIDI [music files],” Waine says, a feature for gamers who want to listen to the music as they would have heard it in 1995.

Dark Forces Remaster also includes behind-the-scenes content and a new playable level that takes Kyle Katarn to the Star Destroyer Avenger. Originally the pre-release version of the game’s first level, the Avenger was cut as Dark Forces went through development and replaced with an opening level set on a secret base. Now, almost 30 years later, Katarn can once again set foot on the Avenger. Look out, Imperials.

“It was definitely the most significant of all of the cut content that we put back in, both in terms of restoring it and in terms of significance,” Waine says. “Unlike a lot of the rest of the [additional] content, the Avenger level was known about beforehand because a couple of screenshots were in promotional material and old coverage.

In Dark Forces Remaster’s new behind-the-scenes vault, players will also find assets captured during the original game’s development and presented to the public for the first time. “There are two brief little videos of Justin Chin, the lead artist and writer for [Dark Forces], dressed up in roughly what Kyle's clothes would look like, doing rotoscoping for a couple of scenes,” Waine reveals

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Dark Forces Remaster is available now on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

(StarWars.com)