Today Nightdive Studios in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games officially announced they are remastering the original game from 1995 that began Kyle Katarn's journey, Dark Forces. No strangers to remastering classic 90's shooter games, Nightdive has System Shock and Quake II under their belt showing they know what they're doing when it comes to modernizing these games, while keeping their identity and charm in tact.
This is a remaster, rather than a remake, using original assets and code where possible while implementing modern controls, upscaling textures and sprites, 4k resolution, and widescreen support. Nightdive prides themselves on what they call their "KEX Engine" for these projects.
Dark Forces Remastered will be released on PC, Xbox One & Series X|S, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Nintendo Switch. According what Nightdive's Larry Kuperman told IGN, the game will be competitively priced around the $20-$30 USD range and a release date is expected for 2024. An official release date will be announced later this year.
The first question many people will ask, especially in this community, is how likely are we to see the rest of the series get remastered, especially Dark Forces II, and the answer is: very unlikely. The sequel uses a completely different engine which may mean Nightdive's KEX engine wouldn't support it easily, etc. It is not impossible, but I don't think one remaster automatically confirms the whole series will get touched, especially since Outcast and Academy got console releases so recently.
The game is looking great, and I'm looking forward to playing it again, as someone who has tried to play the original many times but gets frustrated with the controls, this remaster is a much welcome release and is another example of Lucasfilm not completely letting their legacy content completely be forgotten.
Star Wars: Dark Forces has a release date: February 28, 2024. That’s for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch.
UPDATE: The game is out and can be purchased on Steam, Xbox Store, PlayStation Store, or Nintendo eShop.
Source: IGN
By Circa, in Community News,
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