Before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, there was a different story as to how the secret plans to the Death Star were stolen for the Rebel Alliance. In this story, it was Kyle Katarn who was behind the theft. The Legends story of Star Wars: Dark Forces showed how a mercenary was the one who stole the plans, with just a blaster in his pixelated hands.
“Kyle Katarn really can do just about everything,” Nightdive Studios’ Max Waine shared with StarWars.com, “and while he’s doing everything, he manages to generally stay very cool and calm. Stealing the plans for the Death Star? Yep. Defeating Boba Fett? Yep. Punching out kell dragons? Yep. He can do that. And that’s just in Dark Forces.”
Now, a new generation of Star Wars fans and gamers gets to experience this adventure, thanks to Lucasfilm Games and Nightdive Studios. They are able to experience this adventure on both 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.
Originally Star Wars: Dark Forces was released in 1995. It was the very first Star Wars first-person shooter (FPS) video game. It was originally developed by LucasArts for PC only. It was one of the first times that gamers felt they were stepping into the world of Star Wars themselves.
“Dark Forces is very interesting, especially if you come into it with a mindset of its contemporaries,” says Waine, the Dark Forces Remaster project lead. “The stuff it managed to do for the time, I wonder if it’ll be lost on people coming to it for the first time.”
“You have proper room-over-room environments. You have, in a few special cases, fully 3D models, which is something that you wouldn’t really see in regular standard first person shooters until Quake, which was a whole year and three months later. The technological feats are really impressive.”
The gameplay has been upgraded and includes enhanced lighting and texture rendering, along with support for modern consoles. Nightdive Studios worked hard to update the original game and not make it 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.”
Those who played the original Dark Forces will undoubtably notice the upgrades. They might also enjoy hearing the original music and voices that utilize unchanged files. Nightdive Studios went the extra mile for anyone looking for a heavy 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.”
There is also behind-the-scenes content and a new playable level that takes Kyle Katarn to the Star Destroyer Avengers in Dark Forces Remaster. The original pre-release version of the game’s first level including the Avengers. However, it was cut as Dark Forces went through development. It was replaced with an opening level that took place on a secret base. Now, nearly three decades later, Katarn can again set foot on the Avengers.
“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.
There is a new behind-the-scenes vault where players will also find assets that were captured during the original game’s development. This will be the first time it will be presented to the public. “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.
Dark Forces Remaster brought new challenges as it was updated for modern consoles. This included the additions of a selectable weapon wheel and modern controller support. However, Waine appreciates bringing the classic Star Wars FPS to a new generation of gamers.
“It’s really special to be able to bring back and make more readily accessible something that so many people have fond memories of. It’s a big privilege to be given the opportunity to work on something that’s so beloved and so respected. Just the thought of being able to help people relive those warm memories is very much something that you wake up in the morning for, for that feeling. “
Waine concluded, “And there’s the prospect of people introducing their children on their consoles to games that were special to them. It’s very hard to describe how lucky I feel to be able to do that.”
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is now available on Windows PC via Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
What do you think about this game being upgraded and re-released? Are you excited to play it? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
