Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster Review - Return of the KEX

Without Nightdive Studios, it's a fact I wouldn't be as big of a boomer shooter fan as I am today. The work they do to make the inaccessible, well, accessible is an insane feat of game development. So, it feels like a dream come true that this studio is remastering a game in one of my favorite franchises ever with Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster.

Star Wars: Dark Forces was originally released in 1995 when the FPS genre was in its infancy. With Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, Nightdive aims to make this rather antiquated title more playable by adding modern features and revitalized visuals. The result of these efforts yields what is possibly Nightdive's best remaster to date.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster -- Runs like a Dream

I never got a chance to play the original Star Wars: Dark Forces beyond the first hour or so, and that's because it felt terrible to play on modern PC hardware. Movement felt slippery and imprecise, and controls were clunky. You also couldn't aim vertically, which was a common thing in shooters back in 1995.

Not to mention, visually, Star Wars: Dark Forces was clear as mud. Back in the day, it may have looked cutting edge, but we are far beyond that point nearly three decades later. Thankfully, Nightdive remedies all the issues I had with the original game with Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster.

Visually, the game is crystal clear. The moment I started the first level, it felt like I put on a fresh pair of glasses and could finally see in 20/20. The ruggedness of the original game is gone and objects, enemies, and the environment are legible from afar. There's even a nifty feature that can switch from the new visuals to old, which helps you appreciate how far we've come.

There are only a few areas where the polished visuals look a little strange -- certain textures looked like they weren't loaded in on the very rare occasion (no doubt due to the huge difference in resolution), but overall, it's fantastic. Certain cutscenes have this smooth, painted look to them, which looks uglier than the original Dark Forces, but these are few and far between.

In fact, some cutscenes used 3D models in the 1995 release, but it appears as though Nightdive completely redid these with brand new graphics. When these are used, it looks amazing and makes me appreciate Nightdive's efforts even more.

But this is all outside of the actual gameplay. With Dark Forces Remaster, we get up to 120 FPS on up to 4K resolutions. 1995 Dark Forces was one of the most clunky feeling FPS' I've played in a long time. With the KEX Engine, it's now one of the smoothest.

I never ran into performance issues other than a few crashes, which may have been my fault as I would have to tab out occasionally. Remember, Yoda famously said "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not." Well, too bad he didn't have Nightdive to give him some much-needed TLC.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster --  From a Modern Lens

Since I've played just about every boomer shooter under the sun except Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (until now), I was curious to see how I would enjoy this game. My preconceived notions of this title were that there were convoluted puzzles and obtuse level design, but I found everything to be damn near perfect.

Yes, many of Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster's levels feel labyrinthine at times and feature puzzles here and there, but nothing was too overwhelming. It probably helps that the enhanced visuals granted greater clarity of your surroundings, so getting lost wasn't really an issue. Plus, there's a map feature, which is a must-have for games like this.

The variety of levels was pleasant to see, as well. You'll fight across various starships, Imperial outposts, and even cities. Planet Nar Shadaa -- perhaps most famous for its appearance in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 -- was a pleasant surprise as the cyberpunk-esque city featured various rough-and-tumble folk in its neon-lit streets.

Jabba the Hutt's ship was also a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. It stripped players of all their gear right at the beginning and had protagonist Kyle Katarn fistfight a giant lizard. From there, players would have to contend with limited resources and an overabundance of Gamorians as they looked for their lost equipment.

My favorite level would have to be Katarn's foray into Coruscant, which is cool to see from a lore perspective. Dark Forces came out before Coruscant's signature look was established in the movies, so seeing an older take on the Imperial City with its dark and oppressive Empire esthetic was awesome as a huge fan of the franchise.

Level design is definitely the star of the show in Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, but the gunplay offers its own gratifying feeling. Stormtroopers and other Imperial soldiers go down in just a few shots, so the power of the franchise's iconic blasters are on full display here. Tougher enemies, like probe droids and Dark Troopers, offer a challenge but nothing that can't be surmounted.

The weapon variety isn't huge, but it's also a very old game. For what Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster offers, it's a perfectly serviceable roster of arms. I stuck mostly to the standard E-11 Blaster Rifle, but it was also a lot of fun to throw thermal detonators and obliterate enemies with the concussion rifle.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster | Final Thoughts

One cool feature everyone should check out is an archive of various concept art and renders from Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster's original development. You're also able to play a concept level that never debuted in the main game, and was only shown off to consumers at CES in the 1990s. Pretty sweet stuff, if you ask me.

A feature I wished was included is the ability to save mid-level. This game tracks progress level-by-level, so if you have to leave or your game crashes, you lose all that level's progress. The perfect opportunity to implement this convenience would have been with the remaster, but alas, it's not present here.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster's gameplay has held up remarkably well. Combining this gameplay with an outstanding remaster -- giving us high resolutions, framerates, and thus greater clarity -- Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is going down as one of my favorite retro shooters of all time.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster was reviewed on PC with a code provided by the publisher over roughly 7 hours of gameplay. All screenshots in this review were taken by the reviewer during gameplay.