STAR WARS™: Dark Forces Remaster

I sometimes forget my kids at school but I somehow remembered the Aurebesh door code on Mission 1 from 30 years ago. If you played this game as much as I did back then, this remaster will hit the spot.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is a great example of how to bring a classic into the modern era without losing what made it special. Nightdive kept the soul of the original intact, from what I can tell from old gameplay videos I watched, while modernizing the game and make it run flawlessly on new hardware and giving it great controls. While the gameplay is absolutely amazing the level design shows its age. Most levels are a sprawling labyrinths full of secrets, keycards, hidden switches, and I got lost more often than I can recall, and it was, in all honestly, frustrating at times. The remastered visuals are faithful, the enhanced cutscenes look fantastic, and the action and movement controls always feel smooth. If you're looking for a modern cinematic shooter with objective markers and direction tonal help, you won’t find much joy with Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster. I’d recommend the game to people who played it in the past and want to relive it, and fans of classic First Person Shooters, that also enjoy the Star Wars Universe, and can deal with some frustration.

In general, this is an exquisite remaster of a 30-year old classic. Loaded with razor-sharp controls, QoL updates, crisp graphics switchable on-the-fly to original legofest and dynamic music faithful to the original with both FM synth and General MIDI, the execution doesn't leave anything to be desired if you want to re-experience an old classic. After completing the entire game in five hours on medium difficulty with my last completion being on original version in late 90's and subsequently gathering all achievements I'm left wondering if it was worth it. Definitely not with the non-discounted 28,99 € price but for the overall thinness of the content the title is poor value even at -50% discount. If the price of the game drops to single digits, it's worth picking for someone who has played the title in the 90's and wants to reminisce warm memories of childhood with it. For rest, the overly simple game design by today's standards with maps perplexing up to the point of frustration won't present itself as particularly engaging. Don't get me wrong, this was a great title in mid-90's that got the Star Wars feeling just right with the hardware limitations of the time but the core game itself hasn't aged graciously when you compare the game, for instance, against X-Wing/TIE Fighter titles from 1993 through 1999.

Тот случай, когда Star Wars еще спокойно умел быть шутером про грязные коридоры, имперские базы, секреты, ключи, лифты, взрывчатку и мужика с бластером, которому не надо каждые пять минут доставать световой меч. Ремастер от Nightdive делает ровно то, что нужно: подтягивает картинку, управление, разрешение, интерфейс и удобство, но оставляет игру старой. Это все еще 90-е: уровни запутанные, дизайн местами злой, враги простые, а логика прохождения иногда требует не маркера, а нормальной ориентации в пространстве. Зато в этом и кайф. Dark Forces ощущается как Star Wars из эпохи, когда франшизу расширяли через игры, книги и комиксы, а не бесконечно полировали одни и те же знакомые лица. Кайл Катарн, имперские объекты, темные солдаты, миссии на вражеской территории — простой, плотный, правильный боевик во вселенной Звездных войн. Вердикт: отличный ремастер важного Star Wars-шутера. Старый, угловатый, местами вредный, но живой. Nightdive снова достали из архива нормальную игру и аккуратно вернули ей способность запускаться без шаманства.

Developed by Nightdive Studios, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is a great way to experience this classic shooter. Each mission really makes you feel immersed in the Star Wars universe, with memorable locations, familiar enemies and the chance to step into the role of Kyle Katarn. Some of the stages can feel a little drawn out at times, and there are moments where the game's age really shows, especially when it comes to platforming. It definitely has it's flaws, but it's a really enjoyable remaster and one that any Star Wars fan should experience.

Doom but Star Wars. Levels are pretty lengthy with no saves, which can be frustrating sometimes. Runs great on Steam Deck.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is an excellent remaster that adds great new visuals and better feeling controls and more or less keeps everything as you remembered it -- for better or worse. Personally, I've tried playing this game in the past and could never get into it or got stuck, but this remaster was good enough for me to finally finish the game this time around! If you already like the game, then there's no reason not to pick this game up because I'd say its the definitive way to play this game currently. For the game itself, the game is a pretty decent Doom clone with an alright number of enemy types. You are certainly playing this game more for the novelty or nostalgia. The weapon variety is somewhat lacking since you are pretty much just using whatever weapon you have the most ammo for most of the game; most of the weapons feel same-y and most enemies die incredibly fast on normal. My biggest complaint with this game is the level design which granted, this is a remaster of an almost 30 year old game. Out of the 14 levels in the game, I will say around 2 or 3 of them definitely have issues with either puzzles or artificial difficulty with adding mines everywhere that do a ton of damage to you (I'm looking at you prison level). Also a minor complaint, but there isn't much else to do after you beat the game because just beating the game nets you all the achievements and having some achievements for finding secrets or playing on hard mode would have been a nice reason to play it again.

Old, archaic, & cryptic. If it was run and gun DOOM-like fun it would be great! It's not. This is Wolfenstein3D maze-like level design. If you enjoy asking yourself "where the phrik do I go?" you'll love it. I, on the other hand, have self-respect and value my time. So, I hated it.

Great nostalgic remaster.

Just as fun as when I was a kid