Anyone who liked shooters in the 1990s would have been hard pressed to miss Star Wars Dark Forces. The predecessor of the Jedi Knight series was originally published by LucasArts for MS-DOS in 1995, but the dark shooter was indexed in Germany for a long time. The indexing only expired in 2020, now there is a remaster from retro experts Nightdive.
Improvements to technology and gameplay
On February 28th The remaster project is now coming, almost 30 years after the original release. Similar to other Nightdive projects, for example Quake 2 or Turok 3, as much of the original as possible should be retained, while at the same time the shooter will be updated using the in-house KEX engine so that, depending on the platform, up to 120 frames per second in UHD Resolution can be realized.
It is also promised that the remaster will contain never-before-seen content from the production phase of the original. Included are “advanced” 3D rendering, including revised lighting, higher resolution textures, atmospheric effects and support for gamepads. In particular, the cutscenes that are important for the atmosphere have been revised, so that the pixel graphics of the original are significantly surpassed.
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In the developer interview on Sony's blog there are some exciting insights into the cutscenes. Project Lead and Producer Max Waine says: “Because the original cutscenes were mixed with different types of assets, it was a little more difficult to update the cutscenes. Originally our approach was to re-produce the same cutscenes with better resolution, but that only resulted in us paying more attention to the differences in the origins of the various assets in a cutscene. … Instead, we took a different approach that incorporated the different origins of the originals while balancing the differences. That's how everything fits “works well together at higher resolution”.
Historical Significance of Dark Forces
Waine also has interesting things to say about the historical significance of Star Wars Dark Forces. Dark Forces is “greater than the sum of its parts”. He continues: “There are two things that particularly impress me for the time: support for 3D environments that enable room-over-room – something the Doom engine couldn't do at the time – and the seamless integration of full 3D objects in the environment (like Kyle's ship, X-Wings, Mouse Droids etc.)”.
Background: The gameplay of Dark Forces is very reminiscent of the classic Doom. The shooter combines fast movements with a large selection of weapons and expansive, labyrinth-like levels. The whole thing is accompanied by the music and the typical look known for the Star Wars universe. The story tells the deep story of the rebel Kyle Katarn, who is fighting against the Empire.
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