Man, talk about a blast from the past. I remember playing the original Dark Forces back when I had to boot it up from a DOS prompt. So, when Nightdive Studios announced they were remastering it, I was hyped but also kinda terrified. Would it actually be fun, or would it just feel like fighting with a clunky, pixelated dinosaur?
After spending a few nights blasting Stormtroopers into oblivion, I’ve got some thoughts. And honestly? It’s complicated.
Nightdive basically performed a miracle here
First off, let’s give credit where it’s due. Nightdive Studios are like the wizards of the remastering world. They took a game that was stuck in 1995 and made it run at 4K/120FPS. It’s smooth. Like, scary smooth.
They didn’t just slap a filter on it and call it a day. The textures are sharper, the lighting is actually… you know, lighting, and the cutscenes don’t look like a blurry mess anymore. It still feels like the game you played on a CRT monitor, but it looks like how your brain imagines it looked. Does that make sense? Probably not, but if you’re a retro fan, you know exactly what I mean.
The Gameplay: Still Great, Still Infuriating
Playing as Kyle Katarn again felt like putting on an old, slightly itchy sweater.
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The Shooting: It’s fast. No cover system, no regenerating health—just you, a Bryar pistol, and a lot of dead guys in white plastic armor. It feels raw and satisfying in a way modern shooters rarely do.
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The Level Design: Okay, here’s where I started swearing at my monitor. These 90s maps are mazes. I spent like 20 minutes in one level just looking for a tiny red keycard hidden in a dark corner. There’s no waypoint telling you where to go. You just have to wander around until you figure it out. It’s rewarding when you do, but man, it can be a massive pain in the ass.
Wait, did they change the controls?
Thank the maker, yes. Playing the original with modern “WASD + Mouse” controls used to be a nightmare to set up. Here, it just works. It feels like a modern FPS, which makes the platforming (which was always the worst part of this game) slightly less soul-crushing. Slightly. I still fell to my death more times than I’d like to admit.
The Nostalgia Trap (The Verdict)
If you never played the original, you might find some of the mechanics—like the lack of mid-level saves—a bit brutal. It’s a game from a different era, and it doesn’t apologize for it.
But if you’re a Star Wars nerd or you grew up with the Jedi Knight series? This is a no-brainer. It’s the definitive way to play a piece of gaming history. It’s not “modernized” to the point where it loses its soul, but it’s cleaned up enough that you don’t need a degree in computer science to enjoy it.
Bottom Line: It’s $30 for a trip back to 1995. Is it a bit pricey for a remaster? Maybe. But seeing Kyle Katarn kick Imperial teeth in at 120 frames per second? For me, that’s worth the price of admission.
Just… maybe keep a walkthrough open on your phone for those keycards. Trust me on this one.
