An American living in Germany, John has been gaming and collecting games since the late 80s. His keen eye for and obsession with high frame-rates have earned him the nickname 'The Human FRAPS' in some circles. He’s also responsible for the creation of DF Retro.
The release of Doom in 1993 changed the industry forever - and in its wake, developers scrambled to bring their own visions to life in first-person. Star Wars: Dark Forces is one such game, created in a genre completely different to nearly every other product developer LucasArts would release, but it nonetheless became one of the most interesting and inspired Doom-adjacent shooters of its day.
Specifically, Dark Forces features beautifully designed, fully voiced cutscenes between missions introducing characters and motivations for the player to follow, in addition to focusing on real mission objectives. It wasn't just about reaching the end, as the player is asked to perform specific tasks and, in most cases, get back to an extraction point. It had a sense of place that barely existed in mid-90s shooters and these elements worked in tandem to provide something truly special.
The Jedi engine used in Dark Forces allowed for some neat graphical effects, such as a red fog in the mining level and simulated dynamic lighting, with blaster fire illuminating dark areas - all replicated in the Remaster. |Dark Forces also allows player to look up and down, which hadn't really been seen in sector-based engines, and even allows for simplistic 3D objects such as turrets and Kyle's ship, which you can see swooping in between missions.
Coming now to this year's Remaster, it's important to note that this isn't the first attempt at reverse engineering Dark Forces - the Force Engine already exists and has its own slew of impressive features. What separates the Nightdive version is the addition of new assets and a litany of other improvements to the game.
The key here is that, in both modes, Nightdive has done a superlative job in replicating that original Dark Forces experience right down to the smallest detail. From the way the skybox warps as you turn to the strange behavior of the ice in mission eight, everything from the original has been matched.
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