Background

The nostalgia is strong with this one. As a 90s kid whose parents would never think of spending money on violent fare such as Doom, the otherwise adventure game focused LucasArts Archive was the Trojan horse that delivered my first FPS experience in the form of a demo disk containing the first level of Dark Forces. I had countless hours of fun blasting away at pixelated Stormtroopers, with authentic blaster sound effects and John William’s film scores reinterpreted in MIDI adding to the unmistakeably Star Wars soundscape. Though I vaguely recall getting the full game at some point and skipping through the levels with cheats on, the game has long since been consigned to the Sarlacc pit of my memories since the turn of the millennium. That is until Nightdive Studios announced this remaster.

The remaster

Nightdive Studios has a good track record of lovingly remastering retro classics for modern platforms, and this remaster definitely lives up to their reputation. Playing on the PC, the default WASD mouselook controls are in line with modern FPS games. A quick weapon select wheel is a great new feature to help players manage the large arsenal. The remastered 2D sprites and textures do an excellent job of recreating in HD the game as you remember it, rather than the pixelated 240p reality of the original game. The cutscenes have been well remastered with hand drawn and rendered art that closely follows the original spritework and pre-rendered animations, while avoiding the telltale flaws of lazy AI upscaling. Art galleries and behind the scenes content is also included, as well as an easy achievement set to round out the remaster.

The game

While the remastering work is excellent, the underlying game itself has not aged well., particularly weapon design. While there is a good number of weapons, 10 in total half of which includes a secondary fire function, most feel redundant, offering only minor variations in functionality. The Stormtrooper Rifle, available within seconds of starting the first level, is sufficient for most of the game due to its plentiful ammo, while the next couple of weapons are mechanically similar ranged rapid fire weapons. While there are more interesting weapons like the grenades and concussion rifle, they suffer from awkward mechanics or inconsistent performance. Additionally, the game’s vertical aiming system is frustratingly imprecise, which detracts from the experience given the significant verticality in many levels.

The roster of enemies suffers from a lack of variety, with map data showing that over half of the enemies count across the game are Imperial Stormtroopers. Most other enemies are simply variants of ranged attackers, requiring little adjustment to the standard run-and-gun approach, despite large hordes that appear in the later levels. Even the boss fights fail to introduce meaningful variety, often boiling down to similar tactics against enemies with larger health pools. The only combat hazards that do force you to stop and think are laser turrets and mines, although their fixed nature ultimately limits the threat they possess.

The game’s levels successfully capture the atmosphere of the original Star Wars films, clearly attempting to depict locations and facilities that feel grounded in the Star Wars universe, as opposed to the more abstract level designs of Doom. Each level is structured as an individual mission that includes a mission briefing, and occasionally a cut scene, providing an objective for the player to pursue beyond shooting enemies and finding keys. The original game engine includes features that were not present in Doom, such as platforms that can move and rotate, rooms that can be placed above other rooms, allowing for in game puzzles can get quite complex. Individual levels are huge sprawling affairs and since the game doesn’t include mid-level saving or checkpoints, some of the longer levels can be quite a slog to get through in one sitting. The game does include a generous extra life feature that allows you to respawn in the level if you die, and this gives some motivation for the player to scour the levels for secrets to find extra lives or ammo caches. While the single player campaign clocks in at only 5-6 hours, it still verges on overstaying its welcome due to the repetitiveness of the core combat loop.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Dark Forces is a product of its era, riding the mid-’90s wave of Doom clones while also offering a unique chance to explore the Star Wars universe during the long hiatus between the original and prequel trilogies. While Dark Forces introduced some technically innovations to the FPS genre, it fails to match the timeless gameplay of Doom (1993) and was quickly overshadowed by genre-defining titles like Duke Nukem 3D (1996), Quake (1996), and Half-Life (1998). Today, amidst a deluge of Star Wars content and retro-inspired “boomer shooters,” Dark Forces Remaster is a perfectly mid game that can provide a few hours of nostalgic fun, but little else.

5/10

Scoring explanation

I’m hoping to start this series of reviews to share my opinions on “mid” games, which are not all time classics but still manages to entertain. 7/10 - Every gamer should try this 6/10 - Worth it if you’re a fan of the genre 5/10 - Fun to be had but there are better options 4/10 - Has its moments but mostly a waste of time