Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster

Star Wars Dark Forces Remastered is an excellent and faithful remaster that honors the original while touching it up just enough for modern platforms. While there are a couple areas where I feel they could have done just a little more, I can’t deny that this is the best way to play an excellent first person shooter. Whether you’re returning to it after three decades, or playing for the first time, there has never been a better version of Star Wars Dark Forces.

Our only complaint would be the price tag, which is a tad high considering the age of the game – even if there admittedly is plenty of content to get your teeth into. For any fans of old school first person shooters this is still a must buy though.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is a fantastic remaster of an all-time classic FPS, but I think mileage will vary. I find games like this to be fascinating time capsules of a foundational era of the industry. While there is a good amount of content in this package, and the classic visuals have been preserved beautifully, the price is also pretty steep. If you’re more of a Star Wars fan than a classic shooter fan I’d say maybe give DOOM or DOOM 2 a shot, which also have solid ports on the Nintendo Switch. While I think this gameplay is more approachable than those two games in some ways, it’ll give you a good idea of how they play and if you’ll like this kind of design. I’m not as much of a Star Wars fan as I used to be, but this ended up being exactly what I wanted out of the franchise right now. I have qualms with the game, but they’re minor and overshadowed by all of the love put into the remaster. I’d love to see a modern port of Dark Forces II, which is apparently a bit notoriously difficult to run on modern machines. I’ll at the very least take a look at the Kyle Katarn games currently available, because this left a great first impression.

While there are some small technical issues here that are atypical for a Nightdive release, it’s nothing that should keep you from digging into this excellent remaster of Star Wars: Dark Forces. The old-school charms of the game are given just enough of a boost to make it a blast to play even in the current year, even if some aspects like the save system are perhaps a bit too old-school. Overall, another fine effort from Nightdive and yet another solid Star Wars release on the Switch.

Star Wars: Dark Forces is undoubtedly a classic. A remaster was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. There is still room for improvement, the menus and maps could have been perfected. Overall, it is a good update to a game that is close to my heart and that recommend to all fans of the franchise and the genre.

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster brings a classic 90s shooter back with smoother performance, updated visuals, and modern controls while staying true to its original design. You play as Kyle Katarn, tackling mission-based levels filled with exploration, combat, and light puzzle solving against the Empire. While some older mechanics can feel dated, the core gameplay and Star Wars atmosphere still make it an enjoyable experience.