So…this remastered business. Can we talk about it? When a game is remastered, it simply means that the game’s quality of life has been improved. A game being remade is certainly more profound (see Resident Evil 1-4 for details). Knowing the difference is essential to meeting one’s expectations of a game. And the expectations of the latest remastered game that was dropped on our Digitalchumps’ desk were met.
STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster from developer Nightdive Studios and LucasFilm Games is a revisited LucasArts 90s first-person shooter that brings the flavor of the original title back to life, while also throwing in some modern-day amenities to make it feel like it’s worth revisiting. Improving frame rates, resolution, rendering, and updating gamepad support to something far more familiar to most gamers helps to keep another SW dream alive and kicking.
While the QoL was definitely brought up to modern standards, the game itself is a bit empty with its delivery, mainly due to the gameplay that was very 90s. That gameplay was left untouched, and that could have used some major remastering, especially with level and enemy design. For those looking for authenticity, they will most certainly find it in STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster, but sometimes that type of authenticity needs a bit of improvement to make it a bit more fun.
Let’s get this review going.
Improvements
For those players who aren’t familiar with the original Dark Forces, let me catch you up. The story centers on the protagonist Kyle Katarn, who discovers plans for an improved stormtrooper and droid project. Kyle must infiltrate, discover the plans for the new and improved enemies, then do his best to save the galaxy from yet another Empire issue. Not a bad plot, especially if you want to go a different route than the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games.
The gameplay is obviously built with iD’s DOOM title in mind. Even down to sound effects, MIDI music, and pixilated, rather flat textures that meet and greet the player at every turn. While running off LucasArts JEDI Engine, a proprietary property of its own at the time, the original 1995 game does its best to bring the player to a first-person Star Wars perspective. At the time, it was cool. It looked cool, played well, and why wouldn’t you want your Sound Blaster card delivering those lovely blaster noises of death for Stormtroopers and Empire admin? It was a joy that thrived in the 90s and kicked off what would be a series of Star Wars gaming journeys for LucasArts.
Essentially, Nightdive Studios and LucasFilm Games took that title, improved it with a better frame rate, which is a marvel, but the flat textures will make you motion sick, and even brought up the control scheme to modern times. While frame rate is for the PC birds/elitist out there, the improved control scheme is such a blessing for this type of game. Typically, the controls of yesteryear titles were janky and no fun, even with a mouse and keyboard. By improving the controls, making them seem seamless and comfortable with smooth XYZ turn capabilities, it helped the gameplay out tremendously. The controls are so improved with STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster that any gamer of any age can pick up and go with it.
In addition to the controls, the developers also improved the cut scenes, though they are still very goofy mid-90s LucasArts. LucasArts was a master of making over-dramatic cutscenes, and the art during these moments, which is not really animation, as it is more 2-4 frames of art that moves, is cleaned up and impressive. Of course, they do nothing for the actual game other than make it look prettier. And that’s not a tough job.
STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster also features cleaned-up textures, better movement, improved shading, and so on. Most of what you get with this remaster is simple cosmetics and an incredible gamepad improvement. Yes, there are trophies and rewards here and there, but nothing beyond the above significant improvements.
The wrinkles are still present.
While the QoL improvements make this a true remaster, the original gameplay is still driving the Imperial ship. The gameplay for STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster is unremarkably empty and repetitive when compared to today’s FPS standards. That statement is driven by a few reasons.
The size of the maps in this game is huge, though bland, and doesn’t give off any indication of how the player should move around. Most of what you get with the maps is large empty spaces that are visually repetitive in their construction. Starting with the former, the empty space gives it some girth and makes the map seem larger than it really might be. There were times when I was trying to find my way out of a map, such as mission two’s map, and I would just get right into a large empty map space full of maybe one enemy. Its girth, mixed with its darkly lit environment, made it easy to get lost.
What magnified this empty and blah issue was the fact that everything looked like it was constructed from the same graphic, and nothing stood out well. That was just a product of the times this game was built in, and it’s easy to see how the original devs put together a wall, then decided to overly repeat it to create borders or a hallway. While cool back in 1995, it is rather unremarkable and bland in 2026. When everything looks similar, it is hard to navigate an area.
Also thrown into this 90s mix was the fact that a player could get easily stuck somewhere. I haven’t run into this problem since…well…the 90s. For example, there was a moment on the second mission when I tried to jump over a crevice and found myself splashing down into blue waters that flowed between structures. I thought to myself, “Surely they have a way out because the devs must have predicted an idiot would do this.” Nope, no way out. I was stuck. The solution? In the option menu system, there is a selection called ‘Respawn’, which will reset you back on the map. There should never be a respawn option. That’s just poor design. That means you have haphazardly designed spots that a player cannot get out of for whatever reason. This isn’t a Nightdive Studios issue; it was the original developer team that did this. I can’t believe gamers back in the day thought that would be okay. It should never be okay. Anyway, if you’re a dev, what should you do about this issue? Well, if you add your own flavor to the map that prevents players from getting stuck, then this becomes a remake, which is what it is not. Going with it and keeping it in the original design was the best move, but still, it’s an awful original design.
With all this perceived backhanded hate towards this release, let me reassure you that this remaster is good. It maintains the original code from the 90s without messing too much with the nostalgia, and delivers what it promises, which is a fun adventure set in the extended Star Wars universe. I think this game will appeal more to those who lived it the first time around rather than those just seeing it. In the end, it’s a good game that isn’t great, but there are enough improvements to enjoy the experience in 2026.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster, from developers Nightdive Studios and LucasFilm Games, brings back a very 90s first-person shooter experience with new quality of life improvements. While the gameplay may not be to some players’ liking or up to modern-day standards, it successfully preserves what made this game good in the 90s.
