Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered

[Smoove_B]

This was one of the first games I remember playing on my Packard Bell, circa 1994.

[naednek]

i saw that earlier. I don't think I could make myself replay that.. wow that looks bad

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, it looked better in the memory of my mind's eye.

[TheMix]

I'd be interested if it was a remake. But those graphics, even remastered, are a bit too much for me. I also didn't remember it being so much like Doom.

[Skinypupy]

i saw that earlier. I don't think I could make myself replay that.. wow that looks bad

My first thought as well.

[Carpet_pissr]

It looks like they only remastered the cutscenes, intro and other ancillary stuff, without touching the in-game graphics. That would be weird if so. It is a PRE ALPHA however...

[hitbyambulance]

one of the Obsidian developers was doing a Dark Forces remake on their own. don't know if it's still being worked on:




also, some guy is taking it upon himself to remake Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight - THIS looks like it could be cool:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/dark-forces-2-v1-78228910

[Rumpy]

My only thought upon watching the trailer is that it looks like a work in progress. I very much doubt they're going to release it looking like that. I remember years ago I played Dark Forces using an open-source version of the engine that had been heavily modified, and you could also play Outlaws on it, and it looked much better than that. It was buggy though and certain things about it weren't working.

[naednek]

ya, but a bad choice to showcase it at this stage.

[Carpet_pissr]

ya, but a bad choice to showcase it at this stage.

Agree. “Here’s the pre-alpha gameplay, isn’t it ugly?! Hope you’re excited by teh Ugly as much as we are!”

Worst marketing ever.

[Unagi]

This was one of the first games I remember playing on my Packard Bell, circa 1994.

Lol... "Five days ago the Empire attacked one of our secret bases. Intelligence thinks that this may be an act of retaliation for the destruction of the Death Star."

O RLY?

[Exodor]

ya, but a bad choice to showcase it at this stage.

Agree. “Here’s the pre-alpha gameplay, isn’t it ugly?! Hope you’re excited by teh Ugly as much as we are!”

Worst marketing ever.

Yeah that looked awful. I don't really care how the cutscenes look if the gameplay looks like Wolfenstein 3D

[hitbyambulance]

Yeah that looked awful. I don't really care how the cutscenes look if the gameplay looks like Wolfenstein 3D DOOM

[pedant]Wolf3D didn't have multiple heights of playfield geometry[/pedant]

[Rumpy]

Strange thing is that among all that, I swear I could spot several seconds of new up-to-date gameplay footage, as the stormtroopers looked replaced with better models in a few places.

[NickAragua]

Wow, yikes.

I remember having a blast with the original, and I don't really feel great coming in and crapping all over a bunch of work that someone put into a project like this... but if they're asking me to cough up 30 bucks and 20 hours of my time, I don't think that's happening here. Part of the charm of the original was the bobbleheads during the cutscenes, and upscaling it from 640x480 to whatever crazy high-def resolution isn't gonna cut the mustard for me.

[Rumpy]

Thing is, this game comes from an era that was in-between that of Wolf3D and Doom, where the level-design was rather abstract and where it was hard to convey environments. I think any modern remake would have to be more of a reimagination of the original design rather than a 1-1 remake given the original game is so old and don't think it's aged too well.

[Carpet_pissr]

Loved this game and its sequels, and one of the things I remember being in awe of was the absolutely massive environments. I guess compared to the claustrophobic Wolf 3D, or Duke Nuke'm (had that come out yet?) etc, it seemed amazing (and very Star Warsy to boot).

[hepcat]

When the hell is Pong Remastered coming out!?!?

edit: apparently it's a mobile app now. Who knew.

[Smoove_B]

I guess compared to the claustrophobic Wolf 3D, or Duke Nuke'm (had that come out yet?) etc, it seemed amazing (and very Star Warsy to boot).

That's what I kinda remember - bigger spaces and more open environments. The only other thing was the sounds - hearing Star Wars blaster fire (or whatever) from a video game was kinda awesome at the time. The bar was low.

[Giles Habibula]

Anybody tried The Force Engine version?
It runs great on Windows 11 in 4K, and I think it looks great!
https://theforceengine.github.io/

[malchior]

The question that echoes in my mind...why?

[Daehawk]

My favorite was Star Wars Dark Forces Jedi Kni....wait lemme look this up.....

Nope nope it was later..so many names...Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

[Rumpy]

Anybody tried The Force Engine version?

I did years ago, and while I'm sure that it's been improved since, I remember running into issues with buttons that made the game unplayable. I basically had to noclip into several places just to get to key areas as the game was basically broken.

Actually, come to think of it, I think that was DarkXL I had tried.

[Giles Habibula]

The question that echoes in my mind...why?

I know that not everyone gets nostalgic for older games, but I sure do. To me, newer games seem cold, calculated and clinical by comparison. And I have zero interest in multiplayer, which makes me a still further outlier. I do still play newer games, but I find myself lately wanting more and more to visit locations I can remember from those older games. And having a nice graphical update along with QoL updates like mouselook are a good bonus.

Sure, it still looks like hell compared to the latest engines out there, but damn it, those levels still feel like locations from the Star Wars universe to me.

[Giles Habibula]

Anybody tried The Force Engine version?

I did years ago, and while I'm sure that it's been improved since, I remember running into issues with buttons that made the game unplayable. I basically had to noclip into several places just to get to key areas as the game was basically broken.

Actually, come to think of it, I think that was DarkXL I had tried.

The Force Engine version just recently hit the full 1.0 release, and for me, it's running perfectly.
The 2.0 version of the Force Engine coming up later will include support for "Outlaws," which I'm really excited for.