The 90s will be remembered as those that saw the birth of the genre of 3D shooter. After the success of Doom and, previously, Wolfenstein 3D, many companies wanted to replicate that formula with titles that are living history of the medium. AND Dark Forces, in 1995, it was one of those milestones that LucasArts managed to reach to become one of the most beloved developers.
Star Wars well deserved an adaptation of his adventures in format 3D shooter and Dark Forces was the result. A superb title where, in addition to telling us one more episode in that titanic battle between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, great ideas were concentrated that helped to redefine that genre in the following years. So yes, this is one of those launches that few can forget.
Who wants a Remaster now?
But of course, in this era of few bets for originality and a lot of memories of old franchises, there are those who has thought to revive Dark Forces with a Remastered at the gates of turning almost 30 years old it was a good idea. And a few hours ago, a video –without a release date– of this new edition for both computers and consoles was published. Which includes Nintendo Switch.
As an excuse for his return is the promise that we will be able to play it in 4K and with a fairly decent percentage of its narrative material completely revamped. That is, all its introductory scenes have been redrawn, many of them static, and plots that appear during the adventure, injecting more resolution but leaving that typical LucasArts style that so many graphic adventures served to embellish.
If you have seen the video, you may have an idea of the work that has been carried out by the Nightdive studio, and that it does not seem too ambitious because the result they have obtained is practically the same as the originalexcept for the stretching of resolutions from the 1995 material. Can we speak of a Remake?
They could have left the original alone by now
Surely many would have loved to receive a Remake of Dark Forcesbut not exactly what they promise us, that he has taken the original and inflated it in resolution and little else. If you have noticed the video, the enemies, the imperial soldiers (the famous storm troopers) are still in 2D, flat, completely pixelated and we don’t know very well if as a tribute to the 1995 game or because the works of the Remake they did not include the modeling of these protagonists in three dimensions. Fudge, sloppiness or just incompetence?
Honestly, to do this with Dark Forces almost better to do nothing, leave the classic alone and sell this version, not as a Remakebut rather as a possibility to play with the original today, with more modern controls and a higher resolution than that of 1995, which barely exceeded 640×480.
When we saw the ad for this Dark Forces Remaster we all got excited… until we saw the video and our hearts fell to the ground. Leave the classics alone and don’t take advantage of them, that those of us who were able to play it at the time are not amused that they use it in this way. A pity. A huge shame.
