Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster Gets New Update

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster has been given a 120 FPS mode on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, among other improvements, as part of its new 1.0.4 update. Developer Nightdive Studios has specialized in reviving classic 90s first-person shooters in the form of remasters, remakes, and ports. Games like the Turok trilogy, Doom 64, Quake, and Quake 2 have all been given the Nightdive treatment. Just last year, Nightdive released its System Shock remake on PC.

Nightdive Studios' remaster of the classic 1995 Macintosh shooter, Star Wars: Dark Forces came to Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC earlier this year. The remaster mainly focused on upgrading the original game's textures and cutscenes, giving a new hand-painted art style to the game's 2D assets while keeping the menus and music almost exactly the same. The remaster also keeps much of the original game's level design and gameplay the same as well, striking the perfect balance for fans of the original and newer Star Wars fans.

Now, Nightdive has added some helpful tweaks to Star Wars: Dark Forcesin the form of Patch 1.0.4. Most notable is the addition of 120 frames-per-second on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation; the game's launch frame rate was capped at 60 FPS on consoles. Since the game's 2D sprite visuals aren't demanding, it's unlikely the resolution will suffer at 120 frames. Speaking of, the update also smooths out Star Wars: Dark Forces' performance on Switch. The patch makes some fixes to the game's janky music as well. Previously, the score would sound off-tempo, seemingly skipping over parts of itself.

Additionally, Patch 1.0.4 fixes broken door switches in the Ramses Hed level, as well as in Dark Forces Remastered's Avenger bonus CES demo level. While the patch notes mention that the update fixes the ice physics in the Ice Station Beta level where players' walking speed is affected, Nightdive doesn't specify whether the skidding is more or less sensitive while walking. Players come across a pair of ice