Featured Image Credit: LucasArts
Topics: PC, Retro Gaming, Star Wars
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 now has a new fan remake in Unreal Engine 5, and you can play the beta.
One of the most popular Star Wars games from the 1990s was Dark Forces, a first-person shooter set shortly before the events of the original trilogy and had you battling the Galactic Empire as Rebel mercenary Kyle Katarn.
Although Dark Forces was officially remastered by porting wizard Nightdive Studios in 2024, the second game has not yet received a similar treatment.
There’s no knowing if Nightdive will ever get around to doing a remaster of Dark Forces 2 (licencing around old games can be a real headache), so fans have taken it upon themselves to do it themselves.
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The Unreal Engine fan remake of Dark Forces 2 has been around for a number of years, with our last look at it back in 2023. However, the developer has just received a new update for the project, featuring a playable beta build.
The beta, which is currently only available via a Patreon subscription, features the game’s third level, The Return Home to Sulon.
However, there’s a good chance that it’ll arrive for all once it’s out of beta, which is currently not announced.
Take a look at the video below, which demonstrates a few of the changes and improvements made in the Dark Forces 2 remaster. As this is being rebuilt in Unreal Engine, expect it to look dramatically different from the original 1997 game, which used the Sith Engine.
The video shows off some gameplay, including combat, swimming, and some puzzle-solving. It’s shaping up to be a very good-looking project. However, considering only three levels are present in the remaster so far, there’s still a long way to go before it can be considered complete.
Unreal Engine remakes are quite popular right now thanks to the engine being free-to-use and rather well-documented, so many developers use remasters of their favourite retro games as a way of learning the engine for their other projects.
Other fan remakes in the same vein include The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and BioShock.
The engine has also been used for some official remasters and remakes too, like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
So, Unreal certainly has its fanatics.