Forsaken was one of the most underrated titles ever released for the Nintendo 64. This ship-based first-person shooter was some sort of Descent clone with good visuals, an actually decent framerate (for the time and console, of course), tons of content, excellent multiplayer modes and a killer soundtrack. I was looking forward to playing Night Dive’s remaster of the game after enjoying the heck out of their remasters of Turok and Turok 2. Well, thanks to this remaster, Night Dive sure did make me enjoy Forsaken more than ever before. The Nintendo 64 version, that is.

First things first, Forsaken Remastered is not a remaster of the Nintendo 64 version. Instead, this is a remaster of the older PC edition, a game I had never played before and had no idea it was so different from the version I was used to. Forsaken for PC looks a bit more lackluster than what I used to play. There are fewer characters to choose from and the levels are completely different, with an inferior design when compared to the N64 version’s designs. The game also features some unnecessary voicework, something thankfully absent from the Nintendo 64 version and some FMV cutscenes that haven’t been upscaled. They’re painful to look at. Finally, while the drum n’ bass-heavy soundtrack is still present, the option to manually choose which song you want to listen to while playing the game was removed.

This doesn’t mean Forsaken Remastered is technically bad, though. Sure, its visual enhancements don’t look anywhere near as good as the Turok remasters (the lighting effects are great but the textures look dated) but the framerate has been drastically improved. Being able to play this ship/FPS hybrid on a keyboard & mouse setup is also great, as it makes moving your ship around the levels a lot easier (circle strafing becomes second nature after a few minutes). The game still retains all of its classic cheat codes and a competent online multiplayer mode, even though it’s not exactly heavily populated at the moment.

Forsaken is still a very fun game, but playing this remastered edition of the old PC version felt underwhelming. Between the reduced amount of content (I thought cartridges were supposed to have less content!) and less exciting levels, at the end of the day Forsaken Remastered made me want to play the older Nintendo 64 version even more than before. Turns out it still holds up pretty well!

 

Graphics: 6.5 The increased framerate and improved lighting effects are very welcome additions, even though the textures look subpar.	Gameplay: 8.0 Being able to play the game on a keyboard is a godsend, as the aiming and overall movement are vastly improved.
Sound: 6.0 Between the lack of background music choice and dumb voice acting, the sound department is a bit disappointing. Thankfully, the tunes are still great.	Fun Factor: 6.0 This remastered version of Forsaken is fun but it feels slightly underwhelming when comparing it to the Nintendo 64 version released twenty years ago.
Final Verdict: 6.5