Unveiling the Creative Surge: Nightdive Studios’ Most Remarkable Year in 2024
For the younger readers among you, it’s likely that many 3D video games from the ‘90s and ‘00s appear somewhat quaint at best and completely unplayable at worst. It was a time when the medium was becoming familiar with a whole new third dimension; combine this with the limited graphical capabilities of the PlayStation and N64, and you could argue that many titles haven’t aged effectively.
As for me? I absolutely cherish this era. I was six years old when the PS1 debuted in the UK; the perfect age to dive into classics like WipEout, Spyro the Dragon, and, yes, games that may not have been appropriate for me like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. Thus, when I revisit titles from this generation today, I find them relatively accessible due to my deep familiarity with that era. Even remasters of games I haven’t experienced before somehow feel oddly comforting in a way that I can’t quite articulate.
Established in 2012, Nightdive Studios specializes in updating early 3D video games from the ‘90s and ‘00s for modern audiences, enhancing visuals, refining gameplay, and typically adding a range of supplementary content to provide context behind the original titles’ style. Over the years, they’ve celebrated several notable successes with games like Turok(s), Quake(s), and Doom 64 — alongside the less well-received Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition — but 2024 has certainly been the studio’s most remarkable and prolific year thus far.
Nightdive has released a total of five games this year. Five. And that doesn’t even include the console launch for the remarkable System Shock remake (which, before you start searching for it, is not available on Switch). For a large company like Nintendo, releasing five games in a single year might sound rather routine given their numerous development teams and partner studios, but Nightdive is a significantly smaller, dedicated team consisting of about 40 employees (as of 2022). While they have recently acquired Atari after the purchase was finalized in 2023, even the once-mighty Atari operates on a considerably lean structure compared to its glory days.
The company’s CEO, Stephen Kick, described the studio’s output this year as “remarkable” and detailed its recent growth during a recent livestream in its ‘Deep Dive’ series. “It’s quite a challenge,” he remarked, “where we have many companies approaching us with numerous projects, and we simply don’t have enough personnel.” However, he is quick to explain that this is a good problem to have, highlighting that development costs remain modest and that the company can comfortably maintain a “lean and mean” operation without the pressure of fulfilling ambitious goals to support a large workforce.
Regarding the games they’ve launched, there’s Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, PO’ed Definitive Edition, the enhanced DOOM + DOOM II (featuring the brand-new ‘Legacy of Rust’ campaign), Killing Time: Resurrected, and The Thing: Remastered. Wow. While there’s a clear inclination towards the FPS genre here, Nightdive’s offerings also present an enticing mix of well-known titles and long-forgotten gems. I had never heard of Killing Time before Nightdive’s remaster, but after playing it earlier this year, it has become one of my absolute favorites because of its entirely unique story and bizarre enemy design.
The launch of DOOM + DOOM II is particularly impressive considering both games were already available on Switch through the now-defunct studio Nerve Software. These versions had some issues at launch but were patched to become genuinely solid portable iterations of the original classics. However, they are no longer available, meaning the new version, built on Nightdive’s KEX engine, has completely replaced Nerve’s.
Of course, Nightdive can’t take all the credit; without developers like Studio 3DO and Computer Artworks, the original games would not exist for remastering. Nevertheless, the effort Nightdive invests into these titles not only modernizes and preserves them but also enhances nearly every aspect of the gameplay experience is unparalleled. You can expect robust 60fps performance in each game, with the ability to customize visuals to your liking. For those on PS5 and Xbox, you can push the graphics to a stunning 4K/120FPS.