One of the best memories from my Star Wars gaming holocron is loading up a LAN multiplayer match in Jedi Knight 2 with a low-gravity mutation switched on and a lightsabers-only weapon restriction. It was silly loads of fun, but the Force wasn't with publisher LucasArts' wishes to continue the series, as Disney closed the studio last April. Our only hope lies with the power of JK2's lingering community, where a brave modder is taking on the huge task of uplifting the entirety of the game's graphics in a HD remake mod .

Developer Raven Software released JK2's source code when it learned of LucasArts' demise, handing over the legacy of the Dark Forces series to the players. The code's availability meant modders could delve into the game's inner workings more deeply with total access to textures, scripting, and AI behavior.

The remake mod, as explained by author JDBArtist on the Gaming Nexus forums, will focus on overhauling JK2's single-player missions and some multiplayer arenas with improved lighting and sparkling new textures for every single surface. It's likely a long wait before a full release—the author is part of a mod team building a custom MMORPG , and the remake is a one-man effort—but JDBArtist seeks more texture artists and code-crafters to join in the effort via forum PM.

Have a look at some in-progress screenshots below, and keep track of the Gaming Nexus forum thread and Mod DB page for additional images. For more from the Star Wars modding scene, don't miss Evan's excellent adventures as a traveling robot Jedi .