Darkwatch
2 recomps
Darkwatch (linkssy2)
linkssy2/DarkwatchDarkerEdition
Darkwatch: Darker Edition: an unofficial Windows port of the Xbox version, built with TGP482’s XboxXBE-Recomp, with the game’s code statically recompiled and Direct3D 12 graphics. A launcher imports your ISO, rebuilds the character archives on your machine, and prepares the shaders. It adds mouse-friendly menus, rebindable controls, mouse aiming, Xbox, PS4, and Switch controllers with matching prompts, widescreen, internal scale, separate world and weapon field of view, MSAA, and anisotropic filtering, and it fixes script bugs at high frame rates. It enables the War Train chapter and the Splitter grenades still on the disc, lets you pick Jericho or Cassidy in the campaign, and adds beta local split-screen co-op. Version 0.4 came out on October 21; according to the README, the full campaign and co-op haven’t been tested start to finish yet, and some issues remain open. The Windows download includes the game’s code, already recompiled and compiled, and 68 images of the menus, HUD, font, and mission previews redrawn in high resolution from the game’s artwork, and the launcher cover is the original box art edited with an image generator. Since 0.4 it also offers, as a separate optional download of about 4.9 GB, an HD texture pack for the game whose 1,176 textures, according to its metadata, were matched against a replacement texture pack for the PS2 release (SLES-53564).
You needYour own Darkwatch disc image for Xbox, from the supported North American revision, as a full ISO or a trimmed XISO: the launcher checks its 23 files and rejects other revisions, and default.xbe must match the SHA-256 72fc8033e01df4f22c703121cfd160969c642b18e841248224fc97a8f32050d7. Plus 64-bit Windows 10 (1903 or later) or 11, .NET Framework 4.8, an x86-64-v2 CPU (with SSE4.2 and POPCNT), a Direct3D 12 graphics card with feature level 11_0, and at least 5 GB free per import, plus the HD pack if you install it.
Darkwatch (Clergyman0013)
Clergyman0013/arizona-vamp-recomp
A native port of Darkwatch (original Xbox, 2005) for Windows by static recompilation: the executable is translated ahead of time into x86-64 code, and its graphics and sound calls are answered by modern APIs (Direct3D 8 on Direct3D 12, DirectSound on XAudio2); nothing is emulated. It turns back on the two-player split-screen co-op campaign, which the Xbox release left out although its code and menus remain on the disc, and adds display modes, render scale, MSAA, keyboard and mouse, and an in-game PC settings menu (F1). It is in beta and playable on Windows; testers have reached the first chapter’s boss fight, a full play-through has not been done yet, and co-op has only been tested through the start of the first chapter. Linux through Proton is untested. Version 0.5.5 (October 25) is the latest. 35 of its 48 commits list Claude as a co-author.
You needYour own copy of Darkwatch for the original Xbox, as an .iso image or as default.xbe with the game’s folders beside it, in the assets folder; the first start builds the code on your PC (it takes a while and happens only once). 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, a Direct3D 12 card, and about 3 GB free.
Installs with
Questions
Can you play Darkwatch natively on PC?
Yes, though unfinished. The catalog has 2 recomps, all already playable.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of Darkwatch (Xbox). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.
Which one is the most popular?
Darkwatch (linkssy2), with 153 stars on GitHub.