A seminal cyberpunk first-person exploratory adventure game with RPG elements in which, waking up in the Citadel Space Station, a lone hacker has to survive corrupted enemies and collect audio logs and equipment from former station workers in order to shut down SHODAN, the station's artificial intelligence that has killed everyone on board and now intends to destroy the world.
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A game that needs no introduction for most. System Shock was the evolution of the work done in Ultima Underworld, which itself redefined what a dungeon crawling game could be. System Shock went the next step by focusing on a multitude of little details about how you can interact with the game world to make it feel more immersive.
Firstly, the cyberpunk setting on a space station devoid of other humans sets the perfect stage for the kind of emergent gameplay the developers hoped to achieve with this game. It was assisted with a cohesive narrative and one of the best villain to grace the medium by 1994. In fact, SHODAN might be the first villain I actively and gleefully wanted to kill by the time it was all said and done. The story and setting were further aided by solid visuals, a strong soundtrack, and mostly good voice acting, especially for SHODAN. It all came together to create a world that truly felt alive and menacing which prompted you to keep exploring and keep surviving.
This was also the game that pretty much set the "data log" as an exposition staple of the genre which I have mixed feelings about. If you read interviews with the developers, they ditched NPCs in favor of logs so that the player wouldn't feel pulled out of the game in order to work through dilaogue trees, and I honestly agree that it has always been a bit of a disconnecting experience. Fallout 3, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect all come to mind as examples where engaging in dialogue with an NPC, especially during a hectic moment or even in combat, completely breaks the immersion because the game pauses to let you have your nice little chit chat where you can decide which melodramatic or neutral way you would like the conversation to go. It's a problem that the gaming medium hasn't really solved as of 2024 and probably won't until you can converse with AI-driven NPCs via real life conversations at some point in the future. Do I necessarily agree that exposition dumps laying around the game were the best solution? No, but some games like Dark Souls definitely found ways to inject that exposition into the game by way of logs that didn't feel like cheap cop outs. System Shocks' approach was novel enough for the time, especially thanks to the cyberpunk setting, that it felt acceptable.
With that rant over, I'll summarize by saying that System Shock pushed the first person adventure game forward by building on what games like Doom and Heretic had played around with, but keeping the pace of the gameplay at a more measured and thoughtful level. I believe this game is one of those critical focal points from which almost everything else in the genre would follow and would be inspired directly or indirectly in some way going forward.
Firstly, the cyberpunk setting on a space station devoid of other humans sets the perfect stage for the kind of emergent gameplay the developers hoped to achieve with this game. It was assisted with a cohesive narrative and one of the best villain to grace the medium by 1994. In fact, SHODAN might be the first villain I actively and gleefully wanted to kill by the time it was all said and done. The story and setting were further aided by solid visuals, a strong soundtrack, and mostly good voice acting, especially for SHODAN. It all came together to create a world that truly felt alive and menacing which prompted you to keep exploring and keep surviving.
This was also the game that pretty much set the "data log" as an exposition staple of the genre which I have mixed feelings about. If you read interviews with the developers, they ditched NPCs in favor of logs so that the player wouldn't feel pulled out of the game in order to work through dilaogue trees, and I honestly agree that it has always been a bit of a disconnecting experience. Fallout 3, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect all come to mind as examples where engaging in dialogue with an NPC, especially during a hectic moment or even in combat, completely breaks the immersion because the game pauses to let you have your nice little chit chat where you can decide which melodramatic or neutral way you would like the conversation to go. It's a problem that the gaming medium hasn't really solved as of 2024 and probably won't until you can converse with AI-driven NPCs via real life conversations at some point in the future. Do I necessarily agree that exposition dumps laying around the game were the best solution? No, but some games like Dark Souls definitely found ways to inject that exposition into the game by way of logs that didn't feel like cheap cop outs. System Shocks' approach was novel enough for the time, especially thanks to the cyberpunk setting, that it felt acceptable.
With that rant over, I'll summarize by saying that System Shock pushed the first person adventure game forward by building on what games like Doom and Heretic had played around with, but keeping the pace of the gameplay at a more measured and thoughtful level. I believe this game is one of those critical focal points from which almost everything else in the genre would follow and would be inspired directly or indirectly in some way going forward.
No mouse look makes this the least playable version, but still, the importance of this game cannot be understated
It plays like Doom 3 if it was made in 1994. Great FPS with one of the best villains of all time. Kinda dated and takes a while to get used to but it's worth the time.
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Using this for both versions, the Floppy Disk MS-Dos and CD. The former I believe has even lower resolution and no audio logs and whatnot but I think it has its charms but the audio added, especially SHODAN's voice, are obviously great and iconic. I much prefer the visuals in this over the Enhanced Edition remaster but that has some decent QoL from what I saw, so I'll give it a try someday.
The music and crunchy audio quality in this original are amazing and add a lot. I like the UI and all the colors in the levels. The 2D sprite enemies are great too although for some objects not so much, only due to how they interact with the 3D camera rotating sometimes.
This original feels a lot more like a mix between Doom and a survival horror/exploration game than the remake. Which leans more into the latter, because in this original the music + enemy amount feel more pressuring especially at the end. I like both takes though.
The Engineering level is more sufferable in the Remake and I guess technically the Cyberspace is more appealing looking there but the actual objective and purpose of the Cyberspace in the original are better, and the presentation of them feels more apt to the setting.
I saw people complain about various stuff in the Remake as usual, and some parts I agree but it's more of a taste thing rather than good vs bad like the "writing" of the logs or voice performances. SHODAN is voiced by Terri in both versions, both are good but different. The random audio logs go either way as well, in the original they are obviously voiced by just some people they could grab and sound like amateurs reading their lines, but that kind of fits since the people are just random employees of the station. Diego is kind of worse in the Remake though. It would have been nice if the Remake came with a setting for original voices and music separately or at all, like Star Ocean 2 Remake.
Controls are hyper giga jank but it's okay and it's part of the charm of these games. I suppose this is why the first game already got called immersive sim, since you interact a lot more with the game through the controls and UI. While in the Remake you have smoother actions, WASD, etc, which then makes the UI less part of the game and focuses more on the shooter/survival aspect. That also highlights the lack of elements you would otherwise associate in game interactions with immersive Sims, that feel more present in the original due to the jank controls, more cumbersome processes and UI importance.
On top of that, you really needed Pen & Paper to progress parts of the game, which made you much more involved in exploration and getting lost into the game. Now you can just take a screenshot of what you need (if you know beforehand) or google cuck yourself.
I think getting lost and confused about what to do is probably a lot more fun and acceptable to most new players in the Remake. I could see a lot of people, including myself, getting more frustrated with it in the original if it happened there the first time. Hard to tell hindsight.
Both are good takes on the game in their own rights, in my opinion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But the original gets away with more just due to being the original form 1994 that turned out to be what it is due to intentions, limitations and Zeitgeist. I think people should play any version of 1994 and Remake if they are into it, they a both worth and fun. Remake is obviously smoother and more digestable to most MoDeRn gAmErS.
After the rough start I had with the Remake I'm surprised how much I got into System Shock 1. It's generally not a genre is get super into.
The music and crunchy audio quality in this original are amazing and add a lot. I like the UI and all the colors in the levels. The 2D sprite enemies are great too although for some objects not so much, only due to how they interact with the 3D camera rotating sometimes.
This original feels a lot more like a mix between Doom and a survival horror/exploration game than the remake. Which leans more into the latter, because in this original the music + enemy amount feel more pressuring especially at the end. I like both takes though.
The Engineering level is more sufferable in the Remake and I guess technically the Cyberspace is more appealing looking there but the actual objective and purpose of the Cyberspace in the original are better, and the presentation of them feels more apt to the setting.
I saw people complain about various stuff in the Remake as usual, and some parts I agree but it's more of a taste thing rather than good vs bad like the "writing" of the logs or voice performances. SHODAN is voiced by Terri in both versions, both are good but different. The random audio logs go either way as well, in the original they are obviously voiced by just some people they could grab and sound like amateurs reading their lines, but that kind of fits since the people are just random employees of the station. Diego is kind of worse in the Remake though. It would have been nice if the Remake came with a setting for original voices and music separately or at all, like Star Ocean 2 Remake.
Controls are hyper giga jank but it's okay and it's part of the charm of these games. I suppose this is why the first game already got called immersive sim, since you interact a lot more with the game through the controls and UI. While in the Remake you have smoother actions, WASD, etc, which then makes the UI less part of the game and focuses more on the shooter/survival aspect. That also highlights the lack of elements you would otherwise associate in game interactions with immersive Sims, that feel more present in the original due to the jank controls, more cumbersome processes and UI importance.
On top of that, you really needed Pen & Paper to progress parts of the game, which made you much more involved in exploration and getting lost into the game. Now you can just take a screenshot of what you need (if you know beforehand) or google cuck yourself.
I think getting lost and confused about what to do is probably a lot more fun and acceptable to most new players in the Remake. I could see a lot of people, including myself, getting more frustrated with it in the original if it happened there the first time. Hard to tell hindsight.
Both are good takes on the game in their own rights, in my opinion, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But the original gets away with more just due to being the original form 1994 that turned out to be what it is due to intentions, limitations and Zeitgeist. I think people should play any version of 1994 and Remake if they are into it, they a both worth and fun. Remake is obviously smoother and more digestable to most MoDeRn gAmErS.
After the rough start I had with the Remake I'm surprised how much I got into System Shock 1. It's generally not a genre is get super into.
This was my first time playing the original System Shock and holy shit I'm impressed. How in hell did this game release only a year after the original DOOM? Every single element of what would define immersive sims as a genre is present and accounted for, from a diverse tool set of weapons and traversal abilities, audio logs revealing door codes and other objectives, ducts to crawl through, hidden items, resource management, the list goes on.
Of course, all my praise must be taken with the massive pinches of salt that are the enhanced edition from 2015 and the remake from last year. I played the EE and it removes a lot of the friction from the original release, adding mouselook, widescreen, higher framerates and greater customisation for controls and other settings. Even with these quality of life changes, it's a very old game at this point and there's a lot of nonsense in the way of getting into the game. Half of the keyboard become vital hotkeys, most of which you'll need to rebind to more sensible options, and if you don't learn to use them, you'll have a rough time. Even then, a lot of your abilities will need to be enabled with the mouse, as there's just too many to memorise all the controls for a ten hour game. The UI design too is incredibly creaky at this point. You have about fifty eight different menus, submenus and buttons crowding your screen, while your actual view of the world makes up a small letterbox in the centre. Fullscreen view can be enabled, but you can't make the menus and fluff go away, they just cease to have a background, arguably making the game uglier and harder to read.
These are problems, but I will say they add a certain charm to the game for me. You're a 90s, cyberpunk hacker with a massive cyberspace implant drilled into your bonce and boy does the game make you feel like that. The UI and controls are a clunky, unintuitive nightmare, but they perfectly instill that cyberpunk vibe that's missing from more recent games. What helps that along is the soundtrack, which absolutely fucking slaps. It's so good that I found the constant stopping and starting of tracks between different areas massively annoying and I really wished they could have integrated the music blending from Lucasart's SCUMM games.
The story isn't breaking any new ground, but the execution is fantastic. The audio logs you find feel like an actual reward rather than homework as in modern games, with some great writing and even better voice acting. There's a darkly cynical edge to a lot of it, with the same anti-corporate spirit as Jurassic Park the year before. Best of all though is SHODAN, whose writing and performance cement her as one of the greatest villains in gaming history. Terri Brosius does a fantastic job embodying a deliciously evil AI with the mother of all god complexes and the audio engineering on top makes every second she talks to you a real treat. Her unambiguous maliciousness serve as the perfect contrast to the dark irony within the rest of the game's story. Sure, maybe the real evil is capitalism and idiot managers screwing everything up, but right now there is an all powerful AI who have 38 different plans to destroy humanity so go stop that please. Talk about motivation.
All in all, System Shock is great. It's by no means perfect, it's jank as hell, the combat isn't great, the platforming is shonky and the visuals are dated, but god did I kind of love it in the end. The only caveat as to whether you should play it now is the remake, which I haven't played but I understand to be very faithful to the original, so if you haven't much patience for old, dodgy game design, you might be better served there. Either way, I highly recommend you find some way to experience the grandmother of immersive sims and have a great time.
Of course, all my praise must be taken with the massive pinches of salt that are the enhanced edition from 2015 and the remake from last year. I played the EE and it removes a lot of the friction from the original release, adding mouselook, widescreen, higher framerates and greater customisation for controls and other settings. Even with these quality of life changes, it's a very old game at this point and there's a lot of nonsense in the way of getting into the game. Half of the keyboard become vital hotkeys, most of which you'll need to rebind to more sensible options, and if you don't learn to use them, you'll have a rough time. Even then, a lot of your abilities will need to be enabled with the mouse, as there's just too many to memorise all the controls for a ten hour game. The UI design too is incredibly creaky at this point. You have about fifty eight different menus, submenus and buttons crowding your screen, while your actual view of the world makes up a small letterbox in the centre. Fullscreen view can be enabled, but you can't make the menus and fluff go away, they just cease to have a background, arguably making the game uglier and harder to read.
These are problems, but I will say they add a certain charm to the game for me. You're a 90s, cyberpunk hacker with a massive cyberspace implant drilled into your bonce and boy does the game make you feel like that. The UI and controls are a clunky, unintuitive nightmare, but they perfectly instill that cyberpunk vibe that's missing from more recent games. What helps that along is the soundtrack, which absolutely fucking slaps. It's so good that I found the constant stopping and starting of tracks between different areas massively annoying and I really wished they could have integrated the music blending from Lucasart's SCUMM games.
The story isn't breaking any new ground, but the execution is fantastic. The audio logs you find feel like an actual reward rather than homework as in modern games, with some great writing and even better voice acting. There's a darkly cynical edge to a lot of it, with the same anti-corporate spirit as Jurassic Park the year before. Best of all though is SHODAN, whose writing and performance cement her as one of the greatest villains in gaming history. Terri Brosius does a fantastic job embodying a deliciously evil AI with the mother of all god complexes and the audio engineering on top makes every second she talks to you a real treat. Her unambiguous maliciousness serve as the perfect contrast to the dark irony within the rest of the game's story. Sure, maybe the real evil is capitalism and idiot managers screwing everything up, but right now there is an all powerful AI who have 38 different plans to destroy humanity so go stop that please. Talk about motivation.
All in all, System Shock is great. It's by no means perfect, it's jank as hell, the combat isn't great, the platforming is shonky and the visuals are dated, but god did I kind of love it in the end. The only caveat as to whether you should play it now is the remake, which I haven't played but I understand to be very faithful to the original, so if you haven't much patience for old, dodgy game design, you might be better served there. Either way, I highly recommend you find some way to experience the grandmother of immersive sims and have a great time.
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