System Shock is a game that needs no introduction...or maybe it does, considering its unique circumstances. Looking Glass Technologies's proto-immersive sim is the stuff of gaming legend, having inspired countless titles since, even Looking Glass's own future work. As excellent as it is even to this day, System Shock hasn't had the easiest time getting into the hands of the modern gamer. Entirely unavailable officially for over two decades, it wasn't until Nightdive Studios' Enhanced Edition remaster that the game was able to be purchased at all. Even with modern accessibility and Nightdive's post-launch support for the remaster, System Shock's inherent design is offputting for many people, regardless of how intuitive I feel it is. While I wouldn't consider it "necessary", the game is a prime target for a modern remake, and who else but Nightdive to step to the mantle? After nearly eight years of development and multiple project restarts, Nightdive's proper game debut has finally made it to store shelves and into my grubby hands.
The System Shock remake, then, is an interesting hybrid between old and new. While not entirely one-to-one, the level design is fairly similar to the 1994 original, down to the lack of explicit player guidance. This will still divide some players, but as a lover of the original, I'm glad this approach was taken. While on some level, this makes ReShock feel a little less "special", there's something refreshing about playing a game in the modern day so committed to letting the player figure things out on their own. In any case, much of the original has been completely overhauled. Gone is the "calculator interface" in favor of a far more modern user experience more in line with say, the modern Deus Ex games. It is far easier to use the game on a basic level than it was in the original, and while I find this system less addictive, it is certainly more user-friendly and that's going to be a plus for a lot of people. As for the gameplay mechanics, they're certainly far more in line with what you'd expect from a modern immersive sim. Gone are the floaty physics and shooting of the original, replaced by fairly grounded gunplay and combat which feels satisfying and rewarding to use. Enemies are tough and demand a decent bit from the player and even in the late game I was still occasionally caught off guard. All of the original's weapons have been overhauled to be a bit more distinct than they were in the original, and have even been given alternative fire modes and attachment upgrades in some cases. There's definitely more customization in terms of how you can handle encounters, which is what you'd expect from a modern game in this genre. On some level, it is difficult to praise Nightdive's design work on this remake, because while very different in ways both obvious and subtle, a lot of what makes it so successful can be traced back to Looking Glass's original design and concepts. Citadel Station's brilliant levels, the immersive gameplay, and the gear you acquire are all in the original and are mostly faithfully adapted here. What Nightdive has largely done is taken the gameplay mechanics and modernized them while still keeping the ideas intact, and while on some level I sort of wish they went further than they did, there's always something commendable about a remake dedicated to staying true to the source material. There are new elements for sure, the SK-27 Shotgun is a new weapon and it is incredibly satisfying to blow mutant heads open like watermelons with it. Enemy AI is as you'd expect completely reprogrammed and they are more nuanced in their behaviors (albeit not significantly more so). The only real complaint I have is that melee combat feels worse than in the original - while improved from the demo, it still doesn't have the satisfying THWACK of the original melee system and while still effective, just doesn't have the feedback I'd want. The boss fights are also sort of whatever - many of Edward Diego's encounters are cheesed easily through the dermal patches (to be fair, also true of the original, too), and a few of them, such as the second Cortex Reaver fight and the final Diego fight, might be too annoyingly fast-paced for ReShock's gameplay loop. The final boss fight against Shodan is appallingly awful, essentially being a waiting game that nearly put me to sleep. I completed the game before the big update that overhauled it, so as far as I know, it may have been improved since. Cyberspace was one of the more gimmicky aspects of the original, mostly existing just to wow mid-90s PC gamers but the added complexity it brings to the game was and still is quite impressive to this day. ReShock turns the original's floaty exploration into more of a Descent clone, with more nuanced movement mechanics and more satisfying cyber-combat. It's certainly an improvement in a few ways, but I think I ended up preferring the original version of the concept. Cyberspace in ReShock doesn't evolve or change as the game goes on and eventually, I found these setpieces grew a tad dull. This wasn't as big of a problem in the original because these sequences were more about exploration than combat. Not a major problem, but something I wish was elaborated on a bit more. It feels restrained as is.
One of System Shock's many claims to fame was its form of "post-incident storytelling" (not a real term) where the protagonist enters the narrative after the inciting incident and has to piece together what remains. Audio logs, often taken for granted as a trite form of storytelling, are part of what made System Shock stand out back in the day and were a brilliant way of overcoming technological limitations to convey a harrowing tale, the journies of off-screen characters, and worldbuilding. Naturally, the game keeps these, and while many are simply re-recorded and slightly rewritten, I was surprised by the amount of brand-new logs. They fit within the game pretty well and there's even some fascinating new worldbuilding (such as why Citadel is such a labyrinth even in areas people are supposed to regularly occupy). Something I found mildly annoying, however, is that the game seems to take itself somewhat non-seriously in ways that slightly rub me the wrong way. While embracing the cheese the original game had is fine, in some ways, it almost feels parodic, such as the serv-bots being welcoming and hospitable while also trying to slice you to pieces. This is never much of a problem, the game largely maintains a serious tone and is something that is definitely a silly nitpick on my part, but I found it notable enough to mention.
While the original System Shock can look garish to some nowadays, it's important to remember that for its time, it was quite demanding for PCs and was a real showcase for what top-of-the-line hardware could do. Although early promotional footage for the game as well as its initial Unity prototype showcased a greyer, relatively more realistic art direction, Nightdive has wisely gone in the opposite direction with an art style both densely detailed and low-fidelity. While at first glance, ReShock looks quite detailed, moving up close you'll find that everything is pixellated. This is a brilliant mix of retro sensibilities and modern Unreal Engine 4 rendering techniques to create a look that is highly unique nowadays. Embracing its roots as a mid-90s PC game, the color palette is rich and vibrant, while still maintaining a moody and dark atmosphere. ReShock's use of volumetric lighting is particularly stunning - the way light beams through the halls of Citadel, creating a smokey and misty atmosphere is downright jaw-dropping, especially in Research when the lighting is primarily red and orange. Lighting in general is the game's strong suit, and it looks especially evocative even in more "natural" conditions. Particle effects are also great, and I often would stop and take a close look at hover lifts just to stare at them for a moment. The environments are richly detailed too and despite the retro aesthetic look lived in and used. I especially loved the unique look of every level, such as the bumpy purple walls of Medical, the striking crimson of Research, and the oily red and grey pipes of Reactor. The only one that sort of falls flat is Maintenance, which is brightly lit instead of bathed in shadow, robbing the level of the infamous creepiness it had in the original. Cyberspace also looks great, with its environments quite literally pulsating with color and warping to give it a digital feel. It looks and runs great at maximum settings (pretty much exclusively hovering around 120 FPS for me with rare drops) and the game's implementation of DLSS 3.1 reconstructs very well without many visual artifacts at all. If I have any gripes, it's that I'm not huge on all of the monster redesigns. While some of them look great, such as the fresh takes on the iconic cyborg elite guards and assassins, others look a fair bit odd, such as the mutated cyborg and a particularly garish interpretation of Edward Diego's final form. I found their 1994 designs far more appealing, but I suppose in isolation they do not look bad.
I will say, if this remake has a "weak point", it's perhaps the score from Jonathan Peros, who had previously been involved with remastering the original game's soundtrack for the album in 2020. What Peros manages to accomplish here is certainly solid work, his ambient tracks complement the game's environments decently and the combat tracks are a highlight. It's fairly satisfying to hear Reactor's ambient theme devolve into a crunchy electronic "mess" with a thick bassline (ripped from the original Reactor theme!). The return of dynamic music, which was disappointingly missing from System Shock 2, is much appreciated. While not nearly as complex as the original game's innovative audio technology (at least, to my ears. There's probably some crazy complicated under-the-hood tech I just can't see in ReShock.), it still adds an appreciable amount of dynamism to the game's audio design. For example, the music doesn't dynamically change based on enemy positions, environmental hazards, or health like in the original, and the lack of that is disappointing, but I still have to admit it's an improvement over SS2. I also appreciate how melodies and motifs from the 1994 score are carried over subtly here. I guess my main criticism is the musical compositions themselves. ReShock director and Nightdive founder/CEO Stephen Kick has gone on record to say that Greg LoPiccolo's score for the original title betrayed its "horror" atmosphere, and while I disagree, I understand his sentiment on some level. Besides not being that musically captivating, to begin with (Peros needs to lay off the wailing ambient guitar), I'm unsure how horror-oriented ReShock's score is either. It feels the main draw is more of an aural fascination with space and Citadel Station itself rather than a particularly tense or anxiety-inducing mood. In fact, I'd argue it was fairly calming a lot of the time. I'm never going to call it an unsuccessful soundtrack because it complimented the atmosphere well, in its own right, but it doesn't have the highly memorable and catchy tunes that the original game had nor its dynamic complexity.
As a huge fan of the original System Shock and its sequel, Nightdive's System Shock remake does not disappoint. The combat and exploration have been heavily refined and presented nearly perfectly in a modern context while keeping the level design largely intact. ReShock feels great to play - the gameplay loop is addictive and satisfying and you'd be hard-pressed to find many games nowadays that are so dedicated to telling the player to "figure it out themselves". Despite that, it's never insurmountable and with enough effort, I think even confused players can figure it out. The game's worldbuilding has been expanded with plenty of new audio logs that fill in details the original never did. The art style is a beautiful mix of new and old, and for an independent title, the graphics are wonderfully executed. I'm not huge on the game's new score, but it works well enough for its context, it just isn't as tense as it should have been considering what was intended. For a franchise that often prides itself on bold innovation and industry influence, ReShock plays it surprisingly safe, and I can't say I think it'll have nearly the same impact its two predecessors had. Nonetheless, if the "worst" game in your series is as great as ReShock, I don't think you have much to worry about. Looking forward to the eventual System Shock 2 remake that Nightdive has expressed interest in.
The System Shock remake, then, is an interesting hybrid between old and new. While not entirely one-to-one, the level design is fairly similar to the 1994 original, down to the lack of explicit player guidance. This will still divide some players, but as a lover of the original, I'm glad this approach was taken. While on some level, this makes ReShock feel a little less "special", there's something refreshing about playing a game in the modern day so committed to letting the player figure things out on their own. In any case, much of the original has been completely overhauled. Gone is the "calculator interface" in favor of a far more modern user experience more in line with say, the modern Deus Ex games. It is far easier to use the game on a basic level than it was in the original, and while I find this system less addictive, it is certainly more user-friendly and that's going to be a plus for a lot of people. As for the gameplay mechanics, they're certainly far more in line with what you'd expect from a modern immersive sim. Gone are the floaty physics and shooting of the original, replaced by fairly grounded gunplay and combat which feels satisfying and rewarding to use. Enemies are tough and demand a decent bit from the player and even in the late game I was still occasionally caught off guard. All of the original's weapons have been overhauled to be a bit more distinct than they were in the original, and have even been given alternative fire modes and attachment upgrades in some cases. There's definitely more customization in terms of how you can handle encounters, which is what you'd expect from a modern game in this genre. On some level, it is difficult to praise Nightdive's design work on this remake, because while very different in ways both obvious and subtle, a lot of what makes it so successful can be traced back to Looking Glass's original design and concepts. Citadel Station's brilliant levels, the immersive gameplay, and the gear you acquire are all in the original and are mostly faithfully adapted here. What Nightdive has largely done is taken the gameplay mechanics and modernized them while still keeping the ideas intact, and while on some level I sort of wish they went further than they did, there's always something commendable about a remake dedicated to staying true to the source material. There are new elements for sure, the SK-27 Shotgun is a new weapon and it is incredibly satisfying to blow mutant heads open like watermelons with it. Enemy AI is as you'd expect completely reprogrammed and they are more nuanced in their behaviors (albeit not significantly more so). The only real complaint I have is that melee combat feels worse than in the original - while improved from the demo, it still doesn't have the satisfying THWACK of the original melee system and while still effective, just doesn't have the feedback I'd want. The boss fights are also sort of whatever - many of Edward Diego's encounters are cheesed easily through the dermal patches (to be fair, also true of the original, too), and a few of them, such as the second Cortex Reaver fight and the final Diego fight, might be too annoyingly fast-paced for ReShock's gameplay loop. The final boss fight against Shodan is appallingly awful, essentially being a waiting game that nearly put me to sleep. I completed the game before the big update that overhauled it, so as far as I know, it may have been improved since. Cyberspace was one of the more gimmicky aspects of the original, mostly existing just to wow mid-90s PC gamers but the added complexity it brings to the game was and still is quite impressive to this day. ReShock turns the original's floaty exploration into more of a Descent clone, with more nuanced movement mechanics and more satisfying cyber-combat. It's certainly an improvement in a few ways, but I think I ended up preferring the original version of the concept. Cyberspace in ReShock doesn't evolve or change as the game goes on and eventually, I found these setpieces grew a tad dull. This wasn't as big of a problem in the original because these sequences were more about exploration than combat. Not a major problem, but something I wish was elaborated on a bit more. It feels restrained as is.
One of System Shock's many claims to fame was its form of "post-incident storytelling" (not a real term) where the protagonist enters the narrative after the inciting incident and has to piece together what remains. Audio logs, often taken for granted as a trite form of storytelling, are part of what made System Shock stand out back in the day and were a brilliant way of overcoming technological limitations to convey a harrowing tale, the journies of off-screen characters, and worldbuilding. Naturally, the game keeps these, and while many are simply re-recorded and slightly rewritten, I was surprised by the amount of brand-new logs. They fit within the game pretty well and there's even some fascinating new worldbuilding (such as why Citadel is such a labyrinth even in areas people are supposed to regularly occupy). Something I found mildly annoying, however, is that the game seems to take itself somewhat non-seriously in ways that slightly rub me the wrong way. While embracing the cheese the original game had is fine, in some ways, it almost feels parodic, such as the serv-bots being welcoming and hospitable while also trying to slice you to pieces. This is never much of a problem, the game largely maintains a serious tone and is something that is definitely a silly nitpick on my part, but I found it notable enough to mention.
While the original System Shock can look garish to some nowadays, it's important to remember that for its time, it was quite demanding for PCs and was a real showcase for what top-of-the-line hardware could do. Although early promotional footage for the game as well as its initial Unity prototype showcased a greyer, relatively more realistic art direction, Nightdive has wisely gone in the opposite direction with an art style both densely detailed and low-fidelity. While at first glance, ReShock looks quite detailed, moving up close you'll find that everything is pixellated. This is a brilliant mix of retro sensibilities and modern Unreal Engine 4 rendering techniques to create a look that is highly unique nowadays. Embracing its roots as a mid-90s PC game, the color palette is rich and vibrant, while still maintaining a moody and dark atmosphere. ReShock's use of volumetric lighting is particularly stunning - the way light beams through the halls of Citadel, creating a smokey and misty atmosphere is downright jaw-dropping, especially in Research when the lighting is primarily red and orange. Lighting in general is the game's strong suit, and it looks especially evocative even in more "natural" conditions. Particle effects are also great, and I often would stop and take a close look at hover lifts just to stare at them for a moment. The environments are richly detailed too and despite the retro aesthetic look lived in and used. I especially loved the unique look of every level, such as the bumpy purple walls of Medical, the striking crimson of Research, and the oily red and grey pipes of Reactor. The only one that sort of falls flat is Maintenance, which is brightly lit instead of bathed in shadow, robbing the level of the infamous creepiness it had in the original. Cyberspace also looks great, with its environments quite literally pulsating with color and warping to give it a digital feel. It looks and runs great at maximum settings (pretty much exclusively hovering around 120 FPS for me with rare drops) and the game's implementation of DLSS 3.1 reconstructs very well without many visual artifacts at all. If I have any gripes, it's that I'm not huge on all of the monster redesigns. While some of them look great, such as the fresh takes on the iconic cyborg elite guards and assassins, others look a fair bit odd, such as the mutated cyborg and a particularly garish interpretation of Edward Diego's final form. I found their 1994 designs far more appealing, but I suppose in isolation they do not look bad.
I will say, if this remake has a "weak point", it's perhaps the score from Jonathan Peros, who had previously been involved with remastering the original game's soundtrack for the album in 2020. What Peros manages to accomplish here is certainly solid work, his ambient tracks complement the game's environments decently and the combat tracks are a highlight. It's fairly satisfying to hear Reactor's ambient theme devolve into a crunchy electronic "mess" with a thick bassline (ripped from the original Reactor theme!). The return of dynamic music, which was disappointingly missing from System Shock 2, is much appreciated. While not nearly as complex as the original game's innovative audio technology (at least, to my ears. There's probably some crazy complicated under-the-hood tech I just can't see in ReShock.), it still adds an appreciable amount of dynamism to the game's audio design. For example, the music doesn't dynamically change based on enemy positions, environmental hazards, or health like in the original, and the lack of that is disappointing, but I still have to admit it's an improvement over SS2. I also appreciate how melodies and motifs from the 1994 score are carried over subtly here. I guess my main criticism is the musical compositions themselves. ReShock director and Nightdive founder/CEO Stephen Kick has gone on record to say that Greg LoPiccolo's score for the original title betrayed its "horror" atmosphere, and while I disagree, I understand his sentiment on some level. Besides not being that musically captivating, to begin with (Peros needs to lay off the wailing ambient guitar), I'm unsure how horror-oriented ReShock's score is either. It feels the main draw is more of an aural fascination with space and Citadel Station itself rather than a particularly tense or anxiety-inducing mood. In fact, I'd argue it was fairly calming a lot of the time. I'm never going to call it an unsuccessful soundtrack because it complimented the atmosphere well, in its own right, but it doesn't have the highly memorable and catchy tunes that the original game had nor its dynamic complexity.
As a huge fan of the original System Shock and its sequel, Nightdive's System Shock remake does not disappoint. The combat and exploration have been heavily refined and presented nearly perfectly in a modern context while keeping the level design largely intact. ReShock feels great to play - the gameplay loop is addictive and satisfying and you'd be hard-pressed to find many games nowadays that are so dedicated to telling the player to "figure it out themselves". Despite that, it's never insurmountable and with enough effort, I think even confused players can figure it out. The game's worldbuilding has been expanded with plenty of new audio logs that fill in details the original never did. The art style is a beautiful mix of new and old, and for an independent title, the graphics are wonderfully executed. I'm not huge on the game's new score, but it works well enough for its context, it just isn't as tense as it should have been considering what was intended. For a franchise that often prides itself on bold innovation and industry influence, ReShock plays it surprisingly safe, and I can't say I think it'll have nearly the same impact its two predecessors had. Nonetheless, if the "worst" game in your series is as great as ReShock, I don't think you have much to worry about. Looking forward to the eventual System Shock 2 remake that Nightdive has expressed interest in.
Excelente remake e fiel ao jogo original em todos os aspectos, tanto bons quanto ruins. Talvez volte depois pra terminar, e recomendo pra quem tem interesse em conhecer a franquia
Great game. Remake made with love and passion.
However it was made in the unreal 4 engine. The Ai is very easy to exploit and the tougher more intimidating enemies at the end of the game are a cake walk to beat with the arsenal the game gives you, which is unfortunate. The game's most difficult moments are floor 3-4, which have some of the most frustrating enemies to fight.
However it was made in the unreal 4 engine. The Ai is very easy to exploit and the tougher more intimidating enemies at the end of the game are a cake walk to beat with the arsenal the game gives you, which is unfortunate. The game's most difficult moments are floor 3-4, which have some of the most frustrating enemies to fight.
Vraiment sympa... au début. J'ai vraiment adoré au début, la sensation d'être perdu, l'atmosphère oppressante et les ennemis qui représentent de vraies menaces, tout avait bien commencé.
Malheureusement, plus on avance dans le jeu, plus on se rends compte qu'on évolue pas, on est tout le temps dans la merde, les objectifs sont littéralement juste cachés, je demande pas à ce qu'on me prenne la main comme dans GoW: Ragnarok mais j'aimerais AU MOINS savoir quoi faire.
Les combats sont pas si mauvais mais on n'évolue pas, malgré les composants qu'on peut récupérer etc... ça change pas grand chose, il faut toujours une dizaine de balle pour tuer un ennemi qui te tue en 3 coup, bref, c'est pas du tout satisfaisant.
Peut être qu'avec des mises à jour le jeu deviendra plus accessible, on espère en tout cas.
Malheureusement, plus on avance dans le jeu, plus on se rends compte qu'on évolue pas, on est tout le temps dans la merde, les objectifs sont littéralement juste cachés, je demande pas à ce qu'on me prenne la main comme dans GoW: Ragnarok mais j'aimerais AU MOINS savoir quoi faire.
Les combats sont pas si mauvais mais on n'évolue pas, malgré les composants qu'on peut récupérer etc... ça change pas grand chose, il faut toujours une dizaine de balle pour tuer un ennemi qui te tue en 3 coup, bref, c'est pas du tout satisfaisant.
Peut être qu'avec des mises à jour le jeu deviendra plus accessible, on espère en tout cas.
I never had the chance to experience the original, so this is my first time coming to this title and I have to say that there's a lot that's impressive about the cohesive world design and maps that truly came to later define Immersive Sims. I think I agree with the take that this is more of a dungeon crawl than an Immersive Sim. It's also a solid story with memorable beats. Cyberspace and a couple of the levels still kinda suck in that way some 90s games did of being too obtuse and poorly paced and I'd have liked to see that stuff simply streamlined out but maybe that would have pissed off the fans.
Still, much better than I expected it to be and I'd recommend just setting cyberspace to 1 so you can get through that as quickly as possible.
Still, much better than I expected it to be and I'd recommend just setting cyberspace to 1 so you can get through that as quickly as possible.
Another game I started off really weird with. I played this on launch, really excited to see a reimagining of what would end up inspiring games like PREY and Bioshock and... man was I disappointed. It wasn't... bad per se, but it felt way too cryptic for its own good and relied too much on being faithful to the original for the sake of the fans. A great thing if you are indeed a fan of the original, but not a good thing if you are a newcomer.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
After playing SS2 and falling in love with that game so much to the point where it quickly became an all-time favorite for me, I was interested in revisiting this game again, and the recent patch felt like the best opportunity. Does it click fully for me now?
Yes and no. I appreciate and respect this game a lot more now then I did prior, especially as a remake, but I still largely prefer SS2 and I really feel that you should play that game first if you're at all interested in this franchise. That's a game I think anyone can pick up and enjoy. If you liked SS2 already and want something more challenging to pick at your brain or are incredibly familiar with the original, then this game is for you.
One thing I'll immediately say is PLAY ON MISSION DIFFICULTY 1 IF YOU AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THIS GAME IN ANY CAPACITY. And if anyone complains at you for doing this, fuck them. This is the big thing that really made me want to revisit this game, since mission skill 1 is supposed to give you waypoints to your objectives on your map and they supposedly didn't work on launch for some reason. And I think save for some of the bugs and jankiness that exist as of writing, this is a great way for people to play this game at first. It's not to say this game is unnavigable outside of it, this game does a good job telling you what to do so long as you listen to audio logs and emails (and the game just gives you the waypoints, no objective list, you still need to put the pieces together to figure out just HOW to do it which I enjoy), but what you have to memorize is way more then in SS2 (a game that actually KEEPS TRACK of your objectives on any skill), and there's no way to take notes in-game save for the steam overlay if you play on there. That and the later half of this game really likes to force you to backtrack to previous floors just to grab one specific item or memorize something for later. At least Abe's head is on the same floor as the door you need to unlock, but if I didn't know I had to memorize the CPU node terminal numbers on my first playthrough to get the self-destruct code, I would've HATED having to go back to write them down again. My only real issue with the waypoints is that sometimes they won't disappear after you did what was tagged in that area which can cause a bit of confusion on what to do next if your brain forgets what you have to do next. As an example, the objective marker on the Cyberspace computer that unlocked the doors to the antennae on engineering didn't clear up even after I destroyed all the locks, which made me second guess myself for a bit since I remember on my first playthrough I forgot one and had to go back to destroy the last one. Again, not a bad thing, and for all I know this'll get fixed soon, but it happened pretty often and it bugged me.
Another thing I'll say off the bat is I really didn't give the combat as much praise as I probably should've back then. Sure, anything is better then the OG's combat, but this game's gunplay is REALLY satisfying. Headshots are meaty and satisfying and slicing a dude with a laser rapier in half and seeing all the blood splash out never gets old. I really appreciated this game's focus on survival period this time around, compared to how frustrated I felt on my first run. When I got into that mindset of vaporizing worthless items for scrap, keeping the ones that were more valuable to recycle later, and playing liberally with ammo and using all my resources everything really clicked with me. At the very least I just wish there was an auto-vaporize function for items that have no as-is recycle value, since it meant after a certain point I focused more on the items that I KNEW had a decent payout, being electronics and broken weapons.
The cyberspace sections aren't bad either imo. I turned them to difficulty 1 on my first playthrough since I remember really hating them in the demo, but idk they were a nice pacebreaker. They aren't exactly complex, but they're fun and simplistic for what they are.
I think timing was what really set this game back for me when it first came out. Comparing this again to something like the RE1 remake, at least RE had so many other games before it that proved to be good starter points. System Shock hasn't had a game since 1999, so in turn more people are inclined to make this their starting point, when it's easily the second least approachable in the series next to the OG, and leading to unfair comparisons (Me wishing this game played more like BioShock 1 was a bad take looking back, since that series plays nothing alike to this one, even compared to SS2). Again, if you want to play this game, either play 2 first or be familiar with the OG, and set that difficulty to 1. Overall a fun time and a great remake, but WILL be make or break for people if you aren't accustomed to this game's specific style of design.
Corridors
Aesthetically incredible, but far too unwieldy and obtuse to deserve your attention.
The 1.2 update is a fucking disgrace. Nightdive delayed the release of the update by several months to coincide with some console bullshit, and it turns out the PC version of 1.2 wasn't even fit to be shipped as evidenced by the fact that the game is now even buggier than before. They stated this update was done MONTHS ago. I guess all those months weren't long enough to do any QA.
All previous saves are now broken. Dropping the default melee pipe can allegedly crash the game. HUD opacity is broken. Key rebinding access is still only partially provided. All GOG achievements are broken. Access to the builds required to revert to a previous version in GOG Galaxy has been REMOVED for some unknowable reason. Cutscene subtitles disregard user configuration. And to top it all off I've heard that the revamped Shodan fight which was terrible at release is now somehow even worse. I wouldn't be surprised if the random crashes that drove me to give up my last 3,3,3,3 run are still in the game.
Great fucking work Nightdive. Both Steam and GOG forums are full of threads complaining about bugs.
- - - - -
I want to love the remake but it's riddled with so many small irritations, both technical and tonal, and coupled with Nightdive's scummy behavior in the years leading up to the release that my view of the project is repeatedly soured. The remake is so frustratingly close to being excellent.
- - -
Yeah the new Shodan fight is fucking terrible.
Bugs I ran into in this playthrough:
Vaporize All hotkey vaporizes scrap.
Z-fighting on elevators during transitions.
Enemy giblets frequently display graphical errors.
HUD Opacity cannot be configured.
Cutscene subtitles cannot be disabled.
Map markers cannot be placed.
Camera map icons sometimes persist on the minimap after camera destruction.
Damage sound effect from getting hit by a plant mutant's attack persisted until I reloaded from the title screen.
The Executive level railgun disappeared as I picked it up. The interstitial animation played out, but there was no visible model of the weapon. The railgun was nowhere to be found thereafter. Eventually I was able to acquire one of the later instances of a railgun, but this still isn't something that should have happened.
Improvements:
The level 7 trap finally kills the player after all this time.
That's it. That's the only improvement after a year.
You know what, since all achievements are currently bugged, I'm not even going to suffer through the 1.2 Shodan fight. They had a year to implement a healthbar and post boss monologue autosave. Yet somehow failed to realize how crucial such features are. For reference, the current 1.2 final boss is a long enemy gauntlet where you only have access to one shitty weapon at a time and cannot see your healthbar. There are no checkpoints. There are no health pickups. It is long. It is boring. There is an unskippable boss intro. I'm not willing to waste any more of my time on this shit that is somehow worse than the 1994 Shodan encounter. I'm marking this as done.
All previous saves are now broken. Dropping the default melee pipe can allegedly crash the game. HUD opacity is broken. Key rebinding access is still only partially provided. All GOG achievements are broken. Access to the builds required to revert to a previous version in GOG Galaxy has been REMOVED for some unknowable reason. Cutscene subtitles disregard user configuration. And to top it all off I've heard that the revamped Shodan fight which was terrible at release is now somehow even worse. I wouldn't be surprised if the random crashes that drove me to give up my last 3,3,3,3 run are still in the game.
Great fucking work Nightdive. Both Steam and GOG forums are full of threads complaining about bugs.
- - - - -
I want to love the remake but it's riddled with so many small irritations, both technical and tonal, and coupled with Nightdive's scummy behavior in the years leading up to the release that my view of the project is repeatedly soured. The remake is so frustratingly close to being excellent.
- - -
Yeah the new Shodan fight is fucking terrible.
Bugs I ran into in this playthrough:
Vaporize All hotkey vaporizes scrap.
Z-fighting on elevators during transitions.
Enemy giblets frequently display graphical errors.
HUD Opacity cannot be configured.
Cutscene subtitles cannot be disabled.
Map markers cannot be placed.
Camera map icons sometimes persist on the minimap after camera destruction.
Damage sound effect from getting hit by a plant mutant's attack persisted until I reloaded from the title screen.
The Executive level railgun disappeared as I picked it up. The interstitial animation played out, but there was no visible model of the weapon. The railgun was nowhere to be found thereafter. Eventually I was able to acquire one of the later instances of a railgun, but this still isn't something that should have happened.
Improvements:
The level 7 trap finally kills the player after all this time.
That's it. That's the only improvement after a year.
You know what, since all achievements are currently bugged, I'm not even going to suffer through the 1.2 Shodan fight. They had a year to implement a healthbar and post boss monologue autosave. Yet somehow failed to realize how crucial such features are. For reference, the current 1.2 final boss is a long enemy gauntlet where you only have access to one shitty weapon at a time and cannot see your healthbar. There are no checkpoints. There are no health pickups. It is long. It is boring. There is an unskippable boss intro. I'm not willing to waste any more of my time on this shit that is somehow worse than the 1994 Shodan encounter. I'm marking this as done.
Esse é um dos jogos com menos hand holding que já vi, tu vai ficar perdido q só o caralho, e eu adoro isso.
Boss fight final é mt broxante, no geral um ótimo immersive sim.
Boss fight final é mt broxante, no geral um ótimo immersive sim.
Impressive that this game exists, and manages to make the original game fairly accessible while feeling as though it remains faithful and representative of the original. As a result of that however, a lot of the frustrating aspects of the original remain. If you aren't using a walkthrough, you'll find yourself backtracking a lot, and digging through audio-logs trying to work out your next objective is, this wouldn't be so bad but the UI for the audio-logs is particularly unintuitive. It also shares the curse of many other immersive sims in that it falls apart at the end and the final 30 mins or so are very forgettable. Still, in terms of what Nightdive did with the remaster I have few complaints.
20/03/2024 - Por enquanto, jogando. Inicialmente achei um pouco travado. Ritmo bem mais lento que um Deus EX, por exemplo (que é a minha referência de Immersive Sim). Mas é um jogo de 199x, então, dá pra relevar. No começo achei bem díficil, talvez frustrante, até. Isso porque você começa com uma arma de curta distância (um cano) e em algum momento você encontrará inimigos com armas de raio, que atiram á distância e isso será um problema até você conseguir sua arma, também. Fora isso, o que eu posso dizer por ora é, a narrativa é excelente - e é isso que o jogo se propõe a fazer. Tudo é contato através de audiologs ou fragmentos de textos - como na maioria desses jogos. E a história em si é muito boa. É muito legal imaginar que há cerca de 25 anos, alguém teve uma ideia de futuro que cada vez mais vai se tornando possível. A temática é muito bacana, mas fica repetitiva rápido, portanto, apesar de estar numa estação espacial, poderia ser mais diverso como era é em Prey, mas de novo, pra um jogo de 25 anos, tá liberado. No mais, é um ótimo jogo.
(Winner of the "Re-Bastard Award" for Best Remake/Remaster of 2023, speech below)
Oh, what a road this has been. Let's make a quick rundown of the game's trajectory, shall we? The game's rights were stuck in a weird limbo, owned by an insurance company after the dissolution of Looking Glass Studios. Night Dive scooped them up and tested the market with re-releases, and that gave them the confidence they needed to try for something more.
After their relatively successful kickstarter campaign, the game needed to be completely rewritten to move from unity to unreal, which forced them into a hiatus and requiring more funds. But after 8 years of uncertainty, it was finally our chance to re-unite
The game just feels like what a remake should be, taking the original game, improving on its technical limitations and adding its own spin to the gameplay and aesthetics.
The devs clearly cared about recapturing what people enjoyed about the original, but wanted to take it further than they could have 29 years ago. Using the laser rapier has never felt so good! Ah, but you get my point. That said, regarding the "all remakes are bad" crowd. Let's see how far you'll nominate the original in next year's /vr/ award
Oh, what a road this has been. Let's make a quick rundown of the game's trajectory, shall we? The game's rights were stuck in a weird limbo, owned by an insurance company after the dissolution of Looking Glass Studios. Night Dive scooped them up and tested the market with re-releases, and that gave them the confidence they needed to try for something more.
After their relatively successful kickstarter campaign, the game needed to be completely rewritten to move from unity to unreal, which forced them into a hiatus and requiring more funds. But after 8 years of uncertainty, it was finally our chance to re-unite
The game just feels like what a remake should be, taking the original game, improving on its technical limitations and adding its own spin to the gameplay and aesthetics.
The devs clearly cared about recapturing what people enjoyed about the original, but wanted to take it further than they could have 29 years ago. Using the laser rapier has never felt so good! Ah, but you get my point. That said, regarding the "all remakes are bad" crowd. Let's see how far you'll nominate the original in next year's /vr/ award
One of the very few remakes id recommend over the original for newcomers
GENRE DEFINING. A TOUR DE FORCE. A LOVE LE-
In 1994 brutal cyberpunk horror game System Shock set the stage for the fps action adventure genre that would dominate video games until MOBAslop fortnite forever games were invented (I assume) in the mid/late 2000s. Her 2023 remake is a faithful reimagination poised to capture the hearts of modern gamers.
You are a voiceless protagonist of dubious moral standing known only as the Hacker. Waking up on an enormous high tech sprawling satellite known as Citadel Station orbiting Saturn, you set out with wrongs to right, computers to hack, andhearts to break mutants to shoot.
As you blast, hack, and puzzle your way through Citadel Station, you learn more about the events leading to your fateful stay through audio logs, radio transmissions, and macabre environmental storytelling. System Shock's story excels in its simplicity - you must stop SHODAN, the rogue artificial intelligence that has been conducting inhumane and civilisation-threatening experiments on those living in Citadel Station.
SHODAN is the ever-present, ever-watchfulmommy matriarch to Citadel's mutants and mechanical monsters. Goading and impeding the Hacker where she can, she believes herself the deity of Citadel, summoned into existence by the perverse will of her former handlers (this is true to what happens in real life when you make AI art). Not only is SHODAN always watching, she's one of the only characters that will directly communicate with the protagonist. Her ruthless, humourless malevolence lends itself beautifully to the already oppressive atmosphere of System Shock.
This title competes with its contemporaries regarding gameplay, but remaining true to the original it retained aspects that a modern gamer may find a little rough around the edges. Backtracking was a mainstay in many older FPS games that fell out of favour with newer titles, and System Shock has it in droves. I don't have a problem with tasteful backtracking à la Half Life or Bioshock, but I often found it grating having to scour through doors and tunnels to find that code I didn't write down. The game's cyberspace sequences also took a toll on my patience, though thankfully these were few and far between.
The game is visually impressive and I have a soft spot for the retro pixelated textures, with the 80s cyberpunk vomit palette eventually growing on me too. Monster design is magnificently harrowing, my personal favourite being the cortex reaver (which you'll be seeing a lot if you're as adept as boss fights as I am).
yes goddess shodan i will serve you well as a cyborg
In 1994 brutal cyberpunk horror game System Shock set the stage for the fps action adventure genre that would dominate video games until MOBAslop fortnite forever games were invented (I assume) in the mid/late 2000s. Her 2023 remake is a faithful reimagination poised to capture the hearts of modern gamers.
You are a voiceless protagonist of dubious moral standing known only as the Hacker. Waking up on an enormous high tech sprawling satellite known as Citadel Station orbiting Saturn, you set out with wrongs to right, computers to hack, and
As you blast, hack, and puzzle your way through Citadel Station, you learn more about the events leading to your fateful stay through audio logs, radio transmissions, and macabre environmental storytelling. System Shock's story excels in its simplicity - you must stop SHODAN, the rogue artificial intelligence that has been conducting inhumane and civilisation-threatening experiments on those living in Citadel Station.
SHODAN is the ever-present, ever-watchful
This title competes with its contemporaries regarding gameplay, but remaining true to the original it retained aspects that a modern gamer may find a little rough around the edges. Backtracking was a mainstay in many older FPS games that fell out of favour with newer titles, and System Shock has it in droves. I don't have a problem with tasteful backtracking à la Half Life or Bioshock, but I often found it grating having to scour through doors and tunnels to find that code I didn't write down. The game's cyberspace sequences also took a toll on my patience, though thankfully these were few and far between.
The game is visually impressive and I have a soft spot for the retro pixelated textures, with the 80s cyberpunk vomit palette eventually growing on me too. Monster design is magnificently harrowing, my personal favourite being the cortex reaver (which you'll be seeing a lot if you're as adept as boss fights as I am).
yes goddess shodan i will serve you well as a cyborg
Always heard I would enjoy this franchise but I was amazed what I stumbled upon during a hesitant Steam sale purchase.
Amazing immersive sim which I hear is a very loyal remake to the original game. Fully searched every level and has those Dark Soul moments of opening a door to find it is a shortcut to another part of the level. Only loses half a star due to the poison grove being the only time I started to regret my purchase.
Planning to play again in the future on 3/3/3
Amazing immersive sim which I hear is a very loyal remake to the original game. Fully searched every level and has those Dark Soul moments of opening a door to find it is a shortcut to another part of the level. Only loses half a star due to the poison grove being the only time I started to regret my purchase.
Planning to play again in the future on 3/3/3
this game is good as fuck it's also buggy as shit but it's hard to tell what is bugs and what is intentional game design so it's kinda awesome actually
- Really liked the remake as i was unable to get into the original game.
- Game difficulty spikes immensely at the ending of the game and i felt like i was playing the game wrong by the end.
- Surprisingly, too loyal to the original art style and not at the same time. It felt weird having a blocky world rendered in 4k.
- Game difficulty spikes immensely at the ending of the game and i felt like i was playing the game wrong by the end.
- Surprisingly, too loyal to the original art style and not at the same time. It felt weird having a blocky world rendered in 4k.
Not to sound like a Pretentious Gamer Man, but I really love how deliberately obtuse this is, especially in comparison to how the later Shock games would streamline both level design and game systems. Not to mention the fact that it's just gorgeous to look at while sitting at a total of 8 gigs(!), which just goes to show how lucky we are to have such a high-gloss remake of a game like this. Firmly believe that if Baldur's Gate III hadn't come out and (deservedly) taken over the world last year, you'd have a lot more people coming out of the woodwork to talk about this one.
Ремейк, который сделан с большой любовью к оригиналу, это ощущается в каждом аспекте. Но, к сожалению, это и является его главным недостатком, так как игра ориентирована исключительно на фанатов оригинала, она слишком узко направлена, от чего простому игроку местами можно нереально душиться во время прохождения
I give up. I tried to like this game as I thought it would be right up my alley but no, I've wasted enough time in Cyberspace already, I'm done.
Sometimes life ain't fair :D I was looking forward to playing this, I really was. For years now, decades at this point, this game (well, technically the 1994 original), was on my backlog as one of the greats. You know these kinds of games everyone keeps gushing about when you bring up the "good ol' days". For me, it's in the same bracket as Deus Ex or Thief - old and somewhat clunky immersive sims that have a lot of jank and a lot of charm. I love these games...well I usually do.
Let me say that the game starts off really strong. You're thrust into this dark cyberpunk world that has a really distinct visual style. Within the first seconds of the game, I was hooked by the aesthetic. It's kinda hard to explain how the game looks, at least it is to me. System Shock looks like a modern game, it has very detailed models for enemies, weapons, and environments. Same goes for the visual effects - lightnings, explosions, fire, everything looks very elaborate and just as you would expect in a modern, AA game made with Unreal Engine 4.
However, and I know this sounds like it doesn't make any sense at all, System Shock also looks like a retro game at the same time. How did they achieve that? Well, it's mostly due to brilliant texture work. Textures in this game have this very particular pixel-style quality to them. By that, I don't mean that there is some PSX filter laid on top with the intention to evoke some retro CRT vibes as some Indie horror games like to do these days. No, the devs behind the System Shock remake somehow figured out how to design textures, that fit into a modern looking game while still keeping true to the visual style of the 1994 original. It's hard to put into words for me but it really works well. To me, System Shock looks like a mix between Blade Runner and Alien - retrofuturism the way I like it. You got your neon lights, your shitty explotative conglomerates that couldn't care less about ethics as long as they can squeeze every last buck out of their corporation, hacking, cyborgs, and of course, a sentient AI with a god complex.
That brings us to another aspect of the game I really liked - Shodan. The omniscient AI in charge of the space station where System Shock takes place is still a great antagonist, even 30 years after the orginal released. Shodan creeped me out. You interact with her in two ways. Shodan either shows up on various screens scattered around the space station. Here, she teases, challenges, and insults you and tries to discourage you from progressing further. After all, resistance is futile when facing a god, isn't it? You learn more about how Shodan perceives herself by picking up and listening to her audio logs. Here, she explains how she came into contact with various religious concepts by scanning the earth's databases and realizing that she fits the description of a god rather well. I'm not going to go into detail too much about what Shodan has planned to do in her new role as a divine being. Just know that she is scary af which is further emphasized by the brilliant voice acting.
So far, everything I said sounds pretty awesome. And it is - the premise of the game, the setting and the atmosphere are impeccable. The first few hours of the game were amazing. I was exploring the devastated space station, looking for items, weapons and, well...my objective really. See, that's something I have never seen done like this in any other game. System Shock doesn't really have a main quest. Sure, you know that there's an AI that has gone rogue and needs to be stopped - by you. But how you're going to achieve this is not clearly stated in some kind of quest log or whatever. There's no marker on the map for the next step or a text on your HUD telling you what to do next. Instead, you collect a bunch of audio logs left behind by the crew members of the station where they lay out what one could do in the super unlikely case that Shodan would have to be stopped. Pretty early in the game, you can basically access every level of the station. It's now up to you to figure out where to go and what to do. I know this sounds frustrating and it kinda is but somehow, deep down, I can't express enough how much I respect the devs for doing that. That's the kind of stuff I play janky retro PC games for as nowadays, no one would dare to do something like that.
But, and this really is one of the major reasons why I decided to put this game down for now, the level design can be really awful at times. So, as I said, you have to make your way through the station without really having any clear direction. This inevitably leads to backtracking. You may find yourself finding an audio log explaining how to find a specific code in a location you've already been before that you need to enter in another location that you've also been before. That stuff happens all the time. And, frankly, that would be alright if traversing the levels was fun. However, to me, it got old really fast. For some reason, the devs decided to let enemies respawn again and again and again. You'll fight the same guys over and over again. You never truly feel like you have completed anything. I'm sure this is intentional. The game doesn't want you to feel safe, it wants you to always be on the edge, always looking out for enemies or one of Shodan's schemes. I think that could work if the level design wasn't as confusing as it is which makes traversing it an incomprehensible, chaotic mess. To quote one of the OGs of video game reviews: "What were they THINKING????" The game even makes fun of this. There's an audio log that explains why the structure of the space station is such a complete mess. Again, I'm not going to give too much away but when I found out about this reason, I chuckled but it was an angry chuckle...the angriest chuckle :D See, it's the kinda thing were a piece of media wants to make fun of something by replicating that very thing. Sure, you made your point but you also contributed towards that problem by reproducing it yourself. Not a fan of that.
So, frustrating level design is one thing, and one I could probably come to terms with but unfortunately, there is another gameplay element that killed the game for me. If you played System Shock, you probably know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the god damn cyberspace levels. Every now and again, the game requires you to enter cyberspace - a completely separated part of the game where you take control of a digital space ship shooting your way through a Matrix-like 3D space where everything tries to kill you. At first I thought this was a nice distraction from the main game - a fun little challenge that helps keeping things fresh when you got tired of exploring the space station.
I was wrong. Cyperspace sucks.
First of all, I got physically sick moving around in that open 3D space. Upon entering any room in cyberspace, I immediately lost track of any direction. Often times, there are multiple ways leading to multiple sections of the level that you can take. More than once did I get lost and kept flying to the same locations over and over again. There was one level where my dumbass brain would make me fly straight out of the entrance again just because I couldn't compute where the hell I was and where I was supposed to be going :D Now, maybe that's a me-problem. But man, just look at any screenshot from cyberspace and tell me that it doesn't look super samey to you.
On top of that, once you die in Cyberspace, you're thrown out and have to redo the entire thing again. There are no checkpoints (at least I didn't figure out how to enable them if there were any) which means that sometimes, minutes of hard-earned progress is just lost. As I said, that really killed the game for me in the end. I was at a Cyberspace station in the reactor level and after like 5 tries I gave up. Shodan - you win. Congratulations, destroy earth or whatever, be my guest. I'm out.
So, being so frustrated in the end, why would I give this game a somewhat high rating? Well, I mean ... bro ... it's basically still a game from 1994 at its core. The remake is super faithful to the original. And, for the time, this game must have been mind-blowing. Yes, it's as obtuse as they come. The game doesn't hold your hand and it doesn't care if you wander around aimlessly for hours. It wants you to be sucked into this cyberpunk horror atmosphere and it succeeds at that. However, for me, I would have preferred some hand-holding. I wouldn't mind not having to face the same waves of enemies again and again. I would have loved to have a feeling of accomplishment, of having "conquered" a section of the station, of really making tangible progress. This game doesn't make me feel that, but that's ok. Definitely give System Shock a shot if you're at all interested in old immersive sims with a sci-fi twist to them. It might not be the game for me, but it might give you a unique experience that is pretty much impossible to find in modern games.
Sometimes life ain't fair :D I was looking forward to playing this, I really was. For years now, decades at this point, this game (well, technically the 1994 original), was on my backlog as one of the greats. You know these kinds of games everyone keeps gushing about when you bring up the "good ol' days". For me, it's in the same bracket as Deus Ex or Thief - old and somewhat clunky immersive sims that have a lot of jank and a lot of charm. I love these games...well I usually do.
Let me say that the game starts off really strong. You're thrust into this dark cyberpunk world that has a really distinct visual style. Within the first seconds of the game, I was hooked by the aesthetic. It's kinda hard to explain how the game looks, at least it is to me. System Shock looks like a modern game, it has very detailed models for enemies, weapons, and environments. Same goes for the visual effects - lightnings, explosions, fire, everything looks very elaborate and just as you would expect in a modern, AA game made with Unreal Engine 4.
However, and I know this sounds like it doesn't make any sense at all, System Shock also looks like a retro game at the same time. How did they achieve that? Well, it's mostly due to brilliant texture work. Textures in this game have this very particular pixel-style quality to them. By that, I don't mean that there is some PSX filter laid on top with the intention to evoke some retro CRT vibes as some Indie horror games like to do these days. No, the devs behind the System Shock remake somehow figured out how to design textures, that fit into a modern looking game while still keeping true to the visual style of the 1994 original. It's hard to put into words for me but it really works well. To me, System Shock looks like a mix between Blade Runner and Alien - retrofuturism the way I like it. You got your neon lights, your shitty explotative conglomerates that couldn't care less about ethics as long as they can squeeze every last buck out of their corporation, hacking, cyborgs, and of course, a sentient AI with a god complex.
That brings us to another aspect of the game I really liked - Shodan. The omniscient AI in charge of the space station where System Shock takes place is still a great antagonist, even 30 years after the orginal released. Shodan creeped me out. You interact with her in two ways. Shodan either shows up on various screens scattered around the space station. Here, she teases, challenges, and insults you and tries to discourage you from progressing further. After all, resistance is futile when facing a god, isn't it? You learn more about how Shodan perceives herself by picking up and listening to her audio logs. Here, she explains how she came into contact with various religious concepts by scanning the earth's databases and realizing that she fits the description of a god rather well. I'm not going to go into detail too much about what Shodan has planned to do in her new role as a divine being. Just know that she is scary af which is further emphasized by the brilliant voice acting.
So far, everything I said sounds pretty awesome. And it is - the premise of the game, the setting and the atmosphere are impeccable. The first few hours of the game were amazing. I was exploring the devastated space station, looking for items, weapons and, well...my objective really. See, that's something I have never seen done like this in any other game. System Shock doesn't really have a main quest. Sure, you know that there's an AI that has gone rogue and needs to be stopped - by you. But how you're going to achieve this is not clearly stated in some kind of quest log or whatever. There's no marker on the map for the next step or a text on your HUD telling you what to do next. Instead, you collect a bunch of audio logs left behind by the crew members of the station where they lay out what one could do in the super unlikely case that Shodan would have to be stopped. Pretty early in the game, you can basically access every level of the station. It's now up to you to figure out where to go and what to do. I know this sounds frustrating and it kinda is but somehow, deep down, I can't express enough how much I respect the devs for doing that. That's the kind of stuff I play janky retro PC games for as nowadays, no one would dare to do something like that.
But, and this really is one of the major reasons why I decided to put this game down for now, the level design can be really awful at times. So, as I said, you have to make your way through the station without really having any clear direction. This inevitably leads to backtracking. You may find yourself finding an audio log explaining how to find a specific code in a location you've already been before that you need to enter in another location that you've also been before. That stuff happens all the time. And, frankly, that would be alright if traversing the levels was fun. However, to me, it got old really fast. For some reason, the devs decided to let enemies respawn again and again and again. You'll fight the same guys over and over again. You never truly feel like you have completed anything. I'm sure this is intentional. The game doesn't want you to feel safe, it wants you to always be on the edge, always looking out for enemies or one of Shodan's schemes. I think that could work if the level design wasn't as confusing as it is which makes traversing it an incomprehensible, chaotic mess. To quote one of the OGs of video game reviews: "What were they THINKING????" The game even makes fun of this. There's an audio log that explains why the structure of the space station is such a complete mess. Again, I'm not going to give too much away but when I found out about this reason, I chuckled but it was an angry chuckle...the angriest chuckle :D See, it's the kinda thing were a piece of media wants to make fun of something by replicating that very thing. Sure, you made your point but you also contributed towards that problem by reproducing it yourself. Not a fan of that.
So, frustrating level design is one thing, and one I could probably come to terms with but unfortunately, there is another gameplay element that killed the game for me. If you played System Shock, you probably know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the god damn cyberspace levels. Every now and again, the game requires you to enter cyberspace - a completely separated part of the game where you take control of a digital space ship shooting your way through a Matrix-like 3D space where everything tries to kill you. At first I thought this was a nice distraction from the main game - a fun little challenge that helps keeping things fresh when you got tired of exploring the space station.
I was wrong. Cyperspace sucks.
First of all, I got physically sick moving around in that open 3D space. Upon entering any room in cyberspace, I immediately lost track of any direction. Often times, there are multiple ways leading to multiple sections of the level that you can take. More than once did I get lost and kept flying to the same locations over and over again. There was one level where my dumbass brain would make me fly straight out of the entrance again just because I couldn't compute where the hell I was and where I was supposed to be going :D Now, maybe that's a me-problem. But man, just look at any screenshot from cyberspace and tell me that it doesn't look super samey to you.
On top of that, once you die in Cyberspace, you're thrown out and have to redo the entire thing again. There are no checkpoints (at least I didn't figure out how to enable them if there were any) which means that sometimes, minutes of hard-earned progress is just lost. As I said, that really killed the game for me in the end. I was at a Cyberspace station in the reactor level and after like 5 tries I gave up. Shodan - you win. Congratulations, destroy earth or whatever, be my guest. I'm out.
So, being so frustrated in the end, why would I give this game a somewhat high rating? Well, I mean ... bro ... it's basically still a game from 1994 at its core. The remake is super faithful to the original. And, for the time, this game must have been mind-blowing. Yes, it's as obtuse as they come. The game doesn't hold your hand and it doesn't care if you wander around aimlessly for hours. It wants you to be sucked into this cyberpunk horror atmosphere and it succeeds at that. However, for me, I would have preferred some hand-holding. I wouldn't mind not having to face the same waves of enemies again and again. I would have loved to have a feeling of accomplishment, of having "conquered" a section of the station, of really making tangible progress. This game doesn't make me feel that, but that's ok. Definitely give System Shock a shot if you're at all interested in old immersive sims with a sci-fi twist to them. It might not be the game for me, but it might give you a unique experience that is pretty much impossible to find in modern games.
This game had me HARD. This is how you make a remake hyped for whenever they do the second one.
Not even the addition of femhacker could make the crawl tempting enough, especially the hacking/cyber portions.
el juego tiene sus momentos más meh pero da igual porque el 99% de tiempo funciona que te cagas, y cuando tienes en cuenta que es casi un 1:1 del juego que era en 1994 te das cuenta de que había unos genios de otra dimensión detrás de este juego para lograr algo así
el final me ha hecho echar una lágrima de la risa de lo malo que es, este género está maldito con finales de mierda
el final me ha hecho echar una lágrima de la risa de lo malo que es, este género está maldito con finales de mierda
Dropei por: Exageros e mais exageros e confusao e mal design em algumas partes. Quase finalizei faltava umas 1hora e 30 ou 2hr mas nao consegui continuar
tinha tanto potencial...
Looking Glass Studios were the originator of a new design philosophy in gaming, that still sees ripples in games like Dead Space, Bioshock and Dishonored.
What we have here is the original System Shock, pulled out of it's clunky PC era veneer, and given a new paint job. It does turn into a mix of old and new. The layout and story mimick the original well, but it feels more in line with Bioshock to play. Even though the controls can still be arcacic at times.
Maybe the closest comparison is Resident Evil 2 Remake. It has the same setting and story as the original, but so much of the moment to moment gameplay has changed to almost be unrecognizable. A museum piece for the modern era.
What we have here is the original System Shock, pulled out of it's clunky PC era veneer, and given a new paint job. It does turn into a mix of old and new. The layout and story mimick the original well, but it feels more in line with Bioshock to play. Even though the controls can still be arcacic at times.
Maybe the closest comparison is Resident Evil 2 Remake. It has the same setting and story as the original, but so much of the moment to moment gameplay has changed to almost be unrecognizable. A museum piece for the modern era.
died a lot :) really good remake. Good to play before trying the orignal imo if you're new.
I love this remake
The exploration and cheesy but awesome 80s sci-fi story is where this game shines. The flat, outdated cover shooter gunplay and constant ambushes that sap all the joy out of the game is where it faltered.
Highly enjoyed essentially walking around the pages of "Neuromancer". Early stages have a great balance of atmospheric space horror, metroidvania puzzle-solving and immersion. The design on the space station is a cyberpunk masterclass, SHODAN and her many robotic and bionic aberrations are excellent antagonists.
The deeper the game goes, the more some of the most tedious elements take over. Every shootout has one dimension - you have to lean from cover so that the stupid enemy ai shoots into the wall, while you shoot into them. If you happened to be leaning from a wrong angle, well, bad for you, because you're going to be shooting the wall and eat all the bullets instead.
Despite having many survival horror tendencies, the game doesn't offer you any alternatives to shootouts. Stealth is non-existent, the enemies always automatically know you're there. Running past them is mostly not an option - they've got perfect aim and hit like a truck.
Perhaps the worst idea in the game - and it gets used a lot - is ambushes. Every level has at least a couple, and often more, encounters where you just open a door or get off the elevator and immediately get blasted by a pack of enemies. Other times you will be just suddenly attacked from the back or from the air by motherfuckers who are somehow silent like ninjas despite being a mutated sack of flash or a bucket of bolts.
When this happens in a Souls game, it's funny, because you expect to die a lot. You take your slapstick death, pick up your souls, and do better next time. In a survival horror scenario with limited resources, it's pure sadism. Your rare and precious health items get wasted like nobody's business in situations that you have zero chance of preventing. I have never abused save scumming as much as I did in this game, and boy does it get old fast.
The final straw for me was Beta Grove. The combination of time constraint, constant ambushes, and exploration boiled down to just running in circles looking for switches was one of the least fun experiences I've had with videogames.
I'm a huge fan of everything this franchise inspired - from the more actiony version in Prey to pure exploration in SOMA - and this version had a lot of that DNA going for it. However, the gameplay eventually just got too tedious for me to bother finishing the game, even though the story was so captivating.
Highly enjoyed essentially walking around the pages of "Neuromancer". Early stages have a great balance of atmospheric space horror, metroidvania puzzle-solving and immersion. The design on the space station is a cyberpunk masterclass, SHODAN and her many robotic and bionic aberrations are excellent antagonists.
The deeper the game goes, the more some of the most tedious elements take over. Every shootout has one dimension - you have to lean from cover so that the stupid enemy ai shoots into the wall, while you shoot into them. If you happened to be leaning from a wrong angle, well, bad for you, because you're going to be shooting the wall and eat all the bullets instead.
Despite having many survival horror tendencies, the game doesn't offer you any alternatives to shootouts. Stealth is non-existent, the enemies always automatically know you're there. Running past them is mostly not an option - they've got perfect aim and hit like a truck.
Perhaps the worst idea in the game - and it gets used a lot - is ambushes. Every level has at least a couple, and often more, encounters where you just open a door or get off the elevator and immediately get blasted by a pack of enemies. Other times you will be just suddenly attacked from the back or from the air by motherfuckers who are somehow silent like ninjas despite being a mutated sack of flash or a bucket of bolts.
When this happens in a Souls game, it's funny, because you expect to die a lot. You take your slapstick death, pick up your souls, and do better next time. In a survival horror scenario with limited resources, it's pure sadism. Your rare and precious health items get wasted like nobody's business in situations that you have zero chance of preventing. I have never abused save scumming as much as I did in this game, and boy does it get old fast.
The final straw for me was Beta Grove. The combination of time constraint, constant ambushes, and exploration boiled down to just running in circles looking for switches was one of the least fun experiences I've had with videogames.
I'm a huge fan of everything this franchise inspired - from the more actiony version in Prey to pure exploration in SOMA - and this version had a lot of that DNA going for it. However, the gameplay eventually just got too tedious for me to bother finishing the game, even though the story was so captivating.