I was like 3 years old when the original came out so I never got a chance to experience it when it first released. Because of this I will be judging this game not as a remake but as a new game because in my eyes, that's what it is. I understand this may be a little unfair so I will do my best to be aware of the context in which this game exists. System Shock was originally a DOS game and if you aren't past your prime yet and thus have no idea what DOS is think the Original Doom, Civilization, and Wolfenstein games. So in that context this remake is a wildly impressive step up in terms of quality. However judging based on 2023 standards this game just doesn't hold up when compared to some of the more advanced remakes that have come out in the past few years like Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy 7, and Demon Souls for example.
Starting with the graphics, the visuals here have a style that I really enjoyed because it feels somewhat modern but clearly not shooting for realism. I'm an art style over realism guy so this aspect was fine to me. Realistically speaking though graphically we are looking at something in the neighborhood of 2007's Bioshock level (Note: I will be using Bioshock a lot as comparison because that is pretty close to what this game felt like for me). This was right in the middle of my formative years so maybe that's why I am so fond of that look. For a 2023 game though, the argument could be made the graphical fidelity leaves something to be desired.
As for the gameplay, this is the aspect of the game I found myself liking the least. System Shock plays (again) similar to Bioshock in that there isn't really a cover system and combat engagements are usually spent strafing side to side trying not to get shot while simultaneously shooting your target in hopes they die first, only in this game you don't have magic powers in your left hand that help dispatch of enemies more efficiently. This style of combat feels a little clunky and dated but is mostly fine. The problem here is that you take a lot of damage per hit and healing items are rarer than they feel like they should be. It almost seems like the game wants you to use the respawn mechanic when exploring and save your healing items only for when you are progressing or fighting a boss. This just didn't feel good to me as dying is always something I try to avoid at any cost in games. Because of this most of the game I found myself low on health and stressfully light on healing items. I will add that the game has seemingly robust difficulty options where you can adjust the difficulty of the world/missions, the combat, the puzzles, and the pretty lame cyberspace sections separately. I kept everything on 2 (normal) for my playthrough but in hindsight probably would have had a more enjoyable time setting combat to 1. Sadly I don't think you can change difficulty mid game though so I was pot committed at the point I decided I would want to change it.
The world design and lack of a leash I found to be quite refreshing and Shodan is a memorable antagonist. I love when a game lets you figure out the world at your own pace and doesn't have huge map markers telling you exactly where you need to go. In System Shock you have to figure it out yourself based on logic. This will sometimes be an audio log mentioning a way to get past a certain area and sometimes you will simply have explored everything in an area and thus decide it's time to move on and come back later when you have the proper key or item to progress. While this may be a tedious system of trial and error for some, I found it engaging and immersive. The only issue with this design is that it requires a lot of backtracking if you are actually going in blind and enemies respawn quite often so you will run into scenarios when you don't have the ammo to spare on respawning enemies but need to dispatch them in order to get to where you are trying to go. It's just another wrinkle in a game like this, isn't necessarily bad but at times you will feel like you are being punished for being inquisitive or not immediately figuring out what you need to do.
Ultimately I enjoyed the game, though it felt dated immediately. Part of me enjoyed that it felt like a classic game but another part wished they had updated it to be on par with the present day state of the art. I'd like to hear what went into the decision to remake a game in the 2020's, that originally came out in the early 90's, but only update it to roughly 2000's standards. I imagine they were worried that updating it too much would risk making it not feel like System Shock to a person who loved the original. I can see this argument, but as a person who never played the original it just felt like I was playing an old immersive sim akin to Bioshock... Which is one of my favorite games, but I imagine I wouldn't like it nearly as much if I played it for the first time today.
Starting with the graphics, the visuals here have a style that I really enjoyed because it feels somewhat modern but clearly not shooting for realism. I'm an art style over realism guy so this aspect was fine to me. Realistically speaking though graphically we are looking at something in the neighborhood of 2007's Bioshock level (Note: I will be using Bioshock a lot as comparison because that is pretty close to what this game felt like for me). This was right in the middle of my formative years so maybe that's why I am so fond of that look. For a 2023 game though, the argument could be made the graphical fidelity leaves something to be desired.
As for the gameplay, this is the aspect of the game I found myself liking the least. System Shock plays (again) similar to Bioshock in that there isn't really a cover system and combat engagements are usually spent strafing side to side trying not to get shot while simultaneously shooting your target in hopes they die first, only in this game you don't have magic powers in your left hand that help dispatch of enemies more efficiently. This style of combat feels a little clunky and dated but is mostly fine. The problem here is that you take a lot of damage per hit and healing items are rarer than they feel like they should be. It almost seems like the game wants you to use the respawn mechanic when exploring and save your healing items only for when you are progressing or fighting a boss. This just didn't feel good to me as dying is always something I try to avoid at any cost in games. Because of this most of the game I found myself low on health and stressfully light on healing items. I will add that the game has seemingly robust difficulty options where you can adjust the difficulty of the world/missions, the combat, the puzzles, and the pretty lame cyberspace sections separately. I kept everything on 2 (normal) for my playthrough but in hindsight probably would have had a more enjoyable time setting combat to 1. Sadly I don't think you can change difficulty mid game though so I was pot committed at the point I decided I would want to change it.
The world design and lack of a leash I found to be quite refreshing and Shodan is a memorable antagonist. I love when a game lets you figure out the world at your own pace and doesn't have huge map markers telling you exactly where you need to go. In System Shock you have to figure it out yourself based on logic. This will sometimes be an audio log mentioning a way to get past a certain area and sometimes you will simply have explored everything in an area and thus decide it's time to move on and come back later when you have the proper key or item to progress. While this may be a tedious system of trial and error for some, I found it engaging and immersive. The only issue with this design is that it requires a lot of backtracking if you are actually going in blind and enemies respawn quite often so you will run into scenarios when you don't have the ammo to spare on respawning enemies but need to dispatch them in order to get to where you are trying to go. It's just another wrinkle in a game like this, isn't necessarily bad but at times you will feel like you are being punished for being inquisitive or not immediately figuring out what you need to do.
Ultimately I enjoyed the game, though it felt dated immediately. Part of me enjoyed that it felt like a classic game but another part wished they had updated it to be on par with the present day state of the art. I'd like to hear what went into the decision to remake a game in the 2020's, that originally came out in the early 90's, but only update it to roughly 2000's standards. I imagine they were worried that updating it too much would risk making it not feel like System Shock to a person who loved the original. I can see this argument, but as a person who never played the original it just felt like I was playing an old immersive sim akin to Bioshock... Which is one of my favorite games, but I imagine I wouldn't like it nearly as much if I played it for the first time today.