The faithfulness of System Shock 2023 to the original’s design principles is probably best illustrated with this anecdote: I was still able to beat it after forgetting where I’d put a (theoretically) mandatory quest item.
Axing the original’s unorthodox HUD and control scheme debatably helps this remake carve out its own niche – if anything, it’s more novel to be able to play what’s essentially Ultima Underworld in space with a fairly conventional interface than if it’d just regurgitated something that already exists – but it also makes it appear more different than it really is. As much as I love it when a game demands you meet it on its own terms when it comes to aspects as fundamental as those, I’ve never seen them as the core of System Shock, not least because they didn’t survive into what’d eventually become its own sequel or any spiritual successors Looking Glass’ alumni would go on to contribute to. Progressing through whichever means would make sense if you were really in the Hacker’s shoes, with no arbitrary limitations to tell you that you can’t? Scenarios which would be restrictive, barely interactive setpieces in any other type of game arising organically through the player’s manipulation of overlapping, interconnected mechanics? Lobbing a grenade at something, ducking into a corner and peeking out again to see its giblets gently floating in a gravlift like a cybernetic pinata? These are some of the pillars which much more warmly remind me of what game I’m playing and they’re all here, rendered with visuals and sound which’re likely a series best.
That might seem faint praise, given that this remake’s 24 years removed from its predecessor, but it’s not. System Shock 2 derives its effectiveness in no small part due to its enemies’ (and, later on, environments’) genuinely repulsive visual design, coupled with the Dark Engine’s sound propagation system ensuring that any and all instances of malicious squishing or clanking remain paranoia-inducing no matter the distance between you and their source. It’s a high watermark for the medium in both respects, one which Nightdive’s efforts have adequately followed up on. Seeing a red lens flare in the distance paired with a monotone, faint but increasingly loud “searching” or suddenly seeing the shadow of an invisible mutant under a dynamic light source as you lose your way in a literal maze elicits all the right emotions, as well as some new ones when taken in tandem with a generally higher extent of environmental interactivity than either of the prior two games and TriOptimum’s raddest electric guitars. As much of an earworm as the original game’s MIDIs are, they’ve never instilled in me quite the same feelings as scrambling past inadvertently overturned tables and bonsai trees as a gorilla-tiger barrels down the corridor to the tune of this.
I say generally because there are some odd omissions in that regard, namely the inability to mantle up ledges. Any issues this poses’re circumvented whenever you eventually obtain the V3 hover boots, which allow for an unreal degree of schmovement up down and all around, but (to my knowledge) the earliest point at which you can get those is quite late into the game and long after you’ll have become acquainted with the fact that Shodan’s strongest soldiers are knee-high steps. What exacerbates this somewhat is that you can’t pick up and manipulate objects to more practically stand on top of them – it feels a bit unfair to criticise it for this considering that you can’t in System Shock 1 or 2 either, but given that ostensible influence from one other relatively recent immersive sim rears its head elsewhere, I don’t think its otherwise robust and faithfully labyrinthine level design would’ve been lessened by taking a leaf out of Prey or Deus Ex Mankind Divided’s book in this area.
Prey specifically’s the apparent source of said influence, namely its recycling system, this iteration of which I’d wager is a net improvement. Despite adding to the multifaceted purposes of every item in Prey, there were often cases where recycling was a little too much of a no-brainer; I’m not aware of any incentives to hold on to Typhon organs instead of recycling them into exotic material ASAP, for example. In System Shock 2023, recycling any item always results in the same one resource (i.e. money), but many items take up a hefty amount of inventory slots which are quite precious compared to most similar games, the catch being that you’ll gain noticeably more money if you recycle the item itself instead of first vaporising it into junk (which only takes up a single slot). These two key changes help this system enhance the resource management and decision-making inherent to this series while sprinkling in a bit of similarly characteristic difficulty. Altogether ace.
Difficulty’s one area in which System Shock 2023’s refreshing on multiple levels. Where people seem to equate “gameplay” with “combat” increasingly often, even with reference to games or genres where the latter isn’t the focus and might benefit from there being less of, it’s cool to have a new release which (as the original did) not only recognises that combat comprises just a single part of the experience but also lets you tailor the intensity of it, puzzles and primary objectives independently of one another. So much as figuring out where to go next or even just opening a door’s often as much or more of an endurance test as surviving against Citadel Station’s denizens – with no objective markers, means of tracking your current mission outside of hints in audio logs or even the ability to write notes on your map, this is a game which absolutely doesn’t care if you get lost. Between that, the reveal that Citadel’s intentionally, maliciously designed to be confusing and Shodan’s lovingly re-recorded chastisements accompanying you all the while, there’s surely some ludosomething synchronicity or whatever it’s called to be found as a result of this.
You don’t have to reinvent the proverbial gamer wheel for injecting that sort of experience into the modern zeitgeist to be arguably equally as valuable as the original. Aforementioned omissions like mantling or being able to annotate the map make for occasional frustrations – with respect to the latter especially, you can probably tell without context why this part of the game was my least favourite – but in the grand scheme of things they’re slight relative to what an accomplishment I feel this remake is. It’s an almost totally undiluted translation of Looking Glass’ philosophy which makes smart use of technological advancements since the original’s release in ways which enable it to differentiate itself from the first two games while still feeling intimately familiar, to the level that I can’t really think of anyone I’d prefer the merry go round of who's making System Shock 3 to land on than Nightdive.
Check it out if that’s what you want, because what you want is what you get.
Axing the original’s unorthodox HUD and control scheme debatably helps this remake carve out its own niche – if anything, it’s more novel to be able to play what’s essentially Ultima Underworld in space with a fairly conventional interface than if it’d just regurgitated something that already exists – but it also makes it appear more different than it really is. As much as I love it when a game demands you meet it on its own terms when it comes to aspects as fundamental as those, I’ve never seen them as the core of System Shock, not least because they didn’t survive into what’d eventually become its own sequel or any spiritual successors Looking Glass’ alumni would go on to contribute to. Progressing through whichever means would make sense if you were really in the Hacker’s shoes, with no arbitrary limitations to tell you that you can’t? Scenarios which would be restrictive, barely interactive setpieces in any other type of game arising organically through the player’s manipulation of overlapping, interconnected mechanics? Lobbing a grenade at something, ducking into a corner and peeking out again to see its giblets gently floating in a gravlift like a cybernetic pinata? These are some of the pillars which much more warmly remind me of what game I’m playing and they’re all here, rendered with visuals and sound which’re likely a series best.
That might seem faint praise, given that this remake’s 24 years removed from its predecessor, but it’s not. System Shock 2 derives its effectiveness in no small part due to its enemies’ (and, later on, environments’) genuinely repulsive visual design, coupled with the Dark Engine’s sound propagation system ensuring that any and all instances of malicious squishing or clanking remain paranoia-inducing no matter the distance between you and their source. It’s a high watermark for the medium in both respects, one which Nightdive’s efforts have adequately followed up on. Seeing a red lens flare in the distance paired with a monotone, faint but increasingly loud “searching” or suddenly seeing the shadow of an invisible mutant under a dynamic light source as you lose your way in a literal maze elicits all the right emotions, as well as some new ones when taken in tandem with a generally higher extent of environmental interactivity than either of the prior two games and TriOptimum’s raddest electric guitars. As much of an earworm as the original game’s MIDIs are, they’ve never instilled in me quite the same feelings as scrambling past inadvertently overturned tables and bonsai trees as a gorilla-tiger barrels down the corridor to the tune of this.
I say generally because there are some odd omissions in that regard, namely the inability to mantle up ledges. Any issues this poses’re circumvented whenever you eventually obtain the V3 hover boots, which allow for an unreal degree of schmovement up down and all around, but (to my knowledge) the earliest point at which you can get those is quite late into the game and long after you’ll have become acquainted with the fact that Shodan’s strongest soldiers are knee-high steps. What exacerbates this somewhat is that you can’t pick up and manipulate objects to more practically stand on top of them – it feels a bit unfair to criticise it for this considering that you can’t in System Shock 1 or 2 either, but given that ostensible influence from one other relatively recent immersive sim rears its head elsewhere, I don’t think its otherwise robust and faithfully labyrinthine level design would’ve been lessened by taking a leaf out of Prey or Deus Ex Mankind Divided’s book in this area.
Prey specifically’s the apparent source of said influence, namely its recycling system, this iteration of which I’d wager is a net improvement. Despite adding to the multifaceted purposes of every item in Prey, there were often cases where recycling was a little too much of a no-brainer; I’m not aware of any incentives to hold on to Typhon organs instead of recycling them into exotic material ASAP, for example. In System Shock 2023, recycling any item always results in the same one resource (i.e. money), but many items take up a hefty amount of inventory slots which are quite precious compared to most similar games, the catch being that you’ll gain noticeably more money if you recycle the item itself instead of first vaporising it into junk (which only takes up a single slot). These two key changes help this system enhance the resource management and decision-making inherent to this series while sprinkling in a bit of similarly characteristic difficulty. Altogether ace.
Difficulty’s one area in which System Shock 2023’s refreshing on multiple levels. Where people seem to equate “gameplay” with “combat” increasingly often, even with reference to games or genres where the latter isn’t the focus and might benefit from there being less of, it’s cool to have a new release which (as the original did) not only recognises that combat comprises just a single part of the experience but also lets you tailor the intensity of it, puzzles and primary objectives independently of one another. So much as figuring out where to go next or even just opening a door’s often as much or more of an endurance test as surviving against Citadel Station’s denizens – with no objective markers, means of tracking your current mission outside of hints in audio logs or even the ability to write notes on your map, this is a game which absolutely doesn’t care if you get lost. Between that, the reveal that Citadel’s intentionally, maliciously designed to be confusing and Shodan’s lovingly re-recorded chastisements accompanying you all the while, there’s surely some ludosomething synchronicity or whatever it’s called to be found as a result of this.
You don’t have to reinvent the proverbial gamer wheel for injecting that sort of experience into the modern zeitgeist to be arguably equally as valuable as the original. Aforementioned omissions like mantling or being able to annotate the map make for occasional frustrations – with respect to the latter especially, you can probably tell without context why this part of the game was my least favourite – but in the grand scheme of things they’re slight relative to what an accomplishment I feel this remake is. It’s an almost totally undiluted translation of Looking Glass’ philosophy which makes smart use of technological advancements since the original’s release in ways which enable it to differentiate itself from the first two games while still feeling intimately familiar, to the level that I can’t really think of anyone I’d prefer the merry go round of who's making System Shock 3 to land on than Nightdive.
Check it out if that’s what you want, because what you want is what you get.
2 Comments
@Rogueliker Yeah, LGS seems to have had a rough time of it even when it came to some of their more successful games. iirc Thief 2 was either their fastest selling game or one of them, but its revenue/receipts/whatever didn’t reach them quickly enough to prevent them from having to shut down.
Rogueliker
7 months ago
Ironically enough, despite the first one originally selling more than Shock 2 ever sold, it actually caused Looking Glass to lose money, which judging by the scope of the OG System Shock, the game probably costed a lot to make. But hey, atleast it's not Justice League 2017!