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.