Video games age with time. Unfortunately everything does, dear reader, but I’m talking about a video game today, specifically Nightdive’s gorgeous remake of the original System Shock, a game from 1994 spruced up and meticulously recreated in Unreal Engine and released in 2023.
I don’t have a lot of fond memories of the original, I picked it up on sale at some point and gave it the ol’ college try on a laptop that couldn’t run much else only to be completely baffled by its archaic interface. Needless to say I didn’t make it out of the initial area, the Medical deck, in that attempt. I would eventually give System Shock 2 its own attempt with much greater success. I loved that game, despite a few archaisms of its own, I found it to be a perfect middle ground of modern and classic design sensibilities and have been meaning to replay it with a different build for a while now (I may never actually get around to that).
It’s those two experiences, the aborted playthrough of SS1 and the fantastic playthrough of SS2, that swirled through my mind as critics piled on the praise for Nightdive’s remake, which eventually compelled me to pick it up and give it that ol’ college try one more time. And you know what? I Get It Now. I’ll be honest, I didn’t finish the game this time either, but I played it long enough to really soak in the systems, the atmosphere, the VIBE of the whole thing, and I can clearly see what makes System Shock so special, why it’s hailed as a classic, influential, and all that jazz.
If you’re unfamiliar, System Shock tells the story of a nameless hacker who awakens after a desperate deal gone wrong leaves them as one of the only living humans on board Citadel Station, a futuristic space station that’s undergone a deadly mutiny at the hands of the AI running the whole thing, iconic girlboss SHODAN. The bulk of the story is told through audio logs, emails, and environmental details, so you really get as much out as you’re willing to put in, a notion that permeates the entire experience.
Despite the new graphical sheen, the gussied up presentation, and selective quality of life updates, System Shock is old school through and through, punishing in many ways and completely hands off in most other ways. There’s no objective list or waypoints, death can come swiftly and from unexpected places, and your resources are constantly under pressure (I was so strapped for health at one point I thought I was permanently stuck). It’s a relentless game of cat and mouse between you and the AI, figuratively and literally, and when you manage to thrive under those conditions it provides some of the most compelling gameplay I’ve ever experienced.
I’m a huge fan of survival horror games, especially when they really put the screws to the player, withholding resources, forcing them to make hard decisions like when to save, when to run, and when it’s appropriate to dump resources and go all out. It’s exceedingly difficult to find the right balance, to make something difficult but possible with cleverness and perseverance, and the games that pull it off are true masterpieces. Among those highly vaunted works I count Resident Evil 1 (and its own equally well done remake), the original Dead Space, and even a few modern indies like Signalis and Nightmare of Decay. Unfortunately, that sweet spot on the scale of stress and success is a moving target, changing with the times like so many things in life, and I found the System Shock remake to be just outside my strike zone, the scale having tipped just a tad too far into masochistic challenge.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy SS, there were plenty of highs and lows, fantastic little misadventures replete with failure and triumph. There’s a section where you have to use plastic explosives to destroy 4 satellite arrays, and I foolishly expected I would be able to somehow “reuse” a single piece, resulting in me needing to traverse the entire station again to fetch some more. I am not a clever man. That trip of There And Back Again for a silly little chore is the kind of thing only video games can portray, a mundane activity juiced up by danger and sci-fi aesthetics.
There was also the time SHODAN was attempting to use a mining laser to destroy the Earth, and while exploring I casually flipped a switch without paying attention and did the deed for her, bathing the planet Earth in an unholy fire of destruction and resulting in an instant game over. On the flip side, there was the time I noticed a barracks of cyborg warriors across the hall from a CPU core I could disable to cripple SHODAN’s control over the deck, I put two and two together and thought it might be prudent to lay a trap and sure enough I heard the sweet sounds of explosions when SHODAN attempted to retaliate with those warriors. The game gives and takes in equal measure, once again giving out as much as you’re willing to put in.
I wish System Shock was slightly more hands off in some regards though. There’s a system that allows you to recycle items for money, and the player is able to vaporize items to save on space at the cost of half an item’s worth at the recycler. It’s a cool system that rewards smart inventory management and attention to environmental details. Unfortunately you can really only recycle items that are designated as “junk”, which actually removes a potential avenue for decision making. I would have loved to be able to recycle duplicate weapons or excess ammunition (I was literally carrying around hundreds of 9mm rounds by the endgame) to be able to afford some more health items or weapon mods. I’m not sure if this is just some holdover of the original game, but it feels like a design choice that runs counter to the game’s normal philosophy, which should allow the player to sink or swim based on their own performance.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised by how appealing the game’s aesthetics are. Remaking classics is always a tricky proposition and Nightdive does a good job of capturing the aesthetic of the original, presenting something distinctly cyberpunk but with a thread of pulp sci-fi running through it. It feels great to adjust a laser weapon's power to max or explode a mutant’s head with a well placed shotgun blast. Some of the decks tend to blend together but I read this as more of an intentional design decision to create a maze-like atmosphere rather than any kind of laziness. There’s still a wide variety of environments, from industrial corridors to science labs, to sleek business rooms where you can practically smell the clotted stench of obscene wealth that can no longer run now that its stewards have been turned into brainless mutants.
I finally threw in the towel during the final leg of the game, in the Security deck, which is absolutely filled to the brim with high level enemies. I found myself save scumming after wading through a pile of cyborg corpses up to my waist and still getting tripped up by a sequence of switches and elevators. Eventually I just admitted to myself that I was no longer having fun and put the game away. Still, I mostly enjoyed my time with the game, enjoying how it is philosophically similar to SS2, but with a slew of meaningful mechanical differences. It’s a game that wants you to really place yourself in it, immerse yourself as one might say, and think through your plans and actions. There’s no real difference in build variety, but you can utilize foreknowledge to beeline to great items or objectives, trimming down your path through Citadel Station and avoiding painful failure that I unfortunately grew all too accustomed to.
We don’t have to love or hate every game we play. We don’t have to have a Hot Take and assign a numerical score to every book, movie, video game, TV episode, and on and on and on. My experience with System Shock (2023) felt like a stroll through an art museum, it wasn’t all good or all bad, but it provided an enriching experience that made me feel things and think things I wouldn’t have felt or thought otherwise. There probably won’t be a remake of the Mona Lisa anytime soon, but I applaud the efforts of the developers at Nightdive and their ability to take an old classic and make it more palatable, yet true to itself, and it was that truth that ultimately made for the complex but satisfying experience I had. I got what I put into it, simple as that.
I don’t have a lot of fond memories of the original, I picked it up on sale at some point and gave it the ol’ college try on a laptop that couldn’t run much else only to be completely baffled by its archaic interface. Needless to say I didn’t make it out of the initial area, the Medical deck, in that attempt. I would eventually give System Shock 2 its own attempt with much greater success. I loved that game, despite a few archaisms of its own, I found it to be a perfect middle ground of modern and classic design sensibilities and have been meaning to replay it with a different build for a while now (I may never actually get around to that).
It’s those two experiences, the aborted playthrough of SS1 and the fantastic playthrough of SS2, that swirled through my mind as critics piled on the praise for Nightdive’s remake, which eventually compelled me to pick it up and give it that ol’ college try one more time. And you know what? I Get It Now. I’ll be honest, I didn’t finish the game this time either, but I played it long enough to really soak in the systems, the atmosphere, the VIBE of the whole thing, and I can clearly see what makes System Shock so special, why it’s hailed as a classic, influential, and all that jazz.
If you’re unfamiliar, System Shock tells the story of a nameless hacker who awakens after a desperate deal gone wrong leaves them as one of the only living humans on board Citadel Station, a futuristic space station that’s undergone a deadly mutiny at the hands of the AI running the whole thing, iconic girlboss SHODAN. The bulk of the story is told through audio logs, emails, and environmental details, so you really get as much out as you’re willing to put in, a notion that permeates the entire experience.
Despite the new graphical sheen, the gussied up presentation, and selective quality of life updates, System Shock is old school through and through, punishing in many ways and completely hands off in most other ways. There’s no objective list or waypoints, death can come swiftly and from unexpected places, and your resources are constantly under pressure (I was so strapped for health at one point I thought I was permanently stuck). It’s a relentless game of cat and mouse between you and the AI, figuratively and literally, and when you manage to thrive under those conditions it provides some of the most compelling gameplay I’ve ever experienced.
I’m a huge fan of survival horror games, especially when they really put the screws to the player, withholding resources, forcing them to make hard decisions like when to save, when to run, and when it’s appropriate to dump resources and go all out. It’s exceedingly difficult to find the right balance, to make something difficult but possible with cleverness and perseverance, and the games that pull it off are true masterpieces. Among those highly vaunted works I count Resident Evil 1 (and its own equally well done remake), the original Dead Space, and even a few modern indies like Signalis and Nightmare of Decay. Unfortunately, that sweet spot on the scale of stress and success is a moving target, changing with the times like so many things in life, and I found the System Shock remake to be just outside my strike zone, the scale having tipped just a tad too far into masochistic challenge.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy SS, there were plenty of highs and lows, fantastic little misadventures replete with failure and triumph. There’s a section where you have to use plastic explosives to destroy 4 satellite arrays, and I foolishly expected I would be able to somehow “reuse” a single piece, resulting in me needing to traverse the entire station again to fetch some more. I am not a clever man. That trip of There And Back Again for a silly little chore is the kind of thing only video games can portray, a mundane activity juiced up by danger and sci-fi aesthetics.
There was also the time SHODAN was attempting to use a mining laser to destroy the Earth, and while exploring I casually flipped a switch without paying attention and did the deed for her, bathing the planet Earth in an unholy fire of destruction and resulting in an instant game over. On the flip side, there was the time I noticed a barracks of cyborg warriors across the hall from a CPU core I could disable to cripple SHODAN’s control over the deck, I put two and two together and thought it might be prudent to lay a trap and sure enough I heard the sweet sounds of explosions when SHODAN attempted to retaliate with those warriors. The game gives and takes in equal measure, once again giving out as much as you’re willing to put in.
I wish System Shock was slightly more hands off in some regards though. There’s a system that allows you to recycle items for money, and the player is able to vaporize items to save on space at the cost of half an item’s worth at the recycler. It’s a cool system that rewards smart inventory management and attention to environmental details. Unfortunately you can really only recycle items that are designated as “junk”, which actually removes a potential avenue for decision making. I would have loved to be able to recycle duplicate weapons or excess ammunition (I was literally carrying around hundreds of 9mm rounds by the endgame) to be able to afford some more health items or weapon mods. I’m not sure if this is just some holdover of the original game, but it feels like a design choice that runs counter to the game’s normal philosophy, which should allow the player to sink or swim based on their own performance.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised by how appealing the game’s aesthetics are. Remaking classics is always a tricky proposition and Nightdive does a good job of capturing the aesthetic of the original, presenting something distinctly cyberpunk but with a thread of pulp sci-fi running through it. It feels great to adjust a laser weapon's power to max or explode a mutant’s head with a well placed shotgun blast. Some of the decks tend to blend together but I read this as more of an intentional design decision to create a maze-like atmosphere rather than any kind of laziness. There’s still a wide variety of environments, from industrial corridors to science labs, to sleek business rooms where you can practically smell the clotted stench of obscene wealth that can no longer run now that its stewards have been turned into brainless mutants.
I finally threw in the towel during the final leg of the game, in the Security deck, which is absolutely filled to the brim with high level enemies. I found myself save scumming after wading through a pile of cyborg corpses up to my waist and still getting tripped up by a sequence of switches and elevators. Eventually I just admitted to myself that I was no longer having fun and put the game away. Still, I mostly enjoyed my time with the game, enjoying how it is philosophically similar to SS2, but with a slew of meaningful mechanical differences. It’s a game that wants you to really place yourself in it, immerse yourself as one might say, and think through your plans and actions. There’s no real difference in build variety, but you can utilize foreknowledge to beeline to great items or objectives, trimming down your path through Citadel Station and avoiding painful failure that I unfortunately grew all too accustomed to.
We don’t have to love or hate every game we play. We don’t have to have a Hot Take and assign a numerical score to every book, movie, video game, TV episode, and on and on and on. My experience with System Shock (2023) felt like a stroll through an art museum, it wasn’t all good or all bad, but it provided an enriching experience that made me feel things and think things I wouldn’t have felt or thought otherwise. There probably won’t be a remake of the Mona Lisa anytime soon, but I applaud the efforts of the developers at Nightdive and their ability to take an old classic and make it more palatable, yet true to itself, and it was that truth that ultimately made for the complex but satisfying experience I had. I got what I put into it, simple as that.