System Shock

As innovative as the original game from 1994 is, it sadly has too many issues even for its time to hold up to modern having which this remake thankfully addresses flawlessly as it breathes new life into this dormant franchise.

My biggest issue with the original was the inventory system, simply put, it was too clunky and often distracted from the fps gameplay which of course was more in line with what Id software released at the time. This is greatly simplified as it's more in line with the sequels inventory system which allows you to use items without becoming too distracted from dealing with enemies. Another improvement is the cyberspace segments as not only is it far more stylised in this game, but it's in general easier to navigate due to allowing joystick movement as opposed to the original which was restricted to a d-pad or worse yet, the directional keys on the keyboard. It's admittedly a shame this stylisation didn't apply to the citadel station given how much I loved the art direction from the original, however it's not too generic and is much less laborious which I feel is good enough here. The enemies are faithfully recreated in this game here as they largely follow their attack patterns but are of course updated to incorporate modern strategies in gaming. The voice acting is largely faithful to the original as well, Shodan’s voice actress even reprised her role as the twisted villain of the game and even rerecorded many of her iconic lines from the original to boot. The story is almost identical to the original, there isn't even a single reference to the sequel which leaves it open as to whether that will be remade or changed following the success of this game. What few changes there are work for the better as I like how the groves are expanded upon and how much better implemented some of the powerups are compared to the original.

It's a remake that was made with a ton of love and care that finally brings justice to a heavily flawed game that was far ahead of its time. More remakes need this treatment as top often I see developers try to appeal to the wrong audience with these games rather than dusting them off for their full potential like this entry does.

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System Shock remake

After nearly a decade in development hell, 2 complete reboots, and a lot of drama, the remake of 1994's System Shock is finally here. I am happy to report that in the wake of all that chaos we have a happy ending because Nightdive's updated take on the proto-immersive sim classic is really, really good.

There are a number of improvements to discuss. Obviously, the visuals are drastically better and the gunplay feels tight and modern. Many weapons were reworked/combined and the changes result in a much better combat experience. Shooting feels good and impactful in SSR, which wasn't always the case in the original. The game also has a dramatically sleeker UI instead of the infamous mess from the original and controls much better, with a default control scheme similar to Deus Ex and a ton of great accessibility options to tweak things to your liking. The storytelling is much more clear in SSR as well, with new cutscenes that make it much easier to grasp the setup and ending of the game with some new audio logs to flesh out the worldbuilding. The atmosphere and music are totally different (and improved in my opinion) as the new soundscapes and visuals give the game a more haunting survival horror feel that was missing from the original game. Gone is that randomly generated hit-or-miss oddity that was the original soundtrack and in its place we have brooding ambience when things are calms and pulsating electronic music in combat. The Cyberspace sections are back and much better with easier navigation and better feedback when in combat. Speaking of which, Nightdive also thankfully changed the final boss fight to something that feels more epic and ends up being a more satisfying conclusion.

In spite of all the changes I touched on previously (as well as many others I haven't mentioned), SSR remains incredibly faithful to the original game, almost to a fault. The layout of Citadel Station is nearly identical to the original and the modern engine showcases how well the level design has aged. The story and objectives progress in the same manner to the point where you can use a walkthrough for the original game to help you with this one, which you might need because in many ways SSR is still following 1994 game design for better and worse and it can still be pretty obtuse for that reason. For example, you still may have to piece together info from audio logs scattered around to figure out how to accomplish certain objectives, so missing one may leave you lost as to what to do next. Also, they still have that stupid part where you have to get the code from the CPU nodes on levels 1-6, so if you haven't been writing those down you have to go all the way back to find those rooms even if you destroyed the nodes already. I would have appreciated a way to manually mark audio logs with important info or take notes in game so I didn't have to write stuff down to keep track of everything. That being said, everything you need is there somewhere. When I played the original nearly 5 years ago, I needed a walkthrough to help me but I was able to beat this remake totally blind (though I did have to guess where Repair Bay 3 was), which I'm actually pretty proud of since I'm always the guy who gets stuck and needs to look something up, especially with older titles.

I have other minor complaints too. I have some problems with how the UI acts sometimes, I don't like how the radiation suit is an active ability now instead of passive, I think the deliberately pixelated textures make the game not look as good as it could, and I don't know what Nightdive were thinking locking an inventory expansion behind that chess minigame. Also, while the new hacking minigames are cool and genuinely well designed, the game never explains how they work so you pretty much have to figure it out yourself. I also prefer the original voice logs. When you came across them, they sounded genuinely damaged and felt very organic. The static in the ones here sounds a bit artificial by comparison. The voice acting in the logs is also very inconsistent. Some of it is excellent and some of it sounds like they let Kickstarter backers voice characters. I actually checked the original page to see if it was a tier, but it wasn't so I'm not sure what happened here. While we are on the topic, aside from a few of these logs, the voice acting is very solid and Terri Brosius sounds fantastic as always in her return to voice SHODAN.

Nightdive should be proud of what they've accomplished here. They successfully took a beloved yet aged title and updated it without compromising its identity, even if it was a bumpy road to get there. Other than 2020's Demons Souls, SSR is the most faithful remake I've ever played. Even if it carries many of the original game's flaws, I would much rather have those issues than a game that goes so far down an alternate path it isn't recognizable anymore. I'm excited to see where Nightdive go from here though if the last 10 or so years made them never want to do anything like this again and choose to stick to remasters, I'd completely understand.

It has its tedious and frustrating parts, but overall, the System Shock remake is my kind of game done exceedingly well. This is a game that demands concentration in mechanical skill, tactical planning, puzzle solving and long-term goal tending. I wouldn't quite call it an "immersive sim" because it's not as flexible as its sequel or any of the Deus Ex games; there are no character upgrade trees, only some Metroid-esque equipment drops that let you bypass a couple types of obstacles, and optional and expensive weapon upgrades. But otherwise, this probably best lives up to the much thrown-about title of "thinking man's shooter"; every decision you make, macro or micro, will have consequences, especially if you deign to play on the hardest difficulties, where you have a constant time limit ticking down, just a few shots can kill you and respawns are so hard fought for, I was often better off just using quicksaves.

But the game is always just as rewarding for its hardships, with a massive, sprawling but mostly accessible space station with very few arbitrary roadblocks, just natural security obstacles you have to use your skills as a hacker to work around. From my understanding, Nightdive barely changed the map from its original incarnation, and if that's the case, it's amazing how well Looking Glass nailed non-linear map design even back then. Most explorative situations have more than one solution, but only the most obvious or "official" ones are signposted; there's never a penalty for circumventing these solutions so sequence breaking never feels cheap: it's just another layer of the puzzle box that is SHODAN's cyborg infested Citadel Station. On top of that, the way this game handles its objectives and story progression is just brilliant to this day. Aside from a couple of directives from some buddies on Earth, you are never explicitly told what to do next, but audio logs are always painting a picture on how to take down SHODAN, and it's up to you to figure out the order and do what the previous inhabitants tried and failed to do. It must have been a tricky balancing act for the designers but it feels very natural; I got lost in the map a couple of times, but I almost always had a clear vision of my next objective, and all without the game just giving me a waypoint (though the option exists on lower difficulties).

That said, System Shock is so devoted to this framework that its many audio logs do tend to miss the lore and background colour that made future titles with this set-up have some of the most revered stories of their day. It's not devoid of believable side-stories but it is arguably deficient, it's less of a flaw and more of a missed opportunity, particularly with regards to the secondary villain. SHODAN remains awesome, a passive but aggressive dungeon keeper with a deity complex so foreboding that any vocal appearance of hers is genuinely chilling; she's unhinged, fragmented, but she holds all the cards and you are just fucked while that's the case...but we don't get a lot of details as to what made her powerful before she went crazy, and thus why Edward Diego wanted to blackmail the hacker into unlocking her ethical restraints. It does nothing to diminish the atmosphere of the game, bolstered by the high-stress gameplay as to be the most engrossing backdrop for a survival horror in some time. It's more like...it's something to improve upon for a proper System Shock 3, because damn near everything else is done perfectly.

A couple of objectives have byzantine or misleading requirements, even on super hard your character ought to have a bit more health IMO, and the controller conversion is just bloody awful. Leaning doesn't work, and this game is all about leaning, it was practically the original cover shooter. And admittedly the last two levels fall back into the old action game trope of throwing all the horror out of the window for some mindless action setpieces, and loses most of the resource management by that point too. But these are all nitpicks, and the rest of the game is just magical. Looking Glass managed to turn the infant survival horror aesthetic, usually tight and controlled, into a much more open and investigative experience while losing none of the tension, and Nightdive brought over those old design philosophies perfectly, while putting the game in a mostly modern FPS context so no one has to wrestle with twenty different lean keys just to experience the world's first Shock game. This is a title I plan to replay for sure.

I never played the original System Shock. Played 2, but all the elements that showed the originals age made me think "this will be a headache just to learn how to play." Now, having beat the remake and seeing where things were near perfectly recreated and how many people are praising its attention to detail and adoration for the original, I feel like I was dramatically overestimating the complexity and basically just held off playing a fantastic game for no real reason.

Anyway, suffice to say this game is stellar. 'The Year of the Remakes' is truly upon us, but so far they've all been surprisingly competent to a degree we haven't seen in quite some time. With this in particular, it's a reminder of an era of gaming that we've long moved away from but which was clearly not fully explored and which has an audience still, and I truly hope this re-sparks that drive for games to aim for this kind of exploration and problem solving instead again. 'Imsims' have become a bit of a meme recently but there is a definite want for them right now.

That said, I do think this game has some flaws I'll run down quick. Some of this might have existed in the original, but I don't have an intimate knowledge of it so I'm speaking solely on the remake.

- Melee is quickly outclassed. The 2 starting melee weapons are near identical, and by the time you reach floor 2 you'll probably have enough ammo to not warrant using melee at all anymore. There's an improved melee weapon, but it's slow, uses energy, and shows up late enough that you'll probably have better guns by that point anyway. Similarly, 2 of the consumable patches are basically only useful if you play melee; berserk and stamina. Stamina is essentially a non issue made even more of a non issue with a midgame upgrade, and berserk is ONLY for melee so it'll usually just take up inventory space.

- Reticule is kind of awkward. You have your crosshair, but in the middle of the crosshair is a square. It took me quite awhile to register hitmarkers (my bad) but the full extent of the crosshair is the entire area a shot can land, NOT the box, so why is it there? It's not even a good indication of first shot accuracy. There is bloom, so tap firing is ideal when at long range, but you really aren't going to be sniping anything from across the room reliably anyway.

- Fuck the chess minigame. Really messed up to lock one of the most useful/important upgrades behind it too.

- The last stretch of the game is ROUGH. Combat in general feels like it's trying to reinforce the originals pop n shoot approach, with quick peaks from behind a corner to take potshots. Enemies do a TON of damage, healing is really slow, and shields run out quick if you don't use the same above approach. It's enjoyable for exploration, but most rooms that are ambushes can be a bit frustrating with how quickly you get dropped without cover. Most of the game has minimal encounters like that, but at a point of no return it feels like the encounter design flips a switch and becomes JUST that. 6 of the strongest enemies in 1 room where you cant reliably find cover is just kind of obnoxious, but what really kills the flow is the fact that you can't get a revive station on that level so every single time you die you have to watch the really long game over cutscene, and reload a save. Unfortunately it also doesn't end there. The very last encounter in the entire game is clunky, awkward, and feels outright unfinished with some of the sound design. It was easy, so it didn't really sour my opinion on the game overall, but a very confusing last 20 minutes to say the least.