Prey 2017 is high up there as one of my favourite games of all time, so a remaster of what's essentially its grandfather works well for me. From what I understand Nightdive were as faithful as possible to the original which if that's the case then System Shock holds up pretty damn well in my opinion, love the labyrinthine design and exploration that's encouraged as well as plenty of enemy and weapon variety. The lack of any sort of waypoint or marker is something that threw me off at first but greatly enhances the game since I had a lot of fun trying to work out what to do and where to go, and the same goes for the story which was pretty engaging to piece together via audio logs etc. I also really dig the art style and pixelated graphics, just a really nice touch overall :)

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.

Looking Glass Studios were the originator of a new design philosophy in gaming, that still sees ripples in games like Dead Space, Bioshock and Dishonored.

What we have here is the original System Shock, pulled out of it's clunky PC era veneer, and given a new paint job. It does turn into a mix of old and new. The layout and story mimick the original well, but it feels more in line with Bioshock to play. Even though the controls can still be arcacic at times.

Maybe the closest comparison is Resident Evil 2 Remake. It has the same setting and story as the original, but so much of the moment to moment gameplay has changed to almost be unrecognizable. A museum piece for the modern era.

I've never played OG System Shock, I'm assuming the remaster is faithful to the original's gameplay.

System Shock captures the oft-sought-after feeling of tactical timidness. Citadel Station is laid out, filled out, and guarded in such a way where you will be checking every bullet and every corner as you inch through the station. Unlike most games where this slow pace is enforced through anorexic ammo provisions or steamroller enemies, System Shock rewards this slow pace by allowing the player to us their 'rare' resources more often.

System Shock does not skimp on interaction tools and resources at any point; you'll always have enough ammo and grenades to engage somehow. System Shock instead asks you to organize your resources into storage spaces around the station. You must create your own supply caches and dead drops, much like a survivalist would. You have everything you need to succeed, so how will you prepare it in enemy territory so it's there when you need it? System Shock is one of (if not) the first game to approach resource economy in this way, and one of the few that actually does it well.

The environment of System Shock lends itself to this feeling of play: plenty of cramped tunnels, unnervingly open hallways, and enough lore and clutter from both sides of the SHODAN conflict to make the space feel a little bit lived in.

Personifying the game's traps and recurring spawns as SHODAN is also very cute, and builds a lot of rapport between the player and SHODAN to make the feeling of entrenched opposition even more real.

The remaster specifically does have some pain points. I don't enjoy the UE-Neon-SuperPhong shading the entire game seems to have; it takes away from the grit and environmental hostility Citadel Station wants to present, and replaces it with a toy-plastic presentation.

Damage communication is also lacking. Player-side feedback to getting hit is so poor that you won't realize you're getting hit unless you're looking directly at your attacker, and enemies barely flinch when you bash them over the head with a wrench. Granted such features were probably not in the original, but the lack enemy-side damage feedback especially makes enemy encounters feel very soft.

After a second play through, this game still absolutely rules. Serves to modernize and update System Shock for a modern audience while still retaining most of what made it so special all the way back in 1994. There are still certain aspects from the original version that I prefer, such as the old SHODAN design or the music, but everything else is a wonderful recreation and has some fantastic moments.

One of the things that I'd really love to talk about is just how great this game looks. Textures, weapons, enemies, even the particle effects all look absolutely fantastic. The combination of modern rendering techniques with those really pixely textures creates a fantastic look that makes it unmistakably System Shock. It also helps that the weapon and enemy design is still fantastic, and certain enemies which were goofy in the original (such as the hoppers) have gotten a really smart redesign that makes them more menacing and interesting, while still keeping their original design ethos.

There's also the level design, which is uncompromising in it's adherence to the original design. The mazes are confusing but manageable, and you'll likely know your way around the station pretty damn well by the time the credits roll. When achievement hunting during this playthrough I was very surprised at how well I was able to navigate citadel just based on memory alone. It also helps that the jump boots make boosting around citadel during exploration and combat an absolute blast. I originally said that combat was a bit worse in the remake, but I'd like to take that back. After learning how to adapt to enemies attacks and to use the level design to my advantage, the combat loop became way more satisfying. Pulling out the grenade launcher to lob an emp before boosting into the stunned enemy with a lasier rapier never got old, and it made me really feel like I was outwitting SHODAN.

New additions that were confusing to me during my first playthrough also really enhanced this second playthrough. Initially, I was confused by the inclusion of the currency and scrapping system, but this time it made way more sense as a way to prevent the player from getting stuck in any specific area due to lack of one specific resources. Being able to purchase medipatches and ammo really prevents a lot of the softlocking that could have potentially happened in the original. There's also the new "boss" encounters (really just fights with Diego or a Cortex Reaver) that provided a solid bookmark to certain chapters of System Shock. Not all is positive though, I must say I missed seeing SHODAN's face appear on random screens around Citadel as a reminder that she was watching like they did in the OG, and I certainly would've liked to see a new trap or three tossed in to make the game a bit less predictable.

There's also the matter of this game's story which seems to have suffered a bit in its translation to a modern game. There's still just as many audio logs (and even a few bonus lines from SHODAN) that appear throughout the game, but being as this is a modern title it takes me approximately double the amount of time to see the credits roll, about 17 hours vs the 8-9 of the original. This can make the story feel sparse and lacking whereas it didn't in the original, and I would've liked to see some more audio logs in the later levels to counteract this. It's a minor issue, but one that I definitely felt in the later half of the game. I also take issue with how this game handles the soundtrack. It's not bad, in fact it's very good but why the hell does it NEVER PLAY nightdive? There's mostly ambient music for much of the game, and the occasional combat track (which doesn't even match the pace of this game's combat mind you), and outside of that it feels like I never hear the soundtrack. The original's soundtrack was so essential to Citadel's atmosphere and it's a shame that this game didn't take more advantage of how it's used to make some areas more memorable. I highly recommend the "Remember Citadel - Music Restoration" mod with the "Louder and more consistent music" version. It improved the music in the game tenfold and it felt like I finally got the remake's soundtrack that I was missing in the vanilla version.

Outside of those minor gripes, System Shock is a banger. Certified Hood Classic and fully capable of being just as effective today as it was back when it first came out. Citadel and SHODAN are just as memorable as they should be, and the weapons and enemies provide some really fantastic combat interplay compared to the original's more straightforward approach. absolutely worth the $40 price tag for the quality of the product you are getting, and I really hope we get to see more Nightdive remakes like this.

A lot of it is quite obscure being how faithful it is to the original and could be a bit frustrating at times, but besides for maybe the bad feeling melee combat (guns feel amazing though) I had a really enjoyable time. Loved all the little attention to detail, especially what happens after berserk stims wear off. Soundtrack is kind of non existent but I could tell this definitely went more for atmosphere rather than the original. I highly recommend having a notepad and pencil nearby while playing, and maybe don't play on "beat the game in under 10 hours" for your first ever time playing the game.. Can't wait for System Shock 2 enhanced.

This game is hella good, I had a blast playing it. The game has none to little handholding during the whole experience which might be a negative for some but a positive to others. Personally I much prefer the "figure it tf out" type of game instead of the "here are 20 objective markers, do them" type of game. And System Shock does it so well that I had to google one thing(you really could have provided me with more info there game. PS: it's the reactor core code thingey).

Now I never played the original so I can't really compare much there, all I can say about this game is:
-Awesome Artstyle
-Beautiful Graphics
-Good intricate designed levels
-Many many secrets
-Okayish combat(it does its job but it's no doom)
-Mild horror elements
-Very nice story

This was a unique and great experience, the only downsides I really have are: inventory space is limited, some difficulty spikes and some maze-like parts in certain levels. It is a faithful remake and a damn amazing one at that.

I played System Shock Enhanced back in 2018 when I was trying to learn of gaming before my BIRTH, and it was a fantastic game that I really enjoyed my time with. For me, this System Shock remake is a pretty decent Modern Adaptation of the title that people will enjoy that tries its best to stick to the original, but in the process of the modernization, loses a bit of the quirk of the original.

When it comes to the story and visuals, all good with me. Takes the original and runs with the story as if nothing really changed, keeping to the spirit and letting me enjoy it for the time I played all over again, the artistic direction is also a very cool approach, really trying to modernize it without losing the feel of the original, but it does go a little overboard with the colors and lights, making the maze-like structure of the game even more confusing in some aspects, even as a player who'd played before.

I think the game really misses in the gameplay department. In the pursuit to make it accessible for new players, it loses a bit of the Jank that made the original so fun. It's similar to learning a game like Dwarf Fortress, you kinda gotta figure it out and make it work (the controls in this context). However, I understand that this modernization is doing something different so I'll get off my high horse. I do think the combat feels quite weak in this iteration as it feels very lose and unsatisfying, despite being operational.

Overall it's a good breath of fresh air to get newer players to experience the game today with a fresh coat of paint, but it can't quite live up to the Enhanced Edition I played.

Played a significant chunk of this back at release, but I decided to bite off more than I could chew for a first-time playthrough and ditch many of the modern conveniences that would've made my time easier. I truly have myself to blame for this, but without an accurate note of where I was within the game, and walkthroughs (at least at release) not providing any clue as to where I would need to go or what to do, I figured it would be in my best interest to ditch my current save file and return fresh at a later date.

To my friend who gifted the pre-order of this game to me: thank you so much, and I am so sorry I did not finish a brand new game you bought me! I will finish it one day and you can hold me to it!

As someone who considers himself a huge fan of "immersive sims" (about as blurgh of a genre name as IDM or boomer shooter), the original System Shock - the daddy of the genre - has been a humongous blind spot in my gaming experience. I knew pretty much all there is to it thanks to decades of reading PC gaming magazines, online retrospectives and trivia banks, but... well, I missed the boat back in 1994 and the UI was an outdated challenge even back then, let alone now. I filed it away as one of those things I'd crack when I got in a really retro mood but, predictably, the day never came.

And now we've got the remake! The developers NightDive (who have carved a niche in bringing back 90s PC shooters to the modern day) have approached the act of presenting System Shock to the modern audiences in the exact right way. The central experience is nearly identical, to the extent that you can use walkthroughs for the original game and they're pretty much 90% correct for the remake as well (and don't expect the game to hold your hand in telling where to go, those apocalyptic audio logs aren't there just for worldbuilding). There are however tweaks where it's been deemed helpful - balance changes, additions to both the enemy and armory repertoires, some new audio logs explaining little gaps in the original (and foreshadowing System Shock 2) and minor gameplay additions. The big change is obviously how the game plays, in that it now behaves like you'd expect a first person game to do in the 2020s and that makes for both a smooth and incredibly immersive experience. I also love the little touch in how the updated graphics have a touch of old-school scruff into the textures, turning the visuals into a fascinating hybrid of the 1990s and 2020s - once I got accustomed to it, I fell in love with it and I think it adds a lot to the game's incredibly tight atmosphere.

And... that's all there is to it, in a good way. System Shock wasn't the first of the immersive sim family tree (and I really would love Ultima Underworld to receive a similar remake), but it's the one that codified the ethos of the genre - (0)451 and all. Because the remake is kept so faithful, there's no unique twists to the core formula and it's bound to be incredibly familiar to everyone who's played games like this in the past; if anything, for veterans of the genre who've experienced its growth it might not even feel that much of an immersive sim as System Shock stays a little more on rails and how it gives the player the freedom to proceed in their own way is a lot more micro level. But it speaks a volume to the legendary strengths of the original game that you don't need anything else. The experience of surviving through the Citadel station, scrounging for ammo while outsmarting its rampant AI and eventually beginning to gain an upper hand - it's incredibly gripping and it doesn't need anything else. The relative simplicity of System Shock is one of its great strengths because it allows it to focus on the feel of the experience.

System Shock is a great example of what remakes ought to be: taking great games whose strengths have been damaged by time and technology moving on, brushing them up and bringing them closer to modern day sensibilities in presentation and gameplay but understanding and retaining what made them so special in the first place and not touching that.

(a small minus however that whilst you can customise nearly all controls and a number of gameplay elements, the quickslot inventory has been left oddly rigid: you can't choose which way scrolling the mouse wheel moves the inventory up and down, nor can you rebind the keys for the quickslot inventory. As a non-WASDer who apparently scrolls his mousewheel to a non-standard direction, I was a lot slower than I should have with my inventory management)