System Shock is a game that immerses the player by setting them loose in a space station with little idea of what is going on or what to do. Because the player must explore the station in order to gain that information, and since the station has been overrun with horrible cyborg mutants, there is a real tension and physicality to the player's interaction with, and understanding of, the game world. There's no glowing marker telling you where to go next, and as such the player must learn the world intimately and keep their eyes open and mind engaged, likely even keeping a notebook while playing.

The System Shock Remake is visually an incredible game, not only doing justice to the original game's design but also just being one of the most stunningly cool and beautiful looking games in modern times. The sound design and music have gotten mixed reception but I personally really liked it and thought the music was great.

In terms of gameplay an approach was taken that kept a lot of the essence of the original game while updating it with what 30 years of game design development in the industry could aid the aging game with. The inventory system is snappy and intuitive, with additional options added in the remake to lighten some headaches and make once useless items more useful.

The story is compelling and the method in which it is told has been made almost a standard for story-driven isolated experiences ever since.

While my enjoyment of the game had its ups and downs throughout, in many of my play sessions I found myself having a total blast and thinking to myself "I am LOVING this", doesn't that deserve a high rating?

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.

Really good remake of system shock that fixes the issues I had with the original
When people say this was very faithful to the original I didn't expect it to play almost exactly the same but with improved controller support which is exactly what I wanted from this remake. Visually the game looks great but for some reason sometimes textures get really blurry and low quality I really hope they fix this. My other issue with the original is the terrible ending and even though I wouldn't say the ending was amazing its still far better than the original.
As someone who is critical of video game remakes compared to the originals I think this is near perfect remake of the already amazing system shock.
SHODAN my beloved

Remaking a game like the original System Shock must be equal parts creatively thrilling and a bit overwhelming. There's all the obvious changes and improvements to be made to freshen the game up for modern players (streamlining the UI and inventory, making certain things like objectives and important items more clear [not in the braindead map marker way ideally], etc.), but those are almost givens. What really matters is everything else, but for the sake of a concise review, we'll narrow it down to two points:

1. Does the game stand on its own? (TL;DR answer: fuck yeah, this game rules. it plays like System Shock 1, if it was perfectly remade in a slightly altered version System Shock 2 [i.e. the Dark Engine])
2. How the hell do you remake System Shock, while making sure it still feels like System Shock? How loyal to the original should you be?

That second point is the most interesting one to me, since the original System Shock's atmosphere and in-game setting (level design, graphics, etc.) were almost a bit cartoonish at times, and undeniably restricted by technology at the time (lots of cubic design, to put it simply). It's very easy for me to imagine a modern triple-A dev team adding a bunch of frivolous bullshit to each area in an attempt to make it more "realistic" and to really drive home how their remake is bigger, better, and more impressive(?) than the archaic original. Nightdive Studios, however, remained loyal to a tee, while still enhancing and grounding the world in a way that ends up being shockingly immersive. Citadel Station feels far more coherent, logically interconnected, and like a real place that exists in this game's world, rather than just connected semi-levels, if that makes any more sense. It feels less utilitarian and more immersive, basically. This is particularly impressive, considering the basically 1-to-1 designs for each area in the remake.

What stood out the most to me was just how this remake felt like a melding of the best classic and modern immersive sims. The atmosphere and ambient soundtrack constantly reminded me of Prey (2017), but it always felt/played like... well, System Shock.

I don't know where I'm going with any of this. It's 3:26 AM and all I want to do is replay System Shock 2. I guess the bottom line here is this: System Shock (2023) is the best remake that the original game could realistically get, which is pretty damn great

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.

ريميك كشغل ممتاز، تغيير في تصاميم الوحوش ومحافظة عليها كشكل لعبة كلاسيكية، يشبه ريميك بلاك ميسا كشغل وشغف المحطوط فيه
بس عكس بلاك ميسا اللي حبيتها واستمتع فيها، هنا حسيت بالملل الشديد، اللعبة ار بي جي وفيها عناصر عديدة ومحادثات كثير، واللي فهمت انك تبي تهرب او تكتشف سر خطير داخل السفينة الفضائية، غير هذا تعتبر صعبة بسبب قلة الموارد والتحكم العتيق نوعا ما، والالغاز صعبة وغير صعوبتها فهي تعتمد على قراءة التفاصيل
واضح تجربة تتعمد انك تقرا اسرار السفينة وما الي ذلك, ولا اريد ظلم التجربة واضاعة وقتي في لعب ملل وغير ممتع، تجربتي معاها كانت لا بأس فيها جو 6 الساعات واغلبها كان لوت وبحث عن موارد وتقتيل وحوش بشوتر ممل ، اللعبة غير ممتع كفاية لكي يخلني استمتع فيه بدون التركيز على التفاصيل
اتمنى ريميك الجزء الثاني، اتوقعه في هذه الحالة كلعب افضل وخاصة انه يعتبر احدث من الجزء الاول وهو اساس سيستم شوك

This game is really cool but I do think it has a few problems.

I like how the game looks but the art direction does lead to some enemies blending into the background. But other than that the vibe is great, I love how the weapons and the enemies look.

The game is pretty good most of the time with leading you in the right direction without any sort of quest marker or aggressive signposting. I say most of the time because there were still a few times where I had no idea what the game would want from me.

Every boss in this bad, they are not fun. Just use a Berserk drug and the energy rapier and every boss melts. There was never a reason to change this tactic at any point.

I was really not a fan of the cyberspace parts as I found them extremely disorientating.

I really don't like that the quick access bar is locked at 4 weapons, 3 explosives, and 3 consumables. Let me decide how many of what I want on the bar.

This game has no padding, like the closest it ever got to that is the reactor code, which in the moment I was really not a fan of but looking back it really isn't that bad. The game took me roughly 18ish hours to beat and I can easily see that dropping A LOT if you know what you are doing.

I would still recommend it despite the gripes.

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)

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 :)

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.