the original system shock is one of my absolute favorite things of all time in the entirety of art. some things just transcend the medium they're made in. i love john woo's the killer as if it was my son, there isn't a day where i'll get tired of boris's flood, and 1994's system shock is a game i will always look at with the rosiest of tinted glasses. then there's also the fact that system shock is one of the most important games made. so much of its design echoes today. the silly 451 code number now overdone for no reason, the abundant audio logs to tell the game's story that so many games now replicate, and the foundation it laid for future imsims and other genres to build upon. oh and theres also how system shock is weirdly a pseudo metroidvania before castlevania symphony of the night released to define that genre. so when i decided to go against my value of never preordering games with the system shock remake, i prayed that i would see it released in a good state. by all means nightdive has stuck their landing.
system shock '23 is good. pretty damn good most of the time. the new bells and whistles made possible from newer technology are mostly good. obviously turn off most processing with bloom and motion blur, but the volumetric lighting is pretty nice and the shadows just add so much despair to the dark corners of the station. however, the beauty of the system shock remake's presentation is mostly from nightdive recreating every room to a damn T. fuck it, not even a T. they built a cross with how faithful their replication of citadel station is (minus the bridge from what i remember of the original). medical is just as coldly blue, storage is just as chaotic, security still has its looming height. it looks like system shock in terms of architecture, but it has more of a darker atmosphere than the cornea-burning bright hodgepodge of colors that made the original. from the 2 hours ive played of system shock 2, it feels like nightdive's crew loved SS2 more than SS1 and wanted to incorporate elements from the sequel into this remake. its more horror focused is what im saying and i welcome it but also sadly miss the constant overstimulation from the visuals and almost blaring music, fueling the confusion born from the labyrinth. the music mostly plays during combat. it's not a recreation of the original soundtrack. the original was hectic, whirring, thrilling. this remake is a synthwave combat track but that doesnt mean to make them bad, it's just different and doesnt evoke the same stress from the original's admittedly janky sound from its low fidelity. the ambient tracks are pretty nice too, they remind me a lot of prey 2017 which is what i think the nightdive team was also pulling a lot from because of the addition of recycling machines and junk.
the execution is alright. i like how it puts greater value onto inventory space, like in survival horror games a la resident evil, but it was also quite annoying if i wanted to fully take advantage of the tokens and recycling. it's not needed to complete the game, so its not that big of a deal but its also like a weird feature to add. its like nightdive wasnt satisfied enough with the modernization of the game so they added recycling, akin to the crafting systems that are almost always hamfisted or superfluously added in many games today. i mean fine, add recycling but did you have to take away one of the original's unique qualities with its overwhelming HUD/UI and control scheme? sure some gamers are already very squeamish about controls or gamepads even though lots of people will rebind keys to weird-ass alternatives like using the control key for interacting with things. cruelty squad taught me that games need to get back into using the control scheme to evoke discomfort or anxiety in players, and system shock '94 did so wonderfully in tandem with its HUD/UI where you swap between a cursor and mouselook. system shock '23 however doesnt have this even as an option, making it so routine in what ive played. it feels like prey 2017, deep rock galactic, basically any first-person game made in the past 10 years. this is nice for making the game more accessible to new players, but it tragically takes away a special bit of magic that makes up the gestalt of what it's remaking. at least with its modernization it brings satisfying gunplay. melee is a bit awkward but the guns are so nice to shoot and reload with their animations and enemy feedback. the peekaboo paranoia is still present too! leaning around walls to get the drop on a cyborg or mutant always felt great, making me feel defiant in this steel dungeon. enemies are genuinely terrifying not just from their grotesque designs but also the walloping strengths of their attacks. youre gonna want to find the shield augment as fast as possible and always look for upgrades and health kits. even the cyberspace is pretty good from a gameplay perspective. aside from a vaporwave-esque or synthwavey design that ive been so done with since 2019, system shock '23 makes me want to play descent more now. the six degrees of freedom is so smooth, confusing, and thrilling. the new enemies also make it so much more exciting but admittedly more annoying. sometimes the cyberspace projectiles you shoot feel too slow or too small or maybe enemies have too much health at times, there was just a bit of tedium felt at times that i couldnt pinpoint. i think it was mostly healthwise, so many cyberspace enemies are tanky. honestly i applaud this cyberspace for how nice it is with me never begrudgingly going "oh gotta do this one too? cmon." but i suspect nightdive were maybe not proud enough of their hacking or too proud to the point of thinking "lets spice up the final boss cyberspace encounter by having it be just a weak ass FPS section but with the cyberspace enemies!! (insane wow)" seriously i felt so blue balled in terms of gameplay at the end. reminds me of control (2019) where it had a bombastic build up to an admittedly lame final bit of gameplay.
system shock '23 though is still for the most part system shock. it's about shodan, citadel station, and the hacker rollerblading down halls with a laser rapier in hand. but its not as schizophrenic, paranoiac, and overstimulating of a dungeon as the original. it's just as free and emergent in terms of gameplay with the weapons and exploration, but it's not as unique or anxious because of the modern control scheme. an amazing remake, but it's personally not my system shock. i think i'll definitely return to this and the original, plus i dont regret preordering this, nightdive did a lovely job. it's just that if i had to choose on whether i wanted this remake to exist, im sure i would say yes but only because of the hope that some may check out the original. as much as remakes are hated (rightfully so most of the time), i welcome a lot of them because the originals still exist. to me, a remake can never be a total replacement or a superior product. it'll always be just an alternative.
system shock '23 is good. pretty damn good most of the time. the new bells and whistles made possible from newer technology are mostly good. obviously turn off most processing with bloom and motion blur, but the volumetric lighting is pretty nice and the shadows just add so much despair to the dark corners of the station. however, the beauty of the system shock remake's presentation is mostly from nightdive recreating every room to a damn T. fuck it, not even a T. they built a cross with how faithful their replication of citadel station is (minus the bridge from what i remember of the original). medical is just as coldly blue, storage is just as chaotic, security still has its looming height. it looks like system shock in terms of architecture, but it has more of a darker atmosphere than the cornea-burning bright hodgepodge of colors that made the original. from the 2 hours ive played of system shock 2, it feels like nightdive's crew loved SS2 more than SS1 and wanted to incorporate elements from the sequel into this remake. its more horror focused is what im saying and i welcome it but also sadly miss the constant overstimulation from the visuals and almost blaring music, fueling the confusion born from the labyrinth. the music mostly plays during combat. it's not a recreation of the original soundtrack. the original was hectic, whirring, thrilling. this remake is a synthwave combat track but that doesnt mean to make them bad, it's just different and doesnt evoke the same stress from the original's admittedly janky sound from its low fidelity. the ambient tracks are pretty nice too, they remind me a lot of prey 2017 which is what i think the nightdive team was also pulling a lot from because of the addition of recycling machines and junk.
the execution is alright. i like how it puts greater value onto inventory space, like in survival horror games a la resident evil, but it was also quite annoying if i wanted to fully take advantage of the tokens and recycling. it's not needed to complete the game, so its not that big of a deal but its also like a weird feature to add. its like nightdive wasnt satisfied enough with the modernization of the game so they added recycling, akin to the crafting systems that are almost always hamfisted or superfluously added in many games today. i mean fine, add recycling but did you have to take away one of the original's unique qualities with its overwhelming HUD/UI and control scheme? sure some gamers are already very squeamish about controls or gamepads even though lots of people will rebind keys to weird-ass alternatives like using the control key for interacting with things. cruelty squad taught me that games need to get back into using the control scheme to evoke discomfort or anxiety in players, and system shock '94 did so wonderfully in tandem with its HUD/UI where you swap between a cursor and mouselook. system shock '23 however doesnt have this even as an option, making it so routine in what ive played. it feels like prey 2017, deep rock galactic, basically any first-person game made in the past 10 years. this is nice for making the game more accessible to new players, but it tragically takes away a special bit of magic that makes up the gestalt of what it's remaking. at least with its modernization it brings satisfying gunplay. melee is a bit awkward but the guns are so nice to shoot and reload with their animations and enemy feedback. the peekaboo paranoia is still present too! leaning around walls to get the drop on a cyborg or mutant always felt great, making me feel defiant in this steel dungeon. enemies are genuinely terrifying not just from their grotesque designs but also the walloping strengths of their attacks. youre gonna want to find the shield augment as fast as possible and always look for upgrades and health kits. even the cyberspace is pretty good from a gameplay perspective. aside from a vaporwave-esque or synthwavey design that ive been so done with since 2019, system shock '23 makes me want to play descent more now. the six degrees of freedom is so smooth, confusing, and thrilling. the new enemies also make it so much more exciting but admittedly more annoying. sometimes the cyberspace projectiles you shoot feel too slow or too small or maybe enemies have too much health at times, there was just a bit of tedium felt at times that i couldnt pinpoint. i think it was mostly healthwise, so many cyberspace enemies are tanky. honestly i applaud this cyberspace for how nice it is with me never begrudgingly going "oh gotta do this one too? cmon." but i suspect nightdive were maybe not proud enough of their hacking or too proud to the point of thinking "lets spice up the final boss cyberspace encounter by having it be just a weak ass FPS section but with the cyberspace enemies!! (insane wow)" seriously i felt so blue balled in terms of gameplay at the end. reminds me of control (2019) where it had a bombastic build up to an admittedly lame final bit of gameplay.
system shock '23 though is still for the most part system shock. it's about shodan, citadel station, and the hacker rollerblading down halls with a laser rapier in hand. but its not as schizophrenic, paranoiac, and overstimulating of a dungeon as the original. it's just as free and emergent in terms of gameplay with the weapons and exploration, but it's not as unique or anxious because of the modern control scheme. an amazing remake, but it's personally not my system shock. i think i'll definitely return to this and the original, plus i dont regret preordering this, nightdive did a lovely job. it's just that if i had to choose on whether i wanted this remake to exist, im sure i would say yes but only because of the hope that some may check out the original. as much as remakes are hated (rightfully so most of the time), i welcome a lot of them because the originals still exist. to me, a remake can never be a total replacement or a superior product. it'll always be just an alternative.