System Shock (PC)

Nightdive Studios are at it again, back with a full reworking of 90’s trend setting first person RPG System Shock. Originally developed by LookingGlass Technologies where legendary designer Warren Spector worked. System Shock tells a story of a cyberpunk future where an AI named SHODAN has turned against its creators and is planning to unleash some nasty goings on. Anyway how does this hold up in today’s world.

The guys at Nightdive have faithfully updated System Shock from it’s original VGA flat looking first person RPG to a very much modern stylish look, visually it reminds me of the often forgotten The Persistence, with some great sci-fi/cyberpunk visual flair. It looks really nice, with each floor having a mostly unique look with varying palettes, some really nice lighting which definitely adds to the atmosphere of the game. You , enemy models are detailed, however the more humanoid enemies lack a bit of variety, with most of them not even being colour swaps, just outright duplicates of each other, this I feel can be fine with the robotic enemies, however a little bit of variety would have been fine.

That being said with this trying to be a fully faithful remake, things like certain rooms and entire floors have been totally faithfully recreated, with more interactivity, and a lot more modern character. Yet if you’ve played the original, you’ll know exactly where you are, and won’t have any issues. Some of my favourite and best looking parts of the new game, are the cyberspace levels, these are required mini games you’ll go through, which play like Parallax Software’s (now know as Volition) Descent, an excellent 3d first person shooter from 95. Where you’re able to move in all directions. These excellent little sections will only last 5/10 minutes per area, but provide some extra depth to the gameplay, and a bit of deviation in gameplay, there’s also a good few other puzzles within the game, and those who are fond of chess will also find something that they might enjoy a bit.

Speaking of gameplay, those expecting a faster paced action RPG might be a little disappointed in System Shock, this is a very laborious experience, with a great deal of exploration required. Each floor is pretty much an individual maze, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore, if you find yourself struggling at a more elaborate Doom map, System Shock might be a nightmare for you. I for one spent 3 hours running between 2 floors trying to find one objective (we’ll come to that later). My main gripe here is that there’s only a few small hints as to where you’re going, again I don’t want my hand held, but a lot of the areas are pretty tough to navigate, even with the map, there’s no real sense of an idea of where to go.

Especially when most of the games objectives will be dealt out through conversation, however this conversation isn’t what you’ll have with characters you’ll find across the map technically, any audio logs or transmissions you find will contain hints as to what you have to do next, these can either be through ill-fated NPC’s or the games antagonist SHODAN, Yet unfortunately these aren’t put into a log of objectives like most modern titles, again like the 1994 original, these aren’t logged and you’re just left to work out what you need to do. This is where my previous 3 hour excursion took place, without a clue or maybe a missed audio log, I wasn’t fully aware as to what I needed to do. Personally this really hampered my experience, most remakes/remasters do have an option for some mod-cons, such as mission/objective markers, something like this in the options would have helped me leaps and bounds without feeling I’m not good enough (I’m well aware of the whole git gud thing, dont worry).

SHODAN itself is one of the more memorable antagonists in video gaming pre 2000, her ideals are hugely similar to Terminator’s Skynet, SHODAN is an intelligent AI, that after some hacking and manipulation became self aware, the rest I’ll allow you to find out yourself. Obviously in 2023 this really holds up, especially with the leaps and bounds coming around in the world of AI and technology, realisations of both SHODAN and Skynet don’t feel that far fetched these days. The story really holds up playing through the game today and despite my previous niggles with locating all audio logs, when you’re within the game and actively listening to these you’ll be hooked.

Other notable gameplay loops involve lots of visits to the aforementioned excellent cyberspace minigame levels, and some bypass-able electricity panel tampering, the panels will usually help unlock an additional path or room, which will assist you on your venture.

It is worth noting that System Shock is a pretty tough run, especially compared to a lot of more modern games. I did find myself dying quite a bit in the early stages, due to a lack of a stronger arsenal and some of the respawning enemies can bottle neck you quite a bit, however with a bit of perseverance and a bit of exploring you’ll find enough tools for the job. There’s a good amount of difficulty sliders too, with combat, puzzles and cyberspace all having difficulty sliders on them in the options menu. I went through on the default difficulty and it was still a pretty tough slog. However there’s a decent enough respawn system where you’ll go to either the closest medical room or the one in the previous floor.

Like most games similar to this, combat is something you’ll have to get into, with the amount of bots and humanoid enemies littered across each level, you have a mix of both melee weapons and projectile based, with some additional throwable delights. Initially you’ll get a trusty wrench, but you’ll eventually be smashing stuff up with an energy based laser baton, then around an hour or so in you’re treated to your first gun, these can be few and far between, and very hidden, but you’ll be exploring a lot so that’s more than fine.

There’s also a good arsenal of normal and energy based weapons, each of these have their own sets of ammo, and each weapon can have its own unique sets of ammo, with penetrator rounds and teflon rounds being some examples of what you can find. However some of this ammo can be extremely scarce, so you might find yourself using your basic weapons for a lot of the game until something special comes at you. I liked having a good variety of weapons, it does help a lot as you’re getting into the nitty gritty, but you’ll have to watch your inventory, as it’s rather strict. The weapons also look really good, with some nice polish and detail going into each, and they some sound really meaty.

Speaking of audio, the game doesn’t really have a hugely notable soundtrack in the main game as there’s a lot more things going on, I feel an original design choice wasn’t to include a big pulsing dance soundtrack, yet once you’re inside the cyberspace levels though, this pulsing dance beat steps in, and it fits majestically, it almost feels like I’m inside Tron or Rez. Back in the normal game, instead of a soundtrack there’s a lot of ambient noises from everything going on around you. Fans will rotate, enemies and other bots will beep and buzz at you, and to be fair, when you find a lot of these audio logs you’ll want to pay attention as some of the hints can be quite subtle, however the voice acting is really good. SHODAN sounds very typical for an AI but some of the noise distortion and interference in what she says, can be quite terrifying.

System Shock is a really nice game, with a hugely welcome revision thanks to NightDive. My main issues are the lack of guidance to some degree. Everything else works a treat, it looks good, sounds decent enough and the game plays very well.