Summary

System Shock is a first-person action-adventure RPG originally released in 1994 by LookingGlass Technologies. We will be playing the remake that came out in 2023, developed by Nightdive Studios. In it, you play as a nameless hacker up against the big grandmammy of all the evil AIs, SHODAN, on a cyberpunky space station.

Very exciting, this is another in the long list of "best games of all-time" that I intend on playing in the near future. Has been on my list for eons, partially because it seemed like the remake would never actually come out. But here it is for all to enjoy! And soon the second game is also getting a remaster. Will very likely cover it soon after I finish this one.

Review

This was a really excellent remake. What I say has to be taken with a grain of salt as I have no experience with the original. But this was really enjoyable. I loved the feeling of the wireframe of the game being old, but everything else feeling fresh. All the old-game-isms that would have likely caused a worse experience were polished and shined up. The environments here are gorgeous. I thought as much when I started the game and was still thinking about how pretty everything was by the end.

I think something that does frustrate me with modern games is that you often see such a glut of unnecessary mechanics piled on top of each other. I feel that if you can completely ignore 1 or more of a game's mechanics and still get through it fine, that feels really wrong. If so, why is it there? This is something that you don't tend to see with older games. Simply because...they're old. But it feels satisfying once you're firing on all cylinders, using all the resources you're being given and becoming the master of the domain. In particular here, with Citadel Station, it was extremely satisfying to go from creeping along the floors like a cockroach in a big, intimidating, and hostile area. To skating down the halls with glee swinging a laser rapier around and showing the cyborgs what for.

Was nice meeting GLaDOS's mother. SHODAN is a fun villain and I can see the progression.

Most definitely will be playing System Shock 2 in the near future. A bit disappointing it didn't get the full remake treatment like 1 did, but given the troubled development history, it's hardly surprising.

Links

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXbBIoFOxaQs6JCcL07eICpwQyLvPqDCt