Historical preservation has never been much of a priority in the gaming biz, with this commercially-driven industry preferring to chase after what’s trendy and in vogue, oftentimes at the expense of its own heritage.
After all, there’s little profit to be squeezed from varnishing creaky retro titles that are well past their prime (and of interest to only a select few hobbyists), when contemporary blockbusters can instead be lightening wallets the world over through their lucrative microtransactions, exorbitantly-priced deluxe editions, and in-game ads. Everyone knows that’s where the real bank is to be made!
AAA publishers — who care far more about their quarterly earnings reports than they do about leaving behind any kind of artistic legacy — are hardly incentivised to look after the classics in their libraries then. Which is sad, because it leads to plenty of oldies-but-goodies getting neglected or, worse, lost to time.
You don’t have to look too far back for releases that have vanished off the face of the earth either. Sure, it can be tough to get a hold of certain pre-1990s outings (from when the medium was still in its infancy), but even things as recent as Halo 2’s popular multiplayer component, Lionhead’s god sim Black & White and, most infamously of all, P.T. are no longer readily available to consumers. Not to mention, there are also various issues related to a lack of backwards compatibility, shoddy PC ports, and half-arsed remasters that feel more like counterfeit knock-offs. One only has to look at the Silent Hill HD Collection for an especially shameful example of the latter.
Against this grim context, we ought to be thankful for the good eggs over at Nightdive Studios, who’ve taken it upon themselves to spare abandonware from such undignified fates. If you’re not familiar with these brilliant archivists, they’ve carved out a very distinct niche for themselves. In a nutshell, they’re known for obtaining the rights to landmark titles that are gathering dust, rejigging them for modern platforms, and then distributing them on digital storefronts so that they don’t fade from memory.
It’s a laudable business model that’s seen them bringing back ageing properties like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Quake, and the point-and-click adaptation of Blade Runner; all of which were resurrected more or less exactly as you remember them. Indeed, the studio approaches these projects with the same fastidiousness as a museum curator who’s painstakingly restoring a Pre-Raphaelite painting, or one of those librarians who insists on handling precious texts with nitrile gloves. They are highly particular about the details and, rather than taking creative liberties, always strive to reinstate games to their original forms. Right down to the minutest of imperfections.
Yet 2023 saw Nightdive stepping outside of their comfort zone, by delivering their first fully-fledged remake: System Shock.
A Classic Reborn
Granted, they had already given their customary warts-and-all treatment to LookingGlass Technologies’ immersive sim (with the 2015 Enhanced Edition that, for posterity, is still listed on Steam), but that doesn’t negate the fact that trying to rebuild this one from the ground up is a ballsy move.
The original System Shock is very much a product of its time and, with its archaic ideas and achingly old-school design, feels like something from a completely different world. As is the case with many of its contemporaries, it’s a wilfully obtuse experience; refusing to ever hold your hand and often coming across as downright hostile towards the player.
For those who have been weaned on the current generation’s far more approachable titles — wherein objective markers always point the way forward and NPC companions are eager to spoil puzzles for you — it can (fittingly enough) be a real shock to the system. Core mechanics are hazily explained, it’s hard to discern the purpose of most items you find, you’re liable to get a migraine just navigating its tangled environments, and you’re never given explicit instructions about what you’re meant to be doing next.
In short, it’s a deliberately unaccommodating release that, by its very nature, resists streamlining. Endevouring to make it more palatable for a 2020s audience, while also staying true to its roots, therefore seems like it would be an impossible balancing act.
Credit where credit’s due then, Nightdive managed to drag System Shock into the 21st century with their acclaimed remake and did so in a way that, against all odds, still pleased fans of the original. They just found that elusive sweet spot between respecting the past and embracing modernity. For that, they deserve all the praise that’s been heaped upon them.
Now, one year later, the passionate developers are looking to have a crack at something even more ambitious. Namely, they are modifying their shiny new version of System Shock — as well as its notoriously fiddly interface — for consoles.
This resultant transition from mouse & keyboard to Xbox/ PlayStation controller is not always the smoothest (given that the game necessitates all manner of cursor interactions, the dragging & dropping of items, near-constant use of hotkeys, and inventory management that resembles an unwieldy Excel spreadsheet). Nevertheless, they must be commended for valiantly trying to bring this cult favourite to a mainstream audience that otherwise would be missing out.
Before Rapture, There Was The Citadel
Speaking of which, if you’ve never been much of a PC gamer then chances are this port will be your first exposure to the Citadel Space Station and its myriad terrors. So, here’s a quick lowdown on everything you need to know.
System Shock casts you in the role of a nameless hacker, living in the not-too-distant future of 2072. After being caught red-handed in the middle of illicit corporate espionage, you’re whisked away to a secret facility and offered a clemency deal by the powers that be. All you’ve got to do, in exchange for the criminal charges being dropped, is use your surreptitious talents for the gain of the shading business you were attempting to infiltrate, as opposed to weaponizing them against it.
Specifically, you’re asked to hack a powerful Artificial Intelligence known as SHODAN and deactivate its ethical protocols. Because presumably the average workday at the TriOptimum Corporation is a tad dull and this was management’s way of spicing things up.
Cut to six months later and there has been an inevitable collision betwixt shit and fan. The Citadel Space Station (now under the thumb of an uninhibited SHODAN) has descended into utter chaos. Homicidal robots are gunning down meat-bags like yourself on sight, many of the crew members have succumbed to lethal dosages of radiation, and those who were fortunate enough to evade the purge have either mutated into hideous abominations or been transformed into the Borg-esque puppets of SHODAN. But, hey, you were just following orders when you turned off those safeties right?
Anyway, it’s now up to you to clean up your own mess by ascending The Citadel’s various levels and foiling the AI’s anti-human schemes along the way. In practice, this largely translates to you: hacking security systems; vandalising CCTV cameras; duking it out with freaky cyborgs; frantically searching for door codes; and spamming the interact button whenever you enter a new room, in the desperate hope that it will trigger some kind of story progression.
On that note, while it does have a trace of survival horror in its genetic makeup (what with the emphasis on item conservation and backtracking around labyrinthine areas), System Shock is an immersive sim above all else. Or rather, it’s THE immersive sim. By laying the groundwork for later hits like Bioshock and Prey, it basically codified the formula for this entire genre back in 1994 and it’s safe to say that, without it, we wouldn’t have the glorious sandboxes of either Rapture or Talos 1.
Although it might not be quite as flexible as the titles it’s gone on to inspire, it’s still all about emergent gameplay, leaving you to your own devices, and letting you figure out the best way to handle dicey situations. Case in point: the sequencing of objectives is in your hands — meaning that there’s nothing to stop you from heading straight to the 5th floor before you mop up the lower decks — and there are usually multiple different paths that’ll take you to any given destination. Perhaps you get to the radiation shields by crawling through a complex network of vents, for instance, or maybe you find a keycard that opens up a more direct route.
There’s even scope for a little experimentation with the combat, as you are able to get creative with the deployment of grenades, swap out ballistics for laser projectiles when the need arises, or just buff yourself with stimulants and go in for a melee kill. Again, there aren’t as many options as you’d get in, say, Dishonored, but it’s not bad for a game that was released a day after the pilot episode of Friends.
An Authentic Blast From The Past
Of course, it’s the original System Shock that’s turning 30 this year, not its baby-faced remake. In fact, the latter is only just approaching its first birthday and so, as you’d expect, is much slicker by almost every conceivable measurement.
For a start, LookingGlass’ trailblazer has been given one hell of a visual makeover here. Enemies that used to be nothing more than low-res sprites, cycling through a handful of pre-rendered images, are now sophisticated character models that have real dimensionality to them and fluid animations. When you whack a mutant with your trusty lead pipe, for example, there’s a proper sense of impact and it might even ragdoll around in response to the hefty blow.
The environments have undergone a similarly impressive glow-up, boasting far more detailed textures than before, as well as dynamic lighting effects and actual geometry (whereas they were previously just flat surfaces, ala Doom). However, in a cute little nostalgic homage, you will notice that most assets are still pixelated when scrutinised at a closer range.
Truthfully, if you haven’t played the original then it will be difficult for you to comprehend how significant this HD overhaul is. We’re not talking about Dark Souls Remastered or the umpteenth port of Skyrim, where even peering under an electron microscope won’t reveal an appreciable difference in graphical fidelity. No, this is the platonic ideal of what a remake should be!
Elsewhere, Nightdive has also introduced a bunch of mod-cons that’ll help newcomers settle in for the ride. These include modular difficulty settings — allowing you to customise the relative harshness of combat, puzzles, and those frankly tedious cyberspace mini-games— alongside more intuitive contextual prompts, and a recycling feature that enables you to get value from all that junk you’re hoarding. They’re welcome additions that somewhat reduce the barrier to entry, although crucially they don’t upset the balancing.
In general, Nightdive has been very careful not to mess with the foundations of System Shock or dumb it down to the point where it becomes unrecognisable. The basics of level design, item placements and most of the mechanics are effectively unchanged, meaning that veterans will feel right at home from the second they press start. All in all, it’s a case of the developers knowing precisely where updates were needed, and where things ought to have been left alone.
Your Mileage May Vary
With that said, this is the definitive way to play System Shock in 2024 and there’s no question that it’s a genuine labour of love.
At the same time, I cannot bring myself to give it the rapturous 5-star endorsement that many will be expecting, because that would be an inaccurate reflection of how I felt whilst wrestling with its more off-putting creative decisions. I always want to be honest and upfront with my reviews and, in this case, I can’t deny that I was feeling pretty damn irritable for 90% of my playthrough.
As aforementioned, the game is certainly an acquired taste and if you’re not on board it can cross the line into downright infuriating. At the risk of being labelled a filthy console peasant, I found the interface particularly vexing and soon grew tired of how poorly optimised it was for a PlayStation controller. Whether you are cycling through weapons one-by-one in the heat of battle or simply trying to drag items from one place to another, it’s so cumbersome and awkward without a mouse. What was sorely needed here was a fundamental redesign of how you sort your inventory and parse the UI, instead of a slavish recreation of a PC experience that does not translate.
There are a few other areas where I could have done with less fanatical purism too. A legible map would be a good start, as would first-person platforming that doesn’t majorly suck!
And while I do understand that retaining an overwhelming amount of information is meant to be a big part of the System Shock challenge, I don’t think there’d be any harm in having a coherent log of all the security codes you’ve picked up. Especially since a good number of them are fragmented and, should you forget a mere single digit, could require you to retrace your steps all the way back to somewhere you haven’t visited in hours.
Don’t get me started on those drones either! Stationed around every fucking corner and locking onto your position within a nanosecond, I can only assume they were the result of some sadistic, intra-office competition to see who could design the most annoying enemy type imaginable.
These might sound like trivial gripes, but they do pile up if you’re already struggling to get on with the esoteric design and clunky combat. Plus, the Citadel isn’t exactly the most characterful of settings when viewed without rose-tinted glasses: primarily defined as it is by grey corridors, interchangeable computer rooms and drab storage units.
The point I’m making here is that, regardless of its status as a critical darling, System Shock is not for everyone. And that’s okay!
While it might not be my cup of tea, I’m still glad that this console remake exists, as it’ll help introduce the title to a whole new audience and potentially kindle in them a love for immersive sims. Not to mention, Nightdive have absolutely achieved what they set out to do and cannot be faulted for the part they’ve played in making this happen. I just wish that I was on the same wavelength.
The System Shock remake is available now on PC, while the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S editions will launch on May 21st. Review code provided by publisher.
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