System Shock review

Lacking modern fundamentals like mouselook, System Shock deserves renovation. Nightdive Studios offers a carefully crafted remaster that improves the creakiest elements while preserving the feel of the PC classic. Yet if you haven’t played the original, you might wonder why the title is so revered.

System Shock
Platform: PC
Developer: Nightdive Studios
Publisher: Prime Matter
Release date: May 30th, 2023
Price: $39.99
Digital availability: Steam

Originally released in 1994, System Shock remained influential for decades. Revisit LookingGlass Technologies’ sci-fi classic and you’ll witness the formation of several seminal genres. Playing as an unidentified hacker, you’ll skulk through the labyrinthine interior of the Citadel space station, recalling the tense exploration found in a multitude of survival horror games. Here, you’ll use melee or ranged weapons to eliminate any roving threats, who often telegraph their presence by speaking or emitting guttural sounds.

But for all its neck-snapping and shooting, System Shock is just as much a puzzler. Throughout the space station are 2D junction box puzzles similar to early 90’s computer games like Pipe Mania and Pipe Dream. These task players with guiding the flow of electricity across a circuit board or directing enough power to fill a gauge. Like some of System Shock’s other core components, you’ll be able to adjust the difficulty of these brainteasers at the start of the game. Although contemporary games are routinely compassionate, it would be great to see this kind of discrete breakdown of challenge settings make a widespread revival.

Mister Mutant, Let Me Solve a Puzzle in Peace

But junction boxes aren’t System Shock’s only headscratcher. Like a modern escape room, you’ll often have to scour an area to determine a way to progress. One of the game’s first gateways is protected by a keycode-locked door, requiring players to reconnoiter the area for the three-digit password. Like much of System Shock, the mechanic can feel a bit cliched as we’ve probably undergone these kinds of hunts in dozens of games. But this was one of the first times where rummaging through an environment was rendered in an intricate three-dimensional space. With this remake, the spatial puzzles have evolved, with many areas of the Citadel remodeled. Pleasingly, the wider spaces make the station feel more organic.

But here’s the thing: as good as Nightdive Studios’ remake is, there’s a persistent feeling of familiarity. For thirty years, we’ve been combing 3D areas for the contrivance required by a gate, whether it’s a key or some other type of tool. A multitude of games were inspired by the original System Shock. And there’s a good chance that you’ve played franchises like Resident Evil, Dead Space, Prey, and BioShock, which have all progressed the formula in different ways. Given that, even an adept reinterpretation of System Shock is going to feel mundane at times, as you acquire protective gear to advance through radioactive areas.

Opening Minds

Like the searches, combat isn’t all that thrilling, as you harness different ballistic and energy-powered weapons to take down threats. Sure, you can set your Sparq Beam to stun, slay, or slaughter (with each power level using an escalating amount of energy), but there’s not all that much strategy to fighting. When you have enough ammo, most of the time you’ll find yourself seeking cover while targeting enemies with firearms. And when munitions run dry, a dance involving a series of backsteps and pipe whacks will take down a subordinate mutant. Nearly three decades on, the action is serviceable but also simplistic as you persistently aim for headshots.

Those with no recollection of the original game might fault System Shock’s inventory system, especially if they’re using a controller to arrange, use, or vaporize junk into sellable scrap. But the remake balances historical authenticity while taking advantage of modernizations like translucency and higher fidelity, resulting in a user interface that doesn’t fill one-third of the screen. And here, you’ll see the foundations for the autonomy found in fights across games like Deus Ex and BioShock. There are a multitude of different melee weapons, blades, firearms, and explosive weapons, as well as boosts like stimulants, reflex aids, and healing agents.

90’s Cyberspace Resembles VR Now

Quite a few games have pitted humans against nefarious artificial intelligence networks, but System Shock’s plotline is unusually timely. The newly interactive prologue details the protagonist striking a deal with TriOptimum Corporation Vice President Edward Diego. In return for a military-grade neural interface, the hacker removes the safeguards for the Citadel AI, giving SHODAN absolute sovereignty over the station. Mirroring the lay-off of several key AI ethicists in the real world, System Shock might be one of the first modern games to offer a nuanced exploration of recklessness in the race for profits.

Instead of an omniscient storyteller doing most of the heavy lifting, we hear insights from the audiologs left by Citadel and even some environmental exposition. Interestingly, there’s no monolithic stance toward SHODAN with humans warning, indifferent, and even embracing her sentience. Not only does the plurality of perspectives feel convincing, but it cultivates curiosity as you learn about each group’s provocations.

Undoubtedly, much of the fun is when SHODAN addresses you directly, with dialog re-recording by original voice actor Terri Brosius. Communicating with taunts, laughter, and incongruously unemotional threats of violence filtered with electronic pitch shifts and other maniac distortions, her dialog is consistently disarming. But of all, SHODAN isn’t a disembodied voice but has a presence throughout the Citadel.

Conclusion

Sure, Night Dive could have comprehensively modernized System Shock with new abilities or methods to move about the space station. But they updated the elements that felt most antiquated, delivering a faithful transformation that doesn’t bastardize the original.  That might not be enough to attract new audiences, but anyone who remembers LookingGlass’ landmark title will find gratification when revisiting Citadel.

Review Overview

Gameplay - 80%
Controls - 75%
Aesthetics - 80%
Performance - 75%
Accessibility - 75%
Value - 80%

78%

GOOD

System Shock’s influence spread through the industry, leaving an indelible imprint on survival horror and first-person puzzler genres. As such, playing the remastered version of the game can evoke feelings of déjà vu. There’s still plenty of impact in your showdown against rogue AI, but the fun feels familiar, even if you somehow missed the original game.

User Rating: 3.03 ( 6 votes)

Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

3 Comments

  1. System Shock: Enhanced Edition had mouselook. You just hit, “E” on your keyboard.

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