In 2015, Nightdive Studios released their acclaimed Enhanced Edition port of 1994’s System Shock. Shortly afterward, they announced their intention to go a step further and produce a full remake—because making the original more readily available on modern systems is hardly the same as making it accessible to a broader audience. Its sci-fi story, concerning rogue AI SHODAN’s bloody mutiny aboard a space station, remains buried under a layer of obtuse controls and interactions that discourage players who may be drawn to similar yet more approachable games like System Shock’s sequel or spiritual successors like BioShock or Prey.
That the System Shock remake retains a sense of individuality is a testament to the careful work of Nightdive Studios, whose developers clearly set out to modernize the original but without homogenizing it. The elevator-connected levels of Citadel Station may now be navigated through a more standard first-person control scheme with a grid-based inventory to manage, but the maps are still a veritable maze. They feel every inch like classic shooter labyrinths, retaining a flat and blocky quality with its narrow corridors and right angles, and rendered in garish colors that recall an older era of Neuromancer-esque cyberpunk rather than the muted tones of more contemporary sci-fi. Get close enough to the textures and they even appear pixelated.
There are plenty of rewiring puzzles and collectible audio logs in System Shock, but the first order of business is to blast whatever might appear in front of you. In hallways choked by mutants, rogue robots, and cyborg hybrids of the two, there simply isn’t much room to indulge in the stealth and systemic interaction associated with System Shock’s descendants.
But for as prevalent as the combat is, it never quite gels. The malevolent SHODAN’s minions are often stiff, shrugging off punishment to a point that’s unclear if your weapons are doing much good until an enemy drops dead or otherwise bursts in a shower of gore. The digital enemies of the cyberspace “hacking” segments are particularly bad, which compounds the frustration of how dying during those overlong sequences forces you to start them over from scratch.
System Shock makes a good first impression, only for frustration to become its default mode once more and more of the station opens up to you. The maze-like level design requires the sort of backtracking that’s reminiscent of the Metroid games—that is, if Metroid was particularly stingy about opening up shortcuts and did a poor job of signposting where to go next.
The lack of player direction in System Shock will test even the most vocal detractors of modern games’ handholding. All of your objectives are left unmarked and largely uncommented on aside from what you can glean from certain audio logs, which can only be referenced by picking through a list of the many, many other logs that are meant just for flavor.
The map screen is no better, with tiny icons and minimal labeling that only further complicate the process of remembering where you’ve been. As a whole, this System Shock lacks for useful navigation tools that could have allowed it to better thread the needle between aimless wandering and over-explanation. Even when you know where you need to go, you’re left to fumble around in blind hope of eventually running into an objective or a medical bay.
On some level, the “flaws” of the game’s design are meant to feed an oppressive atmosphere. After all, you’re navigating a station that now belongs to SHODAN, who addresses you only as “Insect” in between her megalomaniacal ravings. But even with such a strong villain and so many chilling audio logs, the game rarely bubbles over with tension and dread, more often engendering bafflement through either its obtuse level design or the items and mechanics that are offered without coherent explanation. However commendable Nightdive’s efforts to preserve the spirit of the original may be, it doesn’t take much frustrated wandering before questioning whether their modernization efforts have gone far enough.
This game was reviewed with code provided by UberStrategist.
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You know you can add your own map markers right?
For what it’s worth, one of the four (!!) difficulty modular settings does turn on way-markers/objectives on the lower settings.
I can’t believe it’s been decades and more games still don’t have individual difficulty sliders for combat, puzzles, game difficulty, etc. … The only other one I can think of are the classic PS2-era Silent Hills (Combat and Puzzle difficulty; crank the latter to max and bust out your high school Shakespeare collection to beat the game).
The first paragraph is complaining about there being mazes? It is a throwback, don’t you remember how fun old school Doom mazes were? There are supposed to be mazes here. You have to use your head instead of it being a hat rack. I think you’ve been coddled by too many modern linear shooters, so when you get something that actually requires you to think, you get frustrated.
Just put System Shock away for now until you’re ready to appreciate it. I’m sure the next big-budget AAA game will have all the hand-holding you require. I on the other hand, can’t wait to immerse myself in these labyrinths. Maybe I should have been the one writing this review, that is, if this site actually pays.
He does make some valid criticisms, and the game is far from perfect. Combat is cheap. I just switched the game off because of how poorly designed the AI combatants are. Enemies can see you through walls, can shoot you through walls, and can shoot you while facing away from you. It’s fucking terrible. There’s also a lack of subtle details that would’ve really improved the game overall. I think, at best, SSR is a 7/10.
AHHHH THE REMAKE IS AN ACTUAL REMAKE AND DOESN’T MAKE IT A CAKE-WALK SOMEONE HELP MEEEE!!!!
Actually you’re right. I like it’s atmosphere a lot, but after a while it becomes draining to wander around scratching your head in an unnecessarily nonsensically contrived samey cubic maze with a map that is also designed to be of as little help as possible. I hope they add automatic map markers and goal logs and markers.
game journalists writing a negative review when the old game remake is too difficult for them to wrap their head around:
This review has major “ok zoomer” vibes.
Everything you dislike about this game are the things that make it interesting, memorable, and challenging. Go play the utterly dumbed down and pretentious BioShock if that’s the kind of game you’re into, this wasn’t made for you.
In what way is BioShock dumbed down?
sounds like your just bad at the game
I mean, yes, it’s definitely difficult and confusing, in all the way old games were. I was dying quite a bit until I remembered I had lean left and right with the Q and E keys for a reason. You aren’t a tank. You can’t take cover and wipe the blood off your face. You have to be careful because every hit you take is one step closer to death. Save scumming is absolutely a viable tactic here. I hated it, until I remembered how I played games back on my 286 with a EGA graphics card….now I love it. Took a minute to get back into that “mode”. If you don’t have that history under your belt this might be a bit overwhelming and obtuse for someone who’s only played newer games that hold your hand a LOT more. Reading the manual used to be MANDATORY, not something that wasn’t even included any longer….and there were no walkthroughs to go online to look up, because there was no online. You might get lucky and find a fellow gamer with some tips on the local BBS, at best….
You know its funny how when a slightly critical review is posted the majority of comments are from people saying “youre just bad at the game,” “you need hand holding,” etc. I played System Shock when it first came out and adored it, but then there wasn’t much else to compare it with. I’ve played the original since and it felt very dated but I thought that was because of the aesthetics of the game. But it’s not. Things have moved on and classic though it might be, it now feels, in the remake version, very repepetitive and after playing for quite a while, a little dull in places. The obtuseness is irritating rather than fun. And elements of it have been made ridiculously hard to the point of tedium (cyberspace being the best example); it simply wasn’t this hard in the original, just like the original provided (I think) more ammo and less lethal enemies. It feels like Nightdive took the position (much like many of the reviewers here) that “modern gamers don’t know what a hard game is…we’ll show them”. Save scumming deals with a lot of this, but cyberspace is just ridiculous, and requires a complete rerun, with all progress lost each time you die. Its not just hard; its really really boring. And before anyone says it, by the time this becomes obvious you are well into the game….and for reasons best know to Nightdive (see point above about making players suffer) its been designed so that the only time you can turn down difficulty levels is…at the start of the game, not during. Idiotic design. So, sadly, I’m losing interest. Its a 30 year old game that has been updated but not really in a good way and the game balance now just feels off. Games are meant to be fun after all, not just a slog…..
Comments like this and the review on this page is what are exactly described as opinionated statements derived from personal bias and preference, totally ignoring objectivity. Good riddance you found a game too hard, and all of a sudden, everything about the game is bad. Seen too many of these useless comments being labeled as a “review.”
You may like or hate the game, that is all you. But stop judging games purely based on your biased preference. Game was designed to be as faithful to the classic. In that aspect, the game succeeds. It runs beautifully, had very little, if any, technical issues, graphics look great, and sound is well done. As a “remake” that tries to stay faithful to the original, it does succeed.
Don’t like it? Just say the game isn’t all for you, and that is the end of it…. as a purely biased opinion.
And yes, people commenting about whiners crying about game being hard…? They have a valid point. I fully agree with them.
“I’m bad at the game so the game must be bad” the review.