SYSTEM SHOCK

A great but conservative remake.

$49.95 | PC | systemshock.com

SHODAN is the malevolent AI goddess who was the centrepiece and proudest creation of 1994’s System Shock, now rebuilt in sparkling Unreal Engine 4 in this remake from Nightdive Studios. It suits her. Gone are the sprite-based enemies and screen-eating UI from the original game, replaced by clanking, three-dimensional automatons and an inventory that is certainly easier to use than the original’s rolling shopping list of weapons, explosives, and stimulants.

Both System Shock and SHODAN are legendary; they’re iconic symbols of an era and philosophy in game design, and remaking them must have been a daunting task for Nightdive. How do you change-up the game that first used the 451 code, the one that every immersive sim still uses to mark itself as part of the tribe to this day, without being accused of sacrilege and blasphemy?

The answer, to the remake’s benefit and detriment, is ‘faithfully’. Nightdive’s System Shock is still very much that game from 1994. It’s a project that aims to upgrade, beautify, and smooth down some rough edges. There are a few new additions, but this is no sweeping overhaul, and it leaves most of the best and worst of the original game intact.

System Shock’s setup is classic cyberpunk fare, as easy-to-grasp today as it was 29 years ago. You’re a hacker, a future ne’er-do-well who gets caught trying to sneak their way into the servers of the TriOptimum Corporation.

The remake’s devotion to the original becomes immediately apparent. It’s still the Citadel Station I remember, but where before those hallways were bright, wobbly, and flat, now they have a fully-realised physicality, all dark and brooding, made of materials that clang or thud or ding as stray shots glance off them.

This is the definitive way to play System Shock in 2023 and beyond. But I can’t help but wonder what it would have looked like if Nightdive had the budget and the goodwill to take a few more risks and make a few more changes.

"It’s a project that aims to upgrade, beautify, and smooth down some rough edges."

Nightdive’s efforts is a smart, faithful remake and easily the definitive way to play System Shock today.

Joshua Wolens

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