System Shock Reviews

I never played the original game, but i really love this one. The aesthetic style of this game is really great and i really liked the interactivity with the enviroment. I like the fact that it's difficult, without handholding and that it has actual Puzzles where you have to actually think. While i like the no handholding approach, i'd still loved if there was some kind of log or at least a marker for each terminal or button on the map, just like it's the case for the elevators and codepads. Or at the very least a checklist on my current objective. I lost a lot of time just running around aimless because in one sequence i had no clue to where i was supposed to go, because that one thing i was looking for wasn't marked on the map at all. This is the only game since a very long time where i actually had to look up online on what to do next. Other than that it would've been nice if the storage lift had much more space than it did. All in all it's a solid 8/10. I hope we'll get a System Shock 2 Remake too.

Marvelous. Gripping. I just finished it on 2 difficulty in every category. It was brutal at first, but I got the hang of it by mid game, and it was a bit punishing at the end. Progression feels about right. System Shock uses an interesting method of communicating goals to the player. No one will radio you with, "You need to go here and get this, then put it into that and pull the switch!" Instead, you may find an audio log explaining what the mining laser does, how it works, what it needs, and what can go wrong. The problem is, Shodan is aiming it at Earth. How do you stop that? This is one puzzle. While you search for the answer to that problem, you'll have to deal with enemies, radiation hazards, navigation, and hacking circuits. Most of the game will involve creeping through tunnels, laboratories and storage bays, as you search for ammo, clues and card keys. Graphics are excellent. Slightly pixelated, not overly taxing to your PC, but you can tell what everything is. This, to me, is exactly how graphics should be. The system shock map is still confusing to navigate. Not much has changed there. It feels like it could be a real space station. That sounds like it should be a bad thing, but, listen to me: You will get the hang of it. Medical will feel a bit overwhelming. When you get to Storage, you'll know what to look for. You know what you're doing. Guns are sufficiently shooty. They sound and feel right. It's satisfying to chunk a cyborg with a blast. Ammo was an issue at several points in the game, but halfway through, I abandoned my melee weapon. Because: I knew what I was doing. The most important challenge is how to stuff all that valuable junk into your pants. Inventory management is a key ingredient here. I usually felt excited to cook with it. Just drag and drop, vaporize it down, or haul it to the recycler for those valuable credits.. I found a single inventory upgrade on my playthrough. Added a handful of slots. You've got to choose which weapons you will take, and leave else behind in a storage crate somewhere. Pin a spot on the map so you remember. I had a feeling I'd be returning to the Flight Deck eventually, so I stashed an assault rifle and 600 rounds of ammo there. That was the right call. By the end, that ammo was spent. System Shock has a way of making you feel tense. This is intentional, but it can be misleading. Make choices and press on. You'll get the hang of it. You'll know what you're doing. Eventually, you'll know this ship like the back of your hand.

This is by far one of the best remake of classics I've ever played. Preserving the challenges of the original game, the remake puts it on steroids with the modern yet lo-fi take on retro-futuristic visuals, crafted to the excellence. Level design stays true to the original dungeon crawlers, wrapped in a slow paced shooter where you have to tread carefully. Enemy AI is rather stupid-simple, yet there's plenty of action and challenging combat, especially when played at the higher difficulties. Audio and music are masterpieces of their own. Special praise goes to environmental sound, which makes you feel the station is alive. Every corner, every obscure blipping thingamabob on the wall has some sort of ambience which contributes to the overall immersion. This, in combination with atmospheric graphics, makes me want to play the game in VR. The controversial (by many reviewers) inventory management, well... isn't controversial at all. It's an organic part of the overall challenge where you gotta make a choice how to equip yourself. Despite the space limitation, you still can easily carry 6-7 weapons of choice, plus some dermal packages and ammo. Enough to cut through another level or until you run out of ammo and then you can return to the stash and reorganise the layout. For those nagging about this - let me remind you that the original game was based on one of the oldest dungeon crawler which by design imposes the limited inventory with the emphasis on management. So yeah, this is hardcore, baby. Too tough for you? Go back to Fortnite. Finally, few words on Cyberspace. That was amazing, but could be a little more in terms of immersion. Visually stylish, its accent is mostly on the combat (and here's a word of advice - keep the cyberspace difficulty no higher than 2, unless you're a sucker for "permadeath" or chasing an achievement). But I'd love to see Cyberspace... maybe more spacious? Well oh well now the game is finished, I'm a little nostalgic but extremely content. The amount of fun I had playing it can't match even a dozen of a new games getting released in the entirety. Despite I got nothing to do with the game except being from the original's generation, I feel proud for it and for the developers. This is a true old school rebirth. I'll be waiting (hoping) for System Shock 2 remake, which was my fave in the past. Well done, guys, very well done.

Nightdive Studios managed to do the impossible and actually made an amazing remake to a classic that frankly I did not wanna play due to its age. Here you get the conveniences and QOL improvements of a modern FPS while retaining the "rat in a maze" aesthetics. The station is purposefully difficult to navigate and SHODAN messes with you constantly. I appreciate the fact that the game doesnt hold back in the way it treats you the player so all of this coupled with a very strict inventory means you'll be forced to play a bit dangerously to min max your resources and it lead to some really cool encounters. I seriously hope they do more remakes of other classic games that didnt age the best cause I'll be there to play them all considering this is the quality of work I'm getting, just *chef's kiss*.

Really excellent, an oldie upgraded to play a bit more like modern day bioshock.

10/10 single player experience, really enjoyed every moment

This is an incredible remake that is very faithful to the visuals and design of the original. I loved exploring every inch of each area, which often rewards you with early weapons and upgrades. SHODAN was a really great villain that berates you throughout the game, much like GLaDOS does in Portal. The combat was initially hard but satisfying when it clicks, and the variety of enemies were fun to kill. This game felt like a blend of Deus Ex and Bioshock! The original ending of this remake was a bit lackluster, but it was later redone and I now enjoy it a lot more. I beat the game twice, back to back, and it was a blast to 100%. I cannot wait to see what they do with the System Shock 2 remake!

Incredible atmosphere, excellent puzzle design and a great gameplay loop. There's so much love packed into this game. From the way the story unfolds right down to smaller details that flesh out the world building, it's one hell of a ride. Having never played the original I wasn't quite sure what to expect but it's clear to see Nightdive Studios have knocked this one out of the park. Absolutely fantastic from start to finish.

[b] Very great oldschool game but very harder, my only problem it's that sometimes is very complicated to get better weapons and ammo in this game, for that i'd recommend you watch deep tutorial videos about it and stay prepared yourself for this game You will just need a lot of skills, IQ/intelligence, dedication & preparation it's a style FPS quite different, it's a hardcore immersive sim Classic good game of years 90s back in a time when Doom and Quake were quite famous before Half-Life 1 come out Totally recommend.

Very accomplished remake of the 1990s game, with numerous QOL improvements. Cons: the remake is still faithful to the old game's reliance on cryptic clue-giving. Several times you have an element of the environment or level design which is easily overlooked, and which will block off entire levels of the game if you're unlucky and don't notice them. Places where I got stuck enough to refer to a walkthrough: 1. [spoiler]Putting the sample into the shield activation computer.[/spoiler] This one was on me, I had literally stood in front of the interface, but I guess I just didn't mouseover the right part of the environment. I kept playing after this. 2. [spoiler]The Cyberspace challenge in Maintenance.[/spoiler] This one was different from earlier ones because this one does NOT require all enemies to be killed, whereas earlier ones did. The game never tells you this. 3. [spoiler]In Maintenance level, there's a fairly easily-missed button on the wall that opens an elevator to two additional levels.[/spoiler] I had to refer to a walkthrough to find it. 4. [spoiler]In Flight Deck level, I met a miniboss and could not beat it normally. It turns out there is a somewhat-contrived "drugs and melee" approach that will kill it quickly.[/spoiler] I had heard hints about this and found a clue in discussion of the game. 5. Worst of all, I reached a general abstract point in the game, where about three separate channels of inquiry and exploration were all dead ends. As often happens in Zelda games and Outer Wilds, I abandoned one path to try to explore another, thinking that I would need more clues there. In SS1, this can result in you becoming very underpowered for an unintended environment and overpowered for later ones. I got stuck and confused, and attempted to complete [spoiler]Reactor and Storage[/spoiler] levels before the intended preparatory level of [spoiler]Flight Deck[/spoiler], which made for about 12 hours of very difficult "die and respawn" attrition-based progress in those two levels. When I finally got back to other levels, they were trivially easy. I finally got completely stuck trying to solve several blocked mysteries, including [spoiler]how to lower the reactor locked area, how to deactivate the mining laser beam since its area was locked off, and how to access the Executive suite level since the elevator wouldn't take me up there.[/spoiler] By this time, I was 28 hours into the game, and had already had to refer to walkthroughs about 3 or 4 times to get out of a single roadblock rut. I realized that I had sequence-broken a few parts of the game by accident, and even referring to a walkthrough was going to be a logical challenge in finding the thread itself. I eventually watched a glitch-free speed run video, and that was much more satisfying that trying to read the designers' minds about what cryptic clues they thought I should have noticed. The game's interior environment is littered with NPC corpses with guns nearby and bullet wounds to their heads. Clearly, the game narrative emphasizes how hopeless and frustrating the game world is. The designers' dedication to recreating this same hopeless frustration for the gamer is rather impressive. Along with Far Cry 1 and Baldur's Gate 1, this game is the first of a series that spawned a phenomenon. But in each case, I can confidently say if I had tried to start the series with the first game, I would absolutely have refused to play any later game in the series. This may suit folks who can dedicate very intense or sustained focus on a game's internal environment. Many clues are very lightly emphasized, and failure to notice them will literally make the game unwinnable. A technically slick modern remake of a very old "classic". But in my negative experience: I guess you just had to be there.