KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Zarniwoop]

Which is the better game, this remake, or prey 2017?

Better game? Probably Prey.

Better remake? This, because 2017 Prey had nothing to do with the original.

 

[cretin]

I ended up buying this anyway. It's cool. I love the aesthetic.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I'm playing the GOG-version, so there are no achievements for me AND I DON'T CARE.

*looks up achievements*

[Score a kill using a falling monitor]

So not really missing out on much.

BTW, I'm running into a strange but harmless bug. Almost every time I kill an Exec-bot, it clones itself a new corpse, so at least two Exec-bot bodies drop. (No loot in them though.) Sometimes they're a different color.

And a rather big thought regarding the station layout: Some of the levels are in the wrong place. Why is Engineering as physically far away from the Reactor as possible? Shouldn't Reactor, Engineering and Maintenance all be located at the bottom of the station, close to each other? And where does everyone live, where's the Residential-level? Maybe they all live in pods down in Storage?

 

[SharkClub]

The only poz in this entire thing was like two backer-written audio logs made by (I assume) gay people, unless I'm mistaken. As far as modern games go that's an impressive amount of restraint on the part of the devs. Especially when the alternative was following millions of views eceleb headcanon and making SHODAN a canon tranny AI. Gonna guess that Nightdive didn't sell out for ESGbux on this one, despite development hell, particularly impressive considering they probably could have used that money.

 

[Spukrian]

Which is the better game, this remake, or prey 2017?

Prey 2017... or the original System Shock.

Was the dialogue edited to remove insensitive implications regarding the race of Diego for more suitable representation of minorities? He was originally corrupt and that means Looking Glass were racist towards half-Hispanic individuals. But then again half-white, so it doesn't count. Not dark enough.

Well, they changed the voice actor so...

 

[AndyS]

I just want to know if Diego in the remake still has the audio log in which he says "investigate my butt!"?

 

[ferratilis]

Arnold, eh? What part of Germany are your ancestors from?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I just want to know if Diego in the remake still has the audio log in which he says "investigate my butt!"?

Diego is less scheming executive and more fawning SHODAN-muppet in the remake.

Speaking of Diego: CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!

My plan was simple: Kill Diego the same way he can be killed in the original: Lots of proximity mines to greet him when he spawns in, courtesy of Doug the Eagle's suggestions.

Problem: Nightdive Studios have clearly read up on Doug the Eagle, as they're actively countering the cheese methods.

The first Diego encounter is on the Executive-level, where he's introduced via cutscene so you can't get the drop on him. You can drop proximity mines around the 'arena' to hit him when he goes skating, but it's not the same.

The second Diego-encounter is on the Flight Deck when it's time to blow the whole station up and GTFO. Edward Diego makes his entrance by exiting out of the door for the Emergency Lifepod Jettison-thingie - you know, that same structure I've been bitching about obstructing Flight Bays 2 and 3?

So... once I was told it was to blow this joint and go home, I went to the Flight Deck and did my dirty work - two proximity mines on each side of the door and one on top of the door, just in case... except the game had other ideas. I go and do everything needed to trigger Diego's appearance... except someone had beat me to the punch. Turns that there are at least four Sec-2 Robots patrolling that same area - and they DO patrol the door to the lifepods. That would explain why I found a random piece of ammo nearby when I confronted Diego.

I've made my way up to Security now, and I've come across three nice changes: The door to the elevator can be now opened on both sides, a Recycling Station has been added, and the audiolog that was clipped into the wall has been freed from its imprisonment. (It's the one that's lying on the ground when you first enter Security.)

I came across another weird bug: When you pull up the lightsaber it displays this 'uncoiling' animation. Well, somehow I got the Ion Pulse Rifle to do the same animation. Seeing a rifle come apart into little pieces, and yet hang on an invisible string, was quite something to see. The Ion Pulse Rifle is also my winner for sleekest-looking gun in the game - seeing the animations for the various settings (and then firing it on the highest setting) never gets tired for me.

Meanwhile I'm concluding that the shotgun is the weakest weapon in the game. There's a tiny window in the game where it's useful due to simply being available then, but it's quickly outpaced by other weapons.

 

[Trithne]

Engineering being far from Maintenance and Energy Systems - Eh, I've been to enough facilities that are inefficiently laid out like that IRL to not care. Plus they added a log about Citadel being 'intentionally made maze-like to induce anxiety in the staff, because that would increase productivity or something?'

I think it's mostly the elevators that don't work for me. Specifically the 1-2, R-2-3, 3-6 combination. If I was given the carte blanche to fuck with that and justify it, I'd have 1-2-6, R-3-7, 2-3-4, or something like that, and gate access to 6 and 7 by objective completion, with some SHODAN messages if you try. But it's a dungeon crawler so whatever.

Shotgun's useful in exactly 2 places - Maintenance (zero-g mutants) and groves, and even in the groves it's situationally useful. Ammo for it also feels way more scarce than everything else. It's the replacement for the flechette, but the flechette was excellent right through the game against anything fleshy.

 

[Average Manatee]

There's enough weapons in SS1 that having a few which are marginal is fine IMO. It's not like this is Doom where if the super shotgun sucked the whole game would suck, you choose what you carry and experimenting to find what works is part of the game. Having weak weapons that kind of suck against an unexpected enemy adds to the verisimilitude of the game. A shotgun should be weak against the overwhelmingly robotic/cybernetic enemies in Citadel Station.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Engineering being far from Maintenance and Energy Systems - Eh, I've been to enough facilities that are inefficiently laid out like that IRL to not care. Plus they added a log about Citadel being 'intentionally made maze-like to induce anxiety in the staff, because that would increase productivity or something?'

There's a difference between using writing to justify why circumstances are as they is at release, and then using writing to ret-con it 30 years later.

Also, the "facilities" you've been to all have the common distinction of being in the general safety of Earth - they can afford to be a little inefficient.

That's a luxury Citadel Station cannot afford.

I think it's mostly the elevators that don't work for me. Specifically the 1-2, R-2-3, 3-6 combination. If I was given the carte blanche to fuck with that and justify it, I'd have 1-2-6, R-3-7, 2-3-4, or something like that, and gate access to 6 and 7 by objective completion, with some SHODAN messages if you try.

Access to 7 is actually gated in-game - you can't use that elevator until after you've jettisoned Beta Grove.

Once at 7 you can go straight to Security, but the front door there is locked until sometime after you've blown the antennas (probably after inputting the System Authorization Code).

Another small detail I noticed: In Security I found a credit card, which meant more credits if I would go back to Executive to find an ATM. But when I did so I found that the ATMs don't work anymore; 'Connection Error' is all they say now. Then I remembered "Oh yeah, I blew up all the antennas..."

Regarding the weapons, I've been trying out the Plasma Rifle, and it's a very VERY situational weapon. It's only really effective if you fire it into a room with multiple hostiles (like the repair bay on the Security-level) because then the bouncing works in your favor.

 

[mindx2]

Another small detail I noticed: In Security I found a credit card, which meant more credits if I would go back to Executive to find an ATM. But when I did so I found that the ATMs don't work anymore; 'Connection Error' is all they say now. Then I remembered "Oh yeah, I blew up all the antennas..."

That's one of the cool things I love about these type of games. One that takes the time to actually think about the many consequences of the player's actions even if it's a small detail. This is an example of me smiling when playing and going, "That was a cool touch."

 

[Unkillable Cat]

And finished. The "surprise" waiting for the player after killing Diego is more enemies spawning in. Oh joy!

I did some prepping before going to the bridge. Scoured every level with SensaRound v3 active to spot items I had missed. I recycled everything I could get my hands on, and purchased every ammo and weapon upgrade available. Still ended up with 1100+ TriOptimum credits.

(Fun fact: If you summon the cargo lift from a high floor to a low floor, it'll count up the number of floors and then loop back around to the start. My cargo lift went to Floor 10 for a second, makes me wonder if that's the Reactor-level or someplace else.)

I went to the bridge with the lightsaber, the MagPulse, the Assault Rifle, the Skorpion SMG and the Grenade Launcher. For the MagPulse I had over 300 rounds, for the Skorpion I had over 1000 rounds. I went through half the MagPulse rounds, and didn't use the Skorpion at all.

For the last Diego-fight and the remaining two Cortex Reaver-fights I used the same tactic as before: Apply Reflex, Apply Berserk, trigger spawn, hit enemy with EMP grenade, close in with the lightsaber and cut them into pieces. They're dead before they can react. Trippin' balls afterwards is optional.

Sadly I could not outsmart the Autobomb-puzzle this time... mainly because the Autobombs now spawn so that they block all exit passages. What I did instead was just blast them. It was a frantic few seconds, but nobody told me that they don't respawn endlessly in the remake, there's just the one rush of Autobombs and that's it. Kinda disappointing, to be honest.

The final fight on the bridge can be cheesed. The goal is to flip three switches to activate a force elevator which takes you to the final chamber. But each switch triggers multiple enemy spawns around you. Fair enough, except the top of the elevator is accessible with the v3 skates - so as I flipped each switch I just fled up there and picked off all the enemies.

The final fight in cyberspace is a little more demanding with the update - but it's still a joke.

Having played the remake twice now in the span of a year, I don't really feel like replaying it ever again. I feel more inclined to replay the original and do a retrospective.

But for me the ultimate fun point of the remake are the skates - skating through Citadel Station is a blast, especially once you get good at it.

 

[Zlaja]

No achievements no buy!

RPG Codex has achievements, too. Which, in turn, give you KKK points. And what can you do with those? Shove them up your ass!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Just when I thought I was free of the remake - I get my hands on the official artbook.

Most gaming-related artbooks don't interest me, but this one does for a couple of reasons. Firstly, both the original game and the remake have the same lead artist, Robb Waters, and we get to hear his input. Secondly, we get a look at both unreleased material, as well as artwork that served trivial background purposes, at best.

It covers both the 2016 Unity demo art assets, as well as the official remake. There's also one page where all the critters from the original game get a look in, for comparison.

The clear winners (to me) are:

# The six water color artworks made for Kickstarter-backers, some of them look wicked.

# The full-page image of the 'cover' for the remake, the one with SHODAN.

# A look at the artwork from the mini-games of System Shock, including 'Battle Hogs' and 'The Maze of the Space Minotaur', nice pixel art there.

# The description for the Cyborg Warrior. It's just three words: "A chrome nightmare".

Worth a read, and a keeper for me.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I'm playing the GOG-version, so there are no achievements for me AND I DON'T CARE.

*looks up achievements*

[Score a kill using a falling monitor]

So not really missing out on much.

BTW, I'm running into a strange but harmless bug. Almost every time I kill an Exec-bot, it clones itself a new corpse, so at least two Exec-bot bodies drop. (No loot in them though.) Sometimes they're a different color.

And a rather big thought regarding the station layout: Some of the levels are in the wrong place. Why is Engineering as physically far away from the Reactor as possible? Shouldn't Reactor, Engineering and Maintenance all be located at the bottom of the station, close to each other? And where does everyone live, where's the Residential-level? Maybe they all live in pods down in Storage?

Imagine talking about exec-bots, that appear only on the EXECUTIVE AND HABITATION LEVEL, and in the same post wondering where everyone lives.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Imagine talking about exec-bots, that appear only on the EXECUTIVE AND HABITATION LEVEL, and in the same post wondering where everyone lives.

They also appear on the Engineering level (in the remake at least) and I faintly recall a few on the Flight Deck, perhaps?

 

[mindx2]

Just when I thought I was free of the remake - I get my hands on the official artbook.

Most gaming-related artbooks don't interest me, but this one does for a couple of reasons. Firstly, both the original game and the remake have the same lead artist, Robb Waters, and we get to hear his input. Secondly, we get a look at both unreleased material, as well as artwork that served trivial background purposes, at best.

It covers both the 2016 Unity demo art assets, as well as the official remake. There's also one page where all the critters from the original game get a look in, for comparison.

The clear winners (to me) are:

# The six water color artworks made for Kickstarter-backers, some of them look wicked.

# The full-page image of the 'cover' for the remake, the one with SHODAN.

# A look at the artwork from the mini-games of System Shock, including 'Battle Hogs' and 'The Maze of the Space Minotaur', nice pixel art there.

# The description for the Cyborg Warrior. It's just three words: "A chrome nightmare".

Worth a read, and a keeper for me.

Where did you get the artbook? I didn't think any physical items had been shipped out yet...

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/4106201

May 2024 Update​

Today’s the day, Hackers!

We’re delighted to announce that System Shock remake is out NOW on Xbox and PlayStation consoles! We’re deeply grateful to everyone who’s supported the System Shock remake journey from inception, to creation, to last year’s PC release, today’s console release, and beyond.

With the release of System Shock remake on consoles, we wanted to focus this update on helping address some of the questions you may have for us as you redeem your System Shock console codes and/or await the arrival of your physical copies.

So, let’s get started!

Shipping of Physical Copies​

Limited Run Games informed us that physical discs are in the process of being printed, once this process is complete shipping will commence. We estimate this will begin in a few weeks, but can’t guarantee an exact date at this time. We will update you as soon as we have additional information on when discs will begin to ship.

BackerKit Rewards​

For those of you wondering where to redeem your digital codes in BackerKit, we created a tutorial for the PC launch of System Shock that features the same method you’d use to get your key for Xbox or PlayStation. Please refer to the video link below for guidance on where to redeem your System Shock remake codes.

Where to Redeem Digital Codes: https://www.loom.com/share/a128833710a04efdb3889019fdbaeeef

If you have additional questions or need any technical support let us know in the comments, or by reaching out to our team (hello@nightdivestudios.com).

FAQ​

Questions from the community

• Will I get both the PS4 and PS5, or Xbox One and Series X|S, versions of System Shock?

Purchasing the digital PS4 or PS5 copy will entitle you to both generational copies. Likewise, purchasing the digital Xbox One or Series X|S versions will grant you access to both via Smart Delivery.

• What is the status of System Shock 2: EE?

SS2:EE is still going strong, beyond that there are no new updates that we can share at the moment.

• Is System Shock still coming to MacOS and Linux?

Unfortunately no, plans for MacOS and Linux releases of System Shock have been shelved.


That’s all for now!

Thank you for your patience and support,

- Team Nightdive Studios

 

[Ash]

Feel free to share it, but everything I said was factual. DS2 is demonstrably bad. If you can't handle that, whatever. That's on you.

Old-ish post, but most of your criticism is valid, well, aside from the lockstones. However, they are all extremely minor flaws, or even present in similar games including DS1. Branches of yore? Pretty sure you can only lock yourself out of optional content. Not a big deal. Lockstones? Nothing at all wrong with them, just a silly gamble, fun. Not everything has to reward the player, little touches like this add to the sense of oppression, sense that not everything is revolving around the player (even though it is, of course). Immersive Sims have little touches like this too, such as useless inventory items (bones, petri dishes etc in SS1). I've not experienced the movement issue you mentioned, that could be a platform-dependent issue, or sure maybe I didn't notice it but I find that unlikely given movement is always such a core mechanic. Locked in at 45 degree angle increments? That sounds wild. Movement in souls in general leaves a lot to be desired I think, don't remember DS2 being unique in this regard but I'll keep an eye out if I decide to replay. Lifegems are an issue but require some grinding to abuse, and that is a pretty common flaw for most RPGs including DS1 where you can grind soul levels and humanities. Still, lifegems are cheap and somewhat common, so it is more pronounced, and overall not free from criticism. Indeed inventory caps is how it should have been done.

Anyways, some valid critcisms, but wild conclusions of "unplayable shit". DS2 came out in the dark ages of 2014, an absolute blessing just like Souls before it, here we have a real video game not some braindead movie shit. The hate it gets is absolutely WILD to me. Look at this shit for alternate gaming options in 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_in_video_games
This is not to say the game is perfect or exempt from criticism simply because modern gaming sucks, but I mean the insane hate it gets it just absurd. I perhaps wrongly assume the haters aren't "real" gamers because again, the alternatives at the time were absolutely dire, if you hate DS2 what kind of gaming were you doing in 2014? Only old school gaming or NO gaming would truly be respectable. DS2 while not the best thing ever, delivered to a pretty good standard. I didn't grind life gems. I enjoyed all the largely good new inclusions to the formula. And this was back before the formula didn't rapidly become stale and tired too - that started with Bloodborne and DS3 for me, just added nothing of substance to the formula, even removed over DS2. But I still respect those games even though I am not much a fan, for they are actually games.

 

[Luka-boy]

• Is System Shock still coming to MacOS and Linux?

Unfortunately no, plans for MacOS and Linux releases of System Shock have been shelved.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[SomeGuyWithAnOpinion]

• Is System Shock still coming to MacOS and Linux?

Unfortunately no, plans for MacOS and Linux releases of System Shock have been shelved.

"LOL just use Proton bro", they will say.

As if giving Steam a monopoly on game compatibility is a good thing. As if giving Microsoft the ability to essentially run the show when it comes to game technology and then using software to play catch up is a good thing.

I hate that game developers are abandoning native Linux support and I'm starting to think Proton has overall been a mistake for Linux Gaming.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

"The wonders of modern technology! Making life easier for millions of people. What could possibly go wrong?"

Is SHODAN dunking on consoles here?

 

[Bad Sector]

"LOL just use Proton bro", they will say.

As if giving Steam a monopoly on game compatibility is a good thing. As if giving Microsoft the ability to essentially run the show when it comes to game technology and then using software to play catch up is a good thing.

Proton is just Wine/Wine-staging + DXVK + VKD3D + etc prebundled. I'm using wine-staging with DXVK, VKD3D, etc manually installed (+a few codecs that Valve can't legally distribute) and i can run pretty much the same games as Proton. There is no game compatibility monopoly, everything Proton has is fully open source and already available to anyone who wants to spend a few minutes setting them up (personally i even wrote a small script to create my own "prefixes" with these). Proton via Steam is just convenience.

I hate that game developers are abandoning native Linux support and I'm starting to think Proton has overall been a mistake for Linux Gaming.

Aside from a few incredibly rare exceptions, the overwhelming majority of game developers never cared much about Linux support. Many of those exceptions even farmed the ports to external companies, sometimes doing supbar ports (e.g. lesser visual fidelity). And a few years down the line making "native" Linux games to run properly becomes more of a chore with fiddling with ABI changes in the various .so files than trying to get the Windows version to run via wine-staging.

IME Proton has been nothing but positive for Linux. A good Linux native version by a developer who manages their dependencies properly can technically be a better choice, but those were always incredibly rare.