Immersive sims are a dying breed. For a while, games like that were the hottest thing ever, but after a while, trends changed, and players moved on. Dishonored was lauded by critics and neglected by gamers — twice. Prey was an amazing experience but commercially, it was a letdown. It’s a depressing reality, so… let’s go back.
The year is 1994, and the industry is still in its infancy — well, relatively. 3D games are still a new and uncharted idea, and most studios try desperately to jump on the bandwagon. Games were uncomplicated. Sometimes — oftentimes — their design was simplistic, making them feel ancient mere years later. System Shock was not like that. It was a revelation: incredibly complex and immensely ambitious, it put players in the middle of a mystery. It created a whole new world of space zombies, puzzles and numerous rooms. It was immersive and it was immense — and without it, the world would never know BioShock, Deus Ex or Prey.
Cut to 2023, and the legendary game is back. Remasters and remakes are very “in” and like everybody else, I was excited to play the granddaddy of all the games I loved so much. But since the remake was for PC only, I had to wait. So I did. And now the wait is over. So, was it worth it?
Before you say “I heard all I needed to hear,” wait. Chances are, you forgot just what the old games were like. Even more likely, you never played titles as old as this. Don’t let the new coat of paint fool you: it’s still that old game with all the issues you might expect. Badly formulated quests that make little sense, puzzles that make you want to pull your hair out and game design that reminds you of a maze… they don’t make them like that anymore — and maybe that’s a good thing. System Shock is very unapologetic about what it is, and that’s fine. But if you expected tons of QoL improvements, be prepared for disappointment.
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So, anyway, you’re a hacker — because in the 90s, everyone was one. But this time you went too far. Finding yourself on a space station by the name of The Citadel, you try your damnest to find a way out and discover what went wrong. Because something definitely did. Everybody machine to kill you and every person seems to be dead already. Seems like AI has gone bonkers (how topical) and now wants to do something real nasty. Guess who has to stop it?
Sure, the story is not very original, but there’s a lot there. You find more information about the station via audio logs — still quite a popular narrative design. But even with all the logs, it’s still hard to understand what to do and where to go. It can be infuriating, making you feel like you’re making no progress at all. There are no waypoints, no convenience of any kind. You are as lost as your character. Some will find that endearing. Many will not survive long.
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Thankfully, there are some options to make your journey more enjoyable. You can modify the difficulty settings however you want but make sure to do that before you start playing because you can’t change anything afterwards. Which is a bummer, to say the least. As someone who got used to playing on standard, I felt incredibly frustrated that I couldn’t change some of the settings — like, turn on waypoints or make the puzzles easier.
Among the other new additions is the ability to change the character’s gender and some of the more important changes, but the less you know about them, the better.
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Verdict
There’s no denying that System Shock is an important game. It’s a game that needs to be preserved and accessible on every major platform. The developer Nightdive Studios knows exactly how to remake these games, and, for better or for worse, the release is extremely true to the original.