A System Shock remake will be released this March. This game, a remake of the original System Shock, was not released for a long time despite fans’ long aspirations. When the game was sponsored by Kickstarter for the first time in 2016, development was suspended because it could not find a publisher for the game. Afterwards, the game engine was changed and development resumed, but the schedule was continuously delayed due to the corona crisis. Such a System Shock remake is finally ahead of its official release this March.
Currently, developer Night Dive Studios is conducting beta testing for Kickstarter backers. If you are even doing beta testing with a scheduled release in March, I’m really looking forward to it being released this time. Let’s find out in detail what kind of game the remake of the masterpiece that came back beyond the past is.
Charming story and core villain ‘Shodan’
The stage for the System Shock remake is the Citadel, a multi-purpose satellite space station built by the company Trioptimum. The protagonist is a Citadel hacker who is captured by the Trioptimum while attempting to steal a military-grade neural implant. The executive of the company that caught the protagonist orders him to hack the high-level artificial intelligence ‘Shodan’, which oversees the Citadel, and unlock the ethics code. The main character succeeds in hacking, receives a military-grade nerve implant as a reward, and goes into frozen sleep. And when he woke up after six months, the Citadel was being destroyed by Shodan, who had gone insane.
Shodan is a villain who leaves a strong impression on players with his strong charisma and psychopathic behavior. Even in the original work, AI Shodan aroused fear with its disparate voice and appearance, but in the remake, it returned with a more sophisticated voice and appearance. In the System Shock remake, Shodan’s voice is clearer than before due to the advancement of technology, but with the addition of stronger mechanical sounds, it sounds even more deformed. Its appearance has also become clearer, and now it becomes a bluish-green electronic creature and watches over the player.
Shodan has an arrogant disposition that regards himself as a god and treats humans as bugs. In addition, he is the one who converted all humans in the space station into androids and cyborgs, and when the main character dies, he is also converted into a cyborg, and the phrase ‘As a cyborg, you will serve Shodan well’ comes out. Shodan constantly mocks and harasses the main character, so the player gets angry and helps them immerse themselves in the game.
The player’s ultimate goal is to roam the area and thwart all of Shodan’s plans to attack humans, then eliminate Shodan and escape from the Citadel.
Retro-future, cyberpunk style graphics
The strength of the System Shock remake is its unique graphics and design. The appearance of the original Citadel space station was well received by fans who liked the sci-fi atmosphere. The system shock remake has evolved to bring out a more advanced retro future and cyberpunk atmosphere by fusing the dot graphics of the past system shock with the realistic graphics of the current generation. The details of the design of props such as sound devices, cards, main character’s clothes, and weapons that appear in the game are excellent, and they blend well with the background of the game to help players immerse themselves in the game.
The background design is also attractive. In the beta test version, I was able to play ‘Medical Bay’, an area at the beginning of the game. As if reflecting the fact that the space station in the background has been occupied by AI Shodan, it is dark without light, and the light from the walls and electronic devices gives a strong futuristic feel.
Game progression and item farming system
System Shock Remake is a game in the ‘immersive sim’ genre. Due to the nature of the genre, it has elements of an adventure game because it helps the player infer the goal rather than giving a clear goal. For those unfamiliar with the genre, the game seems to have a mission difficulty adjustment feature that gives more hints at lower difficulties. The main way to progress in the game is to kill enemies and roam the area to collect various items and key items needed for quests.
Items include japtem, consumables, and weapons, and the inventory has a size limit and can only hold a limited amount of items, so you must boldly discard and farm items you don’t need. In the case of japtem, it can be evaporated to make ‘scrap’, and the scrap can be converted into coins in the recycling box. Coins can be used to buy patches from vending machines.
Consumables include patches, food and a first aid kit. The patch is a buff item that is attached to the wrist and lasts for a short time. In the test, Medi, Stamina Up, and Berserk patches appeared. Medi patch replenishes stamina slowly, stamina up patch increases total stamina, and Berserk increases attack damage, but stamina and berserk placements seem to have minor side effects. First aid kits and food are both items that replenish stamina.
The game also features puzzles and hacks. Hacking is unique in that it enters the cyber space within the game and proceeds as a kind of shooting mini-game. You have to reach the target point while avoiding or destroying enemy aircraft and obstacles in the way. If the time is too long, Shodan’s attack can damage you. Puzzles usually appear when repairing power lines or opening locked doors. Difficulty can be adjusted at the beginning of the game for puzzles and hacks.
Simple and difficult combat system
Combat is fairly simple, just swinging a melee weapon or firing a ranged weapon. However, the system is simple and the battle difficulty is high. Enemies are fast and strong, and multiple enemies appear in a confined space, so you must deal with them quickly and efficiently. Weapons largely consist of melee weapons, ranged firearms, and grenades.
A typical melee weapon is a lead pipe, and wielding it is a melee attack. The attack method consists of a light attack and a strong attack, and no resources are consumed when attacking. However, since enemies hit by melee weapons have little staggering effect, they can be hit by enemies at close range, so considerable manipulation is required.
In the case of ranged weapons, they can be divided into two types: weapons that use energy levels and weapons that use bullets. In the beta version, spark beams that consume energy, pistols that consume ammunition, and mag pulses appeared. Ranged weapons have the advantage of being able to safely attack enemies from a long distance, but because the way to obtain ammunition is limited, you must minimize waste and deal with enemies efficiently.
Lastly, in the case of grenades, gas or burst grenades appear, and it seems that they can cause great damage when used against enemies. The downside is that the number that can be farmed seems to be very small, and it is understood that it can damage the player as well.
The main enemies that appear are mutants and robots. In the case of mutations, cyborgs with parts or the entire body replaced by machines appear from the weakest mutant, and the more the body is replaced, the stronger it is. All of them look bizarre, and when they see the main character, they immediately run and attack. In the case of robots, cylindrical robots and spider robots appeared, and it was confirmed that there were special attack methods such as spinning arms or shooting electricity.
It looks like a good game, but there are some concerns
System Shock Remake boasts considerable build quality as it has gone through a long development period. However, there are some areas of concern. The problem of inconvenient objects that can be interacted with in the game are not clearly displayed and the problem of frequent bugs are being discussed, and there are also voices of concern over whether the game will be released within March.
System Shock Remake is scheduled to be released on PC and Xbox One in March, and the detailed schedule will be released later.
