I creep bare-handed through the dim corridors of Citadel Station. Deadly danger can lurk around every corner. I’d light up, but I’m running out of energy. My inventory is overflowing with items, but am desperately short on ammo. If only I could recharge the juice in my energy weapon. Seemingly still spaces showing unmistakable signs of previous combat can at any moment be filled with dangerous enemies who are currently hiding in the shadows. I proceed cautiously when the warning signal of the camera that captures my every move cuts through the silent halls. I can’t get rid of her at this point, but eventually I’ll have to come back here and end her digital existence. They are the ever-watchful eyes of the SHODAN artificial intelligence, relentlessly searching for my littleness and watching me every step of the way. I love and hate her at the same time.
The original System Shock from Looking Glass Studios was released in 1994, almost three decades ago. The cyberpunk hacker story set in 2072 helped set some of the ground rules of the immersive sim genre, and it’s still rightfully considered a legend, a classic, or a cult, if you will. Thanks to a full-on remake from the Nightdive Studios team, veterans can reminisce and newcomers find out why that is, and that this statement still holds true.
I have to admit that I was quite skeptical about the new version. Paradoxically, it was only recently that I got my hands on it. Like many others, I greeted the announcement of the remake in 2015 with enthusiasm. The authors announced their ambitious plan to the public shortly after the release of a slightly improved version of System Shock: Enhanced Edition. It is important to emphasize that it was supposed to be the most demanding and biggest project for remaster experts so far. Over the next few years, however, my nervousness gradually grew. The game was constantly delayed, replaced Unity technology with Unreal Engine, honored us with several demo versions, its vision changed and the authors even suspended development for a while. In places, it felt like Nightdive took too big a bite and this task is getting a bit over their head. As if they didn’t know what to do. It was difficult to stay optimistic. In the end, however, the remake turned out to be an even more pleasant surprise.
Since a few weeks have already passed since the release of the remake, I will not surprise you by stating that despite all the hardships and stumbles, the new version succeeded. Returning to System Shock left a deep impression on me. So deep that I finally decided to give the game a little reflection instead of a classic review. No doubt under normal circumstances I could talk about how the game has changed. We could ponder for a long time whether the modernized graphics with deliberate pixelation of textures is not an unnecessary step backwards and archaism for the game, which otherwise certainly does not have to be ashamed of its technical processing. Although, on the other hand, one could rightly complain about the strange reactions of enemies to hits, artificial intelligence – which is quite a paradox – or wild ragdoll effects that often accompany not only dying, but also bodies that have long been resting on the ground. But in the end, I thought that all the minor negatives drown out the fact how faithful the modern remake the authors have created, how they managed not to betray the original and how the original game has stood the test of time.
Modern immersive sims lead the player by the hand and readily forgive him for his inattention and lack of wit.
What fascinated me the most while playing was how modern and fresh an almost 30-year-old game feels. And it wasn’t because of how he looks. But thanks to its gameplay. Despite the fact that, due to the influence of System Shock, over time we have seen successful spiritual successors such as Deus Ex, BioShock, Dishonored, Prey or Deathloop, it seems to me that the original has remained unsurpassed in many ways and has a completely unique and still fresh concept and atmosphere. Although its authors had to limit themselves due to the technologies of the time. The question is what this says about modern games in general. But even the named successors, next to the purist System Shock, seem to be kind titles that lead the player by the hand and willingly forgive him for his inattention and lack of wit. System Shock is great precisely because it remains unforgiving. Of course, I can’t say for sure how I would look at a game like this if it were completely new, but now somehow I subconsciously feel that I miss the greater difficulty of new games. And by that I don’t mean the difficulty of the fights, but rather the effort to make the player not rely on tasks, navigation or a point on the map and be able to cope on his own.
System Shock has elements of adventure and metroidvania in addition to action and RPG. The developers force the player to really think and solve individual puzzles using various items and inventory. Often you have to find an answer to a question that has not even been asked, so to speak. It only depends on your attention and ability to fill in the blanks on the map. And so you travel like a madman between individual floors, unlocking different departments gradually with the help of various tools and repeatedly returning to already visited places in an attempt to solve the next puzzle. And it’s fun at the same time. System Shock teaches you not to mindlessly press every button you come across because it might be the last button you press in your life. It forces you to really listen and read what’s hidden in the journals because otherwise you’ll miss a key clue. On the other hand, it will turn you into a paranoid person who will “see” some kind of clue almost at every step. Because once you realize that your attention must never let up, you start to tend to look for connections even where there are none. That number on the wall can’t be a coincidence. I will now try to write it in all the terminals in the entire station and if it doesn’t help, I will try again but backwards.
For a new game with a similar approach, the title would probably fail in the mainstream field, and it makes me wonder, what is it? Have we gone stupid as gamers? Have we been lazy?
You could argue that a similar effect can be achieved in some newer games by tweaking the settings, but while I’m not usually a fan of obstacles in games, in this particular case I feel like the immersive sim genre can really shine and develop its true potential in a situation where nothing makes things easier for the user. Fortunately, the creators of the remake resisted the temptation to make these things easy for newcomers. For a new game with a similar approach, the title would probably fail in the mainstream field, and it makes me wonder, what is it? Have we gone stupid as gamers? Have we been lazy? Perhaps it is also related to the fact that our will to overcome obstacles was once higher than today, and part of the magic was in this discovery of what the game actually wants from us. System Shock is certainly not the only game that comes to mind. Complex space simulators are still being released today. Thanks to new technologies, they can be not only incomparably more beautiful, but also more realistic and sophisticated than before. But it will probably not be a title for everyone in most cases. That’s also why I know that as a fan, I’ll never get to see elaborate space battles like 2000’s Star Trek: Klingon Academy.
System Shock has an oppressive atmosphere that weighs on the player all the more the more hopeless his situation seems. When one finds a corpse with a discarded diary charting its last moments among the living, it reminds you of how omnipresent death is. The narrative is supported by beautiful architecture, where the original aesthetics of the nineties and modern retrofuturism are mixed. After all, even visually striking trips into cyberspace are reminiscent of contemporary ideas about virtual reality. Here, you feel the right tension everywhere, and your exploratory instincts as a player are once again brought to the fore. A remake of System Shock wouldn’t be able to resist trying to modernize the gameplay and make it accessible to everyone, but that clearly wasn’t even its ambition. On the other hand, he was able to convince me that even today we deserve to see similarly complex games published more often. For me personally, this project represents the huge promise and redemption of Nightdive. The only thing I can blame the developers for, apart from some small things, is that even after eight years and many delays, they have not been able to release the game on all platforms at the same time, which makes the audience of potential customers even smaller. But you should find your way to this project if you feel drawn to it.
2023-07-05 06:33:52
#System #Shock #great #stayed #relentless #Vortex
