System Shock Remake Review – SHODAN Establishes Dominance

This game is one of those games that doesn’t need an introduction. We all know the legendary status that System Shock has as one of those games that you must play as it’s a legendary PC gaming classic. Nightdive Studios took on the gigantic task of revitalizing this IP through a remake of the first game, much like Cyan did with Myst. After a tumultuous history filled with delays and development issues, was this new version of the game worth the wait?

For those seeking the short answer, yes, it is. It’s one of the most faithful recreations of one of the games of an era long gone. The game offers everything enthusiasts loved about the first game with the additions brought by modern gaming. However, the longer answer also involves the fact that while the game faithfully brings back several of the elements that made it one of the most highly-respected action/horror games in the scene, it also fails to address several key issues that haven’t aged well over the course of the years as gaming has moved forward.

Since we don’t need to recap the premise as much, I’ll use this section to talk about how faithfully the game has been recreated. To say that System Shock was memorable is to underestimate its impact in gaming as what was then classified as a DOOM clone. The game provides high graphical fidelity with a wonderful style that seamlessly mixes old and new graphics. It feels like I am playing a game on my Compaq computer back in the 90s again.

Honestly, I am just happy with this stylized way of doing the graphics alone. While some players might be mixed at the fact that the backgrounds and environments look pixelated while everything else is rendered in 3D, I love that Nightdive knew how to retain the authenticity of the original game while updating everything else to make it look beautiful. Honestly, this might even extend to how well the game has performed for me on PC, as the game has managed to play at a steady 165 FPS on High settings with DLSS on Quality.

The way this game is done does have some slight drawbacks when it comes to its nature, though. Since this game is 3D compared to its other iterations that used sprites, you can expect models to have some wacky ragdoll physics that might take you out of the experience. This has happened to me with several enemy corpses that either become fused with staircases or drop down and give up on life after you hit them with enough bullets.

Another part that suffers a bit in the remake is the music. While I’m not against the lack of music, the few included tracks are almost non-noticeable, to the point of me wondering if the game has any soundtrack. Most of the game is spent in silence, which increases tension in some areas, but also comes at the cost of the action-like tone that was prevalent in the original iteration of the game.

So, if the presentation is great, why am I not giving this game a higher score? When I say that the System Shock Remake is a fully authentic recreation of the original game, it also means that its issues from back then are still there and have become more noticeable than ever. First off, the game has an awful problem when it comes to its objective structure. While the game expects players to act on their instincts, it certainly feels like quite the heavy ask to make players remember what was said off-handedly by a staff member in an audio log to progress.

System Shock has proven to me that I have been undoubtedly spoiled by objective markers and other cool things added to gaming since the 90s. But my major problem is less that and more so the fact that Nightdive has offered players the option to enable things such as auto-reload to counter some of these issues, which begs the question of why they couldn’t address the progression issue more consistently.

Of course, this also means that you will be bound to make mistakes a lot of times since you can drop key items, meaning that the random item you dropped a few hours ago to save space in your inventory could suddenly take relevance near the end of the game. Now you’re forced to backtrack and figure out where the hell you dropped said item since it won’t respawn on the place you found them but rather wherever you dropped it.

This issue also extends to the enemy design. Don’t get me wrong; the enemies aren’t exactly bright. Once they spot you, they will make a beeline toward you, shooting directly at you (which can kill their own allies if they happen to stand in the way, funnily enough). The problem is that System Shock addresses this issue by playing the numbers game, meaning that you’re more than likely to encounter a myriad of enemies that will tear you to shreds the moment you find yourself facing three or more enemies.

I get the point; it’s to make players take a stealthier approach to things instead of just rushing in guns blazing. But I feel like, in execution, it still needs a little bit more polish, considering that because of the issue I pointed out earlier, it’s more than likely that players are trying to backtrack to find the necessary items to solve a puzzle or move forward. As such, my suggestion is to save a lot because save-scumming is going to be the name of the game for you.

I could say more about my feelings regarding the outdated mechanics of the System Shock remake that hold it back nowadays, but I’d rather spend that time giving credit to Nightdive Studios for successfully bringing back the best (and worst) of the 90s era of gaming. This is one of the highlight titles before the turn of the millennium, and Nightdive has somehow managed to make it just as good as the original game was.

I hope the experience translates well to non-RTX users, as I believe this game is worth experiencing. Given that the game offers different difficulty settings that allow you to tailor your experience, you will be able to have a more enjoyable time tailoring your experience inside the Citadel to your preferences as a gamer. I played the game on 3-2-2-3 difficulty and cleared it as such. But I would recommend 1-1-1-2 to any newcomers to this series, as it can offer some decent puzzles while letting players calmly address the enemy variety and the overall threat SHODAN is.

Overall, this is a solid remake that should lay the foundations for what modern gaming should bring to the future. While it does have its rough edges, it’s still a more than enjoyable experience all around that, while frustrating due to its design, can still offer a few hours of entertainment as an action game with cyber-horror elements.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

System Shock (2023)

The System Shock remake offers a lot of great graphical enhancements and beautiful stylistic choices that make for an overall enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, it’s dragged back by several aspects that haven’t aged well over the years and have become more accentuated after the advancements that gaming has made in all these years.