"They did not create a program. They have summoned a god." - SHODAN
System Shock Remake is a bit of a first for me because it's the first remake that I play without having played the original before, or at least a very similar sequel. I had played SS2 but there is obviously a major difference between the first and the second System Shock game. And the reason I have not played it is because I was... scared of commiting to the original. I'm not one to shy away from older games, and I tend to think that age doesn't compromise gameplay mechanics. Yet System Shock always looked like a daring prospect. I still might one day play it. One day...
But here comes the remake. It looks amazing and got great reception, so I decided that it was time. And what I saw was pure glory.
Let me put this way: this is an almost 1:1 remake. And while playing it I kept thinking how absurd is that a 1994 game was already doing some of the things that I was expericiecing. I wasn't playing a 1994 game, except that I was. The level design, the mechanics, the story, the writing... they were all spetacular. I could see limitations of course, but the accomplishments of System Shock were staggering. One example, I once created a thread saying why I think Control's levitate might be the very best powers of its kind. Imagine my surprise when I realized the Jump Jet in System Shock is mechanically speaking the exact same thing! I don't know how much the controls were tweaked in the remake but assuming they worked the same way in the original, it's an identical ability to Control's levitate. You could say both of them are just generic jetpacks, but the point is how they are mixed with the controls and how effortless they are integrated to the normal gameplay.
A remake such as System Shock allows you to see all the greatness of the original through a new lens. A shinier, more powerful lens, for sure. Yet the object that you're seeing remains the same. I still have not played the original, yet I feel now I can understand just how incredible it was.
Of course, you can say that this effect only exists, or it's only really significant, because we're talking about a remake that came out almost 30 years after the original (1994 was 29 years ago, let that sink if for a moment) and there is truth to that assessment. Yet the objective time difference is less important than the subjective view of that difference. For me, System Shock was a game that felt to far away from what I was confortable with to try. For others it wasn't. And for others much more recent games might offer a similar barrier, which is to say you don't need to wait 30 years for a remake to be worth to people.
Video games are unique medium and technology affects it more than any other. Allowing the... soul of older games to resurface is very important as I see it. There are other ways to make that happen of course. I hope the upcoming Tomb Raider remaster achieve a similar result to many people.
And I couldn't finish this thread without saying the obvious: Nightdive should give System Shock 2 the same treatment! Shodan *demands* it.
Last edited:
