The System Shock remake will be released this March. This game, which is a remake of the original System Shock, was not released for a long time despite the long wishes of the fans. When the game was first sponsored by Kickstarter in 2016, development was halted because it could not find a publisher for the game. After that, the game engine was changed and development resumed, but the schedule was continuously delayed due to the corona crisis. There are previous such remakes of System Shock before its official release in March.
Developer Night Dive Studios is currently beta testing for Kickstarter backers. If you’re even doing beta testing with a release scheduled for March, I’m really looking forward to the release this time. Let’s find out in detail what kind of game is the remake of the masterpiece that came back beyond the past.
Charming story and key villain of ‘Shodan’
The platform for the remake of System Shock is the Citadel, a multi-purpose satellite space station built by the company Trioptimum. The main character is a Citadel hacker who is captured by the Trioptimum while trying to steal a military grade neural implant. The executive of the company that captured the protagonist orders him to hack the high-level artificial intelligence ‘Shodan’, which oversees the Citadel, and unlock the code of ethics. The main character succeeds in hacking, receives a military-grade nerve implant as a reward, and goes into a frozen sleep. And when he woke up after six months, the Citadel was being destroyed by Shodan, who had gone mad.
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 caused fear with his different voice and appearance, but in the remake, he 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 distorted. His appearance has also become clearer, and now he becomes a bluish-green electronic creature and watches over the player.
Shodan has an arrogant disposition who considers himself a god and treats humans like bugs. In addition, he is the one who transformed all the humans in the space station into androids and cyborgs, and when the main character dies, he is also transformed into a cyborg, and the phrase ‘As a cyborg, you will serve Shodan well’ out. Shodan constantly mocks and harasses the main character, so the player gets angry and helps him immerse himself in the game.
The player’s ultimate goal is to roam the area and thwart all of Shodan’s plans to attack people, then eliminate Shodan and escape the Citadel.
Retro-futuristic graphics, cyberpunk style
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 blending the system shock dot graphics of the past with the realistic graphics of the current generation. The design details of props such as sound devices, cards, the main character’s clothes, and weapons that appear in the game are excellent, and they blend well with the game’s background 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 start of the game. As if to reflect the fact that AI Shodan has taken over the space station in the background, 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 to find the goal rather than giving a clear goal. For those unfamiliar with the genre, the game appears 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.
The items include japtem, consumables, and weapons, and the inventory has a size limit and can only hold a limited number of items, so you have to discard and farm unneeded items on you boldly. In the case of japtem, it can be vaporized 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 nappies, food and a first aid kit. The patch is a beige item that is attached to the wrist and lasts for a short time. In the test, the September, Stamina Up, and Berserk patches appeared. September patch slowly replenishes stamina, stamina up patch increases total stamina, and Berserk increases attack damage, but both stamina and berserk settings seem to have minor side effects. First aid kits and food are both items that replenish stamina.
The game also includes puzzles and hacks. Hacking is unique in that it enters cyberspace within the game and proceeds as a sort of mini-shooting game. You have to reach the target point while avoiding or destroying the enemy planes and obstacles in the way. If the time is too long, the Shodan attack can damage you. Puzzles usually appear when repairing power lines or opening locked doors. Difficulty can be adjusted at the start of the game for puzzles and hacks.
Simple and difficult combat system
Combat is fairly simple, just swing a melee weapon or fire a ranged weapon. However, the system is simple and the difficulty of the battle is high. Enemies are fast and strong, and multiple enemies appear in a confined space, so you have to deal with them quickly and efficiently. Weapons mainly include melee weapons, various shotguns, and grenades.
A typical melee weapon is a lead pipe, and wielding it is a melee attack. The attack method includes a light attack and a strong attack, and no resources are used when attacking. However, since enemies hit by melee weapons don’t have much of a stun effect, they can be hit by close enemies, so a fair amount of handling 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 use energy, pistols that use bullets, 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 get ammunition is limited, you must minimize waste and deal with enemies efficiently.
Finally, 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 very small, and it is understood that it can also harm the player.
The main enemies that appear are mutants and robots. In the case of mutations, cyborgs with parts or the whole body replaced by machines appear from the weakest mutant, and the more the body is replaced, the stronger it is. All of them look strange, and when they see the main character, they run and attack immediately. 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 has significant 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 is discussed, and voices also raise concerns about 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 at a later date.
