System Shock is one of the most important games ever released. It put the immersive sim genre on the map, and without it, we’d likely never have had many of today’s all-timers, like Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Portal, Dead Space, Dishonored, and Prey.
Any studio tackling a remake of such an influential game would be in for one hell of a task, let alone one like Nightdive. Mostly known for its remasters, System Shock marks its debut as a ground-up developer. With it, has delivered a remake that manages to revitalise an old classic for modern audiences without losing what made the original such an illustrious game.
Set on Citadel Station orbiting Saturn in the year 2072, System Shock puts you in the unlucky role of a hacker whose task is to stop a rogue AI, the legendary Shodan. By travelling through the ship and fighting off the hordes of cyborgs, robots, and mutants Shodan has created, it’s up to you to not just escape Citadel Station, but save all of humanity from this threat.
We’ve already had lots of faithful horror remakes this year, thanks to Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid Prime. However, System Shock is most impressive in how it works with the source material. Released in 1994, the original System Shock may be a monumental part of gaming history, but it’s a bit of a slog to play in 2023.
Instead of changing up the game design itself too much, Nightdive has instead worked on making it more palatable to play for today’s audiences, with the real revitalising work focused on the controls and UI. The level designs are almost perfect recreations of the originals, and even the art style manages to combine modern bells and whistles with a unique pixel-ish art style that feels retro and evocative of 1994 without feeling dated.
As an immersive sim, it’s more constrained than the likes of Dishonored or Deux Ex with their do-anything attitudes, but System Shock is still all about balancing your cybernetic upgrades to ensure you always have enough energy. There’s plenty of inventory Tetris too, full of moments where you decide what resources to leave behind to take that fancy new gun, or, more likely, stuff your pockets with all the crap Citadel’s shelves have to offer.
While lots of games would probably benefit from some sharpening up in the level design department after 29 years, System Shock remains cutting-edge. Citadel Station is as much a puzzle in its own right as it is the setting, as you work out the safest paths, which keys unlock which doors, and planning where you’ll return to once you have the right upgrades and equipment. Levels are claustrophobic labyrinths of metal and wire, with any alcove potentially hiding a new mutated horror or an undiscovered room full of valuable supplies.
By 2023’s standards, telling a story through audio logs and graffiti may seem a bit old hat. But when those logs are the disembodied voice of Shodan declaring itself a new god and its cyborg abominations its flock, it shows that the old methods of storytelling still hold up when the writing is strong enough. Finding and digesting the story is key to progressing too, as you’re sorting through the detritus of former survivors, hoping their ramblings will give you the clues you need to move forward.
There are some moments where System Shock does lean too hard on 1994 sensibilities, such as still trying to jam in the dodgy cyberspace segments. You’re playing as a hacker, so you’ll often need to jack into the station’s network to unlock doors and find intel. Jumping away from the oppressive environment of the station and going into a loud, trippy Tron-like world for a brief Boomer Shooter section feels incongruous, and I spent most of the time in cyberspace wishing it was over so I could get back to exploring and having the shit scared out of me.
Despite the themes of an all-powerful AI as a harbinger of doom, System Shock is let down slightly by its own AI. The enemy designs are incredible gruesome threats both biological and mechanical. They’re also as thick as two short planks – getting stuck on scenery, losing you around corners, and most being weak to the tried-and-true method of circle strafing and beating them up with a lead pipe. For enemies controlled by the all-powerful God AI Shodan, it would’ve been nice to see them act a little more intelligently.
Nightdive had almost an impossible task revitalising System Shock, and yet it’s done so effortlessly. The level to which it manages to remain faithful to the original while also very much being a modern game released in 2023 is impressive. It may be let down slightly by wonky cyberspace and some less-than-Shodan-level AI, but this is easily the best way for people today to experience one of the most genre-defining games of all time.
4/5 – Played on PC
A code was provided by the publishers for this review.
System Shock
System Shock is a classic action-adventure game first launched in 1994, spawning a sequel, a full remake in 2023, and inspiring the likes of BioShock, Deus Ex, and Prey. Played in first person, you play a hacker who must stop a rogue AI.