Playing System Shock today is a bit like going back in time in a time machine. The legacy of this series that revolutionized the action genre cannot be underestimated or overstated. Ken Levine, who took the world by storm with Bioshock, Thief: The Dark Project, and SWAT 4, was his co-developer, and Bioshock, Prey, and Singularity are just a few examples that never looked and worked like they did otherwise. to have been from System Shock. The question is whether System Shock will have a say in 2023, but of course given the current AI debate, it should have its own space.
It all begins a little over 50 years in the future. You are a hacker who gets caught in Trioptimum company after hacking attempt. You are stopped and taken to the Citadel space station, where one of the company bosses asks you to lift the ethical restrictions on the station’s artificial intelligence, Shodan. Edward Diego, who asked you at gunpoint, promises you a deal before the guards knock you unconscious. The darkness embraces you and after a while you wake up alone and abandoned in an incubator at the train station. It quickly becomes clear that things happened in the time you were unconscious.
I don’t feel any direct nostalgia here, but even with my first hesitant steps I experience the charm of the action games I grew up with. You’ll be given simple instructions on how to pick up some gear, and then some easier missions. There are no arrows or clear explanations about it. You are free and can do whatever you want. It reminds me a bit of Prey from 2017. You have a backpack with limited space and resources are tight. Every shot counts and you have to economize on everything you find in order to survive. Also, Shodan has something to do with enemies having mutated and wanting to kill you and everyone else. The irony of a game with a malicious AI is that it also presents a vulnerability. Monsters have a hard time navigating the environment, and if you think twice about it, they become easy prey. The AI of the computer opponents could use some fine-tuning.
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I really like the graphics and design. It has a very retro-modern look and I like it. Much of the perpendicularity in which the cardboard environments appear to be assembled is preserved. It looks good, it sounds good and the atmosphere quickly envelops me. Shodan’s voice actor does a good job of making the voice sound just as nasty as it was in the original. It’s not hard to imagine when Terri Brosius, who did the original voice, does it here too. My big problem with both the original and the remake is the combat. They never seemed good to me, not even in the ’90s. In this edit, there seems to be some lag in reactions and attacks lack power. There is not much difference between hitting an enemy with an iron pipe and with your fists. Given the 90’s genre and the room for improvement for this edition, it’s going to be a little disappointing.
I’m a bit indulgent about the combat, which isn’t exactly brilliant since most of the game revolves around exploration and character building. From the start they give you things to add to your character. A bit like dressing up a character in an RPG, you place items on a menu that grant you abilities. In addition to these implants, there is also plenty of voice messages and information that you can find. As in We Went Back, Observation, Tacoma, and Prey, there are puzzles to solve. One of them took me into a computer world of synthesized music that I loved. Without giving too much away, it reminded me of old 3D space games.
There’s more to do than just fighting, and that makes some glitches less noticeable. Using objects and clues from the environment, you can traverse otherwise impenetrable locations. At first I got lost and it feels good to create something. However, I can understand that many people might not like it. You often have to save, go through the environments and accept that tracing is a key feature. It’s about soaking up the environment, navigating the locations from room to room while defeating the resistance. In some situations you can use the environment as a help thanks to traps, in others you need to skillfully kill opponents with your weapons. Since you are constantly lost in orientation, you have to use the map and plan your routes. I love this, but I know a lot of people hate getting lost and can get frustrated as a result.
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If you’ve played the original, you know what to expect. If you haven’t played the original yet, you have a very important, but now forgotten, horror-focused action RPG. You have an unforgettable villain who shows off his presence just right. This artificial intelligence isn’t quite as tangible and present as, say, GLaDOS in Portal, but it’s psychotic and murderous in a very different way. There’s cold logic behind it, and you know you’ve freed them from their ethical reins. There may be an analogy or metaphor in all of this that can be related to our development of AI in real life. The System Shock remake is perfect. It allows us to analyze a classic in a new guise and contextualize the story with a current topic.
However, you can clearly see that this is a game from the nineties, despite some changes. The interface is rough, the combat imprecise, and the story doesn’t go too deep. Still, I had a pretty good time with it. It’s dark, lonely and terribly atmospheric. Both game historians and nostalgics get their money’s worth. I don’t think what we have here will win many new fans. The new graphics, all the news, the largest number of scenarios and other things helped that it reached an acceptable level. At the same time, the basic structure looks dated, which will put some off. The environments are also the same and it is easy to get lost. This will make the first few moments confusing. Add to that some deadly enemies and we have something that won’t be for everyone, which is a shame because it’s a good game.
Even if time hasn’t done the original well, the remake manages to fix some of the issues it had with the original. It may not revolutionize our gaming world, but it can trigger exciting discussions about AI. It probably won’t save many new ones, but it’s a love letter to the fans. I’m happy with what I’ve tried. The whole overcomes the individual problems. On the other hand I don’t have any real nostalgia to remember, of course I preferred the second one but I was still a bit young to fully appreciate it. Having said that, I can say that while there is much to criticize, it was innovative. It was ahead of its time and contributed a lot to storytelling in the action genre. I think if you like the series you will have a lot of fun with it because I did. I hope the second part gets that treatment before the third comes out.
