System Shock

This is very faithful remake of the original.
Make sure you look at some footage before buying to see if you can deal with the semi-pixely art style this game went with.

The gun play is good without being anything extraordinary either, but the story, atmosphere and experience of fighting against an omnipresent ever watchful AI entity is real good. It's a marked shift from present day horror with enemies that are unsettling but sufficiently over the top or quirky to have this ummistakeable 90s PC gaming vibe to them.

The difficulty is mild on 2 (normal difficulty), once you get used to the control scheme, the level of challenge for an experience fps user is very middle of the road. I would advise veteran fps players to bump that up from the start.

The one single aspect of this game that is irredeemably bad are all the sections that take place in "cyberspace". This was terrible at the time, it has been improved, but it's still just a whole lot of suck. It's a very jarring genre-shifting experience that will completely break the pacing of your current game, to have a Descent-like game of pew-pew in cyberspaaaaaace. I would recommend players to put that on the minimum difficulty, so as to expedite that, because the rest of the game is truely worth it.

Technically ran flawlessly for me, with not a single crash, slowdown or visual bug. Some ragdoll mechanics are still all sorts of borked, with gibbed body parts infinitely twitching on the ground or enemy corpses just moving slightly.

Otherwise a very safe buy, at least on sale, which this is now getting serious discounts. Took me about 26h to complete (including some serious backtracking), which these days is kind of good for a first person shooter type of game. Granted i got lost a lot in the maze-like levels of citadel station.

Some PSA that will potentially save you hours of frustration:

- Note down every single digit the game shows you. It expects you to notice and will have you backtrack for if you don't the first go around.
- Clicking and holding [v] while viewing your inventory will mass vaporize every item in your inventory.
- Clicking [t] while viewing your inventory will reorder your inventory.
- Make sure you immediately reduce the UI transparency to 0, it is by default very high and makes things not readable at all.
- The game lets you put markers down on your map and edit them with text. If you're as untalented as me at orienteering, make use of those.

If an item falls through the floor, it will reappear in a garbage chute type area in one of the levels so you can retrieve it. Very nice feature!

great atmosphere, solid gameplay, map is thrash same as in the original and sometime you are wondering aimlessly.
nobody is grabbing you by hand and explaining what is happeninng, no quest markers, good stuff.
awesome soundtrack and attention to details

We neeed System Shock 2 remake.

Well worth the full price. A phenomenal, unique game; a rarity in a sea of modern, throwaway Netflix games. This game has an incredible immersion factor, atmosphere and sense of dread on a desolated space station. It does not guide your hand, it's hard and rewarding when that puzzle finally clicks or when you figure out what to do next. I have never played anything similar to this, Deus Ex being the closest. It takes a while to get familiar with the rules of the game, but after that, you will be immersed.

A faithful remake of the original, with a very unique and befitting graphical style.

buy it if you feel like playing FPS metroid.
hold v to vaporize all junk in your inventory. it also vaporizes food so eat your snacks first.
search for logs, they contain all the information so if you get stuck go through them
write down big red numbers
game crashed twice on second playthrough, otherwise it's fine. enemy AI is not ubisoft-tier stupid but it could still use some more work

I must start with a little bit of a personal story.
Back when I was a very young kid, my dad had a CD for the original system shock.
I remember looking at it and always wanting to play it. but.. unfortunately the CD was scratched and would not install or play no matter how many times i tried. and i guess as the years went by i forgot about it.
... Cut to today, where I discovered it was being re made, I was thrilled to finally sink my teeth into SystemShock.

Even though it was a remake, I had a total blast. as someone who grew up on older games of this era, im really happy to see that spirit kept alive in a remake. Even though I never played the original, I am quite satisfied with finally being able to experience what it was like to play system shock.

The graphics were very beautiful and every passing hour of playing this game felt like a 3 course meal that you chewed slowly and enjoyed every byte. (ha, see what I did there) and the spirit of old was definitely kept alive in visual style as well, I absolutely adored the pixelation still present on every texture, while still incorporating modern shaders. This really was how i imagined video games wanted to look back then, if they just had the resources.

Its one of thoes games i wish i could forget about, and play it all over again blind. Ill definitely have to pick it up again when the years go by again. or maybe a system shock 3???

Side note: its interesting how a story involving cyber technology and the future from 1994 can be still quite relevant today. here comes the AI i guess!

This game rocks from start to finish. Old school with a new layer of paint and tons of flexibility in how you would like to experience the game. LIKE OLD GAMES if you put it down for two weeks it's going to take some time to actually remember what the hell you're doing.

Fun game. Fully recommend. The ambiance and gameplay is top tier cyberpunk.

Iconic, incredible story. Extremely faithful to the original vision. Anything changed is definitely for the better. I don't get the soundtrack haters, the music is clever and takes homage from the original OST.

It's just...so...peak

Okay for real I've never seen a remake be such a labour of love as much as this one.
+ Keeps with the art style while still looking graphically more impressive than most game I've seen.
+ Original story is there with the Mother of video game cyber villains and even improved with better cinematics and improved ambient/combat music.
+ Its so much more accessible to play than ever (albeit still don't expect the game to hold your hand and show you where to go, use the internet as a guide if you're having trouble anyway).
100% couldn't recommend a game harder.

a really good remake and art style is awesome while being very optimized if u go floor by floor and scavange anything you will get great playtime from it.

Incredibly immersive. Not a survival horror, but I don't think it was supposed to be. That's the sequel to this game. Nonetheless you will have a great time playing this game. This was my first playthrough and now i'm going to play the sequel.

Never played original only a little system shock 2. Big fan of bioshock. Enjoying this in that context, very familiar and largely intuitive.

muito bom, fazia tempo que nao ficava 27 horas jogando um jogo single-player

prepare yourself ! for hours of tracking back stuff , with no clear objectives and almost no guidance more than a few audios that later on you realized that you should paid atention ! xD 10/10

It felt good to be *the* insect. Slightly old-school and greatly immersive - an absolute must-play for anyone who missed it (me, me!) and respects the science-fiction genre.

Absolutely wonderful. They took the original System Shock, made it look great and run back, and made lots of visual and sound improvements. I loved everything about it! Wonderful job! <3

I recommend for sci-fi nerds, especially on sale. Its worthy remake of iconic game. Shodan is truly mesmerising villain. But i would give neutral rating if i could. Game has got LOTS of quality of life issues, typical for "oldschool" games of that era. Once nostalgia glasses falls off after first few hours... Its truly a slog to get to the finish line - lots of backtracking, tedious inventory management, one-dimensional map on multilayered levels, and couple more annoyances. Because of that game is definitely not for everyone. I truly enjoyed setting and story which allowed me to push through some rough stuff, but if You are here mostly for action packed gameplay maybe look for something else, word of warning :)

Truly a masterpiece, without the direct instruction of modern games sometimes quite challenging. Especially at the beginning the low amount of Ammo and health is not easy but that makes it fun and challenging.

its an old game made new. The updates make it a lot more fun to play and keep the same game feel. Great remaster and given the age difference from 1994, well worth it. Only trouble I'd imagine for new players is the backtracking and puzzles, its very different from most games today and I'd say much more difficult.

TLDR:
I recommend you play it on easy, i liked the puzzles and the exploration but the combat feels iffy and the cyber space its the worst.

It's a caution recommend,

For years i had known of the legend of system shock but i also knew of the reputation, its a great game but it does feel archaic in some parts, the maps did not age particularly well, its true that it feels like a real place instead of a videogame level but it does test your patience in some places, for me its the respawning enemies, the game its very quick save and quick load intensive, you pretty much have to fall into traps to know are there and while its not always bad it does interrupt the flow of a modern game design, the controls are ok but some details like your (very weak) flashlight using power always irked me in games.

There is not really an ammo economy, you can't buy more ammo, you rely on finds and drops, the enemies are tanky and when they respawn it's just a drawn on resources, the directions you get are vague since you are out of the context of the conversations in the game, you get very little directions. It wouldn't be a bad thing but the game it's more on a action direction than a horror or stealth directions

I feel its hard for new players to explore since many games like bioshock, dead space or dishonoured have come out with the evolved game design integrated already.

I recommend you play it on easy, i liked the puzzles and the exploration but the combat feels iffy and the cyber space its the worst.

Fantastic remake, kudos to Night Dive Studios for sticking fatefully to the original game's concept.
Unlike in most games, there is no handholding, objective markers or mission briefing here.
So if you're a newcomer, prepare notes, and expect a lot of backtracking and wandering around.

Pros:
- Citadel Station looks great, the attention to detail is remarkable
- The audio design and atmosphere
- Satisfying and responsive shooting system
- Seamless and smooth performance; no major bugs or crashes
- Gore and dismemberment
- Memorable villain

Cons:
- Inventory management is a chore, and the extra storage could be larger
- Due to the challenge and lack of guidance, this might not be a game for everyone

I hope they will do the sequel as well in the future.

I played this on the default 2,2,2,2 difficulty and a lot of the issues I have with the difficulty of the game can be fixed by playing a lower difficulty. This game has guide markers on default difficulty and you actually need to pay attention like in the older games to know where you need to go, getting there is a different story. I could hardly get through deck 4 and I already want to play this again on the hardnest difficulty which sets a timer for when the antagonist will succeed in their plans.

THANK YOU! So much for letting me relive 1994. It was a pure joy finishing the game this time. The difficulty felt right on the spot. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Despite being old enough to remember the original, this is my first experience of actually playing System Shock. So whilst I can't comment on it's relative strengths and weaknesses as a remake, I can emphatically recommend this as an outstanding game in it's own right. With the greatest of respect to SHODAN, the star of the show here is Citadel Station itself. Exploring the station's deserted corridors, research laboratories and recreational areas whilst trying to piece together a way to stop the malevolent AI is utterly engrossing, and even strangely tranquil. Combat is present, but it's a sideshow to the exploration and broader problem solving aspects, with the station itself presented almost like one giant puzzle cube that needs solving from the inside out. Younger gamers may find it hard going at first, with nothing being overtly sign-posted, but providing you take your time and pour over the audiologs you discover (fear not; they're very brief and this isn't a chore) you'll rarely find yourself truly stuck for where to go next.

For those who've played Bioshock and heard of System Shock in the context of of it's spiritual successor, I will say that whilst many similarities are present these are mainly found in the presentation and some environmental detailing. Plot aside, System Shock is a considerably more sophisticated game than Bioshock (I love both, by the way) and scales back considerably from that game's action and set-pieces.

Onwards, to System Shock 2!

Truly a remarkable feat of design, Nightdive has done the near impossible and successfully used around 90% of a game from 1994 to make an absolutely fantastic modern immersive sim.

The fact that the level and enemy design is essentially unchanged from a 30 year old game is absolutely surreal, and the puzzles are some of the best in any immersive sim I've played to date.

The star of the show, as always though, is SHODAN. The idea of the dungeon itself being hostile to you in an interesting and interactable way is nothing short of inspired, and it's yet again another thing that is nearly unchanged from 30 years ago.

While I would consider something like Black Mesa to be a better remake because it drastically departed from the mistakes of the original, this is easily the second best remake of anything I've ever played.

Thanks Nightdive, for letting me truly enjoy the game that started it all, and good luck with System Shock 2, you're gonna need to do a Black Mesa-tier redesign of a couple things in that game and I eagerly await what your incredible team can make.

Awesome. Game requires you to think and pay attention. Gives off those nostalgia vibes and retro-futuristic design. I really enjoyed it. SHODAN has been well remade. 8/10. Will play again.

OMG, you can hardly tell this is a remaster of a retro game. The gameplay mechanics still feel fresh and the level progression is fanstastic.

Most importantly, INSECT, is that SHODAN's voice is immaculately done to take you right back to the original.

jalipeno goty 2023, a shining example of how to remake a game during an age of shitty remakes and fans who dont know what they want. i played on launch but i guess i forgot to review it then lol, but this is peak

now i just need ss2 enhanced edition

They kept true to the original and updated the graphics and interface (easier to interact with)

I have recommended it to people and they have enjoyed it.

Please play it and please do the same with System Shock 2.

If you have enjoyed Bioshock then you will probably enjoy this one.
Bioshock and it's series is the spiritual successor to System Shock

aaah, it's good to be back at Citadel station - really it feels exactly the same as in 90's. I am not sure if younger gamers would enjoy, but I am totally amazed! Good job devs! Now it's time to kick SHODAN's ass! Insect is coming!!!

Truly one of the best remakes I've ever experienced. You can feel how much it plays like and is faithful to the original while shaving off a lot of the rough edges (most of which seemed like technical limitations rather than authorial intent) and creates an experience that meets or exceeds even modern immersive sim greats. So much respect to the old Looking Glass team who created the original and Nightdive for updating it for new generations to enjoy (and for their work preserving the original game too!).

Love letter to the original immersive sim that spawed Deus Ex and every bioshock game, along with modern games like Prey(2017). The OG was truly the first of its kind, somewhere between dungeon crawler and what would become the im-sim genre. NOT A POWER FANTASY SHOOTER. Survival horror, resource management, dungeon crawler, cyberpunk RPG, it's got DNA of all of these things. Play it if just for the historical context.

It has it's flaws, but it's a superb remake and a masterclass on how it should be done.

System Shock is a psychedelic bad trip through technological hell unleashed by human greed unrestrained by morality. It gave me chills and made memories I will never forget.

I had fun, until the bullshit started. See some more reviews for the full story. It is a great remake, that does honor the original. But I would not recommend this to anyone.

System Shock is a great game. A memorable antagonist, and challenging, no-hand-holding gameplay. Atmosphere and setting is top notch. The puzzles are solid, and as long as you listen to the audio logs, you won't need guides.

However, a few things ultimately hold it back from being an amazing game. The Cyberspace sections feel clunky and disrupt the pacing; inventory management could be smoother; enemies feel a bit too aim-botty.
Plus, some interactable objects and important quest items blend into the background, which can get frustrating. You'll be backtracking wondering what the f*** you're supposed to do in some sections, then realise you missed a tiny aaah lever that barely stands out in the wall.

Quick-saving often helps reduce frustration in the tougher combat sections, especially later on.

The last boss fight is awful, felt really rushed and uninspired. Leaves a very sour taste on a overall amazing experience I had with this game.

I haven’t played the original, so I can’t say how faithful this remake is, but overall, it's a very rewarding and unique game well worth your time if you're up for a challenge.

Performance is actually pretty decent for how good the game looks and it being a UE5 game. Even on Steam Deck I was able to run it at locked 60 with decent battery life.

In a time when I struggle to give my attention to a single game for long periods, System Shock had me hooked for hours. Sure, there were some frustrating parts and tedious backtracking, but the game is 6 years older than me, and I respect the decision to remake it without changing its mechanics. It strikes just the right balance of challenge, fun, immersion, and a sense of accomplishment, creating an amazing experience. I still can’t believe this game’s core design is 30 years old. I can only imagine how mind-blowing it would have been if I’d played this in 1994. I’m so glad they remade it while preserving its essence.

Immersive masterpiece.

Indescribable atmosphere. Tough fights. Creepy moments. Perplexing puzzles. Hell, the whole game is a puzzle and its pure excitement to figure it out.
Its not without flaws, sure. But it 100% worth time and money if u are into hardcore experience without handholding.

Not going to lie, I was a bit turned off when I first played this game by how vague the objectives and layout were. After doing a bit of research on the original and the what kind of game this really is - I decided to give it another go. I'm glad I did. They Simply don't make games like this anymore - No hand holding at all. Once the game was patched so you can make your own map notes (crucial IMO) the game took off and was a blast to play. The art detail in this game had me hooked all the way through as well. Excellent game.

It's been a long time since a shooter grabbed my attention this much -- the last ones to do it were the original Deus Ex and Bioshock 1 & Infinite, and this definitely feels like a step forward in the genre. Very immersive, excellent villain, great weapons, a real sense of exploration and discovery.

An okay remake with huge amount of balancing issues and bugs. Makes you wonder if they did any Q&A test before releasing the game

- Enemies are way too tanky after research level, occasionally spawn right behind you and vaporised your health in seconds sending you back to respawn.

- The cyberspace minigame is a disgrace, whoever designed it should be ashamed of themselves. The minigame is a fxxking trial and error chore. Basically you are stuck in a tiny area with AI throws tons of bots at you (most of them spawn with a gatling gun btw) if you screw up, enjoy restarting the level and spend another 10 mins while pray the RNG lord will let you win this time.

- The inventory system is even worse (Signalis x100 on steroids) The lift cargo and your inventory slots are so few that it is impossible to carry all weapons and sufficient ammo, yet the stupid achievement requires you to upgrade them all, so in the end you will be spend most of your hours doing garbage inventory micro management in the most tedious way (Resident Evil 0 Style) by throwing them on the floor at a specific location. This will make the back tracking issue of the game even worse as you have to going back to that certain location to retrieve certain items and weapons frequently.

- UE4 fatal crash

This is a damn good remake. Really faithful to the original and just the right amount of modernization. only complaint so far is that I cant really play with my inventory open the whole time like the original. (I'm an anomaly that really enjoyed the original's weird controls/UI)

i waited for this game since before development restarted the 2nd time and after two and a half playthroughs, it has its problems (for example, cyberspace is kinda boring) but i think this is the best a remake of the original system shock could have been

Lots of details carried over from the original, unique graphical execution. Overall an enjoyable experience. May patch fixed all issues I had with the game.

This game is great! I'll be honest I never played the original and I always felt a little intimidated by it, but from what I have heard this remake is pretty faithful.

It definately is not for everyone, but those of you who enjoy retro style games and want to be puzzle masters will have fun.

I hope they provided a similar treatment to System Shock 2. Keep the systems and essential mechanics, but update look and gameplay to be more fluid and modern.

I don't think there's much I can add to the history that is System Shock and how this legendary game birthed so many unique concepts that have been carrying the gaming industry since 1994. This is a historical game and a legendary one for sure that I believe everyone should play or research on. The remake of System shock, though this has been a 10 year project, finally released and delivered with a well crafted game.

Don't get me wrong. System shock is a game that will never be forgotten. And the remake proves this.

So why the negative review?

1) Honestly, too much of anything is still bad and this game truly over stays its welcome.
-too much back tracking.
-too many opportunities to soft lock your playthrough and the only way to solve that is a guide and more back tracking.
-the added content only serves to extent a game that was already long to begin with and with all my previous complaints combined, you will think that this game does not respect your time.
-some of the combat situations and difficulty are still those of a 1994 video game, i.e, very unforgiving. Maybe they should have allowed people to change difficulty settings mid playthrough as there were many times I wished I could enable god mode just to pass some very unfair sections.
-this game doesn't hold your hand. It's tough, which is a good thing but also a bad thing. Take this as you will.
-there were some glitches in the combat that cost me my life many times towards the end.
-this game, since it's based on old game philosophy suffers from the... since you've passed half way point of the game we will crank everything up to 1000 and when you think it can't get harder, the last section of the game cranks it even further to over 9000!!! meaning lots of save scumming just to progress.

A beautiful picture into the past but some aspects of the past don't fair too well in the present. I would recommend this game to people who either have unlimited time and patience or to people who can enjoy a game when it's going well and uninstall when the BS starts.

For me this game went from positive review to negative review because I make it a rule to finish what I start and this game at some point stopped being amazing and started to become a chore. Play the amazing parts, uninstall when you reach the BS parts. That's my recommendation.

A very faithful remake of the original System Shock, with some extra improvements to make the game in line with the modern standard.

This also means it still carries some of the originals problems, like the level design feeling very maze like and similar, and the cyberspace sections are still really bad. But overall its still good, and a very good remake.

Good challenging game. Never played OG but its a bit harder than SS2. Textures are weird cuz its nice for the environment but its so hard to see where people are shooting at you. Also cyberspace whack

very fun game set in space with lots of crazy and scary things happening. i would recommend this game to anyone who is good at puzzle solving as well as combat and inv management.