System Shock Demo

So here's my impression so far. I load it up. Title screen appears. Says "Press any key." I hit the A button on my controller. What I assume is the intro cinematic plays but I have no clue because while I hear a lot of clicking/typing sounds, it's just a black screen. Then I hit a button to continue. Character gets up off the bed. I push the Start button. Nothing happens. I hit the A button. I get the Steam keyboard even though I'm running it on GOG. I hit Esc > Settings > Controls > Configure Gamepad with the mouse. Nothing happens. I hit the A button. Nothing happens. I double click the "Configure Gamepad" button with my mouse. Nothing happens. I close out of the menu. I go back into the menu and try again. Still, NOTHING HAPPENS. So. Not exactly off to a flying start here. And now I've tried putting the resolution up to 1920x1080. It says it's there, all settings are on Ultra, but the game still is displaying the default resolution of 1024x768. And the right thumbstick is STUPIDLY sensitive while the mouse isn't anywhere near sensitive enough. I turn subtitles on. The game CLEARLY SAYS that subtitles are on. One guess as to what the problem is. So. I close the game out. I start again. This time I click my mouse when prompted to "Press any key." Still have the black screen on the cinematics. Still have the 1024x768 resolution. I go back to change it to 1920x1080. Doesn't change. Subtitles still don't display. My system EASILY beats the recommended specs, let alone the minimum and I've NEVER had these kinds of problems with ANY other game before, so - obviously - the issue is with this game. I really, really, REALLY want this game to succeed. This demo does not inspire any faith in me that it will. The developer already got into hot water by messing up BIG TIME during development once already; they can't afford to screw up again. Night Dive Studios, if you're reading this, please fix these problems.

Fun to play, as soon as I noticed you can drop Crumpled Paper infinity times without dropping the item, it started to look like this: http://imgur.com/a/UEMY5

To be blunt, I was not enthused when I heard of a System Shock 1 remake. It was game that stood strong on its own merits, and the craze of remaking everything prior to the year 2000 is becoming old. This review is from the perspective of someone who has played the _floppy disk_ version of System Shock 1 from cover to cover. Let's get a modern technical quibble out of the way: You can't modify the graphics beyond resolution. Yes, I know -- "alpha demo." That's nice; I could barely get the game to hold 20 frames per second at best after chopping the resolution down to 1280x720. Fancy remastered graphics don't mean much if it's all a slideshow. The game crashed about half way through the demo. The best way to describe the gameplay is that of it being over streamlined. The MicroSoft Word interface is gone in favor of a "slick" new hud that can't be modified in the slightest, and some how manages to be less accessible than the old MFD (Multi Functional Display) of the original DOS title. Instead of being able to click a button and pull up any element of your inventory, you now have to dig around in a fullscreen interface that is surprisingly clunky and unresponsive. In the DOS original, items, walls, and game objects could be examined with a very quick left click. Now you must stare at the object and wait several seconds for the game to slowly print a hard to read description to the screen. In other words, the tactile yet functional nature of the original game is completely gone. The subtleties of the original are no longer present. The analog stealth mechanic has been completely scrapped and the movement feels stiff and clunky like a modern title. With little room left in this review, I'll leave it at this: If you've loved and played the floppy disk or CD original, this will feel like nothing more than a clumsy modern shooter with a System Shock 1 theme slapped on it. This was my original fear right from the word go.

Check out my First Impressions here: https://youtu.be/2UDb8-3StI4

Yeah, lots of things that could and should get better, but I have played finished games that were way worse than this PRE ALPHA DEMO. Shut up and take my money! // throwing money at his screen monitor