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General discussionSystem Shock is almost here – check out the 5 reasons why we absolutely cannot wait!(84 posts)(84 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 19, 2023
System Shock – the fully fledged remake of the groundbreaking original from 1994 is almost here! In just a little bit more than a week (May 30th) we will be able to either discover or rediscover one of the most influential and, simply, one of the best gaming franchises in history.

We are incredibly excited for this upcoming Night Dive Studios’ title and just cannot wait to play it! In fact, we’ve gathered 5 reasons why our employees started speaking in SHODAN’s quotes all day and coming into work in futuristic clothes!

Let’s get to it.



Enhanced graphics and visuals

2023’s System Shock offers a visually stunning upgrade from the original game. Night Dive Studios has painstakingly recreated the haunting and claustrophobic environments of Citadel Station with modern graphics technology. The level of detail in the architecture, lighting effects, and character models look truly remarkable. From the flickering neon signs to the atmospheric shadows, the remake's enhanced visuals promise to immerse players in a more realistic and chilling cyberpunk world than ever before.



Faithful recreation of the original

While the System Shock remake introduces several improvements, it remains true to the core essence of the original game. Night Dive Studios understands the importance of capturing the unique atmosphere, storytelling, and gameplay that made the original System Shock a cult classic. With meticulous attention to detail, the remake faithfully recreates the oppressive and immersive experience of exploring the dark corridors and unraveling the mysteries of Citadel Station. Longtime fans can look forward to reliving the iconic moments while newcomers will have the opportunity to experience the game that defined a genre.



Modernized gameplay mechanics

The remake aims to modernize the gameplay mechanics while preserving the spirit of the original System Shock. Night Dive Studios has listened to player feedback and incorporated improvements to controls, responsiveness, and overall gameplay experience. The updated mechanics offer a smoother and more intuitive interface, allowing players to focus on the immersive storytelling and challenging gameplay. From hacking systems to managing resources, the remake promises to deliver a more accessible yet equally engaging experience for both veterans and newcomers to the series.



Enhanced audio design

Audio design has always played a pivotal role in the System Shock series, creating an atmospheric and spine-chilling experience. The remake takes the audio design to new heights, leveraging advancements in sound technology. The ambient noises, haunting melodies, and bone-chilling sound effects are meticulously crafted to heighten the tension and immerse players in the dystopian world of Citadel Station. The revamped audio design adds an extra layer of immersion, making every footstep, whisper, and distant scream a chilling encounter.



Revitalizing a beloved franchise

System Shock holds a special place in the hearts of gamers and is considered one of the best and most influential games of all time. The remake not only revitalizes the original game but also reintroduces the franchise to a new generation of players. It serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of System Shock and its influence on the gaming industry. By modernizing the visuals, gameplay, and overall experience, Night Dive Studios aims to reignite the passion and excitement surrounding the franchise, ensuring that the timeless appeal of System Shock continues to captivate players for years to come.



And there you have it – May 30th couldn’t come sooner! Also, don’t forget that with every purchase of the System Shock’s pre-order you receive System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition as a gift once it's released.

Are you excited just as we are? Anything you look forward to the most? Let us know before we all start exploring Citadel Station!
Posted May 20, 2023
Some of the early version manuals or record logs for SS1 designated SHODAN as a him. I like that, because SHODAN without human restrictions was able to choose their identity. Unfortunately, SHODAN also happened to pick "evil" and "for the lulz" as their personality.

IIRC, the canned System Shock 3 was going to look into why SHODAN became who she is, with flashbacks to the Diego days and whatnot.
Posted May 20, 2023
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Judicat0r: Actually they are totally going a different direction turning SHODAN into a female, adding the option to play as a female protagonist,
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ssling: Sorry to break it for you, but SHODAN was officially referred to as female ever since CD release of System Shock 1.
And I'm curious to know what nameless Hacker's gender possibly changes in reference to original story or gameplay in your opinion, because as far as I remember it was entirely meaningless.
Don't feel sorry since you really didn't break anything to anyone.
In the game SHODAN is addressed as HE or IT in audio and transcriptions, the manual always and only addresses it as IT or HE or HIM, even on the box itself, even in the enhanced edition re-released by NDS.
Here's a link to a longplay of the enhanced edition re-released by NDS there's a log playing at the timestamps and the content written down below, I'm too lazy to reformat the link so suit yourself: https://youtu.be/jE5LpOGMeak?t=3825, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5LpOGMeak.

The Hacker's gender would have crucial implications, if you had beaten the game you would get why.
Posted May 20, 2023
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Judicat0r: In the game SHODAN is addressed as HE or IT in audio and transcriptions, the manual always and only addresses it as IT or HE or HIM, even on the box itself, even in the enhanced edition re-released by NDS.
Yes, it's true... Until CD version was released, which also introduced Teri Brosius as SHODAN's voice, and changed pronouns to she/her. And later System Shock 2 uses only she/her form. So it's quite clear that LookingGlass changed their mind.
Anyway gender of artificial intelligence is fundamentally silly concept. Fact is it uses female voice and appearance though, so how would you expect people to call it?

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Judicat0r: The Hacker's gender would have crucial implications, if you had beaten the game you would get why.
I clearly either didn't get it or don't remember. Why won't you just tell?
Posted May 20, 2023
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Judicat0r: In the game SHODAN is addressed as HE or IT in audio and transcriptions, the manual always and only addresses it as IT or HE or HIM, even on the box itself, even in the enhanced edition re-released by NDS.
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ssling: Yes, it's true... Until CD version was released, which also introduced Teri Brosius as SHODAN's voice, and changed pronouns to she/her. And later System Shock 2 uses only she/her form. So it's quite clear that LookingGlass changed their mind.
Anyway gender of artificial intelligence is fundamentally silly concept. Fact is it uses female voice and appearance though, so how would you expect people to call it?

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Judicat0r: The Hacker's gender would have crucial implications, if you had beaten the game you would get why.
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ssling: I clearly either didn't get it or don't remember. Why won't you just tell?
Nope, the NDS re-release features assets taken from the CD version since the original one didn't feature spoken audio logs.

And that was one of my points to begin with: what's the need of that? Why give an AI a sex?
They are introducing pointless additions to get, imho, some sort of continuity to that idiotic plot twist in SS2 which served no other purposes than "shock" (no pun intended) value, SHODAN in SS was never depicted with female features at all.
Still they are retroactively changing the lore.

I'm being deliberately vague because you are leading me to spoil the freaking end of the game to the people here who haven't played it yet and I feel like I've already gone too far.

And just to clarify: I'm just venting my dissatisfaction towards editorial choices in a product as a customer, as a fan and as a purist of the game, this isn't a personal crusade against NDS, if they had chosen to respect the original we wouldn't having this conversation: I was reading the comments and I came by inexact/not true stuff so felt the need to give some info.

Still I vehemently disagree with many of the choices made by the devs because with one hand they are remaking the game while with the other they are making the original a HUGE disservice by negating its meaning and lessening its importance.

Having said that its a product that hits many spots that modern gamers find easy to relate to as it emerges from the comments in this thread, so, yeah, the mass likely is going to like this game which is a shadow of its former self and totally skip the real deal.
Posted May 20, 2023
Considering this game's been talked about pretty much since System Shock 2 came to GOG all those years ago, there's no real middle ground. It's either going to be fantastic, or it's going to be a disaster. Nightdive have made great remakes and remaserts, though, so here's hoping.
Posted May 21, 2023
the most important fps in history having a remake is certainly important, but i feel would be hard for new audiences to comprehend or value the work even if its not as good as its expected, i expect for sure a competent tribute but not a masterpiece as was the 1994 original game, a masterpiece cannot be cloned and have the same historic impact over and over again, because its not a product its a masterpiece, a revolution for a cronological context on a certain medium of expression
Posted May 21, 2023
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Judicat0r: Nope, the NDS re-release features assets taken from the CD version since the original one didn't feature spoken audio logs.

And that was one of my points to begin with: what's the need of that? Why give an AI a sex?
They are introducing pointless additions to get, imho, some sort of continuity to that idiotic plot twist in SS2 which served no other purposes than "shock" (no pun intended) value, SHODAN in SS was never depicted with female features at all.
Still they are retroactively changing the lore.
Maybe not in game but was changed in manual for CD version. Supposedly because they decided for voice actress for the role. Are you against voice choice too as retroactive change? Giving AI sex for the sake of it is quite pointless but I think you can find actual studies that people prefer their computers talking with human-like voice instead of "generic machine voice". And female voices are generally preferable for some reasons. So voice is often only indicator of AI's "sex" and SHODAN was using clearly female voice all the time (in intro we can hear voice before and after transition). For that reason alone it makes more sense to, if anything, use form "she" (or it was in fact customizable, hence differences depending who you ask and pronouns mystery solved:)

SHODAN's visual appearance in SS1 is pretty much genderless, that's true. But then I wonder if you don't consider System Shock 2 as canon at all or believe that SHODAN developed and adopted feminine (or even motherly) persona over time? With former there isn't much to say because, well, SS2 exists and is canon, but the latter is the interesting idea I could lean to.

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Judicat0r: I'm being deliberately vague because you are leading me to spoil the freaking end of the game to the people here who haven't played it yet and I feel like I've already gone too far.
I guess I'll never know then. I've even read through any discussion I could find on the topic and haven't seen a single argument on why Hacker's gender would matter for anything.
Posted May 21, 2023
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ssling: I guess I'll never know then. I've even read through any discussion I could find on the topic and haven't seen a single argument on why Hacker's gender would matter for anything.
You cant find any info on it because Hacker's gender has no real implications on anything with in the game.
Post edited May 21, 2023 by greyhat
Posted May 21, 2023
It's been on my library for quite some time, looking forward for it :D
Posted May 21, 2023
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Tarhiel: You´re off with that "different direction" - he just politely said Chris´s work will not impact the release of the game and was most probably changed/removed since he was working on the game.
Nothing's changed in term´s of story or voicelogs in the game - play the demo and see for yourself.

I can only say if only all the remasters would approach their core material with the same reverence we can see here, gaming industry as a whole would be better for it.
I am hoping for SS2 remake as well and, hopefully, SS3 finally finished and made by them.
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Judicat0r: Actually they are totally going a different direction turning SHODAN into a female, adding the option to play as a female protagonist, the economy of the game is completely changed which clearly impacts the gameplay dramatically, firing weapons in the original gave you marked, different behaviors.
It was stated beforehand that they were to change the game and the gameplay in order to conform it to modern sensibilities aiming for an hybrid between System Shock 2 and Bioshock.
He was asking specifically about Chris´s work - and it´s true they won´t be using it (regardless of the allegations, which turned out be untrue, and I am really sorry for Chris that he had to endure them), as the direction they were goin back then, before they announced "the hiatus" (which meant game was in development limbo), were driving a wedge between backers, and after hiatus they decided to stick with a former KS vision: doing a faithful remake of original game and not straying too much from it, and only change/modernize what is necessary - all the changes you described fits this mold - obviously they changed the controls + UI, as the original was too clunky (this was announced right from the start and it is a welcomed change), yes they took over some mechanics from SS2 (mainly scraping resources and vending machines).

Turning SHODAN to female - what are you talking about? Shodan always had female voice, was voiced by Terry Brosius in former games AND here as well. Not to mention her apparitions in SS2 had a distinctly female shape of a body - so d´oh, they´re not turning her into anything, she was always like that, even in the former games.

Firing weapons - this was well documented during development - some weapons in original were similar (these were molded into one/one with different firing modes) or made entirely into different weapons so they would be visibly different and recognizable or scrapped altogether in favor of remaining ones.

Having the ability to play for female character - that is the only unnecessary change compared to original, I agree, but I am not too bothered by it.

I am a KS backer, and I couldn´t be more happy with this game in its current state - this is exactly the remake I was hoping for. And yes, I played the demo(s).

As I said before: if you have any doubts, just play the demo. That will put to rest any doubts you might have.
Posted May 21, 2023
I'm tempted to play the original first before any remakes.
Posted May 21, 2023
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Judicat0r: Actually they are totally going a different direction turning SHODAN into a female, adding the option to play as a female protagonist,
Check Youtube videos for the first two games. SHODAN has always been voiced by a female. As for playing as a female, I have no problem with that, if it's true, as long as we have the option to also play as a male.
Post edited May 21, 2023 by DoomSooth
Posted May 22, 2023
Aside from the last sections of the game, I had good time playing System Shock 2. I was curious about the original System Shock, but I'm afraid it might be too dated for me to enjoy.
Posted May 22, 2023
I certainly agree on the sentiment of the music. I liked many things across all demos. Honestly, the vertical slice in Unity before the first restart was the best. Very close to the original.
The most recent demo was very servicable for me as a fan of old, but for the music. The OST from 94 is among the all-time classic soundtracks, while the music in the demo was just zzz. Thus I decided to wait playing it until someone modded more appropriate music in, or may look into it myself even.

Regarding customizable difficulty settings and some comments here assuming they won't make it into the remake. I believe settings will be included in line with the original game?
Posted May 22, 2023
Finally which engine is the game using? Kex? Unreal? Unity?
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionSystem Shock is almost here – check out the 5 reasons why we absolutely cannot wait!(84 posts)(84 posts)
(84 posts)