System Shock

As much as I love playing games from decades past, sometimes the reason is more nostalgia than enjoyable gameplay. Not so with this remake. It's not just nostalgia, but an excellent game revived. Night Dive Studios have managed to keep everything essential in the original - annoyances included - while doing polish and making it feel much less 30 years old (the original came out 1994!). The mechanics, like inventory management in particular, is a bit rough compared to more modern games. It's also something I realised that I've missed. Opening your inventory does not pause the game, and swapping weapons, ammo or reloading your weapon takes time, so when taken by surprise you will suffer. One of the most disputed features is finding items that you don't know if you will need later on. Loosing or destroying them will soft-lock the game, forcing you to revert to a much earlier save - if you have one, so _save_ your game before doing anything you'll regret later. On easier difficulties the game will tell you if something is junk, but I recommend not taking the easy route. There's a charm in not knowing, having you log along objects in your scarce inventory, and creating stashes in safe places etc. The game is unforgiving in ways that I wish modern games would appreciate - the feeling of reward is always dependant on the risks. The plot and gameplay is a solid as it was thirty years ago, so I'm ready to recommend System Shock Remake for both nostalgia trippers and new players alike, who want to try something different. Turn out the lights, put on your headphones and just enjoy.

This is one of the best games I've played in ages. It's beautiful, combat feels good, sound is excellent - the works. My only reservation is that it is not as simple to keep track of things in this game as in most modern games. In Prey (another excellent game in this style), I have markers to follow. In System Shock, I really just have to remember what is said in the audio logs, etc. Perhaps, though, that's a blessing in disguise. It got me to turn off my podcast and pay attention. When I did that, I started having even more fun! I love System Shock. I can now see how it defined many of my favorites - Prey, BioShock, even Dishonored. I'm tempted to play the original as well, now!

Like the old game but better.

Nightdive does it again.

Takes the good stuff from the old and ads the good stuff from the new. Lovely remake.