Well, it's tough for me to talk about SS1 after 30 years. It was amazing back in the day. I played it in 1994 when it first dropped, and I still think there are very few games in the FPA genre that can come close to its greatness. When I think about the level of atmosphere, only HL2 and Portal 2 pop into my mind. First of all I really hope that playing it in 2023 will still be an epic experience for those who didn't get a chance to play it originally. This game never got the recognition it truly deserved. When SS2 came out, people had already played and praised it more than the original SS, but I always disagreed with that. SS1 was straight up superior in every aspect. The atmosphere, the level design, the cyberspace, the cyberpunk music, the citadel, SHODAN, that claustrophobic and lonely feeling, everything was on another level! And SS2 was still a great game (even though I despise the enemy respawn), but that's just a testament to how awesome SS1 was! To put things in perspective, when SS1 came out in 1994 (and you could play it in 640x480 resolution), Doom 2 also dropped with its fake 3D WADs maps and low resolution. That's why it's hard for me. I'll give it 4 stars because, sadly, in 2023 it feels like it's missing some modern standards. Plus, I've already experienced it and know the story. Overall, the only thing I didn't dig about the remake was the fact that they changed the beginning. It was perfect just the way it was in the original title.
When it was released the game had top animations, graphic and tons of gore pretty ahead of his time. Single player was pretty standard, but where the game shined and still do today is in the multiplayer. It also use realistic weapons too which is a big plus for me (I never liked futuristic weapons like in UT, Q3A, bomb jumping etc. etc.) It was and it still is today the greatest CTF multiplayer experience ever created in an FPS game. There isn't much else to say, just buy and play it.
Title says it all. They tried to make a lot of games inspired by X-COM, but no one has never come even close to this gem. Everything is perfect, the atmosphere, the turn based battles, the management, the peace of the game. You can play it in 2017 and it's still amazing like 20 years ago.
