Nightdive has delivered the goods yet again, it's a faithful update, albeit you could achieve a lot of it with community mods that are already available, still this forgoes any of the problems of trying to mod and get an old title working on a modern system.
Worth buying for fans, new players may find this game too dated, but it is still an amazing creepy experience, so I hope it does brign new fans!
Night Dive pulled the original version (which came with the NewDark fan patch pre-installed and ran like a dream on modern operating systems) and put it behind a $30 paywall for a $10 game. Which is what this "Anniversary Edition" is. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ok, so let's review the "Anniversary Edition" on its own merits. It's basically the fan-remastered version lazily slapped into Night Dive's one-size-fits-all candy wrapper Kex. The upside here is that console peasants finally have a chance to experience what playing an actually good game feels like.
You, reading this review, probably don't care to play this on a console, so here's the downside: This is hands down the shoddiest, glitchiest version of Shock 2 yet. And the sad part is: most of these glitches were never even part of the original version of Shock 2, let alone the NewDark version.
To make up for the half-assed Kex port, Night Dive slapped a bunch of fan-made graphics mods and gameplay tweaks on top to give a superficial pretense that actual work went into this thing.
Skip this thing, play the far superior un-Kexed original version instead. If you happen to not have the original version in your library by the time it was pulled, don't spend money on this thing unless it sells for a buck or two, which is what the original version used to sell for.
System Shock 2 gets a well-earned 5/5 stars from me. One of the greatest games of all time and (along with Thief The Dark Project) my personal favorite.
This cash grab, on the other hand, gets a 1/5. For shame!
Everything about this remake is fantastic. The OG game was fine anyway, but Nighdive have added their brilliant touch. A true horror immersive Sim. But I have one issue. I wanted this new aged System Shock 2 game so I could play on controller (Xbox One). Everything thing works well, but holding down the left bumper for a quick menu - how do I add anything to this menu? I've tried everything and nothing works. Please, some graceful person, let me know what I'm doing wrong. But anyway, don't hesitate to buy this update of a brilliant game - System Shock 2, you have always been something very special.
I played and Loved this game when it was released originally! Seeing it here on GOG and it being remastered was a real delight. i bought it instantly! This is truly a great classic! The predecessor to the instant classic BioSchock. RECOMMENDED!