System Shock

Fun

Yikes, I have a lot of feelings on this game. I'd recommend it if you've never played the originals, it's by far the most accessible entry point into the franchise. I do recommend using walkthroughs if you get stuck, because the old school nature of the game means you really have to think before making decisions. The controls feel great and the subtle changes they made to gameplay help introduce new players to the story and world. I think the original System Shock is one of the best video games ever made, incredible villain, incredible gameplay that matches what the story is trying to say, a 10/10 in every category for me. This game is a really hard one for me to score. I like about 90% of what they did, but [spoiler] the final level and the SHODAN fight completely ruined it for me. The final area is meant to feel like you're inside SHODAN's cocoon, a fusion of biology and metal pulsing through the halls. The original's final boss battle was perfection precisely because of that logic. Instead, what we get here feels like modern game design being mashed into something that was always far more intellectual than that. The original made perfect sense ending in cyberspace. Having the player magically armed with weapons, shooting at platforms SHODAN herself would have had to construct for you, it makes no sense within her character or the world's internal logic. It just kills the immersion. The dialogue at that point is also painful, cringey and unnecessary. Instead of facing an intelligent god, I felt like I was fighting a dunce, which perhaps tracks if you've been destroying her nodes all game, but it still wasn't what I wanted from that moment. On top of all that, the game had a frustrating number of bugs throughout, enemies not taking damage, items disappearing, inventory wiping. These feel like they should be patchable, and the game has received a ton of patches, yet here we are. [/spoiler] Outside of those criticisms, this is a great game for newcomers to the franchise and it's nice to finally have an HD remake; although, its quite limited due to the size of the studio. That said, I'll personally be sticking to the originals. My bigger wish is that this had received the budget and direction of the Dead Space remakes, something next gen, without the pixel art style. That aesthetic was actually my initial reason for passing on this game, though I'm glad I came around, because the weapon designs, enemy designs and level design, for the most part, are genuinely spot on. I'd love to see a proper remake of the second game someday, and even another attempt at this one, but I imagine that's wishful thinking for now.