KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Zarniwoop]

Which is the better game, this remake, or prey 2017?

Better game? Probably Prey.

Better remake? This, because 2017 Prey had nothing to do with the original.

 

[cretin]

I ended up buying this anyway. It's cool. I love the aesthetic.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I'm playing the GOG-version, so there are no achievements for me AND I DON'T CARE.

*looks up achievements*

[Score a kill using a falling monitor]

So not really missing out on much.

BTW, I'm running into a strange but harmless bug. Almost every time I kill an Exec-bot, it clones itself a new corpse, so at least two Exec-bot bodies drop. (No loot in them though.) Sometimes they're a different color.

And a rather big thought regarding the station layout: Some of the levels are in the wrong place. Why is Engineering as physically far away from the Reactor as possible? Shouldn't Reactor, Engineering and Maintenance all be located at the bottom of the station, close to each other? And where does everyone live, where's the Residential-level? Maybe they all live in pods down in Storage?

 

[SharkClub]

The only poz in this entire thing was like two backer-written audio logs made by (I assume) gay people, unless I'm mistaken. As far as modern games go that's an impressive amount of restraint on the part of the devs. Especially when the alternative was following millions of views eceleb headcanon and making SHODAN a canon tranny AI. Gonna guess that Nightdive didn't sell out for ESGbux on this one, despite development hell, particularly impressive considering they probably could have used that money.

 

[Spukrian]

Which is the better game, this remake, or prey 2017?

Prey 2017... or the original System Shock.

Was the dialogue edited to remove insensitive implications regarding the race of Diego for more suitable representation of minorities? He was originally corrupt and that means Looking Glass were racist towards half-Hispanic individuals. But then again half-white, so it doesn't count. Not dark enough.

Well, they changed the voice actor so...

 

[AndyS]

I just want to know if Diego in the remake still has the audio log in which he says "investigate my butt!"?

 

[ferratilis]

Arnold, eh? What part of Germany are your ancestors from?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I just want to know if Diego in the remake still has the audio log in which he says "investigate my butt!"?

Diego is less scheming executive and more fawning SHODAN-muppet in the remake.

Speaking of Diego: CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!

My plan was simple: Kill Diego the same way he can be killed in the original: Lots of proximity mines to greet him when he spawns in, courtesy of Doug the Eagle's suggestions.

Problem: Nightdive Studios have clearly read up on Doug the Eagle, as they're actively countering the cheese methods.

The first Diego encounter is on the Executive-level, where he's introduced via cutscene so you can't get the drop on him. You can drop proximity mines around the 'arena' to hit him when he goes skating, but it's not the same.

The second Diego-encounter is on the Flight Deck when it's time to blow the whole station up and GTFO. Edward Diego makes his entrance by exiting out of the door for the Emergency Lifepod Jettison-thingie - you know, that same structure I've been bitching about obstructing Flight Bays 2 and 3?

So... once I was told it was to blow this joint and go home, I went to the Flight Deck and did my dirty work - two proximity mines on each side of the door and one on top of the door, just in case... except the game had other ideas. I go and do everything needed to trigger Diego's appearance... except someone had beat me to the punch. Turns that there are at least four Sec-2 Robots patrolling that same area - and they DO patrol the door to the lifepods. That would explain why I found a random piece of ammo nearby when I confronted Diego.

I've made my way up to Security now, and I've come across three nice changes: The door to the elevator can be now opened on both sides, a Recycling Station has been added, and the audiolog that was clipped into the wall has been freed from its imprisonment. (It's the one that's lying on the ground when you first enter Security.)

I came across another weird bug: When you pull up the lightsaber it displays this 'uncoiling' animation. Well, somehow I got the Ion Pulse Rifle to do the same animation. Seeing a rifle come apart into little pieces, and yet hang on an invisible string, was quite something to see. The Ion Pulse Rifle is also my winner for sleekest-looking gun in the game - seeing the animations for the various settings (and then firing it on the highest setting) never gets tired for me.

Meanwhile I'm concluding that the shotgun is the weakest weapon in the game. There's a tiny window in the game where it's useful due to simply being available then, but it's quickly outpaced by other weapons.

 

[Trithne]

Engineering being far from Maintenance and Energy Systems - Eh, I've been to enough facilities that are inefficiently laid out like that IRL to not care. Plus they added a log about Citadel being 'intentionally made maze-like to induce anxiety in the staff, because that would increase productivity or something?'

I think it's mostly the elevators that don't work for me. Specifically the 1-2, R-2-3, 3-6 combination. If I was given the carte blanche to fuck with that and justify it, I'd have 1-2-6, R-3-7, 2-3-4, or something like that, and gate access to 6 and 7 by objective completion, with some SHODAN messages if you try. But it's a dungeon crawler so whatever.

Shotgun's useful in exactly 2 places - Maintenance (zero-g mutants) and groves, and even in the groves it's situationally useful. Ammo for it also feels way more scarce than everything else. It's the replacement for the flechette, but the flechette was excellent right through the game against anything fleshy.

 

[Average Manatee]

There's enough weapons in SS1 that having a few which are marginal is fine IMO. It's not like this is Doom where if the super shotgun sucked the whole game would suck, you choose what you carry and experimenting to find what works is part of the game. Having weak weapons that kind of suck against an unexpected enemy adds to the verisimilitude of the game. A shotgun should be weak against the overwhelmingly robotic/cybernetic enemies in Citadel Station.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Engineering being far from Maintenance and Energy Systems - Eh, I've been to enough facilities that are inefficiently laid out like that IRL to not care. Plus they added a log about Citadel being 'intentionally made maze-like to induce anxiety in the staff, because that would increase productivity or something?'

There's a difference between using writing to justify why circumstances are as they is at release, and then using writing to ret-con it 30 years later.

Also, the "facilities" you've been to all have the common distinction of being in the general safety of Earth - they can afford to be a little inefficient.

That's a luxury Citadel Station cannot afford.

I think it's mostly the elevators that don't work for me. Specifically the 1-2, R-2-3, 3-6 combination. If I was given the carte blanche to fuck with that and justify it, I'd have 1-2-6, R-3-7, 2-3-4, or something like that, and gate access to 6 and 7 by objective completion, with some SHODAN messages if you try.

Access to 7 is actually gated in-game - you can't use that elevator until after you've jettisoned Beta Grove.

Once at 7 you can go straight to Security, but the front door there is locked until sometime after you've blown the antennas (probably after inputting the System Authorization Code).

Another small detail I noticed: In Security I found a credit card, which meant more credits if I would go back to Executive to find an ATM. But when I did so I found that the ATMs don't work anymore; 'Connection Error' is all they say now. Then I remembered "Oh yeah, I blew up all the antennas..."

Regarding the weapons, I've been trying out the Plasma Rifle, and it's a very VERY situational weapon. It's only really effective if you fire it into a room with multiple hostiles (like the repair bay on the Security-level) because then the bouncing works in your favor.

 

[mindx2]

Another small detail I noticed: In Security I found a credit card, which meant more credits if I would go back to Executive to find an ATM. But when I did so I found that the ATMs don't work anymore; 'Connection Error' is all they say now. Then I remembered "Oh yeah, I blew up all the antennas..."

That's one of the cool things I love about these type of games. One that takes the time to actually think about the many consequences of the player's actions even if it's a small detail. This is an example of a smiling when playing and going, "That was a cool touch."

 

[Unkillable Cat]

And finished. The "surprise" waiting for the player after killing Diego is more enemies spawning in. Oh joy!

I did some prepping before going to the bridge. Scoured every level with SensaRound v3 active to spot items I had missed. I recycled everything I could get my hands on, and purchased every ammo and weapon upgrade available. Still ended up with 1100+ TriOptimum credits.

(Fun fact: If you summon the cargo lift from a high floor to a low floor, it'll count up the number of floors and then loop back around to the start. My cargo lift went to Floor 10 for a second, makes me wonder if that's the Reactor-level or someplace else.)

I went to the bridge with the lightsaber, the MagPulse, the Assault Rifle, the Skorpion SMG and the Grenade Launcher. For the MagPulse I had over 300 rounds, for the Skorpion I had over 1000 rounds. I went through half the MagPulse rounds, and didn't use the Skorpion at all.

For the last Diego-fight and the remaining two Cortex Reaver-fights I used the same tactic as before: Apply Reflex, Apply Berserk, trigger spawn, hit enemy with EMP grenade, close in with the lightsaber and cut them into pieces. They're dead before they can react. Trippin' balls afterwards is optional.

Sadly I could not outsmart the Autobomb-puzzle this time... mainly because the Autobombs now spawn so that they block all exit passages. What I did instead was just blast them. It was a frantic few seconds, but nobody told me that they don't respawn endlessly in the remake, there's just the one rush of Autobombs and that's it. Kinda disappointing, to be honest.

The final fight on the bridge can be cheesed. The goal is to flip three switches to activate a force elevator which takes you to the final chamber. But each switch triggers multiple enemy spawns around you. Fair enough, except the top of the elevator is accessible with the v3 skates - so as I flipped each switch I just fled up there and picked off all the enemies.

The final fight in cyberspace is a little more demanding with the update - but it's still a joke.

Having played the remake twice now in the span of a year, I don't really feel like replaying it ever again. I feel more inclined to replay the original and do a retrospective.

But for me the ultimate fun point of the remake are the skates - skating through Citadel Station is a blast, especially once you get good at it.

 

[Zlaja]

No achievements no buy!

RPG Codex has achievements, too. Which, in turn, give you KKK points. And what can you do with those? Shove them up your ass!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Just when I thought I was free of the remake - I get my hands on the official artbook.

Most gaming-related artbooks don't interest me, but this one does for a couple of reasons. Firstly, both the original game and the remake have the same lead artist, Robb Waters, and we get to hear his input. Secondly, we get a look at both unreleased material, as well as artwork that served trivial background purposes, at best.

It covers both the 2016 Unity demo art assets, as well as the official remake. There's also one page where all the critters from the original game get a look in, for comparison.

The clear winners (to me) are:

# The six water color artworks made for Kickstarter-backers, some of them look wicked.

# The full-page image of the 'cover' for the remake, the one with SHODAN.

# A look at the artwork from the mini-games of System Shock, including 'Battle Hogs' and 'The Maze of the Space Minotaur', nice pixel art there.

# The description for the Cyborg Warrior. It's just three words: "A chrome nightmare".

Worth a read, and a keeper for me.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I'm playing the GOG-version, so there are no achievements for me AND I DON'T CARE.

*looks up achievements*

[Score a kill using a falling monitor]

So not really missing out on much.

BTW, I'm running into a strange but harmless bug. Almost every time I kill an Exec-bot, it clones itself a new corpse, so at least two Exec-bot bodies drop. (No loot in them though.) Sometimes they're a different color.

And a rather big thought regarding the station layout: Some of the levels are in the wrong place. Why is Engineering as physically far away from the Reactor as possible? Shouldn't Reactor, Engineering and Maintenance all be located at the bottom of the station, close to each other? And where does everyone live, where's the Residential-level? Maybe they all live in pods down in Storage?

Imagine talking about exec-bots, that appear only on the EXECUTIVE AND HABITATION LEVEL, and in the same post wondering where everyone lives.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Imagine talking about exec-bots, that appear only on the EXECUTIVE AND HABITATION LEVEL, and in the same post wondering where everyone lives.

They also appear on the Engineering level (in the remake at least) and I faintly recall a few on the Flight Deck, perhaps?