KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[agentorange]

Lack of visual soup is precisely one of the things that makes earlier games play better, the fact that the devs here haven't realized that isn't encouraging.

You're right, more and more these days, flashy visuals and UI are so over the top that they impede gameplay. Cyberpunk 2077 was a recent example of this for me, there's just a bit too much going on. But I don't think this System Shock remake looks too bad in this respect. Maybe just mellow down the bloom and contrasts a little bit, up the gamma a notch, and it should play smooth. The simplistic, "outdated" level geometry should also help in this regards, it makes things look nicely aired out and easy to orient yourself in.

And I gotta say, I do dig this particular retro vibe to the environmental design. It's not especially convincing but, ironically, now that videogame spaces are so cluttered and geometrically sophisticated, the Lego architecture looks fresh and exciting. It strikes me as a good example of retro aesthetics that doesn't fall into the traps of brutalist '90s brush geometry or "ironic" pixel art.

I remember playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time and encountering a janitor's cart in a little fenced in area in the first mission. I looked at the bottles and rags and different shelves and was like "what the fuck is this all FOR?". It was one prop, sitting off to the side, that did nothing and served no purpose and it contained more polygons than 2 levels of the Abyss in Ultima Underworld.

It's odd how ignoring almost everything you are seeing and hearing is a basic part of playing a modern game.

I felt this in Dishonored 2. Made me feel almost a little sick for a brief moment before my brain started filtering out all the extraneous details. This is also one reason why these modern games are so filled with various telegraphing, highlighting, arrow marking devices, (stuff people usually attack as simply being parts of casualization, which it is in part) because it's impossible to tell what is an important detail from what is a window dressing detail. It used to be in games that the player could easily parse what is important and necessary from the surrounding decorations because whatever was most important would have the most detail and would naturally standout, but now days everything is loaded with so much detail and usually at the same fidelity/quality level (much of this being done by various programs that automate the process, so the level of detail is far beyond what could be done by hand) that you need meta-assistance like glowing outlines to be able to decipher what is important.

btw this system shock remake still looks like shit

 

[Morgoth]

Clean visuals are anathema in this intransigent tech race, which still operates on the more bells & whistles = better mantra. Doom Eternal comes to mind the most. What an ugly graphics wasted on a good engine. And then you have indie games that get debased with so much reductionism and impressionism to a point it all just feels cheap.

Hard to find AAA games these days with clean or arousing imagery. Elden Ring comes to mind as the most recent one.

 

[Jenkem]

I'm grabbing this on day one and you can't stop me.

 

[ciox]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3499646

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Heading into the comment section be like

 

[kangaxx]

The comment section used to be a bloodbath, as did the Discord. A few years ago some bloke was banned from the Discord (eventually) for writing tens of lines of seething fanfic about how Stephen Kick had blown their backer funds on coke and brasses. It was pretty funny in honesty.

 

[Tweed]

I'm grabbing this on day one and you can't stop me.

Thus spake Biojenkem.

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess they're preparing for an announcement in one of those remaining not-E3 events.

They rewrote store description to be more concise and added supported language list (13 languages).

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Feels like such a giant waste of time remaking this instead of 2. No body cares about System Shock 1. I'll probably still buy it but geez get your priorities straight Nightdive.

 

[mindx2]

I guess they're preparing for an announcement in one of those remaining not-E3 events.

They rewrote store description to be more concise and added supported language list (13 languages).

I would agree as I was charged a few days ago for some add-ons to the physical edition. Seems like this will finally be released (this year?).

 

[Spukrian]

I played the demo when it first came out (was it 2 years ago? can't remember) and at first I thought "ok, I might buy it"... but after thinking about for awhile I realized I probably wouldn't like it if I played it. Of course, they've updated the demo since then, so maybe (probably not) they've adressed these issues...

-Too many animations that take you out of the game. There seemed to be a unique animation for every item you pick up (I don't need to scrutinize every cyberware for five seconds before stuffing it into my head), every time I used the regeneration bed there was an animation, etc... These animations took too much time, if they need to be in the game, make them faster, much faster!
-Citadel Station is too dark, at least compared to the original. The original was brighter and also more colorful.
-In the demo I played there was no Cyberspace, but since then I've seen screenshots and videos of it that make it seem to be some kind of excessive synthwave/vapourwave nightmare...

TL;DR: I'm worried Nightdive doesn't understand what made System Shock great in the first place... or maybe they're just trying change to get mainstream appeal... or both.

 

[Tweed]

Oh they understand, they don't care. As I've said to people before this game is not for fans of the original, it's for the newcomers. Oh, they want your nostalgia dollars of course, but the game is certainly not meant for you. The game plays like an even slower version of Bioshock.
All of those animations and blinding particle effects are there to try and keep you from noticing how vapid their game is. And holy mother of God the voice acting for the redone logs is so absolutely atrocious.
But the zoomies will eat it up because they cannot into ugly old System Shock and its weird movement system.

 

[ciox]

I played the demo when it first came out (was it 2 years ago? can't remember)

System Shock Remake demos came out in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
None of them let you go outside of Medical.

 

[Spukrian]

System Shock Remake demos came out in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

It was probably the 2020 demo then.

 

[anvi]

Feels like such a giant waste of time remaking this instead of 2. No body cares about System Shock 1. I'll probably still buy it but geez get your priorities straight Nightdive.

SS1 was amazing! The sequel tidied up some things but the original was providing that "way ahead of other games" experience 5 years earlier! It deserves major bonus points for how advanced and early it was. It was also better than SS2 in some ways. The sequel improved some stuff but did some things not as well. Also the whole surprise in the story doesn't work without the first game.

I'd rather just have a third game that does the best both. That's what would happen in any other industry on Earth. But gaming has to be all retarded and backwards and can't even reproduce shit we had 20 years ago, let alone improve on it. What a shit business! Everyone should feel bad. Being a game dev today is the same as being a clown.

 

[randir14]

Feels like such a giant waste of time remaking this instead of 2. No body cares about System Shock 1. I'll probably still buy it but geez get your priorities straight Nightdive.

They're remastering 2 at the same time including adding VR support.

They might have news tomorrow at the PC Gamer show. Shodan is in the middle of the image:

 

[LudensCogitet]

Feels like such a giant waste of time remaking this instead of 2. No body cares about System Shock 1. I'll probably still buy it but geez get your priorities straight Nightdive.

SS1 was amazing! The sequel tidied up some things but the original was providing that "way ahead of other games" experience 5 years earlier! It deserves major bonus points for how advanced and early it was. It was also better than SS2 in some ways. The sequel improved some stuff but did some things not as well. Also the whole surprise in the story doesn't work without the first game.

I'd rather just have a third game that does the best both. That's what would happen in any other industry on Earth. But gaming has to be all retarded and backwards and can't even reproduce shit we had 20 years ago, let alone improve on it. What a shit business! Everyone should feel bad. Being a game dev today is the same as being a clown.

I played neither SS1 nor SS2 back in the day. I beat SS1 maybe a few years ago and SS2 a few months ago. Both are good. System Shock 1 is the superior game.

SS2 introduces too many "quality of life" improvements that actually just remove gameplay. Example: I listened to audio logs, but never carefully, because I expected to have any important codes or tasks added to my quest log automatically.

 

[flyingjohn]

SS2 introduces too many "quality of life" improvements that actually just remove gameplay. Example: I listened to audio logs, but never carefully, because I expected to have any important codes or tasks added to my quest log automatically.

That isn't gameplay?And if you consider wasting a player's time by forcing him to listen to random stuff a good hing,you shouldn't talk about gameplay. Not to mention that most logs didn't give necessary information.

Older rpg's gave you a simple note or a npc with one line of dialogue that was a hint/necessary information.Audio logs are a huge decline that only helps atmosphere and story fags.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Audio logs are a huge decline that only helps atmosphere and story fags.

I thought story and atmosphere was the sole reason to play the SS games, otherwise I wouldn't bother with that atrocious gameplay.

 

[Nikanuur]

Audio logs are a huge decline that only helps atmosphere and story fags.

I thought story and atmosphere was the sole reason to play the SS games, otherwise I wouldn't bother with that atrocious gameplay.

I love everything SS. For me it's a small matter to overcome the frustrating game's interface to have fun and awe with the rest. But I must agree to a degree. The interface wasn't very good back then, and it comes out horrible today.

 

[Nikanuur]

SS2 introduces too many "quality of life" improvements that actually just remove gameplay. Example: I listened to audio logs, but never carefully, because I expected to have any important codes or tasks added to my quest log automatically.

That isn't gameplay?And if you consider wasting a player's time by forcing him to listen to random stuff a good hing,you shouldn't talk about gameplay. Not to mention that most logs didn't give necessary information.

Older rpg's gave you a simple note or a npc with one line of dialogue that was a hint/necessary information.Audio logs are a huge decline that only helps atmosphere and story fags.

Bah, your crone is a huge decline.

 

[gurugeorge]

SS2 introduces too many "quality of life" improvements that actually just remove gameplay. Example: I listened to audio logs, but never carefully, because I expected to have any important codes or tasks added to my quest log automatically.

That isn't gameplay?And if you consider wasting a player's time by forcing him to listen to random stuff a good hing,you shouldn't talk about gameplay. Not to mention that most logs didn't give necessary information.

Older rpg's gave you a simple note or a npc with one line of dialogue that was a hint/necessary information.Audio logs are a huge decline that only helps atmosphere and story fags.

Can I interest you in a game of dueling spreadsheets?

 

[flyingjohn]

I think people complaining about interface/archaic controls don't get the point. The game feels more like a sim then a pure shooter and that gives it a unique charm.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

The interface wasn't very good back then, and it comes out horrible today.

Having spent some time playing the game's contemporaries, no, it was good then. Today, its difficult to get used to, but then, anything that's in first-person and isn't the standard mouse aim is. That's more or less because we're spoiled on it. Back then you had games where it was a struggle to figure out how to do anything at all with your inventory items, how to even move around and whatever crap I'm forgetting. System Shock at least works well when you get used to it.

 

[Bad Sector]

TL;DR: I'm worried Nightdive doesn't understand what made System Shock great in the first place... or maybe they're just trying change to get mainstream appeal... or both.

I think it is more likely that what you think what made System Shock is not what Nightdive thinks - it is the same with other very old games that get "new versions", everyone had a different take on these games even if at the end they all liked them. Personally i found Nightdive's demo to be exactly what i liked about the old SS1 (in broad terms, exploring a claustrophobic space station and combating the mutants that roam around using various cyberpunk gadgets while listening to the audio logs to figure out what happened - ok for that last part i know what happened because i've played the original games but the idea is the same :-P). However on a different example, while many people who played the original Doom also loved the new Doom 2016, personally it just didn't click for me because one aspect i liked about the original games (level design and, interestingly, exploration of the levels) was lacking. However for others it was the (supposedly) endless shooting action while listening to a pumping metal soundtrack and this is what the 2016 game focused on.

Oh they understand, they don't care. As I've said to people before this game is not for fans of the original, it's for the newcomers.

Speak for yourself, i am a fan of the original System Shock and i found the demo to be great. In fact i just played it again for a bit and the only thing i disliked (which is something i disliked from the very first Unity demo) was the look of the unfiltered textures. But aside from that, i really like what i see in there and i will buy it at some point close to the release date (i might wait for the price to drop a bit as 38 euros is a bit too high for me - and considering the type of the game, i might also wait for a few bugs to be fixed).

The game plays like an even slower version of Bioshock.

Bioshock does not have a working inventory, a bar to put quick use items or even a real automap - let alone an automap that you can place markers on. Just from those alone, the way you interact with the world (one of the most important aspects - if not really the main aspect - of these games since it influences pretty much everything else, like -e.g.- how resources are treated) is very different between the two.

 

[gurugeorge]

The interface wasn't very good back then, and it comes out horrible today.

Having spent some time playing the game's contemporaries, no, it was good then. Today, its difficult to get used to, but then, anything that's in first-person and isn't the standard mouse aim is. That's more or less because we're spoiled on it. Back then you had games where it was a struggle to figure out how to do anything at all with your inventory items, how to even move around and whatever crap I'm forgetting. System Shock at least works well when you get used to it.

The interface was a development of the one used in Ultima Underworld, and the same style of interface was iterated on later by Looking Glass for Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. I think with some slight adjustments (e.g. mouselook done right) it's quite capable of doing anything in a game that has more complexity than just shooting stuff and picking crap up off the floor automatically. It is, as someone said above, more of a sim interface.

I don't know whether this is a fact or not, but I've always wondered if that Looking Glass first person sim style of interface heavily influenced Valve's introduction of WASD, because WASD always felt to me like a kind of super-streamlined version of it.