System Shock

Boring remake that ruins the original tone with floaty and unsatisfying combat, ugly faux-retro graphics, and boring ambient music. The original game had so many cool things like a fully simulated player that could crawl, lean, mantle surfaces, guns with so much recoil you would physically lurch backwards while firing, and a great dynamic soundtrack to keep the action going as you went through the game. Just play Bioshock 2 or Prey instead if you want a modern System Shock style game.

пять. сотен. голосовых журналов.

TL;DR: A beautiful, immersive, and extremely engaging immersive sim that expects players to pay attention. No handholding to guide you to the next objective, forcing you to rely on audio logs, maps, notes, and observation. The station is a joy to explore, but the Cyberspace sections, repetitive boss fights, and a handful of technical annoyances prevent it from being an all-time classic. Player Context: Completed the game in roughly 35 hours on Normal difficulty across Mission, Combat, Puzzle, and Cyberspace settings. This was my first experience with the System Shock series; I have never played the original game or System Shock 2, though I was aware of their influence on later titles such as BioShock, Deus Ex, Thief, Dishonored, Vampires Bloodlines - games that I played the hell out of in my childhood. Like BioShock (its most direct spirtual successor), you are dropped into a hostile environment with very little explanation of what is happening around you. Progress depends on paying attention to audio logs, emails, environmental clues, and the station's layout. But unlike similar games, System Shock is far less interested in guiding the player. There are no quest markers (at least on Normal Mission difficulty), no automatically updating journal, and no NPCs standing around waiting to tell you where to go next. The Good: The greatest strength of System Shock is the station itself. At first glance the nine decks appear intimidating, but they all follow a fairly logical structure. Most consist of a central hub connected to multiple wings or sectors. Once I understood this pattern, navigation became much easier. Signs, room labels, landmarks, and environmental clues constantly helped me. Progression often feels almost Metroidvania-like. You will frequently discover locked doors, inaccessible routes, dangerous areas, overly tough fights or puzzles that cannot be solved immediately. The solution may not arrive until several hours later. While this results in a significant amount of backtracking, it didn't feel arbitrary. Returning to an earlier area with a new code, item, or piece of information felt rewarding rather than tedious. As mentione before, there is no quest journal that automatically summarises every objective. If an audio log contains an important code, you need to remember it or return to it later to refresh your memory. I found myself constantly marking the map with reminders, key codes, items I dropped off for later, overly dangerous encounters, and other locations worth revisiting later. Although I would have preferred the ability to place notes with a simple right-click over the map to add or remove reminders, than clicking the icon and dropping a reminder on the map. A useful tip for new players: reduce each deck's security level to 0% as soon as possible. Destroying CPU nodes reveals fragments of a six-digit code required much later in the game. Recording these numbers early can save a substantial amount of backtracking during the middle portion of the campaign (would have shaved off about 6 hours of my playtime). Visually, the remake strikes an excellent balance between modern graphics and retro aesthetics. The low-resolution textures, chunky interfaces, and retro-inspired visual effects evoke the original game's era, while the geometry, lighting, and environmental detail are unmistakably modern. The result reminds me somewhat of the Prodeus boomer-shooter, deliberately old-school in style in places, but with a modern gaming engine. The audio design is equally impressive. Weapons sound powerful, machinery hums throughout the station, voice-acting was solid, and SHODAN's presence constantly looms over everything. Combined with the station's atmosphere, the game creates a persistent sense of tension and isolation, much like Rapture from BioShock. Performance was excellent throughout my playthrough. Running on Linux, I maintained roughly 120 FPS with stable frame times and experienced no significant technical problems. I did experince two crash to desktop errors, unsure if its just the game or linux the issue. The Bad: Not every aspect of the remake benefits from its retro inspirations. One issue I encountered repeatedly was enemy visibility. Even with draw distance settings maximised, enemies would occasionally detect and attack me before they became clearly visible on screen. While most of the station consists of tight corridors where this is less noticeable, the larger areas later in the game can result in frustrating situations where the first indication of an enemy's presence is a plasma bolt impacting your face. The interface is generally clear and easy to read, but some quality-of-life improvements would be welcome. It is easy to forget which cybernetic modules are currently active and accidentally drain energy reserves. A more prominent indicator for active upgrades would help considerably. Several default control settings are also questionable. I strongly recommend disabling automatic toolbar sorting, changing aim-down-sights to a toggle, and enabling toggle crouch. These small adjustments make the game considerably more comfortable to play. The game's retro visual style, which I did say I enjoyed, occasionally works against it during puzzle sections. Certain puzzles require identifying specific symbols or patterns, and the deliberately chunky textures can sometimes make important details harder to distinguish than they should be. The Ugly: The Cyberspace sections are easily the weakest part of the game. Nearly every deck contains at least one mandatory Cyberspace encounter, most are required for progression. These sequences take place in a six-degrees-of-freedom virtual environment reminiscent of the Descent games. Unfortunately, they were never fun and quickly become repetitive on top of that. Movement felt floaty, weapons (of which there is only two) lack impact, enemy variety is extremely limited, and the objectives never evolved beyond entering a room, destroying enemies, avoiding mines, and shooting a central structure to unlock a nearby door. The original System Shock's Cyberspace sequences were apparently controversial as well, and after playing the remake, it seems like NightDive committed to the bit. Looking back, I wish I had lowered the Cyberspace difficulty before starting my playthrough, not because they were hard, but because they were tedious. The boss encounters are similarly disappointing. With the exception of the final confrontation, most can be solved using the same basic strategy: hide behind cover, throw an EMP grenade, then unload damage while the target is stunned. After the creativity and freedom offered throughout the rest of the game, the bosses feel surprisingly simplistic. Conclusion: System Shock succeeds because it respects the player's intelligence. It expects you to observe your surroundings, pay attention to information, make notes, and gradually build a mental understanding of the station. In an era where games are terrified of letting players become lost, System Shock is refreshingly confident in its design. The station is fascinating to explore, the atmosphere is exceptional, and uncovering its secrets is consistently engaging. Just be prepared for a lot of backtracking, some disappointing boss fights, and Cyberspace sequences that wear out your patience.

[h3]I had to play this game for a while, before I realized what a masterpiece it really is.[/h3] Requires attention and deliberate slowdown: you'll need to listen to audio logs to unfold the story, make notes on the map, manage resources/inventory and use your brain to find your way as there's no handholding. All of this mixes well with the tense space-horror atmosphere, which is very original and genuinely unsettling at times, yet there's some dark humor to it as well. I jumped into this game with an FPS-mentality and came out understanding what an immersive sim is. (BTW it runs well on Steam Deck, but a desktop with KB/M and bigger screen, is where the gameplay really shines)

Это очень крутая игра для 1994 года. К сожалению, ремейк слишком близок к оригиналу, игру нужно было гораздо сильнее переделывать.

Душное говно, мне понравилось, рекомендую.

While i did enjoy this game for hours upon hours i feel like i get more frustrated to the point i'm not having fun anymore I can see why people enjoy this game i enjoyed a lot of this game but i'm at the beta grove section and i just don't like the game anymore so i quit, its not just that but before i've been having problems with the map sometimes it just feels difficult trying to know what the game wants of you it feels like in some sections you straight up need a guide and i don't like games that do that, i don't like hand holding in games but i also don't like not knowing where to go next in a huge maze. I understand its a remake but i feel like that is a thing that should have been changed i don't think remakes should change everything but some maps in this i just do not have fun with, the inventory system feels pretty dumb like i love inventory systems but in this one it feels like your given 5 new guns every level but they take up most the inventory and the game doesn't feel like its built for this new inventory system. I haven't played the original game but the radiation system is just dumb to me as well Again i can see why people would enjoy this game but i feel so frustrated that i'm not having fun anymore personally shodan is the best part hands down

This game is incredible and I'm in love. 90s dungeon crawler remake down to kinda being "turn based fps" more than cover shooter. Be ready to note stuff down. Challenging but worth it, looks stunning, runs well. Only bug to sour this is sometimes the audio buzzes

If you liked Deus EX, Theif, and System Shock 2 back in the early 2000s, then this remake is faithful to the time when games were a challenge and using guides were helpful and the game didn't hold your hand. I haven't felt this kind of challenge in a game a long time.

Laser Rapier go slash. me like Laser Rapier.