System Shock

Good atmosphere, good gameplay. Sometimes the level design starts to show its age. The game (without a guide) requires you to read and or listen to a lot of messages for it to make sense. There is no hand holding. I enjoyed it a lot, but would recommend internet guide.

Faithful remake, perfectly blends stealth with fast-paced combat. Sets the example to other studios on how to properly remake an old game.

Having played a good few of its descendants, System Shock was interesting in an archeological sense but man oh man even with this glossy remake this game feels its age. It's a whole lot of clunky combat in sprawling mazes while you constantly pull up your map to try and figure out where to go next. I appreciate a game not holding your hand and slathering the screen in waypoints and objectives, but something about System Shock is just draining to play as you navigate nearly identical corridors with respawning enemies to pick up keys and audio logs that are all variations of 'Man something weird is going on' or 'Oh no SHODAN is killing us'. I didn't finish the game. I got to the last Edward Diego boss fight, which was yet another braindead DPS race; and when I took him out after a few tries, the game spawned several dangerous enemies into his little boss arena with no warning that killed me right after. I decided I didn't care enough to finish the game because nothing about it felt rewarding enough to do so. Honestly just go play Prey instead. It's like System Shock but a better ImSim in just about every way.

10/10