System Shock Remake

Of its age. It has a very classical D&D core loop of exploration and resource management across a dungeon full of sci-fi monsters. The game could use a little more explanation on what you are supposed to be doing and pulls some crap on you like hiding key cards in brief cases or requiring you to physically write down some codes.

This might sound like a negative review, but in a world of lots of cookie cutter games playing a modernised 90s design is fresh. Worth it.

This game answers the question of what if they remade the game but stuck to the original approach so you can see what worked and what didn’t. This is largely what Nightdive remasters do and I love (for better and worse) that they mirrored it in adjusting System Shock for a modern release. If you have any love for Thief or the old days of PC gaming, pick this up.

TLDR: Glowing recommendation if you are looking for a survival shooter with a heavy focus on exploration. If you are unsure, the demo is free to try out. Set Hacking to Easy.
As someone who never played the original this was my first introduction to the franchise. So this review will mostly be for people who are new as well.
This game is about being a rat in a maze. You are a hacker, trapped on a deathtrap of a space station built by a dystopian company and now run by a rogue AI named SHODAN who absolutely hates humanity. She is currently powering up a laser to destroy Earth and you have to stop her. The story has some developments, but overall it serves mostly to reinforce the feeling of hopelessness. SHODAN controls nearly everything on the station and she wants you dead. She holds almost all the cards and will spend the next dozen or so hours mocking you for your insignificance. Simple premise. Great execution, especially thanks to the actress who voices her.
The gameplay focusses around scrounging for supplies and finding a way to stop SHODANs plans. Exploration and resource management are the name of the game. The station is a gigantic labyrinth and you have to learn how to navigate it while spending as few bullets and health items as possible. You also have no quest log. While it is usually pretty clear what your current main goal at hand is, you will have to pay close attention to logs and calls to figure out what to do, where to go and what passwords to use. The game mercifully archives all audiologs, text messages and even NPC interactions, but some codes might be only appearing in the level, so have something to write at hand. If everything else fails there is no shame in looking up a guide online, and funnily enough a lot of the guides of the original game also apply here, which shows how close to the source material this remake is.
The game also has multiple difficulty settings, and for the first time I would recommend setting story not to hard, as that adds an instant death timer which can add a welcome challenge, but it also means that you have less time to explore. As a big focus of the game lies on finding clues and the dopamine rush of discovering a new weapon or a large cache of supplies, having to cut that short and ignore some corners because you run out of time might suck on the first playthrough. I also recommend setting Hacking difficulty to Easy no matter what you are doing, for a simple reason:
The game has some shortcomings. The final boss could have been an email, the shotgun is underwhelming, but the single biggest flaw of the game is the hacking minigame. All the intrinsic gameplay loop about exploration, choosing weaponry and upgrades and learning the layout of your prison means nothing for the hacking minigame. You fly a little drone through a colourful mini dungeon, shoot up enemies with annoying movement patterns and unlock some doors. There is little challenge, mostly tedium. The less you have to deal with it, the better, so set it to Easy and just rush through the nonsense.
But apart from that the game offers an amazing survival experience without ever becoming bogged down in tedium (outside of hacking) that I have not seen in many other games of the genre. The demo containing the first floor can be downloaded for free and I recommend giving it a try if any of the above felt even vaguely appealing.
Also **** beta grove.

I never played the original so fair warning. I imagine quite a few people stopped reading right there.
I went into this with a pretty healthy respect for the franchise due to the original games being held in such high regard, though I really didn't know what to expect. I was very happy with what I got. I will say that I heard it was pretty faithful to the original and knowing how games were in the 80s/90s, I put it on normal instead of putting on hard (like I usually would cause you know, I'm a pro of course). That was a mistake I think, and it overall was a little too easy.
Ultimately the game is about exploration. I resisted the urge to use google the entire time, except to check I think once or twice exactly what an upgrade did. Explore Citadel station, find new weapons, resources, ammo, find data logs, information, and the clues needed to progress. There's very little to basically no handholding, except I think on the easiest difficulty. There were points where I had to do a lot of backtracking, and two points in the game where I searched every floor and was looking at every surface for how to progress. I was fine with this though, it was actually refreshing. No one in your ear saying "Hacker! You've got to stop Shodan! Press the red button!" over and over. No yellow paint. Just you, and a mountain of logs you have to dig through sometimes to figure out what to do. If I could go back in time and give myself one piece of advice before playing it would be to take notes.
It's a very polished and fun game. The combat feels good, and managing your resources feels rewarding. I would honestly buy this at full price.

I had a great time with this remake and would give a 9/10. I played System Shock 2 long ago and loved it, but was always too put off by the seemingly archaic nature of SS1 to give it a shot. So when this remake was announced I was very excited! And, for the most part, this game exceeded my expectations.
System Shock, like System Shock 2, is a kind-of immersive sim, kind-of RPG, kind-of FPS, full-on survival horror, action-adventure game. The obvious modern parallel is Prey (2017), which is certainly a spiritual successor to the System Shock series. However, Prey is a bit more full fledged in it's immersive sim and RPG elements. I do think System Shock has better combat than Prey, largely due to the much better enemy variety. It feels like a more polished version of Bioshock, though the Bioshock games blow it away in terms of level design and enemy design. Another game series that I think is similar is Metroid, especially the Metroid Prime games. The pacing and vibes are similar as well as their mix of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving. They also share what I like to call navigational puzzles.
System Shock gives you a basic backstory and drops you off in a spaceship to figure things out on your own, and that is huge part of the appeal. The most famous game I can think of that does this is Super Metroid. The 2D Metroid sequels (Metroid Fusion and Metroid Dread) don't really do this and almost none of the "Metroidvania" clones do either. This game is a prime example of the type of game design that has been eliminated from mainstream gaming in order to create game experiences that are as friction-less as possible. Bioshock is structured and presented in essentially the exact same way as the two System Shock games, but they felt the need to put a big red objective arrow at the top of your screen for the mainstream audience. Bioshock also eliminated "backtracking" which actually eliminates the need to think about exploration in any way. I have seen people complain a lot about the backtracking, but if you bring the level security down to 0%, enemy re-spawns stop. This just requires a basic exploration of each level (it marks the cameras you need to destroy on your map). Once the re-spawns stop, going through a level is quick. Most take around 30 seconds to run through once you have opened up the shortcuts. Understanding the objectives also just requires paying attention to the audio logs (the text only logs are just back-story or hints for extra supplies) and basic exploration. Anytime I was stuck I just went into my inventory and went through the audio logs. This took, at most, 5 minutes and happened 3 or 4 times. I am flabbergasted that this mechanic stops people from finishing this game. The lack of hand-holding enhances the thrill of exploration for me, and is a huge part of the success of this game.
The plot is awesome and the writing is excellent for a game. The music and atmosphere and art design are all top-notch. The game also does not waste your time at all, almost all of the story is delivered to you while you are exploring the ship, playing the game. No drawn out cut scenes here. The overall presentation style is phenomenal and has greatly influenced the game industry. The fact that they pulled that off in 1994 is nuts.
The combat is polished and fun, but a little basic. Enemies are probably a little too accurate, which makes retreat-to-the-last-corner-take-cover-pop-and-shoot the dominate playstyle throughout the game. Melee weapons are very viable early on, but become too risky to use late game IMO. Enemies display basic patterns in their shooting behaviors, leaving obvious openings in which to engage and not get damaged. (I only mention this because I have seen complaints about the combat difficulty, and I think these people are being obtuse.) There is a good mix of ranged weapons and, since you can't carry everything with you, this variety provides some replayability. Like any good survival horror game, resource management is a big part of the game especially early on. If your are decent at aiming, you probably won't have to worry about ammo that much by about the midway point. Healing is pretty sparse right until the end, but the penalty for dying is just half-health in a re-spawn chamber. Sometimes you can abuse this death mechanic. I had tons of ammo and healing items left at the end of the game with the difficulty set to normal, but YMMV based on your FPS gaming abilities.
Overall I loved it and would say it is essential for anyone that loves immersive sims, first-person RPGs, or Metroid Prime-esque games. My save file said 22 hours to complete and I think I played around 25 including reloads on 2-2-2-2 difficulty.

I'll be honest - I bounced off the original System Shock several times. I usually find it pretty easy to adapt to older control schemes but there are flight sims with less complex controls than the original System Shock. I got a bit further with the Enhanced Edition, but it wasn't until this remake that the game truly pulled me in.

This is simultaneously a faithful recreation and a massive overhaul of the original game. Faithful in that the story, dialogue, levels, encounters, etc. are almost a one-to-one copy of the original, but an overhaul in that it adopts a much more familiar first-person control scheme. Let's talk about what hasn't changed first. Each of the ten levels are still enormous, sprawling labyrinths. There's still absolutely no hand-holding - you have to listen to every audio log you find to figure out what you're supposed to be doing (I'd highly recommend taking notes while you play). You'll still frequently end up lost with no idea where to go, what to do, or even what floor of Citadel Station you're supposed to be on. However, the levels always feel like they're designed with intention. They may be vast, but they also make sense and are surprisingly easy to navigate. An excellent map system helps too. There is a lot of backtracking between floors (why Citadel's designers decided against putting in one elevator that goes to every floor is beyond me though), and the lack of any sort of guidance, or even a simple objective list, might put off some players. As I said, it's worth taking your own notes. Or using a guide if you're really stuck - there's no shame, this is pure 90s game design and you will get lost.

Now let's talk about what this remake does differently. Obviously, it's got a huge visual overhaul. I love the new look - models and textures are quite low-fidelity, giving the whole thing a retro vibe, but there is a ton of detail (and some gorgeous lighting) in the environments. Every wall, floor and ceiling of Citadel Station is crammed full of 3D detail, be it pipes, computer terminals, lights, panels, electrical equipment - every room and corridor feels real and tangible. And despite all the clutter, I never had a problem with readability. Doors, switches, etc. are all clearly visible without having to resort to UI elements to point them out. The new control scheme is standard FPS fare. One highlight of the original game was the freedom of movement your character had, and unfortunately a bit of that is lost here, but there's still a ton of depth to the level of interactivity you have with your environment thankfully.

If you're the sort of gamer that likes their games to be a series of cutscenes interspersed with you pointing your character in the direction of a waypoint arrow and holding forward, this probably isn't for you. But if you love games that immerse you in a world that has a true sense of place and ask you to genuinely engage with them, I can't recommend this enough.

Magnificent. I only wish I'd played the original in 1994 - it would have blown my mind.

It is frustrating but still an authentic remake of old school system shock that came out way back in the 90s. I love the art and the feel of the dystopian setting on citadel station with a retro touch to it. My only gripe with this is that it is just too faithful to the point that it has borrowed some of the issues present in the original. As it is an immersive sim to progress there is no objective guidance available and figuring it out from audio logs is not really intuitive and the information always needs to be noted down somewhere. The cyberspace hacking mini game did not age well and should have been scrapped. The combat is slow until a boots upgrade and laser rapier is found which along with a berserk drug and reflex booster just makes you a melee speed demon destroying everything in a few hits even on harder difficulties. Inventory space is far too less for the number of progression items that need to be hauled around. It is flawed but still a good immersive sim.