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The upcoming System Shock reboot from Nightdive Studios has seen quite a few ups and downs over the years since the Kickstarter but it's coming together now.

With the recent Realms Deep event, many upcoming shooters of all sorts were shown off. Nightdive was involved in this, and decided to show off their remake of the Cyberspace feature. In the original this was a 3D space you could sort-of fly around in, interact with objects and collect things. In the upcoming reboot, it keeps the same basic style but with obvious modern improvements that ends up also looking a bit like Descent. Check it out:

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On top of that, they also showed off another video diving a bit further into the gore that you will find in System Shock with the dismemberment feature. It's not pretty, obviously, so a fair warning ahead that there's some blood. What's interesting though is this video goes into more of the technical details, and how they can use this system for robotic characters too with destruction. The result is quite impressive.

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How high are your hopes for this? I've tried to keep my own in check but all the latest stuff they're showing has been rather great. It has so much to live up to though, can it? Considering the original went on to inspire many great games and still does today it's going to be tough.

You can follow it on GOG and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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5 comments

dpanter Sep 8, 2020
It will never be as perfect as the impossible fantasy many of us have constructed in our minds, but I have hopes it will be pretty damn good regardless. So far it's looking promising indeed and each new (positive) update has been interesting. Fingers crossed...
LungDrago Sep 9, 2020
I was too young to understand System Shock back in the day, although I do have memories of trying. This remake looks incredible however, I might get my System Shock experience yet.


Last edited by LungDrago on 9 September 2020 at 11:39 am UTC
Anza Sep 9, 2020
Quoting: LungDragoI was too young to understand System Shock back in the day, although I do have memories of trying. This remake looks incredible however, I might get my System Shock experience yet.

Original System Shock was strange, but in odd way still fun to play. It really doesn't play like Doom, which was released year earlier. I think it's closer to sci-fi version of Ultima Underworld.

System Shock also compared to Doom has better immersion in a sense that you have reason for going to places, it's not always about finding the level exit. You can even try to escape the space station.

System Shock 2 though had lot of improvements and felt more like the more a traditional FPS game, but still retained the RPG elements (there's even a grid inventory). Engine had also evolved quite lot, which made it possible to make environments feel bit more real and recognizable.
LungDrago Sep 10, 2020
Quoting: AnzaOriginal System Shock was strange, but in odd way still fun to play. It really doesn't play like Doom, which was released year earlier. I think it's closer to sci-fi version of Ultima Underworld.

System Shock also compared to Doom has better immersion in a sense that you have reason for going to places, it's not always about finding the level exit. You can even try to escape the space station.

System Shock 2 though had lot of improvements and felt more like the more a traditional FPS game, but still retained the RPG elements (there's even a grid inventory). Engine had also evolved quite lot, which made it possible to make environments feel bit more real and recognizable.

Sadly, I never tried SS2 because of my experience with the first one. Grid inventory would help a lot, but I didn't know it had a grid inventory. If I remember correctly, what gave me trouble as a kid was actually the control scheme and user interface. It looked 10x as complicated as Doom and items were represented as text instead of sprites, so a kid like myself who wasn't as yet comfortable with English had no idea what the screen is trying to tell me.
I thought it played more like a Mechwarrior game rather than Doom - and I couldn't play the first MW either. :)
Anza Sep 10, 2020
Quoting: LungDrago
Quoting: AnzaOriginal System Shock was strange, but in odd way still fun to play. It really doesn't play like Doom, which was released year earlier. I think it's closer to sci-fi version of Ultima Underworld.

System Shock also compared to Doom has better immersion in a sense that you have reason for going to places, it's not always about finding the level exit. You can even try to escape the space station.

System Shock 2 though had lot of improvements and felt more like the more a traditional FPS game, but still retained the RPG elements (there's even a grid inventory). Engine had also evolved quite lot, which made it possible to make environments feel bit more real and recognizable.

Sadly, I never tried SS2 because of my experience with the first one. Grid inventory would help a lot, but I didn't know it had a grid inventory. If I remember correctly, what gave me trouble as a kid was actually the control scheme and user interface. It looked 10x as complicated as Doom and items were represented as text instead of sprites, so a kid like myself who wasn't as yet comfortable with English had no idea what the screen is trying to tell me.
I thought it played more like a Mechwarrior game rather than Doom - and I couldn't play the first MW either. :)

I think I must have been already teen when I played System Shock. Also having played RPG:s and System Shock 2 first made original System Shock approachable enough that I was able to get past the steep learning curve.

All that would make me interested in Deus Ex, which again is evolutionary improvement. It even has talking NPC:s.
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