System Shock (2023) is a complete remake of the original 1994 Looking Glass Studios classic by remaster pros Nightdive. They've rebuilt the game in Unreal Engine, preserving its look and level design while updating a few areas (the recyclers are not present in the original game, for example). The result feels like a 90's game with its lack of direction (it can be hard to figure out what to do in System Shock) as well as its labyrinthine level design, which gave me flashbacks of wandering around in Dark Forces, a Star Wars shooter released in 1994. You're a hacker blackmailed into infiltrating Citadel Station, a space station taken over by a rouge AI named Shodan, who has transformed the crew into grotesque cyborgs or mutants. You do this mostly by sneaking around and running and gunning. System Shock is a first person shooter, but it's also a survival game. Health packs are extremely scarce, and you might find yourself running back to the initial Medical level to heal yourself in a medical bed. The floors of the space station are independent levels that you can access anytime if you meander back to the right elevator. Weapon ammo isn't quite as scarce, but you'll run out of the ammunition for the stronger weapons pretty quickly, and you'll then need to either find more ammo or scrounge up enough coins by recycling junk to pay for ammo in a vending machine. You'll also receive cybernetic implants that can aid gameplay, such as an energy shield you can toggle.
The enemy design is pretty good. You'll face various cyborgs, imp-like mutants, hovering robots, and track-based turrets, as well as bosses like the heavily armored Harvester. Making your way through a level requires careful referencing of the map, since even with the updated graphics (which are pretty great) you'll still struggle to recognize where you are. System Shock feels like a dungeon crawler, and given that all the individual elements of its design are excellent, it can be a very addictive, immersive experience. There are also several puzzles, most of which involve rerouting power circuits to open a door, and they can be pretty tough, despite being somewhat reminiscent of Bioshock's pipe mini-game. Another facet of the game is cyberspace, which has been redesigned into a Descent-like shooter. I found these sections okay, and apparently they're a big improvement over the wireframe design of the original, but I was thankful that there are only a few of them.
Shodan is an iconic villain, and her taunting presence and disembodied mishmash of a voice will haunt your journey through Citadel Station. I do wish Nightdive had implemented some sort of objective system. Adding a quest arrow would've ruined the game; I mean like just a list in your inventory stating what you're supposed to be doing for every level. The game wants you to figure out your objectives by listening to audio logs, but that depends on finding the correct log and putting two and two together. For example, you're supposed to destroy all the CPU nodes on every floor of Citadel Station, and I'm not really sure if I found a log stating that that was a goal of the Station's resistance. You'll also have no idea what these CPU nodes look like. I ended up consulting a walkthrough when I got stuck, and while that might be a turn-off to some, it save me a lot of frustration.
If you can stomach 90's design conventions (this is more of a remaster in some respects than a remake) System Shock is a great game, especially if you're fan of its descendants, such as Deus Ex and Prey. It's also worth mentioning that it runs great, and I was able to keep a steady 144 frames per second at 1440p maxed settings on my RTX 3080/ Ryzen 7 5880x.
Screenshots below:
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