Like the original, this remade System Shock isn’t what I’d call scary: I didn’t feel terrified playing it unlike my time with System Shock 2. It’s a nice nod to the original while appealing to modern gamers.

Environments are much more detailed now, obviously, with enemies and textures much more visually pleasing. The game opens with the player waking up in a medical bay onboard Citadel Station after being given a cybernetic enhancement in exchange for unlocking the constraints on Shodan and the most immediate difference between the original and the remake is the visuals, which mixes modern lighting and level detail with a nice pixelated look to it. Eight years later – and a move to Unreal – Nightdive’s vision is upon us and what a spectacular remake it is, despite a rather rocky road to get here. Work started on the remake of Looking Glass’ action adventure game in 2015, funding through a successful crowd funding scheme and originally using Unity.

I remember playing it with the lights on so I didn’t get spooked by infected crew members.įast forward to 2023 and we’ve seen the release of a remade System Shock from retro game specialist studio Nightdive Studios (Only available on PC at the moment but is coming to consoles later this year). System Shock 2 sees the player filling the combat boots of a solider who has to stop the spread of a genetic infection that has broken out on a starship and if my hazy memory serves me correctly it was a lot more gruesome and gory (for the time) than the original was.

However it did enough to garner a sequel in 1999. The game was universally praised for its gameplay by critics but was only a moderate commercial success. Set aboard a space station in 2072, the player assumed the role of a hacker who must thwart the evil plans of Shodan, a genuinely unsettling AI who was quite terrifying. In 1994, Looking Glass Technologies introduced rogue AI Shodan to the world in the original System Shock.

System shock remaster unity vs unreal