System Shock Review

A lone hacker trapped aboard Citadel Station must fight and sneak through horrible mutants, killer robots and a monstrous AI in order to stop SHODAN’s plan to create gods. The shooter combat has been brought up to modern standards, but you’ll still need to match your bullets to enemies carefully.

Gameplay

One of the pioneering immersive sims, System Shock, puts you in a terrifying environment and lets you explore with a sense of unease. With audio logs, crooked corporation bosses, and a whole space station to explore, the game makes you feel like you’re in danger on every level. While it’s obtuse and requires a lot of backtracking, its mechanics make for an experience that feels more rewarding than modern shooters.

Night Dive Studios is a master of preservation, and this remake only proves that. The team took on the daunting task of updating the 1994 game that started it all, and despite clunky controls and a learning curve that would make Doom blush, they pulled it off with style.

This version of System Shock is a must for fans of sci-fi survival horror. The story is familiar but well executed, and SHODAN is a genuinely villainous AI that makes you fear the future of humanity.

Graphics

System Shock was a pioneer for first-person shooters in many ways. The claustrophobic, nebulous sci-fi world it presented aboard a hostile space station under the control of rogue AI SHODAN is the origin point for many of the most respected games in history.

Despite the fact that it was released in 1994, System Shock is still one of the most innovative games of its genre. It doesn’t try to replicate the real-time 3D graphics of Doom or its contemporaries, but it does capture a more realistic world that’s more believable than the maze-like layouts typical of early shooters.

The game’s level design is still unmatched by its spiritual successors, with a large selection of weapons and a variety of unique enemies to face. However, the game is also notorious for a repetitive enemy AI that forgets about the player at long range and is easily killed by snipers. It’s a shame because the gameplay otherwise is excellent.

Sound

System Shock was one of the pioneering immersive sims, a genre that helped lay the foundation for games like Deus Ex and BioShock. Its story of a space station under the control of a contemptuous AI is fraught with danger and intrigue. Its antagonist, SHODAN, is a memorable character whose flamboyant outbursts and audio logs help us understand her motives.

The soundtrack is a triumph of sound design. From the ambient noise of the ship’s hallways to the dreadful music of SHODAN, it helps convey the sense of isolation and terror that encapsulates the player.

The gameplay is challenging, even on combat difficulty 3. You need to carefully check every corner as you walk through rooms filled with mutants and cyborgs and listen for enemies to blast at you. The lack of hand-holding makes for an engaging experience that doesn’t feel easy or cheap. It is a challenge that’s worth accepting and enjoying. It also helps that it doesn’t rely on artificial set-piece moments.

Replayability

System Shock feels like a game from another time, a primitive product of a more innocent era. But in many ways, it also feels cutting-edge. Its willingness to embrace systems-driven immersion and its reluctance to heavy-handedly guide the player through the experience are attitudes that have come full circle.

The story is familiar, but the setting and the villainous SHODAN make it feel tense and fresh. She has a whole matryoshka of plans to destroy humanity, from space lasers to her grotesque virus, and it’s your job to stop her.

As one of the pioneering immersive sims, System Shock does a great job of dropping you in the environment and leaving it to you to figure out what’s going on. That can mean a lot of backtracking, but the feeling of discovery is always rewarding and earned. It’s a far more satisfying experience than modern shooters that force you to solve environmental puzzles the way they want you to.