KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Tyranicon]

My main problem, and the thing that will probably hurt SS the most, is just how bad the combat still feels after so many years.

Are the devs slavishly adhering to the original? It definitely feels like you're playing an old ass game, and not in a good way.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3726930

How To Access The Steam Next Fest Demo? Steps Inside​

Hello everyone,

We released a brand new Beta Demo of System Shock for Steam Next Fest!

If you're a Kickstarter backer, and have "System Shock" in your Steam library already, here's how to access the Steam Next Fest Demo:

• >Right-click on System Shock in your Steam library, click "Properties"
• >In the "Betas" tab, click the drop down and select "Steam Next Fest Demo".

Steam should automatically switch you to that branch and will begin downloading the brand new Beta Demo as featured in Steam Next Fest.

Thank you as always for backing our game and for playing the demo!

We're looking forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to polish everything up for release next month!

Daniel G.

System Shock Producer, Night Dive Studios

 

[Theodora]

All in all, seems like a marked improvement from the last demo. At this rate, I'm looking forward to the full game in 5 years or so. Wait, what do you mean it's finished?

Didn't realise it was coming in March, that's so soon! :D I never played the original SS, but I'd guess this is essentially a brand new game based on the setting/plot of the original?

Either way, if people say it's coming along well, I'm pretty excited for another good immersive sim. ^^

 

[Lord of Riva]

All in all, seems like a marked improvement from the last demo. At this rate, I'm looking forward to the full game in 5 years or so. Wait, what do you mean it's finished?

Didn't realise it was coming in March, that's so soon! :D I never played the original SS, but I'd guess this is essentially a brand new game based on the setting/plot of the original?

Either way, if people say it's coming along well, I'm pretty excited for another good immersive sim. ^^

"It's coming so soon" is pretty, uh, special in this case. 8 Years in development. It's basically a full remake, even if they have taken loads of liberties in the design, AFAICT it's not really the same game in spirit but it's similar enough, we only have the first level to go on though, so we may not know how well it is made.

I would not call either the original an immersive sim though, the first SS is pretty much an action game, with some exceptionally wierd and innovative features, for it's time.
I would really, really, recommend you to play the original first, Nightdive has released an updated version as well, get that one, it's dirt cheap often and you don't get cancer playing the game due to a lot of nonsenical controls.

https://af.gog.com/de/game/system_shock_enhanced_edition?as=1649904300

I mean it, play the original first and bask in it's odd glory.

 

[Theodora]

I would not call either the original an immersive sim though, the first SS is pretty much an action game, with some exceptionally wierd and innovative features, for it's time.
I would really, really, recommend you to play the original first, Nightdive has released an updated version as well, get that one, it's dirt cheap often and you don't get cancer playing the game due to a lot of nonsenical controls.

I have access to the original (the improved version anyway), and mean to give it a shot; it just takes me being in a certain kind of mindset to be able to get into games that are older than me.

I didn't mean that the original was an immersive sim, but rather I expected that this remake would take liberties in design from its sequel and the general direction of that genre. I could of course be completely incorrect about that.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I would not call either the original an immersive sim though, the first SS is pretty much an action game, with some exceptionally wierd and innovative features, for it's time.
I would really, really, recommend you to play the original first, Nightdive has released an updated version as well, get that one, it's dirt cheap often and you don't get cancer playing the game due to a lot of nonsenical controls.

I have access to the original (the improved version anyway), and mean to give it a shot; it just takes me being in a certain kind of mindset to be able to get into games that are older than me.

I didn't mean that the original was an immersive sim, but rather I expected that this remake would take liberties in design from its sequel and the general direction of that genre. I could of course be completely incorrect about that.

You have to get into that for sure, in this case however I am pretty sure you will miss out on how and where the remake is lacking or improved you should do it, even if playing the old one can be a bit exhaustive at times, especially cyberspace. But you do you, it's how I would do it.

And fair enough, how far the changes go are anyones guess, at least I am not a backer, so I'm not sure if those guys know more *shrug*

 

[Maggot]

I would not call either the original an immersive sim

Why not? If you go with the design philosophy approach it went out of its way to include a lot of simulationist features ranging from light based detection so you can hide in the dark from monsters, sound detection, an interactive world with smashable lights and monitors, the wacky stamina/chi system, the weird bipedal skeleton system where your camera lurches as you move and lets you lean around corners without it just feeling like your camera is tilted, the ammo system with different penetration and damage types along with reloading and unloading in a 1994 game. Sure it doesn't have simulation on the level of the Dark Engine with its fancy object hierarchy and stim/response but they did go out of their way to give you a believable world in 1994 and there's plenty of features you may not have realized the game even had without digging through the source code.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I would not call either the original an immersive sim

Why not? If you go with the design philosophy approach it went out of its way to include a lot of simulationist features ranging from light based detection so you can hide in the dark from monsters, sound detection, an interactive world with smashable lights and monitors, the wacky stamina/chi system, the weird bipedal skeleton system where your camera lurches as you move and lets you lean around corners without it just feeling like your camera is tilted, the ammo system with different penetration and damage types along with reloading and unloading in a 1994 game. Sure it doesn't have simulation on the level of the Dark Engine with its fancy object hierarchy and stim/response but they did go out of their way to give you a believable world in 1994 and there's plenty of features you may not have realized the game even had without digging through the source code.

No issue with your position really, it's just not there in my eyes. It's a first person action game in my eyes, feels like an elaborate doom. Genres are wonky, i don't mean anything ill with that, i love me some SS1.

 

[schru]

I would not call either the original an immersive sim though, the first SS is pretty much an action game, with some exceptionally wierd and innovative features, for it's time.
I would really, really, recommend you to play the original first, Nightdive has released an updated version as well, get that one, it's dirt cheap often and you don't get cancer playing the game due to a lot of nonsenical controls.

I have access to the original (the improved version anyway), and mean to give it a shot; it just takes me being in a certain kind of mindset to be able to get into games that are older than me.

I didn't mean that the original was an immersive sim, but rather I expected that this remake would take liberties in design from its sequel and the general direction of that genre. I could of course be completely incorrect about that.

I would sincerely encourage you to play the original game first and even the DOS version without the ‘enhancements’. While mouse-look is what we're used to and is very convenient, the game wasn't balanced for it and the combat gets trivialized somewhat by its inclusion. Two major elements that are incontestably inferior in the remake are the music and the visual style of the Cyberspace.

I also played the game many years after its release and while it is daunting at first, but one learns all that's needed to play it in the first level. The original controls take a little to get used to, but they're somewhat like the current WASD configuration, except that R and V are used for looking up and down, S and X to move forwards and backwards, while the mouse always remains in the free ‘point and click’ mode. Consult the manual and quick reference card; they're on replacementdocs.com if they're not included with Night Dive's version.

If setting up DOSBox is a problem, I list the basic steps to follow. Finally, I'd also add that the music was composed on the Roland SC-55, which means that in order to hear the MIDI music in its proper form one needs either to have the actual synthesizer or the more recently released Sound Canvas VA, a software synthesizer that emulates one of the related SC devices which contains a map for the instruments in the SC-55 module. The Enhanced Edition just uses the default MIDI device in the system, probably because it wasn't possible to record samples for the system of dynamic music in the game.

The game will also look nicer if played with C.R.T. shaders included with some of the custom builds of DOSBox, such as DOSBox-X (crt-lottes.tweaked.glsl is pretty good, even if it doesn't specifically emulate a PC C.R.T. screen).

I would not call either the original an immersive sim

Why not? If you go with the design philosophy approach it went out of its way to include a lot of simulationist features ranging from light based detection so you can hide in the dark from monsters, sound detection, an interactive world with smashable lights and monitors, the wacky stamina/chi system, the weird bipedal skeleton system where your camera lurches as you move and lets you lean around corners without it just feeling like your camera is tilted, the ammo system with different penetration and damage types along with reloading and unloading in a 1994 game. Sure it doesn't have simulation on the level of the Dark Engine with its fancy object hierarchy and stim/response but they did go out of their way to give you a believable world in 1994 and there's plenty of features you may not have realized the game even had without digging through the source code.

No issue with your position really, it's just not there in my eyes. It's a first person action game in my eyes, feels like an elaborate doom. Genres are wonky, i don't mean anything ill with that, i love me some SS1.

As far as the action aspect goes, Doom is incomparably superior to System Shock.

 

[Venser]

Playing a System Shock demo every year is already becoming a tradition

But we will get a NEW demo now! Rejoice!

Oh great, it's medical all over again. Hate the playable intro. Combat feels like absolute shit, the first Unity demo had better combat. AI is dumb as hell and enemies can't do shit. The robot spinning animation was so bad it had me rolling. The new green glow healing effects of the medipatchis annoying and stays on the screen for way too long. Why can we pick up every useless item in the game? I bet the new players will be so confused why half of it looks like it does something but actually doesn't. They changed room layout again for no reason. If you're playing on nostalgia factor then keep it the same as original. The new SHODAN avatar looks lame.

I'll play the game when it comes out and I'll probably enjoy it but I gotta say all my hype for this game was killed a long time ago. The first Unity demo was so promising...

 

[Lord of Riva]

Playing a System Shock demo every year is already becoming a tradition

But we will get a NEW demo now! Rejoice!

Oh great, it's medical all over again. Hate the playable intro. Combat feels like absolute shit, the first Unity demo had better combat. AI is dumb as hell and enemies can't do shit. The robot spinning animation was so bad it had me rolling. The new green glow healing effects of the medipatchis annoying and stays on the screen for way too long. Why can we pick up every useless item in the game? I bet the new players will be so confused why half of it looks like it does something but actually doesn't. They changed room layout again for no reason. If you're playing on nostalgia factor then keep it the same as original. The new SHODAN avatar looks lame.

I'll play the game when it comes out and I'll probably enjoy it but I gotta say all my hype for this game was killed a long time ago. The first Unity demo was so promising...

Just to point out, you can "vaporize" pretty much everything and recycle the results to get money. That money can be invested in Ammunition and Upgrades. Just if you have missed that.

 

[Venser]

Playing a System Shock demo every year is already becoming a tradition

But we will get a NEW demo now! Rejoice!

Oh great, it's medical all over again. Hate the playable intro. Combat feels like absolute shit, the first Unity demo had better combat. AI is dumb as hell and enemies can't do shit. The robot spinning animation was so bad it had me rolling. The new green glow healing effects of the medipatchis annoying and stays on the screen for way too long. Why can we pick up every useless item in the game? I bet the new players will be so confused why half of it looks like it does something but actually doesn't. They changed room layout again for no reason. If you're playing on nostalgia factor then keep it the same as original. The new SHODAN avatar looks lame.

I'll play the game when it comes out and I'll probably enjoy it but I gotta say all my hype for this game was killed a long time ago. The first Unity demo was so promising...

Just to point out, you can "vaporize" pretty much everything and recycle the results to get money. That money can be invested in Ammunition and Upgrades. Just if you have missed that.

I didn't miss it but it's super annoying OCD inducing shit, like hugging every wall in Wolfenstein 3D so you don't miss a secret. Not to mention it's visually confusing cause sometimes you can't tell if you're picking up something useful or another junk.

 

[Venser]

Oh and I like the look of cyberspace even tho it's very easy to get lost inside.

 

[kangaxx]

When this game was first announced I hadn't even met the mother of my kids. The fact he's still working on this project is unbelievable to me. I'll probably play it and be disappointed when it comes out, but no way I'm downloading that demo for the fifth time or whatever it is.

As a System Shock dork this somewhat pains me.

 

[Whisper]

Exact release day?

 

[randir14]

Exact release day?

They've only said March, no exact date yet.

 

[Tyranicon]

I bet the new players will be so confused why half of it looks like it does something but actually doesn't.

Yeah, as a new player I clicked on everything to see if it did anything. I thought it was just me being stupid and more observant players would know what is actually interactable.

I was however rewarded in the (completely pointless) intro where you can go around your apartment, opening the fridge, take a shower, turn off lights, etc.

It's mostly there just for fluff, but every new dev wants to let you tinker around an apartment.

I'm doing this. I'm releasing a demo with an apartment. Thatsthejoke.png. At least you can have sex in my version.

 

[pOcHa]

really glad i didn't preorder it last year (that would be a first for me) after playing the enhanced edition - it is already perfectly fine like that

the only incentive was that they were throwing in a SS2 enhanced edition (who knows when now) - but the biggest part of that game was the mysterious atmosphere, and the dreaded uncertainty of what is behind every corner (or respawned in a room you just left)... so is it replayble at all once you know everything in advance already?

the only other two games i ever replayed in my life were gothics and deus ex

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Tried the demo out. Seems okay. My general impression was there were good things and bad things compared to the original, and it came out enough of a wash that I'm not excited to play the full version of this but it'll probably be worth a play at some point. I think the worst part about it is I wasn't getting enough of a feeling of System Shock out of it, and that might be due to the music. SS1 and 2 both have pretty great music when the game-proper gets rolling and I had hopes for this with hints of it in the intro sequence but once I was crawling around medical it was too quiet. There's other stuff that can't be judged well until the full version like the SS2ification of it with scrap and credits and shit, but eh.

 

[Lemming42]

I feel like a dick just constantly whining about this game but I'm playing the demo and I fundamentally don't get the idea behind it. It just plays like SS1 but with lower lighting and - peculiarly - slightly worse combat, given the lack of options and fluid movement that the player had in SS1. The pipe in particular is really weird, it has like no feeling of impact when enemies are struck with it.

The original has a higher enemy count, punchier combat, and you can actually see where you're going, so there's no real reason not to just play it (or, rather, Enhanced Edition for the necessary QoL improvements). The only advantage this remake has is Cyberspace, which is far better than the original's shitshow.

The only real value of a remake like this would be in the visuals department but the bad decision to use ugly-ass pixellated textures sort of undermines even that.

To beat a dead horse, the tonal changes suck ass as well - all the logs are whispered weeping, the music is fucking gone, the game has no sense of attitude or urgency. The original is "fucking hell, the station's going to blow up (and a mining laser is going to fire at earth and a virus is being grown in the gardens etc etc) in a few hours, oh GOD oh GOD, we've got to get fucking cracking", while the remake evokes the feeling of wandering around half-asleep at 2 AM at your girlfriend's house looking for the toilet.

Oh yeah and they made the Hacker go from having a shitty thinning ponytail to a lame undercut. I'm glad his hair still sucks, for that is his defining character trait alongside his Watchmen t-shirt (which is gone), but I object hugely to the change.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I haven't played the demo, but there is no way the original had "punchier combat" unless the new game is like two wet paper bags flapping against each other.

 

[whydoibother]

When this game was first announced I hadn't even met the mother of my kids. The fact he's still working on this project is unbelievable to me. I'll probably play it and be disappointed when it comes out, but no way I'm downloading that demo for the fifth time or whatever it is.

Talking about Mount&Blade 2: Bannerlord?

 

[Lemming42]

I haven't played the demo, but there is no way the original had "punchier combat" unless the new game is like two wet paper bags flapping against each other.

Try it out. Melee has literally no impact at all, to the point where it's hard to describe. It's like the enemies aren't there, your pipe/wrench just swings straight through them. I now have the Sparq, the Minipistol and a weird Magpulse thing that I don't remember being in the original - not the late-game cannon, it's a handheld thing. The minipistol is okay but the Sparq and the Magpulse are terrible, they have no recoil or sense of power or anything. They're like Half-Life 2 weapons but even shitter. The freeform aiming in the original at least made the Sparq feel a little bit cool, like a phaser capable of precise shooting, and the interface with the power slider was fun to mess around with (you can still change the power but rather than modifying the slider you now select from three power settings from the inventory menu).

The original also forced you to reload guns manually by actually clicking on the interface, while the remake just has you press "R". This is perhaps understandable, but it loses another aspect of SS1's frantic feel, where you're fumbling about trying to swap out ammo types and load weapons while under attack. If they wanted to just dispense with all the finicky stuff and make it into a straight FPS they probably could have done, but this gunplay isn't up to scratch for that.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

The combat in the new demo does feel better and the sounds are not completely messed up, so I guess they made some progress compared to the previous demo I've tried (don't even remember when that was). Honestly, this seems like it could be a decent buy for something like ten bucks, one playthrough and a free copy of SS2 EE. But the pricing they've set up for this of course ensures DOA status so thanks for all the hard work over the last decade or however long that was.

 

[Naraya]

The combat in the new demo does feel better and the sounds are not completely messed up, so I guess they made some progress compared to the previous demo I've tried (don't even remember when that was). Honestly, this seems like it could be a decent buy for something like ten bucks, one playthrough and a free copy of SS2 EE. But the pricing they've set up for this of course ensures DOA status so thanks for all the hard work over the last decade or however long that was.

I haven't really followed development of this game but now that you mentioned the price I took a look and... well, good luck!