KickStarter System Shock 1 Remake by Nightdive Studios

[Morenatsu.]

The scariness of SS1 is greatly enhanced by the original controls. Meanwhile in SS2 I was doing backflips all of the time to keep the instantly respawning enemies off me. That's a different kind of tension, I guess.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

the original game to me is more like 1970s cold sci-fi (2001, The Andromeda Strain, THX-1138, etc.).

Like in SS2.

 

[agentorange]

this is a pre-release trailer for system shock 2. it was always presented as being an action game with horror elements. that kind of action/horror mix, coming off of stuff like Aliens and Predator, was very popular in the 90s. the exaggeration of the horror stuff and people making it out to be a pure horror game all came after the fact (I think a lot of this had to do with articles written about the game often having pictures of the most horror-ish scenes of the game, like the guy who has hanged himself or the ghost, and sans the heavy electronic score it made the game seem far more somber than it really was. people would read that stuff then talk about the game without having played it because the game was borderline impossible to play for a long time on operating systems like XP, which perpetuated the myth that it was some story heavy horror game).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

junction point's design document refers to it as a "techno-horror" game

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

People think about SS2 as a scary game, because it was a scary game and pretty unanimously considered so when it released. Again, if you weren't there then just read any on-release reviews and you're p. much guaranteed to have a large part of it devoted to the atmosphere and all manner of things connected to it. A lot of games since then tried to emulate what SS2 did, often attempting to shamelessly copy certain elements 1:1, and none of them were even half as successful when it comes to the spooks. I mean, compare Miller/Bloome, Diego or Korenchkin arcs to audiologs from bioshock, dead space or prey.

 

[Ash]

for the people arguing graphics don't matter, I have a game for you

This is ugly because of art direction not graphical fidelity - mostly the devs laziness to even bother inserting decoration in the level, but also choice of color pallete.

Additionally, people said it doesn't matter "much". Which in this thread of all threads (dedicated to a relatively ugly game from 1994) people should understand...yet the human race never fails to disappoint.

SS2 is a scary game. Far from the scariest, but also far from being not horror also. Here is an instance where GRAPHICS could help, and also art direction a little -- it never being dark is a missed opportunity. Also gameplay design: notice this is pretty much the only legit horror game with unrestricted saving, so you don't really fear losing your life when you know can just place down a quicksave at any time, namely the moment you start to feel a little scared or apprehensive.

Lol at people saying SS2 is not scary because it features drum & bass. It's almost like these people never got passed engineering tubes. Also DnB can be kind of scary all on it's own:

People think about SS2 as a scary game, because it was a scary game

You used the words "revisionist history" in the Prey thread. Here we are once more eh...So tiring.

People are pretty much claiming it's a jump scare simulator, despite there not being any jumpscares (unless random enemy spawning creates one via emergent gameplay). Did you guys not press the "U" key and listen to the audio logs? Pretty horrific sub-stories in there that really get the imagination going. The sound design is peak. Some of the music tracks really get you on edge. The gameplay is relatively oppressive despite the quicksaves and regen chambers. The many is fucked up body horror. Jump scares? Where? It's more the atmosphere, sound, and mental concepts that creates the horror rather than jump scares or the visual experience (you don't SEE that much horror, it isn't ever dark etc).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

for the people arguing graphics don't matter, I have a game for you

This is ugly because of art direction not graphical fidelity - mostly the devs laziness to even bother inserting decoration in the level, but also choice of color pallete.

Additionally, people said it doesn't matter "much". Which in this thread of all threads (dedicated to a relatively ugly game from 1994) people should understand. But the human race never fails to disappoint.

You said graphics are the least important thing. I suggest you give redaxium a try and leave a review in the dev's subforum here on the codex, he'll be elated to read it.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

this is a pre-release trailer for system shock 2. it was always presented as being an action game with horror elements. that kind of action/horror mix, coming off of stuff like Aliens and Predator, was very popular in the 90s. the exaggeration of the horror stuff and people making it out to be a pure horror game all came after the fact (I think a lot of this had to do with articles written about the game often having pictures of the most horror-ish scenes of the game, like the guy who has hanged himself or the ghost, and sans the heavy electronic score it made the game seem far more somber than it really was. people would read that stuff then talk about the game without having played it because the game was borderline impossible to play for a long time on operating systems like XP, which perpetuated the myth that it was some story heavy horror game).

The only knowledge I had for SS2 when I played it for the first time was my previous experience with SS1. I didn't read any article or see any picture, and SS2 completely surprised me for the incredible tense and scary atmosphere (and yes, I turned off the music, because it was a repetitive loop).

The only games that scared me more than SS2 were some levels of Thief and maybe Silent Hill 2, that I played some years later.

 

[Ash]

The only games that scared me more than SS2 were some levels of Thief and maybe Silent Hill 2, that I played some years later.

Bruh...Silent Hill 2, now THAT's a non-scary game. Play Silent Hill 1.

 

[Semiurge]

the original game to me is more like 1970s cold sci-fi (2001, The Andromeda Strain, THX-1138, etc.).

Like in SS2.

SS2 is more like 80's scifi -

 

[Ash]

the original game to me is more like 1970s cold sci-fi (2001, The Andromeda Strain, THX-1138, etc.).

Like in SS2.

SS2 is more like 80's scifi -

Again focusing on the visual aspect.

The earth needs to be cleansed of all decline enablers!

 

[Semiurge]

the original game to me is more like 1970s cold sci-fi (2001, The Andromeda Strain, THX-1138, etc.).

Like in SS2.

SS2 is more like 80's scifi -

Again focusing on the visual aspect.

The earth needs to be cleansed of all decline enablers!

I'm aware that hacking and cyberspace stuff are the only scifi elements there that haven't been around since the fifties.

 

[Ivan]

SS2's spiders still spook me

 

[Morenatsu.]

Also gameplay design: notice this is pretty much the only legit horror game with unrestricted saving, so you don't really fear losing your life when you know can just place down a quicksave at any time, namely the moment you start to feel a little scared or apprehensive.

It's true, nothing is more horrifying than gay annoying checkpoints in shitty dumb places and ‘guess where you should save lol’ minigames.

 

[Average Manatee]

SS2 horror still holds up precisely because there's zero scripted jump scares and instead the horror (or... feeling of dread might be better terminology) comes from the gameplay, the resource utilization/management, running into a random spawn just when you stopped peeking around corners, and the fact that 90% of fights just chew up your resources.

Incidentally I'm replaying Dead Space 1 right now and it really shows why random spawns are needed. There's no penalty at all to constantly running back to the stasis recharge stations and meleeing everything to break the economy, or running back to an upgrade bench to upgrade your weapon capacity for free ammo every time you run dry, or dragging explosive barrels across multiple rooms to help with big fights. SS2's random respawns were actually really light and very forgiving but just the small chance of needing to fight more enemies greatly disincentivized running back to another deck to abuse constant cheap medbay healing or free energy recharges. And just walking around constantly knowing that nothing will ever pop out and fight you on this spooky, dark, loud, beaten down spacecraft unless you progress a plot objective absolutely destroys a lot of the tension.

 

[Bad Sector]

this is a pre-release trailer for system shock 2. it was always presented as being an action game with horror elements.

Game trailers are dumb, especially for immersive sims as they always focus on action elements even though you might spend 90% the actual game exploring the world and experimenting with mechanics and only 10% shooting things as action is easier to market.

 

[Jenkem]

this shit isn't out yet?

 

[Daedalos]

We got some REAL survival horror experts in this thread it seems.

I'm glad, because I'm having so much trouble trying to figure out what is good and what's not.

 

[randir14]

New update in which they reiterate the March release. They seem sure of it this time, giving credit to Prime Matter who picked up the publishing rights a year ago.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3699917

January 2023 Update​

Welcome to a New Year, Hackers

After our return from Gamescom we’ve been hesitant to share anything so as not to spoil any remaining surprises we have in store. However, we’ve picked a few last things to share before our quickly approaching launch window of March, 2023.

As some of you have already pointed out this is not our first time announcing a tentative launch window, but over the past few years much has changed - the scope and scale of the project has evolved dramatically and with Prime Matter joining the project it’s enabled us to focus on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixing, and localization support - the last major steps towards releasing a game we’re all incredibly proud of. This has also given us time to go back and polish various aspects of the game that needed that extra shine.

Variants, Effects, and Features

When accessing a locked area, you’ll now scan the appropriate card to gain entry.

PLAY
Citadel has gone through a bit of a makeover and is ready for her big finale.

We’ve created some Enemy Variants to provide new challenges to the player in later levels.

This new enemy type is a call-back to an original we initially omitted, but decided to include.

PLAY
Diego will be making numerous appearances throughout the game - here is a sneak peek at one such incarnation.

Updated effects for the weapons, like the Plasma Rifle, provide a final level of polish.

PLAY
As you know dismemberment has been a high priority for us and every enemy is receiving a completely custom dismemberment model - there are a lot of enemies and the amount of effort being spent on this is staggering. Here’s a look at how the Avian Mutant will perish.

PLAY
Until next time -

The System Shock Team

Be sure to follow us on:

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See you next time!

 

[mkultra]

Looks great, love the gibs.
I do wonder if the gibs are mostly a thing after death though, that would be disappointing.. calculating that in combat is probably complex / demanding, after death not so much..

 

[Katana1000S]

It does look good ... after all.

 

[Nikanuur]

Is it only me, or did they really tone down the initial, ever-present, overly bright lightning?

 

[randir14]

Is it only me, or did they really tone down the initial, ever-present, overly bright lightning?

It was bright in the Unity demo, but it's been darker ever since they switched to UE4.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I still like much more the old Unity graphics.

 

[kangaxx]

Well nobody can accuse them of rushing this one out. Hopefully the finished product justifies the development time.. I badly want more games in this kind of genre.