Good game, albeit I had to read the guide in a few sections of the game to proceed.

Let me preface that I did not play the original game.. it would be a few years before I would be born. this is to say that I have no nostalgia, and I was not a kickstarter backer. From what I DO know about the original though it is a faithful remake, very faithful, which I believe is the source of both its greatest strengths and its greatest weaknesses.

looking at the achievements for this game spells a pretty sad story. somewhere between 15-17% of everyone who has bought the game has seen the credits and I think that is likely for a multitude of reasons. I would guess #1 though is the lack of guidance this game gives you. as a fan of the genre and a certified Player Agency enjoyer I found it refreshing on the whole, though times where certain in-game sequences wouldnt trigger when they were supposed to made for some confusing bouts of running back and forth. I dont think floating objective markers would really be the fix here as I think the confusion, that rat-in-a-maze feeling, is core to the game and its identity and it absolutely made every bit of progress I could claw at feel very fulfiling. perhaps just a 'current objective' in your logs, or if the game had some way of indicating which of your MANY logs/emails was objective-relevent at any given time would help a lot. or maybe just an alternate mode you can pick at the start thats more guided on the whole, which would help newcomers and people used to a more handholdey gaming climate and satisfy old fans alike. as it is, I am happy though. I just find it sad how few people have gotten to the end. if I can make a suggestion, use your pins and put a named pin on every single weird/interesting looking thing, locked door, and even just elevators telling you where they go. I didnt realize until about halfway in that I could put labels on my map markers and it made the rest of the game MUCH less of a run around. I would also suggest using steams built in notes feature, or a pen and paper, to note down the various codes you find throughout the game. it will help you immensely.

pros/cons time:

pros:
- Gunplay and movement are top notch. it strikes a good balance between the heavier/slower gunplay of deus ex and the fast action of something like dishonored. lots of the unlocks/upgrades you get along the way directly contribute to the combat and overall I feel like its a super strong point in the game. its just *fun* to play moment to moment which does a lot to help make the running around you might do when you arent sure where to go not feel like a slog.
-visuals. not much to say here, its just a beautiful game. the pixelated textures with the high-fidelity lighting and materials makes for a fantastic looking experience. one of the best examples of art direction today, honestly.
-voice acting. there is TONS of voice acting and its pretty universally good. maybe 1 or 2 logs felt a bit overdramatic but by and large its all great and does a good job selling the horrific nature of the events unfolding around you.
-enemy veriety: there are MANY kinds of enemies and encounters you will have. its the kind of thing that only really struck me writing this, in retrospect, but I think its a huge strength to the game and gives the massive arsenal a lot of room to shine.
-lack of loading screens! other than when you start the game up the exploration is seamless through the station. it does a lot for immersion and just generally shows some technical excellence on the part of the devs.
-great ultrawide support: with the exception of the final cutscene the whole game is presented beautifully in ultrawide, even the credits!
-animations: be it first person, environmental, or on NPC's, the animation work here is fantastic. the player character in particular gets a LOT of characterization through their animations and its just fantastic. these animations are all over the game and they really add to the overall feel of the game.



cons:
-pace: as I mentioned above, if you get tripped up or forget a critical detail from a log you can end up spending a fair amount of time running around and it can drag out certain segments in a way thats not amazing. it doesnt kill the game for me at all but by the achievements its clear it has for many. its hard to harshly criticize the pace though since its largely upon the player to dictate, I think the game could do a bit better to help the player along though.
-cyberspace: there are sort of two 'hacking' minigame styles in the game. one exist as wall panels where you do either a pipe puzzle (a-la bioshock) or a power-management/balancing type of thing. its hard to describe and unlike anything I have seen. neither is particularly great or terrible but they serve their purpose and arent a bother. what is a bother is cyberspace, the actual 'hacking' you do. this is one of those things thats extremely faithful to the original to the games detriment. as in the original its a 6dof flight-sim *thing* and to be completely honest, its just not very fun. it doesnt build on the core skills you develop through playing the main game (except perhaps patience) and can be a bit nauseating due to its inconsistent 'floor'. it probably accounts for 5% or less of the playtime and its not terribly hard so its not something that brings down the game for me too much, but I always dreaded when it would come up. on the upside, its extremely pretty and its clear the devs did as much as they possibly could to faithfully adapt it in a way that wasnt awful but I think its just a flawed concept.
- the finale: at the end you approach a cyberspace entry point and I groaned at the screen. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was walking, and had a gun! it was like the rest of the game! unfortunately, the mechanics are very stripped down (you walk and you shoot. that is all.) and the enemies you are engaging in the finale are all flying enemies from the cyberspace segments while all of your weapons are slow projectile based affairs. worse is that you cannot save and there are lots of ledges and physics based bounce pads. if you- like me- end up falling off of the floating platforms that make up the finale- even if you are *done* but you trip on your way to the ending- then you must restart from the beginning of the finale section. sitting through everything you did, lots of dialogue, and generally just un-fun gameplay. it did not sour the experience of finishing the game for me but man, it was close.


in the end I would wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone with a brain and a computer. its spooky, fun, fast, slow, action packed, interesting.. what im getting at here is that its the complete package. if you are willing to engage with it you will have a fantastic time. hats off to nightdive for getting this over the finish line and for doing so in style. oh and another thing I failed to mention: unlike ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nintendo remakes/remasters they actually put the entire original team in the credits.. AS THEY SHOULD. class act. a second hat off to nightdive for that alone.

Many remakes or remasters, whatever you prefer to call them, tend to suffer from changing too much such that the original vision is mired under the artistic desire to “improve” the art. Nightdive Studios altered the complex gameplay and user interface of the original into something players are more familiar with today while retaining many of the game design choices of the past.

Since Nightdive clung onto those old design ideas most players can expect a difficult but fair experience. Getting fragged will become a past time but that's what quick saves are for. The only time the game appears to be a slog is when the quick save function is disabled, namely during the cyberspace sections, where "losing your connection" means having to replay the entire section of the game.

The modern Bethesda or Call of Duty aficionado is going to take one look at the junction puzzles and shout the gamer word to self ban. The game never tells the player the mechanics of these brainteasers but anyone who has played a Popcap game can figure it out if you take some time to google it. A little more effort in this department could have made the player a regular Edward Nigma.

Like the wall puzzlers, Bethesda kids will find the lack quest markers and quest journaling to be a little blue pill neutralizer. If the player doesn't pay attention to audio logs, emails, environmental cues and their own instincts getting lost despite having a very well laid out map is inevitable. The player is going to become frustrated figuring out how to shut down the laser and raise the shields despite many elements of the game telling you exactly what to do but not how to get somewhere. Many will get filtered by the choice to stick with this ideal!

The old UI is gone with the wind and in it's stead of something any early millennial or gen-x'er that can install an operating system is going to feel very comfortable with. The UI is now more like Deux Ex meets Prey; a nice middle ground that would have been quite decisive for the 30-50 year olds in 2023.

Simply put: while it may not be an original work, System Shock delivers.

8.7/10 wouldn't play again