While Nightdive did a full remake for the original System Shock, System Shock 2 is just getting a remaster. The game doesn’t necessarily need a remake, as the remaster mostly looks and plays just fine. Well, mostly. With a new coat of paint and some welcome (mostly cosmetic) changes, the game is just as fun as it ever was, despite how badly some aspects of it have aged. What remains is a notably prettier way of playing a classic game that runs well, even if a lot of its upgrades can be easily accomplished with mods.
When you first start a new game in the System Shock 2 Remaster, you’ll notice that there’s a mod menu baked right in. Indeed, many of the remaster’s changes can be found in these mods, which is a curious thing to see. Even more curious is that many of these mods were made by the game’s community and were available beforehand. So if you look again at the last sentence of the first paragraph, you can absolutely take that literally. It’s a bit odd to sell a remaster that’s at least partially made up of already available mods, but the quality is high across the board all the same.
Just as ever, System Shock 2‘s remaster starts with players choosing a class and stat bonuses before finding themselves on the Von Braun space ship. A strange hivemind lifeform called Annelids have ended up infecting the ship, changing its survivor crew into hybrid creatures. Your character wakes up and is guided to accomplish certain tasks in order to stop the hivemind. Storytelling is generally a mix between radio chatter directed at your silent protagonist and audio diaries you’ll find all over (which also can contain codes to open doors and the like.) Occasionally there are more cutscene-esque sequences that are still in first-person.
System Shock 2 is an immersive sim, albeit one that wasn’t made by the original game’s developer (although it was made by some of the key folks that did the first Bioshock!) There are no quest markers guiding you, no handholding, and a complex mix of systems that requires you to put points into disciplines to be able to use various items. As always, making a melee build is one of the best ways to go due to how limited ammo still is. You’ll also need to put points into the maintenance or repair skills if you want to keep your firearms functioning, and using the game’s psionic powers with any efficiency mostly requires speccing into that.
It’s all still very functional all these years later, although certain avenues are much better than others. For most of the game, you’ll be exploring the decks of the Von Braun, unlocking more as you go. System Shock 2‘s Remaster is heavily exploration based and there’s a lot to see. On occasion, the game’s progression can be a bit vexing. For instance, if you miss a single corpse with a key or important information on it, you can end up wandering around with zero direction until you pull up a walkthrough. Much like the first game, however, it’s usually pretty clear what you’re meant to do and it’s not too bad as long as you’re thorough.
Certain aspects of the game are considerably more subpar than they were way-back-when, of course. Combat as a whole doesn’t feel all that great. The guns are okay to use but can lack impact, especially when hitting enemies. Melee fairs even worse, as it’s often unclear whether you can or can’t hit something and none of it feels satisfying. One of my least favourite aspects is when you need to get past turrets, but there aren’t any security terminals to hack on the way, requiring you to fight them despite the fact that they can gun you down with extreme precision the second you lean to aim from behind a wall.
The hacking minigame is still awful, as you need to click nodes to successfully accomplish your task, which is entirely RNG based. The worms also annoy me viciously, as they can be hard to hit and can hurt you even if you’re behind them. Then there are the enemies and traps that can irradiate or toxify you immediately, meaning you have to use a hypo (or two) to remove the effects. Still, you can resurrect upon death for a low fee if you’ve activated a nearby machine, so death isn’t really that big of a deal.
I must say, though, that the game’s maps are also fairly poor. You can’t turn while your map is open and the maps themselves do a poor job of communicating how to navigate to certain places. Granted, once you get accustomed to System Shock 2‘s Remaster, mitigating most of the game’s frustrations becomes second-nature, but I was hoping the rougher edges would be sanded down here. At least certain OS upgrades have gotten improvements, making them not be quite as useless.
System Shock 2 Remaster gets the job done and makes the classic game easier to play than ever before. This is still a very enjoyable game despite how archaic it can be in spots, it looks solid, and it’s still very much worth experiencing. Returning fans will get the most mileage here, but there’s still plenty to enjoy for new players as well.
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster: System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster maintains all of the charm and most of the quirks of the original game, for better or worse. – Andrew Farrell
Your next read:
Ruffy and the Riverside PC review – Ruff around the edges |
