Nightdive Studios has recently announced that their System Shock remake will open pre-orders on Steam (and probably their website) sometime in late February! The remake is being developed on the Unreal Engine. One of their development goals is to stay as true to the original as possible. To that end, the map layout is also very similar to the original game. You may recall that fans got disappointing news in early 2018, when development of the remake went on hiatus for a time. The developers assured fans that it would continue, but no one was entirely sure what would happen going forward. Fortunately, it did indeed continue. The developers posted the announcement of the upcoming pre-orders on both their Kickstarter and BackerKit pages. The update post also included some short video clips from the game, along with some text detailing each one. There are too many to include here, so head over to the previously linked pages to see them. That’s not all there is to this announcement, though.
The developers also announced that those who pre-order the game will get System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition for free as a bonus! That is a pretty nice reward. Furthermore, this new enhanced edition of the second game is also turning out to be more ambitious than they had planned. First of all, this enhanced version is a full source port to their Kex Engine. They are also remaking all character and weapon models. Not only that, but with permission from the fan community, they are also including a number of mods with the game, including:
- Vurt’s Space Textures, Flora, Hi-res Water, Organics/Goo
- ACC’s Four Hundred (400) Hi-res Terrain Textures
- Eldron’s Psi Amp
- Olfred’s Fixed Objects
- Grosnus’ Hi-Res Spinning Marine/Navy/OSA logos
- SCP
- SHTUP
- ZylonBane’s New Quest Notifier
- Vaxquis Vintage Song Remake v1.0 Mod
- Mercurius’ Tacticool Weapon Replacements
System Shock
The original first-person action-adventure game, System Shock, released back in 1994, developed by LookingGlass Technologies, and published by Origin Systems.
You are a nameless hacker aboard a space station in the cyberpunk future of the year 2072. As it happens, you are all that stands between humanity and the malevolent designs of a rogue artificial intelligence called SHODAN, which has taken over the station! The game sold over 170,000 copies, and while not a blockbuster, it was enough to keep LookingGlass Technologies going.
System Shock 2
Five short years later, the game would get a sequel, System Shock 2. This title was co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios (who unfortunately no longer exist). Irrational Games was founded by several members from Looking Glass Studios. The sequel was critically acclaimed at the time, garnering seven game of the year awards, and more. In spite of that, the game did not do as well commercially as they would’ve liked.
The events of this game take place in the year 2114, where the player takes on the role of a soldier to once again do battle with the rogue A.I., Shodan. This time around, that battle plays out aboard a large starship called the Von Braun. Once again the entire crew has pretty much been slaughtered and turned into mutants! However, this sequel added some role-playing elements into the mix, allowing players to improve a range of different skills and traits to help them in their perilous adventure. These include things like hacking and psionic abilities.
Irrational Games also worked on BioShock (2007), which was a spiritual successor to the System Shock series. You can find these retro games all on Steam already, with the exception of System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition, since that one isn’t out yet. System Shock: Classic is available as a bonus with the enhanced edition of that game, rather than being a stand-alone title on the Steam store. Here are links to them all:
- System Shock: Enhanced Edition
- System Shock 2
- The System Shock pack (includes both of the previously listed games)
- And last but not least, the new, modern System Shock remake (pre-orders coming in late February)
