from Hacker News

System Shock remake

by saturn5k on 7/12/23, 7:27 PM with 85 comments

• by lordfrito on 7/12/23, 9:35 PM

  Look at you hackers... I'm surprised at some of the negative comments here.

  The dev team did an amazing job of balancing the old with the new. Too much emphasis on the new and you alienate the fanbase, too much emphasis on the old and you miss out on the opportunities afforded by modern hardware and UI advancements.

  I for one loved it. The world felt familiar to me, like visiting an old friend that had aged well. I forgot how much I enjoyed SS2 back in the day, and this game re-kindled my love for the franchise.

  Hearing SHODAN again after all of these years is worth the price of admission alone.

  Here's to hoping this game does well enough to revive interest in making more games in this universe.

• by adeon on 7/12/23, 8:48 PM

  The old System Shock was the first 3D game I played in my life. I was a kid and could not read English and did not understand what's going but had tons of fun.

  I played the remake recently. I was decent, but I think it was _too_ faithful to the original in some ways:

  - There's lots of junk items with (almost) no purpose that you can pick up.

  - Buttons are often difficult to see on walls; you might skip an area because you thought you cannot progress because you couldn't tell there's a button from clutter

  - Enemy AI is very simple and easy to exploit. Combat can feel a bit dull, because it's mostly the same kind of combat as the 1994.

  - Inventory management UX could use some work. I found popping up the menu annoying.

  - Large complicated maps, sometimes can feel a bit empty and comes with lots of backtracking. I kinda enjoy that though.

  I liked the remake, and that the story and puzzles were faithful but I wonder if someone who wasn't a fan of the original would find it appealing. This might be a "where the hell do I go" game for anyone who hasn't played it before.

  SHODAN's voice acting and over-the-top megalomaniac lines are a reason alone to play this thing.

  Also I wished they had remixed or brought back the old soundtrack. The only place where I heard a hint of the original music was on the reactor level with the unusual bass line. It was my favorite track.

  Reactor level music in the original (loud warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up80FfzySFA

  New reactor level music from the remake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxku9cbIcMQ

• by cubefox on 7/12/23, 8:59 PM

  > This might be one of the best remakes ever made.

  High praise for what was already described as one of the best games of its time.

• by PostOnce on 7/12/23, 9:43 PM

  I was going to write a post about how System Shock 3 is in development, but I'm dismayed by some details I found on wikipedia. They had Warren Spector and Paul Neurath on board, but maybe funding isn't so easy. I thought System Shock (remake) was basically a fundraiser for SS3.

  Apparently Tencent owns the rights now, Spector is working on something else, and the outlook is no longer great.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2#Sequel_projects

  However, from that page, I also learned this exists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_Infinite

  So I guess I'll be playing System Shock Infinite this weekend :)

• by dvngnt_ on 7/12/23, 9:19 PM

  this year the game and other unreal engine games should be vr compatible the VR developer just had a breakthrough which makes games 6dof compatible

  https://youtu.be/7naAVTGp7mM

• by darthrupert on 7/14/23, 11:40 AM

  I played the original at my prime gaming age, about 15 years old. And I still think it's the best game I've played.

  This remake is faithful enough that it also is. I skipped the last level (Bridge) but it seems like they changed that quite a bit and I didn't miss much.

• by tibbydudeza on 7/12/23, 9:25 PM

  System Shock and the very underrated Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri.

• by shmerl on 7/12/23, 9:27 PM

  I like it, but I don't think pixelated aesthetic of zoomed in textures is really doing anything for me. May be it's just a nostalgia nod to hardcore fans of the original game?

• by slowmovintarget on 7/13/23, 2:44 PM

  Heh... I backed this Kickstarter years ago. I got to pick one of the villain names. Great to see it launch.