Nightdive is trying to have their cake and eat it too, resulting in an experience where, at times, you're not actually sure what button on a piece of wall is or isn't interactive. Sure, it makes the world more clearly 'artificial' and gamey, but you could make sense of where you were going. In old-school design philosophy, one of the key tenets of a great game was readability. ![]() There aren't hundreds of different accent lights and bump maps. Look up gameplay of the original, and despite its janky graphics, it's highly readable. ![]() This is distinctly a problem with the Remake. That sounds good on paper, until you're trying to quickly register where to go while making your way through tight corridors.ĪLSO READ: Metroid Prime's First-Person Perspective Still Rocks By trying to capture the same look of its predecessor but with modern fidelity, a single square hunk of wall in System Shock is more detailed than some whole characters in a PS3 game. It's not that the levels themselves are too complex in layout, but rather, the visual design and landmarks. I like to think of myself as having a fairly solid sense of direction, and I struggled to get my bearings over two hours into exploring the demo. This should all be fantastic news, but Nightdive's latest public demo has finally confirmed something I was afraid of: System Shock is more of a nightmare to navigate now than in the 90s, and not in a good way. ![]() While there are some modern niceties, particularly with the controls and ranged combat improvements, it manages to retain the overall feel of classic System Shock. Even with the improved Enhanced Edition for both the first game and its sequel, the need for a remake was obvious.Īnd so, Nightdive Studios have been hard at work recreating the entirety of this foundational game, from top to bottom, as close to the original vision as possible. The problem is, the average player experiencing System Shock for the first time will doubtless be left baffled by its more dated aspects. Looking Glass Studios' cyberpunk epic effectively birthed the immersive sim genre ( awkward though that moniker may be), offering an unparalleled amount of player choice aboard the doomed Citadel Station. System Shock is a classic for good reason.
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