Computer System Shock Review

After being apprehended for trying to illegally access TriOptimum Corporation's files, our protagonist hacker is offered a secretive deal by one of the company's executives. The task is to remove the ethical restraints on SHODAN, the AI controlling every aspect of the Citadel Station, the corporation-owned space station where they currently are. In exchange, our hacker will have his charges dropped and equipped with a state-of-the-art implant that he was trying to steal in the first place.


After completing the job, the nameless protagonist undergoes surgery for the implant and wakes up after a coma; only to find out that SHODAN has undertaken a hostile takeover of the station. The crew has been converted into cyborgs and mutants that attack at first sight, and the AI plans to put the human population on Earth to the same fate. It's now up to you to save humanity from an AI takeover.


It's been nearly 30 years since System Shock was first released in 1994 and the original game's age is visually apparent with its polygonal, pixelated graphics and flat enemy sprites. While it did receive an Enhanced Edition in 2015, the aging graphics still showed. This makes System Shock the perfect fodder for a full-fledged remake.

While the remake's visuals are not on par with recent titles like Atomic Heart or Cyberpunk 2077, considering the original source material's visuals, you can't go too wrong with a remake. The Unreal Engine 4-rendered environments and characters are detailed, look contemporary, and bring a much-needed fresh coat of paint to System Shock's universe. Essentially, the new visuals keep the essence of the sci-fi horror space station of the original that has inspired newer titles.


It's a faithful recreation with much-enhanced visuals, and quality-of-life improvements such as new voice acting, which supplements the story with secondhand retelling of events and a new tension-building soundtrack. One feature I particularly enjoyed was the game over screens where the developers got quite creative.


A downside to the presentation is the tiny font size used for texts which cannot be adjusted. This is particularly an issue when playing the game on a handheld, which requires some squinting. Hopefully, this can be addressed in future updates.



It's not just the visuals that have been improved, but the gameplay has as well. This remake of System Shock features updated controls that play like a contemporary first-person game, whether it's for exploration or combat. With its remake, developer Nightdive Studios also introduced new enemy types to face off against and new areas to explore that further diversify the gameplay experience.

Exploration across different areas of Citadel Station is done in an open-ended fashion. While I found the objectives to be occasionally unclear, exploring does reward the player with consumables and new weapons from melee to ranged types. You'll also come across puzzles that need to be solved in order to reach new sectors of the station as well as audio logs that flesh out the plot.


Each sector of the station comes with its own sets of perils due to the presence of the hostile crew under SHODAN's control, which ranges from cyborgs to humanoid mutants to robots. Having a variety of weapons thus comes in handy as you will face off those different enemy types. But you'll have to keep an eye out on your life gauge as I found health-replenishing items to be rather scarce at the beginning, which adds a layer of challenge to the game.

In addition, System Shock's combat features consumables to boost your stats to give you an edge during combat. What's interesting about this mechanic is that these boosts can come with side effects such as fatigue or psychosis. This can get you to weigh in on these downsides before consuming an item, adding a layer of strategizing to your approach.

As such, the System Shock remake features the staples of sci-fi immersive sims that it itself popularized in the genre decades ago. With a decent dose of puzzle, exploration, and combat, it will surely entertain fans of the genre.



While successful modern titles like BioShock and Prey owe a lot to System Shock, the genre that it helped shape has improved greatly over the decades since it launched, and the remake doesn't necessarily reflect that.

As mentioned earlier, objectives are occasionally unclear. This leads to the need to backtrack and it's quite recurring. Having a better marker or guide (or the ability to toggle one) would have made for a smoother experience. In addition, some puzzles might be hard to find as they can be lost in the decor without standing out; especially as there's no guide to point you in the right direction. On the other hand, though, this might be a draw for more hardcore fans who really want to be immersed in the universe, literally getting lost in it and all.


Even if the game plays as a contemporary title, managing the inventory is awful with a controller. Selecting items works by having one of the sticks simulate a mouse and it's not intuitive nor optimized for controllers. Add to that the need to squint when reading what an inventory item does, the process can get quite frustrating. I hope this gets fixed in an update as the game feels right at home on a handheld gaming PC.


While I won't call the System Shock remake an instant classic or on par with other recent remakes such as Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space, it is a decent effort to bring a revered sci-fi title to a new audience. It will rekindle nostalgic memories among those who played the first game and the improved visuals and controls--while still being faithful to the original--will deliver an improved experience. This remake isn't breaking new grounds as the title did when it first launched but it's still in decent shape following its tumultuous development process, and I'm glad Nightdive Studios brought the game to launch.

System Shock Remake Trailer