Review – System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster

Some titles transcend the time they were released. This is the case of System Shock 2, one of the most influential FPS of its generation. Twenty -five years after selling very little, he is back with a remaster. It is a gift and, at the same time, a curse. On the one hand, it is essential that new players discover this pearl. On the other hand, the original game remains so round that I wondered many times: Why?

The second question that came in my mind was: how to analyze a game I love and already wrote my definitive statement in 2014, on my personal blog? If Nightdive Studios can get something old, wipe out and put it again on the market, I decided to do the same. Welcome to the remaster of my original System Shock 2 analysis.

The cyber elephant in the room

Unlike several games that have received remains and remakes in the last decade (including the first), what we have here is an absolutely unnecessary work. There was already a digital version of System Shock 2 in the best stores, updated for modern systems and running perfectly. I know, because I have and went back to her to compare with the remaster. It’s not strictly the same game, but I can certify with 100% certainty that it is possible to play the (now) classic version, without prejudice to experience, with the advantage of a much more affordable price than this relaunch.

Producer Nightdive Studios specializes in necromance, often plunging into legal mazes to unlock brands that were lost. It is immensely commendable work of unquestionable merit. It was even the same job that brought back System Shock 2 back to the first time, already improved and updated stores.

So what does this Remaster brings to the table, besides celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original game? Visually, the differences are minimal, as I was able to attest to some screen catches. I would dare to say that there was even a damage to the quality of lighting. In terms of audio, there is no difference, but the remaster has subtitles (in English, unfortunately), a great absence in 2000. Therefore, in cosmetic terms, the improvements add little.

In technical terms, the Remaster is also humble in its innovations, bringing, for example, support for 120 FPS and improved controls. Both Ultra-Widescreen Support and 4K Resolution Support were already available earlier.

The great asset for is its arrival on consoles, including with crossplay support on multiplayer, for those who want to face Shodan in the company of friends. This only aspect already justifies the existence of this version, as it allows the game to reach more players. On the other hand, for those on the PC, the classic version is already suitable.

System Shock 2: Classic of the classics

Before Glados, there was shodan. Before Bioshock, there was System Shock 2.

When Irrational Games was born in 1997, from the gray of the late Looking Glass, it was destined for great deeds. This was obvious to anyone who played his first game in 1999. Months after release, less than 60,000 lucky ones had discovered hidden pearl. Challenging current FPS and sequel conventions, System Shock 2 has become an instant classic, despite weak sales, and threw villain Shodan for all the most enemy lists of all -time electronic games.

Solitude, the mistakes and limits of humanity give Ken Levine’s work and his troupe of engineers from this point. To understand System Shock 2 is to understand everything that came later. Mixing RPG elements, such as item management and skill evolution, Levine has also anticipated God ex in many ways. One of them was the ability to address problems in different ways.

However, where Spector built an intricate narrative of human relations, ideologies and organizations, taking advantage of the overall turn of millennium and shining in genius dialogues, here Irrational Games addresses man’s loneliness in the infinity and dangers of technology, taking advantage of the silence and emptiness of a spacecraft in the confines of the universe to stag the final confrontation and the man and man Post-human.

The end of the dream

In the distant future, humanity prepares to test its first FTL reactor“the mythical engine capable of exceeding the speed of light). The experimental ship von Braun departs to the space, escorted by the Military Nave attached Ricketbacker. On board, comfortable facilities, greenhouses, best scientists, entertainment centers for the long journey, the cream of technology, the cream of human resources.

With fanfare and optimism, the expedition departs. Everything will end in tragedy.

You start System Shock 2 waking from cryogenic sleep after the disaster has already occurred. Your traveling companions are corpses or strange blood -based mutants. Through audio logs, you will unravel the sad fate of the two spacecraft and their crew: an autonomous biological infection that meets how many (“many”) has conquered the body and mind of all, transforming their flesh and changing their thoughts. Any resemblance to, is something to be asked for the visceral games.

With psychic powers being part of the System Shock 2 universe, the two ships become the prototype of the haunted house in space. There are visions of violent events, there are hideous enemies around every corner, there is dirt and deterioration of previously utopian spaces, there is the constant clamor of Many’s voice in your head, asking, begging, threatening you to join your “glory.”

Horror is not only present in life and death fights aboard Von Braun or Ricketbacker. He also appears in abandoned and semi-destructed booths, in voice records of people on the verge of despair, in sized love stories without pity or pity, in characters who gave in to pride or guilt to be part of the Many.

The apex of civilization collapses in the lone void. You have no allies. Except her.

Goddess awakening

Shodan is the main link with the previous game. It is not necessary to have experienced the first system Shock to understand that it is dangerous: a megalomaniac artificial intelligence that believes from the bottom of its bits who is a goddess and despises any and all form of life.

His past experiments to create a new biology generated the many. As a child who tires her toys, she now wants her extinction. Between the two abominations, you move, trying to survive a cross fire, where there can be no victor.

Where GLADES is now calculating, sometimes sarcastic, but always rational, Shodan is the definition of insanity. He declares himself perfect, but his speech wages several times, as a cyber stutter that would be comical, if it were not for distortion, reverberation and its deep meaning: it is not perfect, it is unable to admit and the worst consequences can come from this false sense of divinity.

Unlike so many chiefs, who declare their intentions at the beginning of the game and are confronted again at the end, except by an occasional interlude in the middle, shodan here is enigmatic and omnipresent. Lost in a ship -packed nave of monsters and ghosts, the player has as his only interlocutor psychotic artificial intelligence.

With the correct power, Shodan can and will eradicate the life of the universe. Or was it just another delirium of greatness?

Triumph of the individual

The trapped hero has no name, like so many others before him. Answering by the nickname of Soldier G65434-2. It is a serial number in a duel of Inhumans. Before him. Answering by the nickname of Soldier G65434-2. It is a serial number in a duel of Inhumans.

However, Irrational Games refuses to build another exterminating spatial marine of monsters. The character is customizable, can be trained in classes whose gameplay varies, can acquire skills according to the player’s preference, including skills outside his class. It is a blank paper, but one that can be cut and shaped to be something unique.

In a confrontation where on the one hand we have the many’s honor mass and his collective conscience and Shodan’s cyber nihilism, IrRational Games opts for a protagonist who will be unique to each player, for each match, with freedom of action and solving the riddles.

In an environment taken by monsters, you can sneak up, you can try teleport or invisibility (if you have these powers), you can invade the safety towers system and promote a massacre or you can enter the handle corridor and a prayer on your lips.

This freedom does not mean tranquility. System Shock 2 is not only an RPG or an FPS, but also a Survival Horror, with capital letters. The protagonist is fragile, his equipment deteriorates. You need to manage scarce resources all the time: there are specific ammunition for certain enemies, evolutions to choose from for weapons, items to buy at scattered terminals, technological advances to research, while time does not stop around you. A wrong decision can bring a horrendous death to the character.

Logff, restart or suspend?

Since 1999, a continuation of System Shock 2 has been expected. The ending makes it clear that Shodan is not an opponent to be overlooked. His ghost haunts players and developers and was certainly present in the minds of those who created Glado, Marker, Red Queen and so many other elements directly influenced by the work of Ken Levine and his conclave.

System Shock 3 went into development in 2015 e. Somewhere in the universe, Shodan awaits his return. The candles on your altar turn on once again with this remaster, the sequel is not in the hands of Nightdive, but surely devotion is no less.

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