Look, let’s just get this out of the way: Making a remake of System Shock is basically the game development equivalent of trying to restore the Mona Lisa using only a LaserDisc player and a prayer. The original 1994 game is the DNA donor for basically everything we love about “Immersive Sims”—BioShock, Deus Ex, Prey—but it was also notoriously clunky, even for its time.
After years of “will-they-won’t-they” development, Nightdive Studios finally dropped their remake, and it manages to feel exactly like 1994 and 2024 at the same time. It’s a neon-soaked, blood-stained love letter to a cyberpunk-nightmare.
Cyberpunk Horror Done Right
The first thing that hits you when you wake up on Citadel Station is the look. Nightdive went with this incredibly bold art style that I’ve started calling “Hi-Fi Lo-Fi.” Up close, surfaces have this chunky, pixelated texture that mimics the DOS era, but the lighting, reflections, and shadows are all modern-day gorgeous.
It feels like you’re looking at a memory of an old game through a pair of 4K glasses. The station is a labyrinth of neon greens, industrial grays, and the deep, pulsing reds of an AI gone completely insane. It’s claustrophobic, it’s messy, and it feels lived in—well, lived in before everyone was turned into a cyborg zombie.
SHODAN: The Star of the Show
You can’t talk about System Shock without talking about SHODAN. She is, without hyperbole, one of the greatest villains in gaming history. Terri Brosius returned to voice her, as well.
SHODAN doesn’t just want to kill you; she wants you to know how much of an “insect” you are while she does it. Her voice glitches, pitches up and down, and echoes through the station’s intercoms, making you feel like you’re being watched at every moment. There’s no “boss fight” for 90% of the game; there’s just a god-complex-fueled entity making your life miserable while you scavenge for a single battery pack.
Gameplay: No Hand-Holding Allowed
This is where the remake might lose some modern players. System Shock hates you. It doesn’t give you quest markers. It doesn’t have a “golden path” on the floor. It doesn’t even really give you a traditional objective list.
You find audio logs (which are excellently acted) and you have to actually listen to them. Someone might mention a three-digit code in passing, or a technician might complain that a specific relay on Floor 5 needs to be destroyed. If you aren’t paying attention, you will get lost.
The Combat and Inventory
The combat is “crunchy.” It’s not a high-speed shooter like Doom Eternal. It’s a desperate scramble. You’re swinging a lead pipe at a mutant, praying your sparqbeam doesn’t overheat, and managing your energy levels like a frantic accountant.
And then there’s the inventory management. If you like Resident Evil or Escape from Tarkov, you’ll be right at home. You’re constantly playing “Tetris” with your backpack, deciding if you should keep that extra med-patch or scrap a broken pistol for “tri-credits” to buy a soda from a vending machine. It’s stressful, but it makes every resource feel precious.
Cyberspace: The Great Divider
In the original game, Cyberspace was a headache-inducing wireframe mess. In the remake, it’s a 6-DOF (six degrees of freedom) flight shooter that looks like a synthwave music video. It’s much better than the original, but it can still be a bit disorienting. It serves as a nice break from the corridor-crawling, but I’ll admit, by the third or fourth time I had to dive in to unlock a door, I just wanted to get back to the “real” world.
Why It Works (and Why It Might Not for You)
Nightdive made a very specific choice here: they kept the level geometry almost identical to the 1994 version. This means the maps are weird. They aren’t “realistic” blueprints of a space station; they are intricate puzzles designed to challenge your navigation.
- The Good: It feels incredibly rewarding to finally figure out how to disable the laser array or find the hidden elevator. You feel like a genius.
- The Bad: You will spend time backtracking. You will get stuck. You will wonder why a space station has so many crawlspaces and hidden panels.
This is a game for people who miss when games felt like an “occupied territory” you had to conquer rather than a movie you just sat through.
The System Shock remake is a masterclass in how to update a classic. It respects the player’s intelligence, it nails the atmosphere, and it reminds us why SHODAN is the queen of digital malice. It’s not a “casual” game by any stretch—it’s a dense, difficult, and occasionally frustrating experience—but that’s exactly what makes it so satisfying.
If you’re tired of games that treat you like you’ve never held a controller before, and you want to experience the roots of the immersive sim genre without the literal headache of 90s UI, this is a must-play.
ust remember to save often. SHODAN doesn’t believe in participation trophies.
