Finished System Shock Remake, I now understand why the original is seen as gaming milestone

2026-05-25 17:36 UTC

I finally finished the System Shock Remake and I was surprised how much this game already got right in its original installment in sense of story progression and open world level design, but also how much they improved the general gameplay and graphics with the remake. The new lightning effects and graphics in general are of course much better than the 20+ years old original, only downside there is that they made everything bright enough, that you never need the vision enhancements. Sadly the last level in the remake is standard “evil tyrant SciFi” optics over the surreal Giger-like textures in the original due to time constraints. The cyber space “hacking” is a 6 degree of freedom shooting mini game, same as in the original, but much better to conceptualize now. Now everything has textures and proper 3d models instead of being some polygon clusters with edges but no surfaces. The story is unchanged in the big moments, but some smaller changes in the details. The beginning has you explore your apartment on planet now instead of only being a cutscene. So if you were always interested in the birth of the immersive sims genre, but don’t want to play a very difficult to control game with sprites pixely enough to make Minecraft look HiRes, I would recommend this game version over the original.

Replies (3)

@sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 2026-05-25 17:59

I played the original for a bit, and my biggest complain is the level design. Like, how am I supposed to not get lost when the level is a big freaking labyrinth? I appreciate that it doesn’t have a big arrow telling you what to go, or a minimap, but smaller levels and more memorable rooms would’ve gone a long way. I appreciate you actually have to read the in-game sign to orientate yourself, though. Is the remake as confusing or did they do some QoL changes to that? (P.S: I also blew up the Earth on accident by doing a quest the wrong way, which is hilarious)

Open ##2841860
@Burghler@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-25 18:01

I had to give up on my 25 hour playthrough because the dead scientist head you find early on was something I carried with me for a long time and then eventually dropped. However the game is such a maze and insanely large that I’d have to run around combing for 2 hours and I honestly cannot be bothered to do that. A shame such a key item found in the first 2 hours is used 25 later and doesn’t have a console or cheat code to bring it back. I’m just stuck in my softlock. Skill issue sure, but what the fuck. I was loving the game so much especially for my first playthrough if the first.

Open ##2841894
@NelDel@piefed.social 2026-05-26 21:20

I’m one of the weirdo’s who played the og System Shock last year and fell in love with it. The remake looks interesting but I’ll need some time to forget about parts of the map to fully enjoy myself.

Open ##2879164