Awesome video, Alex! I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and thanks for the shout-out! As I've said before, this is a rare case where I still prefer the original to the remake, but I still think that Nightdive did an excellent job with this game. It was pretty buggy at launch -- for example, I had to wait for them to patch a bug that caused the game to crash if you tried to enter the Flight Deck -- but, once they made fixes, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me. This is my personal ranking: 1. Medical 2. Bridge 3. Security 4. Executive 5. Research 6. Engineering 7. Flight Deck 8. Storage 9. Reactor 10. Maintenance I feel like my placement of Maintenance and Reactor is due in large part to how annoying those areas were in the original game. As irritating as the Inviso-Mutants are in the Remake, they were much worse in the original. They were much harder to hit, continuously attacks, and Maintenance absolutely spammed them. I always dreaded visiting that floor for that reason. I can definitely understand why you didn't like Security, as it can have a lot of cheap enemy placement. I personally just love the more vertical design of it and thought it served as an epic build-up to the Bridge. Greg LoPiccolo's soundtrack from the original was definitely the most sorely missed aspect of the Remake for me. There were some absolutely amazing tracks on there -- "Energy S., Engin., Flight Deck" and "Medical" are my favorites -- and playing through the levels just wasn't the same without them. Greg LoPiccolo was actually part of the same band as Terri Brosius (Shodan's VA), and Terri's husband, Eric Brosius (who was also a member of that band), composed the OST for System Shock 2. Anyway, excellent video! I'm thoroughly enjoying your content as always and look forward to your future uploads!
Congrats again on being asked to cover yet another game on the channel! This is one I've always heard about and with a stunning new remake it seems like no better time for me to get my feet wet. I love the Dishonored games and I'm sure it'll be easy to see where a lot of the inspiration comes from (as well as Thief which it has much more in common with but I haven't played the originals either). I know there's been a bit of a content drought but you gotta do what you gotta do man, we'll be waiting because you always make it worth it. Prioritize yourself
I highly recommend giving System Shock Remake a try. It's much more accessible than the original game (which has more dated UI, graphics, and controls), and it's definitely one of the most influential immersive sims out there. I agree that the Dishonored games are amazing, too. Arkane pretty much became the successor to Looking Glass Studios in terms of the games they developed. Their first game, Arx Fatalis, was inspired by Ultima Underworld. The Dishonored games were inspired by Thief. Prey (2017) was inspired by System Shock.
One of these days I gotta play the remake. Unfortunately right now my time is being taken up by armored core 6, sea of stars, and Astlibra revision. But glad to hear it’s a good remake
Yeah, it's a great game and definitely worth checking out at some point. It's not on the same level as something like Ys: The Oath in Felghana as far as remakes go, but it's still an excellent game, even if I still think the original 1994 version is better.
@@TitaRussellTrails True. Most people would point to one of the Resident Evil Remakes or something of that sort, but The Oath in Felghana is my personal favorite video game remake. I figured you might get the reference, though, since your username shows that you're a Falcom fan.
Systems Engineer was pretty damn fun. It's when the combat intensity ramps up but you are still stretched for resources. Very tense and fun. After that in the Bridge and Security you are pretty overpowered and its fun but not as intense. Therefore my favorite would be the midgame starting around Maintenance to the end of Systems Engineering.
I still find it interesting that System Shock 1 has such an incredible final level since System Shock 2 dropped the ball hard in that department. The second game is great, overall, but it takes a serious nose-dive with the final two levels. The final level of SS2 is like a rushed homage to Medical from SS1, and it just comes off as an underwhelming mess. In fact, a lot of immersive sims tend to falter in their final acts (including Thief I & II, both of which I adore), making System Shock one of the few that not only sticks the landing but delivers an excellent final level. While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and rank the Looking Glass Games I've played. They're possibly my all-time favorite developer, even though I've only played four of their games (unfortunately, haven't played Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 yet). 1. Thief II: The Metal Age (2000) 2. Thief: The Dark Project (1998) 3. System Shock (1994) 4. System Shock 2 (1999) It's interesting that System Shock 2 is by far the most famous of their games because I definitely consider it the weakest of those four titles by a pretty significant margin. I think part of that stems from the fact that many fans of SS2 haven't played SS1 (due to its dated UI, controls, and graphics), but I believe opinions about it might shift now that a more accessible version of the game is available with this Remake.
That was definitely a disappointing alteration to the Bridge's aesthetics. In general, I think the aesthetics of the remake were a downgrade from the original's, but the Bridge probably suffered the most out of all of the levels in that department. I also think that the addition of the recycling mechanic from Prey (2017) was unnecessary and just made it difficult to distinguish important items from all the clutter.
@@youngkappakhan Yeah, it does, but, because of all the junk that's been added to the game, you have to sift through it to find the necessary items. In the original game, it was much easier to tell where important items were because surfaces weren't so cluttered. It's not a big deal, overall, but it is a nitpick I have with the remake.
14:54 You can die and get a game over. On my playthrough while streaming with friends, on the third section, I was about to die and ran over to a booster to get me higher. I hit the wall in a weird angle, and it pushed me off the edge. I fell and died XD
Bridge was a little too combat focused for my taste. Not that I found it particularly challenging even on max difficulty, its just that I think the game really shines brightest when its leaning into its exploration and problem solving elements. Still a very fun level though. To me the real meat of the game are decks 2-8 and reactor, im sure i could probably rank them in a specific order of least to most favorite, but the important thing is that taken as a whole they represent a pretty much uninterrupted chunk of interesting and challenging gameplay.
Awesome video, Alex! I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and thanks for the shout-out! As I've said before, this is a rare case where I still prefer the original to the remake, but I still think that Nightdive did an excellent job with this game. It was pretty buggy at launch -- for example, I had to wait for them to patch a bug that caused the game to crash if you tried to enter the Flight Deck -- but, once they made fixes, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me.
This is my personal ranking:
1. Medical
2. Bridge
3. Security
4. Executive
5. Research
6. Engineering
7. Flight Deck
8. Storage
9. Reactor
10. Maintenance
I feel like my placement of Maintenance and Reactor is due in large part to how annoying those areas were in the original game. As irritating as the Inviso-Mutants are in the Remake, they were much worse in the original. They were much harder to hit, continuously attacks, and Maintenance absolutely spammed them. I always dreaded visiting that floor for that reason. I can definitely understand why you didn't like Security, as it can have a lot of cheap enemy placement. I personally just love the more vertical design of it and thought it served as an epic build-up to the Bridge.
Greg LoPiccolo's soundtrack from the original was definitely the most sorely missed aspect of the Remake for me. There were some absolutely amazing tracks on there -- "Energy S., Engin., Flight Deck" and "Medical" are my favorites -- and playing through the levels just wasn't the same without them. Greg LoPiccolo was actually part of the same band as Terri Brosius (Shodan's VA), and Terri's husband, Eric Brosius (who was also a member of that band), composed the OST for System Shock 2.
Anyway, excellent video! I'm thoroughly enjoying your content as always and look forward to your future uploads!
Congrats again on being asked to cover yet another game on the channel! This is one I've always heard about and with a stunning new remake it seems like no better time for me to get my feet wet. I love the Dishonored games and I'm sure it'll be easy to see where a lot of the inspiration comes from (as well as Thief which it has much more in common with but I haven't played the originals either). I know there's been a bit of a content drought but you gotta do what you gotta do man, we'll be waiting because you always make it worth it. Prioritize yourself
I highly recommend giving System Shock Remake a try. It's much more accessible than the original game (which has more dated UI, graphics, and controls), and it's definitely one of the most influential immersive sims out there. I agree that the Dishonored games are amazing, too. Arkane pretty much became the successor to Looking Glass Studios in terms of the games they developed. Their first game, Arx Fatalis, was inspired by Ultima Underworld. The Dishonored games were inspired by Thief. Prey (2017) was inspired by System Shock.
Love how everything is so overdetailed, feels like a ant walking inside a computer
Very, very valid tier list, one that I pretty much agree with every single placement of every single level
One of these days I gotta play the remake. Unfortunately right now my time is being taken up by armored core 6, sea of stars, and Astlibra revision. But glad to hear it’s a good remake
Yeah, it's a great game and definitely worth checking out at some point. It's not on the same level as something like Ys: The Oath in Felghana as far as remakes go, but it's still an excellent game, even if I still think the original 1994 version is better.
Well there's a somewhat obscure reference for a remake.@@rpgfan1187
@@TitaRussellTrails True. Most people would point to one of the Resident Evil Remakes or something of that sort, but The Oath in Felghana is my personal favorite video game remake. I figured you might get the reference, though, since your username shows that you're a Falcom fan.
Yeah I do. I've never beaten Oath though I found that game way too hard as a kid.@@rpgfan1187
I agree with your list plus I like your humor, you deserve more recognition
how does this channel not have more subscribers
Systems Engineer was pretty damn fun. It's when the combat intensity ramps up but you are still stretched for resources. Very tense and fun. After that in the Bridge and Security you are pretty overpowered and its fun but not as intense. Therefore my favorite would be the midgame starting around Maintenance to the end of Systems Engineering.
The soundtrack in systems engineering is also so imposing too.
I still find it interesting that System Shock 1 has such an incredible final level since System Shock 2 dropped the ball hard in that department. The second game is great, overall, but it takes a serious nose-dive with the final two levels. The final level of SS2 is like a rushed homage to Medical from SS1, and it just comes off as an underwhelming mess. In fact, a lot of immersive sims tend to falter in their final acts (including Thief I & II, both of which I adore), making System Shock one of the few that not only sticks the landing but delivers an excellent final level.
While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and rank the Looking Glass Games I've played. They're possibly my all-time favorite developer, even though I've only played four of their games (unfortunately, haven't played Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 yet).
1. Thief II: The Metal Age (2000)
2. Thief: The Dark Project (1998)
3. System Shock (1994)
4. System Shock 2 (1999)
It's interesting that System Shock 2 is by far the most famous of their games because I definitely consider it the weakest of those four titles by a pretty significant margin. I think part of that stems from the fact that many fans of SS2 haven't played SS1 (due to its dated UI, controls, and graphics), but I believe opinions about it might shift now that a more accessible version of the game is available with this Remake.
The bridge is the worst for me purely because they got rid of the original game's HR Giger breathing flesh walls
they were indeed missed
That was definitely a disappointing alteration to the Bridge's aesthetics. In general, I think the aesthetics of the remake were a downgrade from the original's, but the Bridge probably suffered the most out of all of the levels in that department. I also think that the addition of the recycling mechanic from Prey (2017) was unnecessary and just made it difficult to distinguish important items from all the clutter.
@@rpgfan1187 Doesn't the game literally tell you that junk items are junk?
@@youngkappakhan Yeah, it does, but, because of all the junk that's been added to the game, you have to sift through it to find the necessary items. In the original game, it was much easier to tell where important items were because surfaces weren't so cluttered. It's not a big deal, overall, but it is a nitpick I have with the remake.
Of all the cyberspace areas, I hate Executive's the most. The gauntlet they put you through is ridiculous
really cool you guys can also ranked levels in others games😊
Correct they can physically do that if they would like to.
14:54
You can die and get a game over. On my playthrough while streaming with friends, on the third section, I was about to die and ran over to a booster to get me higher. I hit the wall in a weird angle, and it pushed me off the edge. I fell and died XD
Bridge was a little too combat focused for my taste. Not that I found it particularly challenging even on max difficulty, its just that I think the game really shines brightest when its leaning into its exploration and problem solving elements. Still a very fun level though.
To me the real meat of the game are decks 2-8 and reactor, im sure i could probably rank them in a specific order of least to most favorite, but the important thing is that taken as a whole they represent a pretty much uninterrupted chunk of interesting and challenging gameplay.
I dumped all the medi patch on bridge level loooooool. Who needs that when you have 15 syringes
Yeah once you’re on the bridge you’re basically playing Doom lol
I agree, the game needed the original soundtrack
Yeah, the original soundtrack was outstanding. Playing through the Remake just didn't feel the same without it.
My personal favorite is engineering
I really disliked the Storage level. Way too many drone respawns and everything looks the same.
The jump was cool though