@@warellis sort of? Some levels are changed around a bit but i personally think its just because of how different the combat and puzzles are. In old System Shock there was no randomization except for the reactor code really. In this one on 3333 a lot more codes are random which leads to more running around.
@@badbrain3723 Beat me to it. Also of note upping the puzzle difficulty actually changes the types of puzzles that show up. Not just how complex they are. Ironically I found the "hard mode" puzzles to be easier and less time consuming than the standard ones :P
Same here. Very rocky road, but the end product speaks for itself. Considering how many things could be screwed up with a launch, bad QA testing, bad optimization, etc., this launch was pretty amazing. AAA studios would kill to have a smooth launch on games with much higher budgets.
I bought my first gaming capable PC in 1994. I bought three games for it. Civ, Ultima Underworld 2 and System Shock. Of the three System Shock was the one that totally blew my mind and was in fact the first serious game I ever finished, although it did take me some time. Like a LOT of time. Anyway I can attest to the truth of every word Mort says here. This is a genuine bucket list game and there will never be a better time to experience first hand a significant slice of gaming history.
I think System Shock might actually be in my "Favourite Games of all time List". I am obsessed with everything about this Remake and even more so I am completely enthralled by SHODAN. I know a lot of people still prefer System Shock 2 but I really like the simplicity, the enemy design of this one and I really like how Citadel Station really feels like it's always trying to kill you (because it's SHODAN).
I didn't watch the entire video because I want to go in completely blind. I really appreciate how thorough you are and that you give a very concise TLDW at the start. Great work!!!!
This game's absolutely excellent. An incredible immersive sim as well as a very solid Metroidvania. Btw; The 'immersive' part of immersive sim is meant to mean consistency of gameplay world functions and simulations, that in turn maintain immersion in the game's mechanics as well as the setting.
Afraid i'm gonna have to bail on this review at the 3 minute mark lol, I wanna see as much of sys shock first time with my own eyes. Glad to hear its getting a nice thumbs up though, I put a little time into it to make sure it ran nicely and whatnot - given the dev cycle and the state of pc gaming atm I was pretty skeptical, but it was all good. Can't wait :D
Totally understandable. It's best experienced yourself to get the claustrophobic immersion of being trapped alone on a massive space station. One note, I would strongly recommend against playing on the time-limited difficulty for your first playthrough. Take your time to explore, and to stop & listen to everything you can.
Weapon management was always a thing with System Shock. I always just took a primary weapon, a sidearm, and a melee, and everything else I would just trash. And I do the same thing in the remake. It's a product of it's time I suppose. Good review! Glad you got some jump scares out of it. The creepy vibe was always a lot of the enjoyment of System Shock.
It's interesting how for example Bioshock Infinite forces you to that exact weapon system, and it works better in many ways than the other Bioshock games where you have all your weapons available all the time. Less is sometimes more, and having the need to choose what to carry around brings an interesting gameplay element that enhances replayability and makes you approach problems differently based on what you have with you.
19:17 What I found helpful was that you can just drop anything anywhere. And when you come back it will still be there, no matter where you left it or how far away from it you go. Also, there are small and large crates scattered throughout the levels that you can store stuff in so you don't have to carry around every weapon and other bit of loot you pick up. I stored a bunch of stuff in the crates by the freight elevator in Maintenance, and made trips back to it from time to time to change up weapons and gather supplies or drop stuff off. Then at the point of no return(s) I smuggled all my weapons through the door, threw them on the floor and went back in multiple trips so I could get everything I had gathered up to the Bridge.
I skipped to positives/negatives at the end of your review because I don't want any spoilers. So glad to hear you think it's a great game and worth the $40. I'll be buying it. Thanks, Mort.
Great review! Weirdly enough, I didn’t get super lost in the beginning, but I did run out of health stims and spent an hour or so on the verge of death. Took a lot of trips back to the restoration chamber during that time.
I was really blown away by the original System Shock. It was the first game I ever wanted to play through several times, I found it so enjoyable and ground breaking that I couldn't get enough of it. I especially loved how the soundtrack on my PC with Roland Sound Canvas MIDI card sounded, I hope it will be as good or better in this remake experience.
When I finish of my studies this will be the first thing I dive into, I was a 90s gamer and this speaks to me like no other title, I loved the demo as well so I am familiar to the game design already, I played the original, but I think it was only the first level, and yes the controls from memory at the time were aweful, but the music and aesthetic is true to its origin with a very nice update that does fit.
I had fond memories of this game so I went back and played it about 10 years ago. And... oh my god. Oh my god. The 1994 control scheme it's like... oh fucking god. I'm not a huge fan of remakes as a general rule because like, the original game is there, make something new, but if anything ever needed to be remade, System Shock did. The original is borderline unplayable even if you get it running perfectly. It's like playing Doom without mouse look, only somehow worse.
Finished the game last night. I loved it, BUT MAN. The amount of times I got lost with no idea what to do. And this was playing on Mission Difficulty 1.
the station is made that way (in game and lore wise) to test the crew members mental health limits, its literally designed like a claustrophobic labyrinth on purpose, everyone got lost, is part of the experience c:
Another excellently-done review. Love your '100%' approach. This is one of those games I really, really like the IDEA of, but I know that if I actually played it I'd end up pulling out my hair and giving up as I absolutely suck at puzzles, and SC1 is puzzle central. The hacking and wiring minigames defeated me in the original, and they'd defeat me in the remake too - not to mention the super-confusing labyrinthine layout. I know these can be simplified on lower difficulties and items can bypass some of it, Bioshock-style - but I'm betting it's still beyond my dumb brain. That said I really appreciate that they've made a game with no handholding at all, and for those who are good at that kind of thing it's gonna be a dream come true.
Finished this a couple of days ago. I must say even though I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay, the "not holding your hand" aspect of its mission design grew really frustrating 😃. It could be that I'm just used to having a screen at least showing the stuff I have to do, instead of combing through logs and putting the pieces together myself... but I'm 40 and I was a gamer in the 90s, and even then this sort of thing frustrated me to no end, and I had a lot more patience (and time) back then 😁. And I also agree with you about the inventory management. So overall I still prefer System Shock 2, but I'm glad I got to experience this classic. I never did play it when it came out originally.
Pretty Nice review ! Again, I did not really enjoy Cyberspace, I never felt like there were any kind of progression in that realm, you were almost always starting from scratch (and some items I still wonder what they do), they got Terry Brosius back to voice Shodan and this is just AMAZING !!! I wasn't expecting her to come back. Inventory management is something entirely new, the old game did not have this, this idea is entirely based on System Shock 2 which probably makes more sense. Money is also pretty new from what I remember and comes from SS2. (again, use level 4 to stock all the weapons you don't need ATM. Quite a big chunk of the game was changed but nothing that would make the game unrecognizable ! They succeeded to make a fantastic remake, it never holds you by the hand and back then, we couldn't use a guide, we had to figure everything out ourselves which made the game longer and more enjoyable (or not) as well but is certainly why the game stuck with us, older players. I really hope the second game will be remade and will be largely improved with bigger levels too.
Cyberspace is a downgrade from the orginal you move so slowly and you never have a timer where shoden herself is hunting you in cyberspace its just combat arena after combat arena in cyberspace.
@@misanthropicattackhelicopt4148 Yeah, it's not really interesting... TBH, I had hoped they would replace this segment of the game by something else entirely. Even in the original game, it never really served any purpose, it was fast and silly. Here, they tried to make it more consistent but it just doesn't work. I think I would have preferred some kind of puzzle or something in the vein of Shadowrun.
I remember playing this back in the day. I think it was on my buddy's Intel 386, but don't recall for sure. I'd play while the friend group gathered chairs around the desk to watch, offer too much advice and binge on cigarettes and Mt. Dew. I think it took about a week or so to beat, just because it was so unlike any game we had played until that point. Mind you, that was 8-12 hours a day. We were all unemployed at the time :D
About the first part of the game being a vague. If you follow the advice of the first person who contacts you, you find a log that tells you exactly what to do and then various other logs tell you how to do it.
Sadly people need the big glowing pointer to tell them where to go and not use ther brain to explore and figure things out the way that games used to be before been dumbed down for the sheep.
@@misanthropicattackhelicopt4148 People take breaks from games and have other things going on in life. They are not going to remember one random audio log they picked however long ago that tells them what to do. You strike me a someone who isn't the brightest bulb in the box yourself.
@@CaptnKrksNippls Nah. That's not really an excuse. There's nothing wrong with a game that asks a bit more of you, and 'muh breaks' doesn't really explain it. Again, if the game asks more from you and it's an experience that's more patient and precise, then going in, you should fall into that rather than complain about the game not giving you the tools. Some experiences are like this precisely as a selling point, as an experience that lets you go about it in your own pace and figure things out for yourself. Some people find that fun, like I do. The excuse you use is absolute trash and it's part of the reason why we lack so many games that respect the player's intelligence, as well as why we don't get games like this very often anymore. If you don't like to figure these things out for yourself, just play a different game.
@@theblobconsumes4859 I think you lack the very intelligence you seem to be defending. Breaks does not mean 5 min to take a shit it means extended breaks due to life. Accessability is the name of the game now and even if you don't want to use the option of helping the player along somewhat it would still be nice to include for those that do. It doesn't hurt your experience but helps those that want it. You're not some fucking genius because you enjoy a game like this.
Thank you for a well balanced review when you talk about negatives that can really influence your experience with the game. I saw some reviews where people were complaining that music in original was better (beep boop beep I shall anihilate your hearing human) and nitpick some other weird stuff. It's nice to see someone who made a complex review because this is the first game that I've ever preorderer and I was wondering if it was any good. From what I can hear it is and that's great, now I just need to find time to sit down and play it.
Reminds me of the Demon’s Souls Remake. Yeah, art style changed, some relatively minor tweaks, but its gorgeous, plays beautifully, all the old guides/articles still apply, and an amazing, genre defining game is back in the public eye. Love it.
A game that doesnt hold your hand. How refreshing! Only Tarkov in recent times manages that. I played it at release in -94 and the joy of not only finding out what to do but also how to do it was very rewarding, but that is something lost in modern games...
The direct successor to the original System Shock was actually Deus Ex, and not System Shock 2. Because the designer of System Shock, Warren Spector designed Deus Ex after System Shock. Deus Ex is also an alltime classic game. There could be made an argument that System Shock inspired System shock 2 given the different designer Ken Levine, who also did Bioshock :)
I mean, at this point I'm convinced the man does not sleep, eat or think about the inevitable heat death of the universe. Ever. In the time I didn't even complete the demo, here's the 100%. :D
I thoroughly enjoyed this Remake... usually like puzzles to be medium difficulty but tried the the hard puzzle setting and found it relatively easy, especially the light route ones as full grid makes it it easier to quickly work out the correct route, I think unlike a lot of adventure puzzle games, in system shock its simple straightforward and not obtuse like the infamous rubber duck puzzle in The Longest Journey. Ammo and other inventory items have never been a problem for me in system shock, as I always just use the sparq beam till the end and keep running back to the recharge stations and healing pods hundreds of times, so by the time I am at maintenance I am completely overloaded with everything...makes levels like the beta groves very easy as Inventory is jam packed with healing items and battery packs. I found the interface demodulators very effective in jamming open the doors that permanently stay shut once you go past them, towards the end of the game, other times have the tendancy to be pushed aside especially if you load saves but the demodulators stay in place. I know most people disliked the cyberspace sections in the original game but I actually found it fun and the wireframe routes were a bit tricky but once tou got the hang of cyberspace it was relatively easy to traverse. Cyberspace in the remake is less obtuse and straightforward, so I think overall for majority of players it will be appealing, I know I am definitely in the minority in liking the original cyberspace.
A really good review of fantastic remake i'm currently on research level and i must say they pushed everything to nice effect without losing a spirit of original game.
I never would have thought that this game would end up in my top 5 favorite games of all time. I have been gaming since 1992 and have not played the original
Well I ended up picking up the game. I will likely play it right after I finish Jedi Fallen Order. Thanks to you Morti, I have once again skipped the line and my backlog yet keeps getting bigger and bigger. Dammit! Good thing its a short game.
I'm really enjoying it so far. I didn't have so much trouble finding what I was supposed to do in the early game- the lady on the radio at the beginning tells you to find a guy, points you towards his office, and the audio log there lays out the basis of a plan to stop the mining laser. Subsequently, it became a matter of exploring to uncover info on how to pursue those efforts. Things have become much more open ended after that point for me, now that I have access to a wider range of floors.
The biggest issue with the game is the music. Apparently a good deal of the music samples are set at 25% volume, rather than what other effects have. Aside from that objective problem, a subjective thing is that the game doesn't use the OG soundtrack. Having that modernized and present would have been preferable for fans of the OG music. Ambiance is cool, but the assertive OSTs of the Shock games are a core part of the series identity.
I mean using stealth takes 2 melee hits to the head while combat takes 3 on max. But what do i know i just started. I love playing games on the hardest difficulty blind and yolo as long as i can. Max everything except mission 😅 and i love the puzzles. They make my brain happy
Heyo Mortym! Game looks pretty good. I was wondering: will you be reviewing System Shock 2 after enjoying SS1 remake so much? It's a great game, and holds up pretty well graphically for an older game. Cheers everyone!
Ironically I remember very little about this game beyond Shodan. Might be worth a pick up. It's funny that of all the modern quality of life changes I have been spoiled by in modern games, inventory Jenga is not one of them. Sometimes I even crave it in games like Diablo 4. Which is why Death Stranding is a game I am looking forward to try as by all reports, Kojima managed to create a whole gameplay from a collection of all unsavory and annoying mechanics that have been phased out in most games. You might want to give it a shot if you have not.
I love this series. I do find that SHODAN as a character outshines the gameplay, probably due to the era of its initial creation concerned with emergent gameplay.
Thank you for the warnings on spoilers. I stopped the video as a consequence, as I reckon may be a game I would be interested in. Just...I don't now know if you think is good and worth picking up!
I loved the game (still playing)... I wonder if they will release a unique DLC (VR would be amazing & realize the wildest dreams of 1994) , the assets & engine look great. Only thing I didn't love was the size of the cargo lift... I hated losing access to weapons because I at least wanted to see what the upgrades were.
Everyone gets stuck at the same place you got. I'm not natively english, but I went through all my messages and figured out very easily where to go and what to do without the need of guide. Today, with so much waypoints and checklists, we barely read or listen carefully to messages games throw at you, and these games don't really expects us to read anyway and that's why they have waypoints and whatnot. This game is the Dark Souls of FPS's, and like you said, it's all about exploration. Tho I'm a bit disappointed you had to look for guides to figure things out. Great review.
Some kind of basic objective screen with your main goals (get thing X on floor Y) certainly would've been useful and would not take away from the authenticity of the remaster. I have no idea why they didn't put that in, it just seems sensible in the year 2023...
I played the original back when it was released so many years ago. The controls were, and still are the worst of any game (original) I've played but I did enjoy myself very much. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it.
"Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone, sweating and panting as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?" I adored this game back in the day. Interestingly it was Looking Glass's previous games, Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 that got me into PC gaming. Previously all my previous computers had been by Commodore so jumping ship to PC was a big deal. I miss Looking Glass games. I also think its a pity Warren Spector no longer works in the immersive sim gaming space. System Shock and Deus Ex kind of made the blue print for what an immersive sim is.
As someone who beat it, the music would usually come in at awkward times, such as after I kill an enemy, before immediately ending because combat is over.
So bascially the somewhat work around to the limited inventory space is to *vaporize* everything you see🤣. EVERYTHING that can be vaporized, do it. I got the achievement for doing that 100 times and only 0.2% of players have done that. That gives you way more space so I ended up only needing to Carry the stat boost stuff and weapons. Also get hella credits from it. I was swimming in cash! I use to worry about salvaging stuff but soon realized the limited space trade off was not worth it and vaporizing was more efficient. It's still nevertheless too small
Every time System shock is cited to have inspired this and that, then I cringe inside, because to me that still is Ultima Underworld. The underdog more, more like, the lost and forgotten puppy, that received a pretty terrible new chapter in recent years, and was buried as a zombie, along side it, straight away. It had everything System Shock had, just more rough in some regards, obviously, and on a lesser version of this engine. Anyway, love the reviews, keep it up.
If i remember correctly thr level design was very dated in the original with most levels being tons of hallways and mazes. Is thst something thst was changed?
I guess the weapon and ammo management is part of the game and it makes it really fun as you cannot carry all 8 ish weapons the game offers. It makes you think and strategize according to the enemies and layout of the levels.
The trouble is you can barely carry 4 weapons at the time and that’s with stacked items mod so vanilla most likely less than that. After modding this game seems way more balances and user friendly while still giving a good item management challenge.
The only video game I have ever played that literally hurts my eyes and gives me a headache. Pretty good game but there is something very wrong with the lighting or visuals or something that strains your eyes hardcore.
It actually varies, stuff that is embargoed I can't stream while I'm actually playing it, and beyond that being on camera for potentially 12 hours a day sounds awful honestly
I don't think it's Jupiter that the station is around, I believe it's Saturn (due to the rings, etc). Just pointing that out. (P.S. - Interesting to see if they'd try to remake SS2, or if this will be it for the game. Being how it took them this long to develop this game, I do wonder if they have the groundwork to do that.)
It's great that they preserved the original gameplay but they forgot to tell new players some of the basic stuff that was actually still common in the nineties - that this is a dungeon crawler and it requires you to manually write down everything important so tha you can collect pieces of info and put them all together yourself. I played this way and I always knew exactly what was the current objective and what was the plan to accoplish it. Everything is spelled out but if you rely only on your memory to keep track of it then you will get lost and confused very quickly. I just beat the original and I was surprised how accessible it was just because I was taking my notes. The remake even lacks such a basic feature as being able to write notes directly on the map, which the original had. And also the fact that dungeon crawlers pretty much disappeared from mainstream gaming means that people inaproprietly called this game an immersive sim - so they come in with wrong expectations, thinking this will be like Bioshock or Deus Ex in space. The sequel does but not the first game. Original System Shock is one of very few games that became a cult classic and yet never inspired people to make something similar - I don't know of a single game that combines scifi dungeon crawling through a series of interconnected mazes with first person shooting and creates immersion by having the player carefully follow the plot and story just to know what to do. So there's nothing to compare it with when you want to explain to new players what kind of a game this is. Because there's literally nothing like it.
If you max out combat, cyberspace, and puzzle difficulties then the level 3 story difficulty gives you 10 hours to complete the game.
that's cool
Original only gave you 7 hours. I wonder if the extra 3 hours here is due to a difference in size or movement or something?
@@warellis sort of? Some levels are changed around a bit but i personally think its just because of how different the combat and puzzles are. In old System Shock there was no randomization except for the reactor code really. In this one on 3333 a lot more codes are random which leads to more running around.
@@badbrain3723 Beat me to it. Also of note upping the puzzle difficulty actually changes the types of puzzles that show up. Not just how complex they are. Ironically I found the "hard mode" puzzles to be easier and less time consuming than the standard ones :P
@@warellis the Cyberspace levels are way longer for example
I backed the Kickstarter for this all the way back in 2016! It's been a long road since then but I'm glad it's finally done.
Same here. Very rocky road, but the end product speaks for itself. Considering how many things could be screwed up with a launch, bad QA testing, bad optimization, etc., this launch was pretty amazing. AAA studios would kill to have a smooth launch on games with much higher budgets.
Me too! Had Shodan turn me into a mutant so I finally have to kill myself yeah!
I bought my first gaming capable PC in 1994. I bought three games for it. Civ, Ultima Underworld 2 and System Shock. Of the three System Shock was the one that totally blew my mind and was in fact the first serious game I ever finished, although it did take me some time. Like a LOT of time. Anyway I can attest to the truth of every word Mort says here. This is a genuine bucket list game and there will never be a better time to experience first hand a significant slice of gaming history.
I think System Shock might actually be in my "Favourite Games of all time List". I am obsessed with everything about this Remake and even more so I am completely enthralled by SHODAN. I know a lot of people still prefer System Shock 2 but I really like the simplicity, the enemy design of this one and I really like how Citadel Station really feels like it's always trying to kill you (because it's SHODAN).
I'm sure you appreciate the Metroid Fusion elements as well
I didn't watch the entire video because I want to go in completely blind. I really appreciate how thorough you are and that you give a very concise TLDW at the start. Great work!!!!
This game's absolutely excellent. An incredible immersive sim as well as a very solid Metroidvania.
Btw; The 'immersive' part of immersive sim is meant to mean consistency of gameplay world functions and simulations, that in turn maintain immersion in the game's mechanics as well as the setting.
Afraid i'm gonna have to bail on this review at the 3 minute mark lol, I wanna see as much of sys shock first time with my own eyes. Glad to hear its getting a nice thumbs up though, I put a little time into it to make sure it ran nicely and whatnot - given the dev cycle and the state of pc gaming atm I was pretty skeptical, but it was all good. Can't wait :D
Yea I've never played it before and got no idea what to expect so I think I should save myself too. Good call
Totally understandable. It's best experienced yourself to get the claustrophobic immersion of being trapped alone on a massive space station.
One note, I would strongly recommend against playing on the time-limited difficulty for your first playthrough. Take your time to explore, and to stop & listen to everything you can.
Same! ill be back
Yup, I want to watch this but I just hate to have anything spoiled before I play it so I guess I'll click off until then 😅
Weapon management was always a thing with System Shock. I always just took a primary weapon, a sidearm, and a melee, and everything else I would just trash. And I do the same thing in the remake. It's a product of it's time I suppose. Good review! Glad you got some jump scares out of it. The creepy vibe was always a lot of the enjoyment of System Shock.
It's interesting how for example Bioshock Infinite forces you to that exact weapon system, and it works better in many ways than the other Bioshock games where you have all your weapons available all the time. Less is sometimes more, and having the need to choose what to carry around brings an interesting gameplay element that enhances replayability and makes you approach problems differently based on what you have with you.
19:17 What I found helpful was that you can just drop anything anywhere. And when you come back it will still be there, no matter where you left it or how far away from it you go. Also, there are small and large crates scattered throughout the levels that you can store stuff in so you don't have to carry around every weapon and other bit of loot you pick up.
I stored a bunch of stuff in the crates by the freight elevator in Maintenance, and made trips back to it from time to time to change up weapons and gather supplies or drop stuff off. Then at the point of no return(s) I smuggled all my weapons through the door, threw them on the floor and went back in multiple trips so I could get everything I had gathered up to the Bridge.
I skipped to positives/negatives at the end of your review because I don't want any spoilers. So glad to hear you think it's a great game and worth the $40. I'll be buying it. Thanks, Mort.
Great review! Weirdly enough, I didn’t get super lost in the beginning, but I did run out of health stims and spent an hour or so on the verge of death. Took a lot of trips back to the restoration chamber during that time.
I was really blown away by the original System Shock. It was the first game I ever wanted to play through several times, I found it so enjoyable and ground breaking that I couldn't get enough of it. I especially loved how the soundtrack on my PC with Roland Sound Canvas MIDI card sounded, I hope it will be as good or better in this remake experience.
When I finish of my studies this will be the first thing I dive into, I was a 90s gamer and this speaks to me like no other title, I loved the demo as well so I am familiar to the game design already, I played the original, but I think it was only the first level, and yes the controls from memory at the time were aweful, but the music and aesthetic is true to its origin with a very nice update that does fit.
I had fond memories of this game so I went back and played it about 10 years ago. And... oh my god. Oh my god. The 1994 control scheme it's like... oh fucking god.
I'm not a huge fan of remakes as a general rule because like, the original game is there, make something new, but if anything ever needed to be remade, System Shock did. The original is borderline unplayable even if you get it running perfectly. It's like playing Doom without mouse look, only somehow worse.
Finished the game last night. I loved it, BUT MAN. The amount of times I got lost with no idea what to do. And this was playing on Mission Difficulty 1.
the station is made that way (in game and lore wise) to test the crew members mental health limits, its literally designed like a claustrophobic labyrinth on purpose, everyone got lost, is part of the experience c:
Yeah don't be ashamed to get lost. It's actually a mess of back tracking and retreading old ground.
Another excellently-done review. Love your '100%' approach.
This is one of those games I really, really like the IDEA of, but I know that if I actually played it I'd end up pulling out my hair and giving up as I absolutely suck at puzzles, and SC1 is puzzle central. The hacking and wiring minigames defeated me in the original, and they'd defeat me in the remake too - not to mention the super-confusing labyrinthine layout. I know these can be simplified on lower difficulties and items can bypass some of it, Bioshock-style - but I'm betting it's still beyond my dumb brain.
That said I really appreciate that they've made a game with no handholding at all, and for those who are good at that kind of thing it's gonna be a dream come true.
You’re my favorite reviewer man! Thanks for all the content. Also, first comment yay!
Hey, thanks for being such a stand up guy and being so considerate of those such as myself who haven't played this yet in regards to spoilers. 👍
That’s a good name
I approve
Finished this a couple of days ago. I must say even though I enjoyed the moment to moment gameplay, the "not holding your hand" aspect of its mission design grew really frustrating 😃. It could be that I'm just used to having a screen at least showing the stuff I have to do, instead of combing through logs and putting the pieces together myself... but I'm 40 and I was a gamer in the 90s, and even then this sort of thing frustrated me to no end, and I had a lot more patience (and time) back then 😁. And I also agree with you about the inventory management. So overall I still prefer System Shock 2, but I'm glad I got to experience this classic. I never did play it when it came out originally.
Pretty Nice review ! Again, I did not really enjoy Cyberspace, I never felt like there were any kind of progression in that realm, you were almost always starting from scratch (and some items I still wonder what they do), they got Terry Brosius back to voice Shodan and this is just AMAZING !!! I wasn't expecting her to come back. Inventory management is something entirely new, the old game did not have this, this idea is entirely based on System Shock 2 which probably makes more sense. Money is also pretty new from what I remember and comes from SS2. (again, use level 4 to stock all the weapons you don't need ATM. Quite a big chunk of the game was changed but nothing that would make the game unrecognizable !
They succeeded to make a fantastic remake, it never holds you by the hand and back then, we couldn't use a guide, we had to figure everything out ourselves which made the game longer and more enjoyable (or not) as well but is certainly why the game stuck with us, older players. I really hope the second game will be remade and will be largely improved with bigger levels too.
Cyberspace is a downgrade from the orginal you move so slowly and you never have a timer where shoden herself is hunting you in cyberspace its just combat arena after combat arena in cyberspace.
@@misanthropicattackhelicopt4148 Yeah, it's not really interesting... TBH, I had hoped they would replace this segment of the game by something else entirely. Even in the original game, it never really served any purpose, it was fast and silly.
Here, they tried to make it more consistent but it just doesn't work. I think I would have preferred some kind of puzzle or something in the vein of Shadowrun.
I remember playing this back in the day. I think it was on my buddy's Intel 386, but don't recall for sure. I'd play while the friend group gathered chairs around the desk to watch, offer too much advice and binge on cigarettes and Mt. Dew. I think it took about a week or so to beat, just because it was so unlike any game we had played until that point. Mind you, that was 8-12 hours a day. We were all unemployed at the time :D
About the first part of the game being a vague. If you follow the advice of the first person who contacts you, you find a log that tells you exactly what to do and then various other logs tell you how to do it.
Sadly people need the big glowing pointer to tell them where to go and not use ther brain to explore and figure things out the way that games used to be before been dumbed down for the sheep.
@@misanthropicattackhelicopt4148 People take breaks from games and have other things going on in life. They are not going to remember one random audio log they picked however long ago that tells them what to do. You strike me a someone who isn't the brightest bulb in the box yourself.
@@CaptnKrksNippls Nah. That's not really an excuse. There's nothing wrong with a game that asks a bit more of you, and 'muh breaks' doesn't really explain it. Again, if the game asks more from you and it's an experience that's more patient and precise, then going in, you should fall into that rather than complain about the game not giving you the tools. Some experiences are like this precisely as a selling point, as an experience that lets you go about it in your own pace and figure things out for yourself. Some people find that fun, like I do.
The excuse you use is absolute trash and it's part of the reason why we lack so many games that respect the player's intelligence, as well as why we don't get games like this very often anymore. If you don't like to figure these things out for yourself, just play a different game.
@@theblobconsumes4859 I think you lack the very intelligence you seem to be defending. Breaks does not mean 5 min to take a shit it means extended breaks due to life. Accessability is the name of the game now and even if you don't want to use the option of helping the player along somewhat it would still be nice to include for those that do. It doesn't hurt your experience but helps those that want it. You're not some fucking genius because you enjoy a game like this.
I will come back once I've finished it. 👍
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll come back for the full review once I get a chance to play through it myself. I like to get the full experience.
Thank you for a well balanced review when you talk about negatives that can really influence your experience with the game. I saw some reviews where people were complaining that music in original was better (beep boop beep I shall anihilate your hearing human) and nitpick some other weird stuff. It's nice to see someone who made a complex review because this is the first game that I've ever preorderer and I was wondering if it was any good. From what I can hear it is and that's great, now I just need to find time to sit down and play it.
Thank you for the review! I’m going to take your word for it and play it for the first time with minimal insights.
Reminds me of the Demon’s Souls Remake. Yeah, art style changed, some relatively minor tweaks, but its gorgeous, plays beautifully, all the old guides/articles still apply, and an amazing, genre defining game is back in the public eye. Love it.
This is honestly one of the most underrated channels I know! His content waaay deserves more views!
A game that doesnt hold your hand. How refreshing! Only Tarkov in recent times manages that.
I played it at release in -94 and the joy of not only finding out what to do but also how to do it was very rewarding, but that is something lost in modern games...
Really nice review, I really hope your channel will continue growing.
Great review. Thanks. ‘More humorous than a problem’ made me laugh. Sounds like a good life philosophy I reckon. Cheers.
The only review that counts. My sweet baby Mordum.
The direct successor to the original System Shock was actually Deus Ex, and not System Shock 2. Because the designer of System Shock, Warren Spector designed Deus Ex after System Shock. Deus Ex is also an alltime classic game. There could be made an argument that System Shock inspired System shock 2 given the different designer Ken Levine, who also did Bioshock :)
Damn man, Love all the content, but don’t burn yourself out! It’s super impressive, what you do!
Always wanted to know, do you read all the achievements before playing the game?
Sometimes yeah, sometimes no. Depends on the game usually
Reading the data drives and listening to audio logs is how i found out what to do😂
Just 100% it too last night, nice
System Shock imo is currently the best remake of a classic game
Thank you for the review! I enjoy this game so much. I kinda wish Nightdive added an option to use the original 1994 soundtrack.
You know, I appreciate you mentioned how you pronounce Shodan haha changed the way I perceive it throughout the video
I mean, at this point I'm convinced the man does not sleep, eat or think about the inevitable heat death of the universe. Ever. In the time I didn't even complete the demo, here's the 100%. :D
I thoroughly enjoyed this Remake... usually like puzzles to be medium difficulty but tried the the hard puzzle setting and found it relatively easy, especially the light route ones as full grid makes it it easier to quickly work out the correct route, I think unlike a lot of adventure puzzle games, in system shock its simple straightforward and not obtuse like the infamous rubber duck puzzle in The Longest Journey. Ammo and other inventory items have never been a problem for me in system shock, as I always just use the sparq beam till the end and keep running back to the recharge stations and healing pods hundreds of times, so by the time I am at maintenance I am completely overloaded with everything...makes levels like the beta groves very easy as Inventory is jam packed with healing items and battery packs. I found the interface demodulators very effective in jamming open the doors that permanently stay shut once you go past them, towards the end of the game, other times have the tendancy to be pushed aside especially if you load saves but the demodulators stay in place. I know most people disliked the cyberspace sections in the original game but I actually found it fun and the wireframe routes were a bit tricky but once tou got the hang of cyberspace it was relatively easy to traverse. Cyberspace in the remake is less obtuse and straightforward, so I think overall for majority of players it will be appealing, I know I am definitely in the minority in liking the original cyberspace.
never played the og. but I'm so glad I got to play such a faithful remake of such a legendary game
Thank you very much for the review 👍👍
Another great and thorough review!
A really good review of fantastic remake i'm currently on research level and i must say they pushed everything to nice effect without losing a spirit of original game.
I never would have thought that this game would end up in my top 5 favorite games of all time. I have been gaming since 1992 and have not played the original
Well I ended up picking up the game. I will likely play it right after I finish Jedi Fallen Order. Thanks to you Morti, I have once again skipped the line and my backlog yet keeps getting bigger and bigger. Dammit! Good thing its a short game.
I have a 4770 and a gtx 1060 6gb. It runs it 200% resolution and max settings perfectly. It is such a well optimized game and it looks amazing.
Can't wait to play it, I love the original SS. And Terri Brosius is back as Shodan!
Need something to hold me over until DD2 and ROTR so I guess we found our winner… thanks Morty!
I'm really enjoying it so far. I didn't have so much trouble finding what I was supposed to do in the early game- the lady on the radio at the beginning tells you to find a guy, points you towards his office, and the audio log there lays out the basis of a plan to stop the mining laser. Subsequently, it became a matter of exploring to uncover info on how to pursue those efforts. Things have become much more open ended after that point for me, now that I have access to a wider range of floors.
The biggest issue with the game is the music. Apparently a good deal of the music samples are set at 25% volume, rather than what other effects have.
Aside from that objective problem, a subjective thing is that the game doesn't use the OG soundtrack. Having that modernized and present would have been preferable for fans of the OG music. Ambiance is cool, but the assertive OSTs of the Shock games are a core part of the series identity.
I love SS2. I was waiting for it 5 years. I personally think this is one of the best remakes made so far. 👍Great game.
I was just on your Dishonored video and thought 'I hope he adds the System Shock Remake to his list'
Well well well.
I mean using stealth takes 2 melee hits to the head while combat takes 3 on max. But what do i know i just started. I love playing games on the hardest difficulty blind and yolo as long as i can. Max everything except mission 😅 and i love the puzzles. They make my brain happy
Isn't Citadel station orbiting around Saturn?
Yes.
Heyo Mortym! Game looks pretty good. I was wondering: will you be reviewing System Shock 2 after enjoying SS1 remake so much? It's a great game, and holds up pretty well graphically for an older game. Cheers everyone!
At some point probably
I stopped the vid early. Thank you for the spoiler alert. I will come back later.
Did you end up playing it,? Thoughts
Ironically I remember very little about this game beyond Shodan. Might be worth a pick up. It's funny that of all the modern quality of life changes I have been spoiled by in modern games, inventory Jenga is not one of them. Sometimes I even crave it in games like Diablo 4. Which is why Death Stranding is a game I am looking forward to try as by all reports, Kojima managed to create a whole gameplay from a collection of all unsavory and annoying mechanics that have been phased out in most games. You might want to give it a shot if you have not.
Great, will definitely get this! :)
Dang that was quick
I love this series. I do find that SHODAN as a character outshines the gameplay, probably due to the era of its initial creation concerned with emergent gameplay.
Thank you for the warnings on spoilers. I stopped the video as a consequence, as I reckon may be a game I would be interested in. Just...I don't now know if you think is good and worth picking up!
Nice review
Was not going to play this, but you really sold it
I loved the game (still playing)... I wonder if they will release a unique DLC (VR would be amazing & realize the wildest dreams of 1994) , the assets & engine look great. Only thing I didn't love was the size of the cargo lift... I hated losing access to weapons because I at least wanted to see what the upgrades were.
Glad to hear it’s a wonderful game and a great experience.
Took me a few hours to get into it, but really loving this game.
Everyone gets stuck at the same place you got. I'm not natively english, but I went through all my messages and figured out very easily where to go and what to do without the need of guide. Today, with so much waypoints and checklists, we barely read or listen carefully to messages games throw at you, and these games don't really expects us to read anyway and that's why they have waypoints and whatnot. This game is the Dark Souls of FPS's, and like you said, it's all about exploration. Tho I'm a bit disappointed you had to look for guides to figure things out. Great review.
Some kind of basic objective screen with your main goals (get thing X on floor Y) certainly would've been useful and would not take away from the authenticity of the remaster. I have no idea why they didn't put that in, it just seems sensible in the year 2023...
Honestly this would have been a great QoL, it just feels missing here after I've played other immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey.
Hey man love your divinity 2 videos just sub to you keep up tue good work 😊
if they can somehow mod the new game to use the original soundtrack, im getting it. until then, sticking to 1994
15:23 ignore the hostile cyborg, focus on the roomba
I played the original back when it was released so many years ago. The controls were, and still are the worst of any game (original) I've played but I did enjoy myself very much. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it.
I wish they put journal of all the dialouge in game to make it easier to navigate with quests,this game almost needs u to use pen amd papper
Your media tab in the mfd has all the various logs and dialogue recorded in. You can filter them by level to ease the search.
@@zelurstak didit catch that,thx
"Look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone, sweating and panting as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?"
I adored this game back in the day. Interestingly it was Looking Glass's previous games, Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 that got me into PC gaming. Previously all my previous computers had been by Commodore so jumping ship to PC was a big deal. I miss Looking Glass games. I also think its a pity Warren Spector no longer works in the immersive sim gaming space. System Shock and Deus Ex kind of made the blue print for what an immersive sim is.
I need to play other immersive sims, any recommendations?
Man, it looks great, very atmospheric. How is the music and sound effects?
As someone who beat it, the music would usually come in at awkward times, such as after I kill an enemy, before immediately ending because combat is over.
The music is a bit meh compared to the original sadly. The sound effect are not bad.
So bascially the somewhat work around to the limited inventory space is to *vaporize* everything you see🤣. EVERYTHING that can be vaporized, do it. I got the achievement for doing that 100 times and only 0.2% of players have done that. That gives you way more space so I ended up only needing to Carry the stat boost stuff and weapons. Also get hella credits from it. I was swimming in cash! I use to worry about salvaging stuff but soon realized the limited space trade off was not worth it and vaporizing was more efficient.
It's still nevertheless too small
Yeah, vaporizing stuff is such an obvious thing to do and I have no idea why people didn't do it.
Every time System shock is cited to have inspired this and that, then I cringe inside, because to me that still is Ultima Underworld. The underdog more, more like, the lost and forgotten puppy, that received a pretty terrible new chapter in recent years, and was buried as a zombie, along side it, straight away. It had everything System Shock had, just more rough in some regards, obviously, and on a lesser version of this engine. Anyway, love the reviews, keep it up.
I guess I'm gonna have to pick this one up.
Why is the mission difficulty 3 timer in your game only 5 hours? Was that footage from the demo version?
Review copy perhaps?
It was only 5 in the review copy, looks like it was changed to 10 for the release which is an odd change
@@MortismalGaming The OG has the timer at 7 hours.
Loved the game! Just finished it today myself. Also, why is everything in your UI purple?
You can change UI colors.
@@Ploskkky Yeah, I should've watched a few seconds further when he mentions it, oops.
What are achievements? Is that like Trophies?
Yes
If i remember correctly thr level design was very dated in the original with most levels being tons of hallways and mazes. Is thst something thst was changed?
no, most of the layout is retained, if that turns you off then this might not be for you
This game looks so interesting.
Stumbled across this being a trophy hunter and once I saw your steam list I almost cried, I would love to befriend you sir
I'm glad it turned out great. I just hope it ends up great on ps5 cuz my PC is trash. It has an i3 from 2012 😂
Whoa, good to hear that I don't die IRL if I die in the game :D
A constant fear of mine
Lol “if you die in the game you die forreal” legendary quote
"You die in the game, you die in real life"
Tracks your IP and the devs have a hitman come and snipe you
I guess the weapon and ammo management is part of the game and it makes it really fun as you cannot carry all 8 ish weapons the game offers. It makes you think and strategize according to the enemies and layout of the levels.
The trouble is you can barely carry 4 weapons at the time and that’s with stacked items mod so vanilla most likely less than that. After modding this game seems way more balances and user friendly while still giving a good item management challenge.
The only video game I have ever played that literally hurts my eyes and gives me a headache. Pretty good game but there is something very wrong with the lighting or visuals or something that strains your eyes hardcore.
Can you stream your games? I really enjoy your personality. Even if it's just an unlisted vod of your game play for members or patrons.😅
It actually varies, stuff that is embargoed I can't stream while I'm actually playing it, and beyond that being on camera for potentially 12 hours a day sounds awful honestly
now i wonder if we'll see a sword n sorcery shock in the future
I don't think it's Jupiter that the station is around, I believe it's Saturn (due to the rings, etc).
Just pointing that out.
(P.S. - Interesting to see if they'd try to remake SS2, or if this will be it for the game. Being how it took them this long to develop this game, I do wonder if they have the groundwork to do that.)
SHODAN is Hal on steroids.
I think they go overboard on the neon lights and effects. If it weren't for that, I'd check it out. Maybe someone will mod that out
I just hope that they rone down the brightness and flashing from some of the guns so that it isn't as grating on the eyes.
It's great that they preserved the original gameplay but they forgot to tell new players some of the basic stuff that was actually still common in the nineties - that this is a dungeon crawler and it requires you to manually write down everything important so tha you can collect pieces of info and put them all together yourself. I played this way and I always knew exactly what was the current objective and what was the plan to accoplish it. Everything is spelled out but if you rely only on your memory to keep track of it then you will get lost and confused very quickly. I just beat the original and I was surprised how accessible it was just because I was taking my notes. The remake even lacks such a basic feature as being able to write notes directly on the map, which the original had.
And also the fact that dungeon crawlers pretty much disappeared from mainstream gaming means that people inaproprietly called this game an immersive sim - so they come in with wrong expectations, thinking this will be like Bioshock or Deus Ex in space. The sequel does but not the first game. Original System Shock is one of very few games that became a cult classic and yet never inspired people to make something similar - I don't know of a single game that combines scifi dungeon crawling through a series of interconnected mazes with first person shooting and creates immersion by having the player carefully follow the plot and story just to know what to do. So there's nothing to compare it with when you want to explain to new players what kind of a game this is. Because there's literally nothing like it.
Thanks for the early recommendation. I'm going to skip the rest of the video until I play it myself. Your reviews are awesome!
Best game i've played in 2023 by far