System Shock Remake (and System Shock 3?)

[revlob]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/12/system-shock-remake/

Night Dive are responsible for the recent Enhanced Edition of the original System Shock and in an interview with Fast Company, CEO Stephen Kick explained that his company have acquired the full rights to the franchise and have been working with the games original concept artist as they develop a full remake of the game. Talks about a possible System Shock 3 have also begun, although Night Dive admit they would need outside help to achieve something on that scale.

Of a sequel, head of business development at Night Dive Larry Kuperman says: To really do another game in that series is going to take resources and time and commitment that we dont have, and its really not our core business. However, the rights to make that sequel have now been removed from the legal limbo they appeared to exist in for so long.

How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?

[daveodeth]

Saw that on GAF, I got a tad excited. Just a tad mind. Still thing SS2 was Irrational's best game.

[Wiper]

It was. Though it suffers from the Irrational tendency to have a terrible ending.

A remake of the original will be welcome, I shan't get my hopes up for a decent third game, however.

[daveodeth]

A terrible ending?

Naaaaah!

[revlob]

I never completed System Shock 2. I got very close to the end, but lost my save in a disk crash, or something.

I only found out what the ending was recently, and it took quite some convincing that the videos on YouTube weren't fakes, but that was the real, actual, intended-by-the-developers ending.

[Wiper]

It is quite the thing. It's as though it was transplanted from another game entirely.

Accordingly, when I got to Bioshock's ending boss fight it barely even elicited an arched eyebrow.

[angel]

the ending was good in theory apart from the stupid joke. never ever use fmv though, always in engine, dat low quality.

[James Lyon]

It is quite the thing. It's as though it was transplanted from another game entirely.

Something along those lines:

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/what-might-have-been/

“Due to miscommunications or differing ideas, a different cinematic video was created from the one that I originally scripted,” says Levine. “It had this elaborate sequence where Shodan would attempt to kill you in a double-cross, as this ‘cyber stinger’ that was in view provided tension of your impending doom.” Upon getting his hands on the video for the ending sequence, Levine didn’t see anything that he wrote in the script. “We didn’t have much to work with. It was like when you look in the cupboard and you’re trying to make soup, and you have a bag of salt and couple of pinto beans.” Working with fixed assets can be extremely challenging especially with limited time and resources as well as fighting the technology back then. Levine remembers, “We had to write to the assets we had at that point, and all we could do was edit it. We completely ran out of time and that cut scene wasn’t the right ending for the game.”

[Butters]

I ashamedly, despite my love of Bioshock, have never played SS2. Picked it up on GOG.com a few months ago, prior to the launch of the enhanced edition.

Does the original still play well enough, or am I best getting the enhanced edition?

[Mr. Gerbik]

There is no SS2 Enhanced Edition, but SS2 on GOG is already kinda 'enhanced' thanks to some anonymous French coder with mysterious knowledge of the source code releasing an unofficial patch a few years back. SS2 on GOG (and on Steam for that matter, AFAIK it's the same version) runs well and in high-res on modern PC's. Visually it has aged of course, but in terms of gameplay and atmosphere it's timeless and outshines most modern games. Like the BioShock series for example.

There is a SS1 Enhanced Edition, which launched recently, but that is the only version you can buy on GOG. If you have that, you have the enhanced edition. It comes with the original un-enhanced version, but even enhanced SS1 is pretty rough. The gameplay ideas were ridiculously revolutionary for the time but due to that it's not as timeless as SS2. I recommend playing 2.

[Butters]

Ah, my bad. Thanks for the correction and view Mr Gerbik. It's SS2 I have on GOG, so will give that a go at some point soon.

Cheers!

[Len]

Definitely play 2 Butters. Still amazingly atmospheric and utterly terrifying to this day. Those bloody alarms and the moans, oh the moans. Way ahead of its time like Gerbik says.

[Butters]

One to play with headphones on then?

[Len]

I would if possible. Also you'll need to mess about with the controls to get a modern wsad setup going with strafing. The default is a headfuck. Think it's look left/right instead of strafing which feels all sorts of wrong but those were early days. I seem to remember remapping quite a lot of stuff on top of that as well.

Definitely track down the patch Gerbik mentioned as well, makes a world of difference.

[Butters]

Thanks guys!

[daveodeth]

Im sure there's a WASD config you can load in, there are 4 presets you can "load" at the bind menu.

[Wiper]

Well, the first screens and concept art of the remake have appeared. It looks quite nice! The simple geometry with its super-hard angles is clearly a nice way to cut down on costs, but I actually quite like that they've kept the angular level design and not gone wild reimagining things.

[revlob]

Looks like SS3 is happening.

By "is happening" I mean "will likely appear on Kickstarter soon".

[Blu3Flame]

 

[womblingfree]

I never played SS2. How does it stack up against SOMA and Alien: isolation?

[Alex W.]

It's much more of an RPG than something like Alien Isolation. Skill trees, degradable weapons, and even character classes, plus respawning enemies. Strong enough mechanics that it still works in multiplayer.

 

Similar on the scares front though.

[ravnaz]

 

[krenzler]

 

[Unofficial Who]

A new trailer

 

 

Also for PC owners a demo is available now!

[K]

I think this has been in development for longer than the Final Fantasy VII remake. 

[theredstar]

I think that looks fine, but lacks the creepiness of the original.

 

It’s another remake, and it just reminds me how innovative Looking Glass were around this time.  Really pushing the boundaries of tech and systems.  After System Shock, their next game was Flight Unlimited, after that Terra Nova. I can’t see a studio switching genres as easily today. PC development in the early 90s was a golden age.

[K]

3 minutes ago, theredstar said:

I think that looks fine, but lacks the creepiness of the original.

 

It’s another remake, and it just reminds me how innovative Looking Glass were around this time.  Really pushing the boundaries of tech and systems.  After System Shock, their next game was Flight Unlimited, after that Terra Nova. I can’t see a studio switching genres as easily today. PC development in the early 90s was a golden age.

 

It's uncommon, but it still happens - Asobo's last three games were Monopoly Plus, A Plague Tale, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

[Benny]

All the chat about this new demo is now in the System Shock 3 thread.

[Stevie]

https://v.kickstarter.com/1619224944_75d7a211a7a9c7b1535db7e74d38f30376ddb5f4/projects/2304682/video-682080-h264_high.mp4

 

Pretty neat.

 

[Wiper]

The remake is looking rather nice, doing a surprisingly good job of evoking the feel of the original (down to the overwhelming darkness) despite being worlds apart in technology. The hacking looks satisfying too, infinitely preferable to the weird Pipe Mania obsession that most games demonstrate.