On Tue, 30 May 2023 09:33:55 -0600, "rms"
<
rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:
You waited 8 years, and finally: System Shock GoG/Steam keys are out now
for kickstarters!!
https://system-shock.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards
Having watched a video with 30minutes of gameplay the other day*, I'm
more confident in my decision to wait on buying this one.
I've never been shy about my opinions about the original "System
Shock". As far as I was concerned, it was an okay game but hardly
worth the praise heaped upon it. It was a clunky game even when
released, and it really wasn't doing anything that Looking Glass
hadn't already done before in the Ultima Underworld games. It was an
upgraded version of those older games with a sci-fi skin and some
terrific voice-acting on the part of Terri Brosius (who played
Shodan). It wasn't bad, but worthy of a remake? Hell, as much as I
adore "System Shock 2", I'm not even sure the original was worthy of a
sequel.
But a remake we got, regardless. And it's earnestly true to the
original, which is its biggest fault. From everything I've seen, it is
largely a massive graphical update with very little changed, and what
has been altered beyond the visuals isn't very good.
But the visuals themselves aren't particularly appealing either.
Everything looks chunky; it's all in-your face, almost weirdly
distorted in proportions. Some of this is probably the tight FOV but
it's an ugly default. There's a glossy, almost wax-like sheen to
everythign too, making it look like a game developed in the mid 2000s.
I know the developers were trying to create a mix between old and new
visuals, but the graphically game looks dated right out the door...
and since that's the core of this update that's not a good start.
The rest of the game hews closely to the original, and that's not a
good thing in my opinion. The level design annoyed the hell out of me
even back in 1994, and it seems to be recreated here without much
alteration. There's more detail, but not in any useful way; the maps
are still largely devoid of character or environmental storytelling.
It seems such a waste of opportunity not to have recreated Citadel
Station into something less labyrinthine and more realistic.
The monsters look awful; the sprite-based creatures had a horrific
vibe to them but the new ones look plasticine and cartoony. The first
robot you encounter looks like Alpha5 from Power Rangers, and the rest
aren't much better.
The interface looks cluttered and distracting, lacking the clean
distinction from the background as the original's. The gunplay is
faster - one of the few improvements over the original game is better mouse/keyboard controls. You no longer need to press the 1 & 3 keys to
look up and down!
The worst part of the video is the introduction. The 1994 set up the
game's plot with a 30-second FMV; a hacker gets caught, is offered a
deal to avoid prosecution, and unwittingly unleashes a rogue AI onto
the world. It's quick and to the point; it provides just enough
information without spoiling any of the mystery. The remake's version
is fully interactive; it's slow, it's ugly, and it doesn't add
anything useful (and it spoils some of the mystery at the start of the
game). It feels fanboyish and amateur.
Despite the years it took to pull this project together, the whole
thing feels slapdash and inexperienced. I'd have been more excited had
they decided to fully modernize the game but this half-and-half
approach just doesn't work with me.
Being the hoarder^h^h^h^h^h collector that I am, eventually I'll
probably acquire the game - and maybe even play it - but I doubt it
will supercede the original in my eyes... and that's not a hard bar to
cross.
* specifically, this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybBREPkUB4o
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