System Shock Remake Compared to Original; Devs Pay Tribute to the Legend
An interesting video has appeared online, comparing System Shock Remake with the original from the 1990s. It shows how close the authors of the refreshed version have stuck to the original.
Yesterday saw the launch ofSystem Shock, a remake of the iconic 1994 game. Reviews suggested that the developers remained faithful to the original. A new video published by YouTube channels of Cycu1 shows that this is in fact the case - the game turned out to be a true tribute to the original.
System Shock - the 1994 version versus the remake
The video offers a comparison between System Shock from the 1990s and the remake released yesterday. It juxtaposes the same locations and enemies. Thanks to this, you can see not only the obvious technological progress, but also that the developers managed to preserve the atmosphere and style of the original.
System Shock Remake vs. 2020 demo
Two other videos have also been made available on the channel. The first offers a comparison between the final version of the game and the demo released in 2020. The footage shows that in three years the developers have ramped up the level of detail slightly and, most importantly, heavily improved the lighting system.
System Shock Remake versus the original vision of the game from 2016
The last video is also interesting, as it compares the game to the original vision of this project shown in 2016.
Seven years ago, the premise of the game was very different. It was supposed to run on the Unity engine and be a much more aggressive remake, with a setting reminiscent of modern games.
Eventually, these ideas were dropped. The devs abandoned Unity in favor of Unreal Engine 4, and the entire visuals were changed to have a distinctly retro feel. The end result is definitely more faithful to the original, but also less impressive.
Expectations vs. reality
Of course, the decision to change the approach cannot be considered ignoring the context. Nightdive, the studio responsible for the remake is quite small and the original vision was too ambitious for it. Opting for retro styling seemed at the time to be the better idea, as a high-budget third part of the series was being developed in parallel, although today it is unclear whether System Shock 3 will ever be released.
In the end, the remake, although visually less impressive than the 2016 version, still looks attractive, and its setting fits the character of the game, so it's hard to hold a grudge against the devs. The players themselves definitely do not - on Steam, 94% of reviews praise the project..
System Shock Remake for now is available exclusively on PC. There are also plans for releases on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5 consoles, but they will be released at a later date.
