Night Dive Studios has released an alpha gameplay trailer for its upcoming sci-fi action role-playing title, System Shock Remastered yesterday. Night Dive was previously responsible for making System Shock 2 compatible with modern systems in 2013 and released it on GOG.com and Steam. The team later followed up with the release of System Shock: Enhanced Edition in 2015.
What is System Shock?
System Shock is a sci-fi action role-playing game originally developed by Looking Glass Technologies and released in 1994. The game plays from a first-person perspective with a 3D graphical environment. The setting for the game is a large multi-level space station called Citadel Station owned by the TriOptimum Corporation.
The protagonist, a criminal hacker, is hired to hack into the station’s A.I SHODAN, in exchange for a neural implant and all criminal charges dropped. Upon completing the job and having the implant installed, they are put into a healing coma.
They wake six months later to find SHODAN has taken control of the station, setting all robotics to hostility, and all the crew are transformed into mutants, cyborgs or killed. From here the player has to navigate through the station, fighting monstrosities and robots, solving puzzles, reading e-mail and listening to audio logs and destroy SHODAN to escape the station.
Great first impressions
The trailer certainly gives great first impressions for the game, especially considering it is gameplay footage from an alpha build of the game. The graphics show the real power that the Unity engine is capable of utilizing. They look fantastic, and the enemy models look impressive.
The atmosphere of the station is great as well. It has that lonely and vulnerable atmosphere of being alone in a massive place full of things wanting to kill you, just like in the original games. The level design is the same as that of the original but with the new graphical technology of today, it has been enhanced immensely.
The HUD is a lot more modernized, as opposed to it taking up a lot of the screen like it did in the original game, giving the player a much larger view distance. Judging from the scene in the video where the player picks up the pipe, the game is going to have plenty of items available.
The original game has an array of weapons, stat boosters, medkits, and the Cyberjack, which allowed the player to enter cyberspace and gain access to the stations security systems. We are sure to see the return of all these features. The video shows that the player will be able to see out of the station windows, adding to the overall feel of isolation.
Night Dive Studios certainly looks to be on the right track when it comes to creating a remaster of System Shock, and I can’t wait to see what they are going to show shortly.
What are your thoughts on the trailer? Do you think Night Dive Studios are on the right track? Let me know in the comments below!
