A minor hotfix by the sound of it, compared to previous patches.

Briareos H
I was able to finish the game after the latest patch. Phew!

I may write down some more detailed feedback later but the short of it is that I am very happy with how the game was remade. It is a lot more faithful than I was expecting while bringing new elements of design language that are valuable on their own. Citadel still feels like its own place and the way exploration works in the original is almost perfectly reproduced.

The art style is definitely my jam. I found the consistency in visual style to elicit the early 3D graphics cyberpunk look quite remarkable, with a very confident grasp of the Unreal Engine for a first release. And the nearest neighbor filtered low-res look was love at first sight, but I suppose that's a me thing.

Some aspects of the original game could have been improved in the second half with regards to maintaining a clearer main quest progression while keeping the minimal signposting approach.

The combat was interesting, somehow the interplay of systems that were completely overhauled such as weapons and enemies results in an imperfect balance that feels fairly close to the original game.

Cyberspace was fun but not very remarkable. I liked getting a clean and minimalist implementation of a Descent clone (btw I didn't know that Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog both worked at LGS before moving on to develop Descent. Toschlog is even credited as having worked on libraries in the original and remake, but I'm not sure whether he contributed to the cyberspace implementation in System Shock) and I liked the looks of it, but it lacked something to make it feel special. The end boss was a bit messy but I'll still take that over the original ending. A bit weird to lose the 6DOF shooting, it didn't work that well but solid attempt and fun Tron 2.0 vibes.

The music was a negative for me, while I don't dislike it and I think the audio director is a competent composer on top of being good at his main job, it was too subdued for System Shock. The original soundtrack, with all its weirdness, is an integral part of the Citadel experience. Elevator bossa nova is absolutely perfect though.

Another negative was the recycler mechanics, which felt really clunky. Unless you spend the whole playthrough vaporizing everything you come across you will never manage to use vending lockers as reliable sources of ammunition, so the obvious use is for weapon upgrades. Those upgrades are cool but why not simply make them hidden items like hardware upgrades? Hoarding in-game currency for upgrades is one of the ImSim tropes that I've always disliked and one of the reasons the original System Shock is still my favorite.

"Pseudospace" is what they're calling the final battle arena? Ugh. SS2 could use the FTL drive to handwave that nonsense, but SS1 lore has no such reality-warping excuse.

Sigh.

Oh well, still sounds a tiny bit less bad I guess.

Did they at least change it so you don't have to do the exact same thing three times while being immortal?

Xkilljoy98If we go by the technical issue reports in the Steam forums, I'm far from being the only one with major issues (i.e. a broken game) playing from a previous save. I'm pretty sure 1.2 is a big improvement for people starting the game from scratch but it's kind of a russian roulette if you want to pick up where you left off.

The end boss is worse with this patch, the original end boss wasn't perfect, but it was better in my opinion than either of the final bosses in the remake. I hate how Cyberspace is now segmented arenas. And still no Gamepig.

But other than that, I think it's fantastic. I do miss being able to climb on pipes and vines though.

I do wish the levels had a more circular feel, to match the station exterior, and I wish that the exec suites had exec bathrooms. I hate those dragon fly cyberspace things, and I dislike the invisible mutants.

Oh well, I suppose there is still a chance that NDS will fix them in time for the console versions release.

NDS has left System Shock Enhanced Edition in an unplayable state for over 3 years, and they continue to sell it on Steam.

God dammit. Been waiting since July last year to play the game, was hoping it was fixed now, and it's not. Grr.

More waiting then.

You expected a game released after 2010 to be in a playable state?

Your standards are too high.

Unfortunately the update seems to have introduced some problems of its own, like the Magpulse not being able to chamber a second round after a while, and it also seems to have broken my save as the game crashes when I take the elevator to Executive. Hoping for a hotfix.

God dammit. Been waiting since July last year to play the game, was hoping it was fixed now, and it's not. Grr.

More waiting then.

Unfortunately the update seems to have introduced some problems of its own, like the Magpulse not being able to chamber a second round after a while, and it also seems to have broken my save as the game crashes when I take the elevator to Executive. Hoping for a hotfix.

At 5mb+, it's more like attack of the killer PNGs

Return of the PNGs.

They say that the physical stuff will release, when that will be IDK. They say "soon", but who knows

Another thing is that I wanna know if Gamepig minigames are gonna be in the patch 1.2? Previously in past updates the threw in an "Oink Oink" at the end to hint at it but it hasn't been mentioned since last year, and you'd think that it would be in the patch notes but no. Did they forget? Is it in there and they aren't mentioning it? Is it coming later?

Who knows

I agree that this is a bit of a spoiler but maybe people shouldn't read patch notes anyway if they try to avoid such stuff. Wouldn't have hurt NDS to mention this in a less revealing way though. Then again, they probably thought this could help sales a bit.

Female hacker looking very Aliens marines inspired. Just missing the red headband and smart gun.

What are you even talking about? The part you quoted is referring to the fact that this patch changes the final battle.

Would be nice if the female hacker has the fashion sense to not wear those awful half-fingered gloves, but somehow I doubt it.

Xkilljoy98
You could email NDS to ask for the source files, or 1:1 image files. They might actually reply to that type of request.

I don't see them either.  It's possible that they use the 3D models for the inventory too?

Nothing about the next patch unfortunately. 100% about physical game releases.

Should be. Their lead programmer (Matt) has been posting on Discord about the patch for close to a year (I can't believe its been that long between patches) and he never mentioned anything about it not being compatible. Especially as one of the fixes is specifically about save games.

So we now have a projected release date for the console versions? I hope NDS stick to the date, but given their previous record, I'm not exactly confident.

Still, it's good to have a possible (probable?) ETA, so thanks to NDS for that.

Console Release Trailer:
https://youtu.be/wjlv6K5g3Jg?si=_xa9ntrr-pb_CVjn

Kickstarter Update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/4048002

Release Date for Console (Playstation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/Series S) is May 21, 2024
Release Date for Patch 1.2 on PC is "sometime soon"

The good news is, all of the big name game franchises will be available for cheap to indie devs over the next few years as the AAA space slowly collapses.

I look forward to spending $50 on 30 year old games (turok, dark forces... wtf nightdive...)