SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[6645bdb0751fcXkilljoy98]

ZylonBaneIt isn't a deal breaker for me but I agree that some sort of explanation would be nice.

Also unrelated but for some reason the female hacker only changes the head, arms, and voice. For some reason despite the custom artwork, in game the female model reuses the male torso and legs which is a bit disappointing.

[6645bdb0759f2Briareos H]

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.

Like the OG, the second half is looser and some aspects of the original game's main quest progression could have been improved without undermining the minimal signposting approach. If I didn't know the game by heart I would definitely have gotten lost around the time you need the master jettison code.

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. Decades of FPSes have made me annoyed that they chose to make the player more of a glass cannon but I can't fault the game for it, and with the proper set up of stim patches and weapon switches the pure shooting was often fun.

Another fun aspect of the overhaul was cyberspace, but it felt less remarkable than in the original. I liked to see 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 messy fight. A bit weird to lose the 6DOF shooting, it didn't work that well but solid attempt and fun Tron 2.0 vibes. I'll still take it over the original ending.

The music was a mixed bag for me, while I don't dislike it and I think the audio director is a competent composer on top of being very 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.

A clear 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 or health, so the obvious use is for weapon upgrades. Those upgrades are nice but why not simply make them found 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.

[6645bdb075be6Xkilljoy98]

New Patch:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/482400/view/4199120329635869280

[6645bdb075db1icemann]

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

[6645bdb075f61ZylonBane]

Still no dedicated key to play the last log you picked up. Night Dive's UI designers lagging behind a quarter-century-old game.