System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster impressions

[687c9271d48c6Xkilljoy98]

A few random things now that it's out

Firstly they delayed the console ports to early july but that is what it is I guess

But also so far after playing it a bit. Overall pretty good, not a huge departure but also wasn't expecting one. It is what I expected, a polished version of the game. It looks about as fine as you can make it without doing a full scale remake or doing what they did for Oblivion remaster.

They changed the voice acting for the UNN PA systems, I assume this was done since they switched out mentions of actual keys to what the button does (instead of tab it's now switch mode button), that and the navy tutorial has a section on cameras that wasn't there before

Also Happy Noodle has a menu now so that's neat I guess

Still fairly early in the game but those are some of the most immediate things I noticed, though I heard there are a few new areas like an office for William Diego.

[687c9271d4af8JDoran]

I probably won't be getting the PC version, unless it has some features that I'm not aware of - I'm waiting for the PS4 version, so can you answer the following questions, please:

Is there any new system for selecting psi powers, such as a weapon wheel type thing, or keys for each psi power?

When you go through a loading zone then do you still lose any of your pre-activated psi-buffs?

When you drop physical items (such as weapons) near a wall, do they still partially clip through the walls?

What does the load/use mod menu look like? What noticeable mods are available or unavailable?

[687c9271d4dbcvoodoo47]

I have to admit I have completely ignored the control elements during my beta runs (trust me, there are bigger fish to fry), but I can pretty much answer the rest;

- yes, no change in load zones, object physics etc.

- there is an extra menu when starting a new game, "MODS", you open it and see a list of available inactive mods in the lower left part of the screen, active ones in the upper left part of the screen, you can select them, activate, deactivate, move the active ones up and down to change their priority, and apply changes. that's it.

and yes, you can only set the mod loadout right before you start a game, so choose wisely.

SCP (b6), 400, SHTUP, and EE itself are available by default (and are enabled by default), you can add additional mods to your steam/whateverwhatever/SS2 EE/mods folder, but you need to make sure they are compatible, and they are packed in a zip file that is renamed to kpf (so if you want to try a random mod downloaded from here, you need to extract the 7zip archive, select all the files and folders inside, and zip them as a zip, then rename zip to kpf), then they should appear in the list of inactive mods and you should be able to add them.

[687c9271d5071ZylonBane]

Xkilljoy98The Happy Noodle menu and camera training are SCP changes, and have been in for years.

[687c9271d51b8voodoo47]

generally speaking, level geometry textures is the 400 mod, new things existing/working better is SCP, and the AI models/motions, object skins/visual effects and UI is NDS.

so yes, "this part of the level is now finished", "this area is polished", "this scripted sequence works properly now", "this functionality is much improved" and similar would be SCP.

[687c9271d5433vurt]

30 people watching the launch stream, not bad, not bad...

I bet they'll sell at least 200 copies in a year. lol

[687c9271d5640ZylonBane]

voodoo47"Right-clicking a medbed will automatically use one of your medbed activation keys on it whether you like it or not" is all Night Dive though.

[687c9271d5768voodoo47]

yes. hence, "generally speaking", and "working better". a medbed chomping on the rare medbed key the moment you look at it wrong is definitely not something to file under "working better".

more like "this is a bad idea that also completely and irreparably breaks the Repairman mod".

[687c9271d5848ZylonBane]

Repairman mod just has to disable it.

[687c9271d5968voodoo47]

disable it how? the EE exclusive functionality is a black box, no documentation, no KEX editor, no way to intercept and analyze signals, all you can do is set up your mod in Shocked, verify it works there, and hope EE will like it.

some things you can bruteforce (RealSG, where I simply kept tweaking the values bit by bit until the new hybrid model held the gun properly), but not this.

aha, but maybe they are dml-ing this in, will check - in that case, it may be fixable.

[687c9271d5a39ZylonBane]

Anything done can be undone.

[687c9271d5b06voodoo47]

with enough determination, yes.

[687c9271d5c7bValet2]

Oh gosh how I hate some changes!

- there are no bindings for psi hypo and antitoxin!
- no "hold to crouch" option!
- autosave and quick save share the same slot!!!
- when I try to scroll an mfd window with the scroll wheel it changes weapons instead.

That's what has been bothering me A LOT during the first hours. What's the chance of this being polished and fixed?

[687c9271d5d63voodoo47]

welcome to missing NewDark QOL improvements. don't worry, already reported.

well, the bind issues might be just regular bugs.

[687c9271d5e52Rayne]

Anyone manage to get the NewSky (dynamic moving sky for Earth) working? I honestly expected that mod to be bundled or NDS to have made one themself, as nice as everything else looks it feels missing imo

[687c9271d5f44voodoo47]

we barely had enough time to check the included mods. so no - feel free to try. note that you will have to repack the mod as zip and then rename it to kpf so EE could load it.

//nope, dynamic sky is a no go, EE is incompatible.

[687c9271d6045Rayne]

Tried earlier and no dice. Assuming not all NewDark features have been added? Overall though I'm very much enjoying the new visuals, definitely wanna give props for how good everything looks, so no biggie if some mods don't work right now. Eventually though would be nice to have.

[687c9271d62ccXkilljoy98]

Xkilljoy98The Happy Noodle menu and camera training are SCP changes, and have been in for years.

Ah well I usually played unmodded so I was unaware

[687c9271d63a1ZylonBane]

Jesus.

[687c9271d6546icemann]

New mods menu? Nice. Very handy in SS1EE.

Pc Gamer reviewed the remaster:
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/system-shock-2-25th-anniversary-remastered-review/

Even their not a fan of playing co-op for totally valid reasons.

[687c9271d67a8Twist]

I'm not sure I'd describe the new mods menu as "nice." It's much less flexible and much less informative than just using the Dark Engine Mod Manager. I also can't tell how people are supposed to know which mods are compatible or not.

I noticed many of the "missing" binds are available (hypos, different crouch types, etc.)... if you manually bind them in user.bnd. For some reason, they just didn't provide the interface for them. I assume that will be fixed... eventually.

I forgot to mention: I have a funny bug where the animations aren't triggering for weapon reloading. So when I hit reload or change ammo type on the pistol, I hear or see nothing with the weapon model, but the ammo type icon changes and the ammo count increments properly.

[687c9271d68abZylonBane]

Yeah, what they've released here is straight up an unfinished product. Script bugs, engine bugs, incomplete NewDark features, placeholder textures and models, doesn't incorporate the current versions of SCP, SHTUP, or the subtitles... It's got a way to go.

[687c9271d6a63Livo]

I haven't gotten the chance to play the Anniversary Edition yet, so some of these might be dumb or answered just by loading it up.

- I assume the answer is "No!", but when playing it with no mods enabled whatsoever, have there been any tweaks to the specific skills/requirements by Night Dive, that are NOT already found in b6/b7 of SCP? A few people elsewhere have commented on how ND have changed certain requirements for the better, but when asked if those changes are also in SCP, their answer was "S...C...P? What's that? I only ever played the original edition twenty years ago, I dunno?"
- SCP b6 is listed in the mod menu list, does that mean that if you *don't* activate it, then you only get some core bug fixes & tweaks like the Happy Noodle menu or security camera training, BUT choosing SCP will enable its full range of extensive further fixes, tweaks etc?
- Squishy organic sounds for reloading/changing fire modes for just the icky organic weapons. Yay or Nah?
- I again assume the answer is "No!", but have there been any changes to the ending cut scene, *besides* re-rendering it with the new models? Stuff like Goggles seeing a "FTL Bubble Size Reaching Critical Mass" screen just before delivering his infamous line, different framing of Shodan etc.

[687c9271d6d6aDa9L]

Haven't played it yet, but will at some point.

I will say though that I'm a ilttle bit bitter that the community, the well known content creators in here, which had their work included in the remaster, arent mentioned more. In the reviews I've seen for now, almost all credit goes to Night Dive, and community contributions is only briefly mentioned, while you guys work might actually have been the biggest part of the remaster. And its not that Night Dive hasn't done a great deal for the remaster, but i think the community deserves more credit tbh

Yeah, what they've released here is straight up an unfinished product. Script bugs, engine bugs, incomplete NewDark features, placeholder textures and models, doesn't incorporate the current versions of SCP, SHTUP, or the subtitles... It's got a way to go.

How does that work though? Do they ask you guys in here for updated files whenever they feel like they want to update the game or?