System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster impressions

[687c8e8896ac4Twist]

I kid you not, I think there are at least 20 separate, new threads on Steam complaining about the quicksave/autosave issue. Obviously -- and justifiably -- people care more about stuff like that than they care about higher framerates.

It's hard for me to imagine they aren't working on a fix for this already. But who knows.

[687c8e8896cb5ZylonBane]

Never mind NewDark, you could fix this even back in the OldDark days by editing the keybinds:

Code: [Select]

bind s+alt "shk_save_game 10"
bind l+alt "shk_load_game 10"But under KexDark, the above command has apparently been removed and replaced with just a "quicksave" command that doesn't take any arguments. So they actually reduced functionality. Good job guys.

[687c8e889707evorob]

Try dropping more than one nav marker.
Notice that music isn't starting where it's supposed to.
Fog in the BotM isn't working.
Clicking on a deactivated medbed will suck up an activation key from your inventory without even asking.
Light textures don't dim when the light does.
Object textures that look worse than the SHTUP versions.
Dynamic lights not illuminating terrain and objects correctly.
Shotgun hybrid muzzle flashes not rendering correctly.
Excessive default bloom wipes out details of bright textures.
No mousewheel text scrolling.
No Alt-click to view descriptions.
UI fonts smaller and dimmer than Dark/NewDark.
No New Mantle.
And on and on and on...

Some of these points sounds like a bugs. I wonder if they were reported to the dev team.

[687c8e8897209JDoran]

Considering the near obsessive level of attention  given to System Shock 2 by some people on this forum, I'm quite sure that every known bug or glitch found in the AE has been properly reported to Nightdive Studios. The question is, will NDS take the time and effort to fix them all.

[687c8e88975c9Marvin]

The new UI font is ugly and text is not aligned properly.

Old hack interface: https://imgur.com/REKQD6w
New hack interface: https://imgur.com/03FpqL5
Old keypad: https://imgur.com/LFpqZYg
New keypad: https://imgur.com/Z1HlvG4

They didn't even bother centering it? What?

[687c8e889778aJoin2]

If there's anything I love this community for it's high standards and expectations for anything Shock-related. Gatekeeping its integrity, The game deserves nothing less. And I believe it deserved much more love than this fairly straightforward remaster (well, not straightforward in porting it to Kex, but straightforward in what it actually provides for the end-user), but at least they've been relatively respectful of its integrity too. e.g no adding objective markers like they did for Quake 2 & Turok 2. Or not breaking mod support like they usually do for games with multiple decades of modding history keeping the game alive and moving forward.

Anyway, hopefully KexDark opens the way for more modding potential. Sounds like it.

[687c8e8897948icemann]

I say to wait and see. Considering how long it was in development, there'd have to be a patch or 3.

Currently up to Rickenbacker part b and its been a great experience overall. I've read the issues others have with the game, but most of those hasn't been an issue for me beyond the new training voice acting (new voice acting there sounds slightly passive aggressive).

On the bugs end: Definitely some A.I pathfinding bugs at play. Seen a few instances of enemies running half inside the ground (3 instances). Bodies stuck in mid air after dying (1 instance). Bodies going through their death animation again on re-entering a level (just like SSR). Hoping all of those get fixed as they were not in the original.

[687c8e8897b97eldrone]

Bodies going through their death animation again on re-entering a level (just like SSR). Hoping all of those get fixed as they were not in the original.

Might be the protocol droid corpse, the animation is now set to play when object is created rather than script beginning, so has been fixed.

But might turn the legs into an unlootable mesh model with death animation to avoid the janks.

[687c8e8897d23voodoo47]

or just can it for now, just like the worm corpse. sorry, that is what should be done with it, imho.

also, bodies stuck in mid air is not KD, this is how this works unless you implement ragdolls (please don't).

[687c8e8897f08icemann]

Might be the protocol droid corpse, the animation is now set to play when object is created rather than script beginning, so has been fixed.

But might turn the legs into an unlootable mesh model with death animation to avoid the janks.

Yep was the protocol droid. Completely takes you out of the moment, on seeing it.

[687c8e889800bZylonBane]

The silver lining is that the massive explosion when protocol droids die obscures that silly legs animation so much you can barely see it.

Now if they could just fix what sounds like five explosion sounds playing at once when they die.

[687c8e889810bvoodoo47]

and the lava chunks flying all around with hypersonic speed.

the most polite description I have for the setup is "hilarious". hilarity is not something I'm looking for when playing SS2.

[687c8e889826ficemann]

Finished my play through of the remaster. 1 crash whilst mantling in the BOTM level, and that was my only crash during play time. Ending goes for a little longer with a credit sequence + glimpses around the Von Braun. And a 2 second extra SHODAN bit.

Overall, more of a graphical bump up than anything, and not as comprehensive as the Command and Conquer remaster (which enhanced gfx and sound + had A LOT of extras). Overall if your not planning on playing FMs then go with the remaster, otherwise go with vanilla SS2 + mods. Had a blast playing through the game again. Always fun.

[687c8e88985e7Brisk]

What a surprise. Another recent night dive cluster fuck that they have inevitably released in an unacceptable state, will begrudgingly release a patch or two to fix a few of the laundry list of issues after massive customer complaints before abandoning all support so that they can move on to the next cash grab...

Having my last play through of a fully modded version of the game fresh in mind from just a couple months ago, I can definitely feel the frustration in how much of a step backwards this is to those that fixed all of this in their free time over the last couple decades. Seriously, what was the point in all the community consultation and borrowing of mods if this was the result?

The only improvements I can find from the video footage I have watched combined with this thread are the cutscene videos being redone in high resolution/16:9 aspect ratio and no more 4:3 black bar'd menus. These personally bothered me and are finally resolved. I can see an argument for the more faithful enemy models over what Rebirth offered and the addition of Korenchkin's office is a cool party trick throw in as well. The rest is either status quo which is fine or outright regression in quality/accuracy.

I'm by no means an expert on the dark engine, but could these few improvements not simply be used in new mods in addition to what we already had? I have no faith in night dive to step up in any capacity and have stopped financially supporting them with purchases after the System Shock "Enhanced Edition", Blood "Fresh Supply", Blade Runner "Enhanced Edition" messes that they have left behind and avoided ever finishing. These remasters are supposed to be modernized definitive versions of the game, not 75-80% complete insults to anyone that forked out money for the same games they already owned a second time seeking an improved experience.

And for the night dive employees that I know will read this and disagree, simply prove me wrong then. Actually finish System Shock 2 "Enhanced Edition". Make this the new benchmark and then commit to going back to the previously mentioned titles that you have done wrong by your customer base in refusing to fix. At minimum have the less than useless puppets that you employ in email support roles mindlessly deflecting and never admitting to any wrong doing fired. Sadly though, I know this will never occur. Shit travels down hill and this is a directive from the top. Business as usual for night dive over the last several years.

[687c8e889871aGray Box]

I echo your sentiments Brisk. I'd rather these classic games Night Dive were "remastering" were simply opensource instead. They keep leaving stuff unfinished and unpolished. Hell, there's still longstanding bugs in System Shock Remake they're simply never gonna fix.

And what happened to the Trioptimum Fun Pack Module/GamePig? Swear that was gonna be a thing for SSR.

[687c8e8898814voodoo47]

looks like the console version(s?) have the protodroid changes reverted (they explode normally in the training). lets hope the pc version will get the same treatment in the upcoming patch.

[687c8e8898a73Brig]

voodoo47
I just captured this on my Xbox SX, mine still has the awkward falling legs animation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA9uENarlms

[687c8e8898b76ZylonBane]

Oh boy, a downloadable video! Do I need RealPlayer to watch it?

YouTube dude.

[687c8e8898c9cBrig]

Yeah, sorry about that. Was having trouble posting the link on mobile cause I wanted to get back to the SS2. Turns out the mobile version of yt provides a crap link that doesn't work with the forum.

[687c8e8898d81voodoo47]

bummer. the somewhat questionable objects are tolerable after a while, but to this thing my brain just cannot adjust.

[687c8e8898e88icemann]

For completely new players I doubt they'd notice. For seasoned players like the majority here, absolutely. On the positive side it = lots of new people playing it. Would be nice to get a new FM.

[687c8e8899008fox]

Yahtzee Tries... System Shock 2 Remaster and Galactic Glitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C2nKwm4QnU
Not very entertaining or enlightening, tbh.

[687c8e8899115Brig]

I just booted the PC version of the remaster up again and it seems "hold to crouch" has been restored. I haven't been able to check out the protodroid death anim to see what's been done with that. Thankful for the crouch thing at least.

[687c8e8899337Zanderat]

BriskSo, you haven't actually played the remaster.