[SS Remake] The Hacker's Presentation

[665af989ee430JasonWanderer]

Having just played the first level of System Shock again, I went to the Remake Demo in order to see the similarities and differences.

Almost immediately I was caught off guard by the way in which The Hacker picks up the items from the closet.  When taking the pipe he grabs it then tosses it between his hands and swings it into his palms.  As a result it gives the impression that he's "cool" and experienced.  Conversely, I always imagined The Hacker clumisly dragging the pipe from the ground.  He just came out of a coma and has a whole set of new cyber-modules I wouldn't have expected him to be ready and raring until at least interacting with the surgical machine.

Even his appearance gives off a powerful vibe as his gloves seem almost tactical in nature.  Having been in medical, a clean appearance seems more fitting.  No gloves or sleeves; something that allows his skin to be cut up and bruised.

It's almost as if he went through the entirety of SS and is living his life on a loop.  Unless that was the point; a representation of players who have through this before grabbing their trusting pipe with force and gunning for the next room.

So what do you all think?  Is a confident Hacker that's in control of the situation what you'd like to see from the Remake or would you rather see him develop over time?  Have you always imaged the Hacker to be swinging his weapons and juggling them with ease?

[665af989ee630voodoo47]

this has been pointed out when the demo was new, and I'm pretty sure NDS are aware (that some people didn't quite like it).

[665af989ee8d4JasonWanderer]

this has been pointed out when the demo was new, and I'm pretty sure NDS are aware (that some people didn't quite like it).

Interesting.  I wonder if they'll change it.  I just saw the Unreal Pre-Alpha trailer and his appearance is still the same, but that just may be for technical/testing purposes.

[665af989eebfcRocketMan]

There's an irresistible human temptation to brand something as your own and to uberfy it even if you're just doing a remake.  All that suave crap tossing around implants, etc. definitely does look cool.  It's aesthetically pleasing.  It just reeks of arrogance and doesn't fit the mood that we've established in our heads from becoming almost religious about this game.  It's why the best people to remake a game are the ones who obsess over it the most (a bit of an over-simplification).  Anyway, they seem to pick and choose what they listen too, pretty common, so expect only slight revisions to the model they started with.

[665af989eed82ZylonBane]

The SSR demo was overflowing with "cool but dumb" design decisions. The overly long pickup animations. The way status text appeared one character at a time. The electrical arcs when you use the recharger. The three-fingered glove. The intentionally pixelated textures. And on and on. Ugh.

[665af989eef81icemann]

As I said in the other SS reboot threads, how the player is in the reboot does not gel with the established lore/look of the hacker, nor does it gel with the cyberpunk way of how hackers are.

Hacking mega corp servers was/is their love in life. Not pumping iron at the gym.

[665af989ef777JasonWanderer]

There's an irresistible human temptation to brand something as your own and to uberfy it even if you're just doing a remake.  All that suave crap tossing around implants, etc. definitely does look cool.  It's aesthetically pleasing.  It just reeks of arrogance and doesn't fit the mood that we've established in our heads from becoming almost religious about this game.  It's why the best people to remake a game are the ones who obsess over it the most (a bit of an over-simplification).  Anyway, they seem to pick and choose what they listen too, pretty common, so expect only slight revisions to the model they started with.

I'm a bit curious as to what made them go for this approach.  Games lately have been capitalizing on the "protagonist is a regular guy" aspect, so it's interesting that NDS is going the other way and make him out to be a formidable, cocky individual.  Maybe because so many games having been capitalizing on that, the developers wanted to do something different.

The SSR demo was overflowing with "cool but dumb" design decisions. The overly long pickup animations. The way status text appeared one character at a time. The electrical arcs when you use the recharger. The three-fingered glove. The intentionally pixelated textures. And on and on. Ugh.

Not to downplay what is does right, but in it's current state it seems like the Remake is comparable to all those games that claim to be "old school" because they have hitscanning enemies.  The style NDS is going for seems to be very much the same as FPS games from the 90's...except SS isn't a FPS in the traditional sense.  The Hacker almost comes off as the DOOM Guy or Duke Nukem and the tone seems to fit with those games as well.

As I said in the other SS reboot threads, how the player is in the reboot does not gel with the established lore/look of the hacker, nor does it gel with the cyberpunk way of how hackers are.

Hacking mega corp servers was/is their love in life. Not pumping iron at the gym.

The one thing I can't see this Hacker doing is "sweating and panting" as he goes through the areas.  This guy definitely seems to want blood.  He's not perspirating, but excited to be putting something to death.

The fact that we were able to gather The Hacker's personality really is a testament to the original's writing.  He may not have visible trouble swinging a pipe, but through SHODAN and certain other sources of information we're able to fill in the visual gaps.  This is opposed to something like DOOM which had a clear status bar face; SS had nothing like that and it still said so much.

It would be a shame if the Remake takes on the tone of a 90's FPS...

[665af989ef8b0icemann]

Well the Doom guy made sense why he was bad ass. He was a marine.

The hacker in comparison was a skinny non-athletic person who'd been in cryo sleep for 6 months.