Hey, remember Kickstarter? Apparently even despite the middling reception of Mighty No. 9, it's still a thing! In this case, the thing at hand is a remake of the first System Shock, (AKA: The System Shock that isn't the second one) done by Night Dive Studios. You may know Night Dive as "That studio who managed to get all the licenses for old games people liked and then re-released them on GOG and Steam" such as Wizardry 6-8, I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, Turok and... well, System Shock 1 and 2. However, this is their first real game under this studio, though they claim to be comprised of "industry veterans," unsurprisingly enough, though it seems Chris Avellone is helping out with the writing. They also have a pre-alpha demo readily available on GOG and Steam, which seems like a smart move.

A word of caution though, these guys shouldn't be confused with Otherside Entertainment, the studio made up of ex-Looking Glass and Irrational employees (Paul Neurath, Warren Spector, etc.) who are making the real System Shock 3 (though we'll probably not see much of that until they finish with Underworld Ascendant) and are only helping with this product in an advisory sense. Still, I figured this was something interesting enough to bring to everyone's attention, though I'm undecided if I'll back it myself.

This looks intriguing, I'll definitely keep my one good eye on it. I played System Shock 2, but have yet to touch the original. From everything I've seen about it, it just looks really clunky and dated. Although, this Super Bunnyhop review shed some light on what made it such an different game at the time of release. Basically, it was a hybrid FPS/proto-metroidvania with a goofy cyberpunk look. When this does come out, It will be interesting to see how they rework some of the elements that were dated even in the 90s.

I played the pre-alpha demo and was fairly impressed with how faithful it is to the original System Shock. The level layout is the same, the texture design is mostly the same, the HUD elements are essentially all there, even the general environmental color palette (with all that use of green and red) is preserved. Gameplay also seems very faithful with only small ease-of-use modernizations, like easier inventory management. I particularly liked how much attention they seem to be paying the sound design, as I think that's perhaps the single most important thing for establishing atmosphere. All in all, I think this project looks pretty promising, and I'm happy to back it to see how it turns out.

I love that we have gone from not having much like System Shock to having no less than three games coming up.

On one hand I think this product has amazing style. On the other hand.. ehh.. it's System Shock 1.. again? Don't get me wrong, for those that want an updated version of that classic this is great. Personally I'd always rather see something new than a new coat of point on something old.

Then again I've never actually played System Shock 1 so this might be perfect. The combat seemed a little rough, but it is an early demo. Good on them for even having a demo out as a proof of concept.

I played the demo and thought it was pretty good! I think the art style is fantastic with the way all of the textures are pixel-y.

I made a promise that I was going to only back kickstarters that I was 100% interested in after getting caught up in the MN9 excitement and now have bland spiritual successor to a franchise I've never even played, but this game fits right into my wheelhouse. I'm excited!

@baka_shinji17: that video is fantastic

@humanity: They are making a straight up System Shock 3 too, so all is good. And even a remaster of the old games is kinda alright at this point since the originals are clunky as hell to play these days.

@gundogan: Does it bridge the gap between Bioshock and System Shock? Is it.. Mean Shock

Looks great. Although some of the animations feel a bit 'too much' to me. Like the guy picking up the crowbar thing; switching it between hands and turning it around. Feels a bit out of place (more Bioshock like then System Shock).

But again, looks like a cool game. Might support this.

>_> I have no idea where I was supposed to get a weapon, so I ended up just being killed by a robot. And there's no game over screen, so I just had to alf-f4 out of the demo :| You know, I think I might just have a go at playing the original original System Shock.

Okay, so update on playing System Shock. I started with the original DOS version, but that was a bit too much for me, so I'm now playing the Enhanced Edition. It's really starting to scratch that same SS2 itch, except this is obviously a bit more archaic. It's mindblowing to me that this was something that was released in 1994.

Also, it turns out that I'm an idiot for not noticing the lead pipe :|

Looks very interesting. I never played the old one, because it just looked so, well, old.

I am almost ashamed I said that, there are a lot of great old games. Back in the day when games were not all about graphics and people were forced to give their games content to sell them.

Maybe this one now deserves a chance.

Btw. - what other similar games (really new or upcoming) are there atm.? I did enjoy everything with a squad, preferably turn-based or at least with a pause to issue commands. And I'm not afraid to read.

Good of them to launch with a demo and having clear and seemingly attainable goals.

I'm not a big fan of remasters but at least SS1 is old and archaic enough to benefit greatly from a remaster.

System Shock was a defining moment in my life as a gamer. Up until that point, Ultima Underworld was basically my favourite game and SS was essentially the sci-fi version of that game. What could be better?

I remember when my friend bought it to play on his shiny new 486, running at a staggering 66 megahertz, and we switched that sucker to an unbelievable 640x480 resolution. Oh my god. I could not believe how good it looked. I mean, yeah, it was running at 5 FPS, but 640x480! Unbelievable. And the audio... there were actual voice overs foreverything! How was this even possible? SS was the game that invented the whole idea of audio logs, and used them to stunning effect.

When System Shock 2 came out and failed to sell well, I picked up a copy at Costco for $20 and couldn't believe my luck. To this day, I would probably still name SS2 as my favourite game of all time. SS2 added more interesting game mechanics and expanded on the horror elements, while somehow tightening up and streamlining everything I loved about the original.

With the passing of years, I gave up all hope that there would ever be a System Shock 3, especially after the whole BioShock thing and Ken Levine's comment that EA "didn't give a shit" about SS3. I even checked on the availability of systemshock3.com and started writing my own design document. If no one else wanted to make it, maybe I could start writing it myself? But I knew the official rights to the name were split between EA's grubby mitts and some anonymous insurance company. Truly, all hope was lost...

And now here we are... finally SS3 is announced, and finally System Shock is a thing people are talking about once again. I couldn't be more thrilled.

I played the pre-alpha last night. I only played System Shock 2 a few years ago and have no familiarity with the first.

It felt clunky but in an ok way? like deliberate actions versus mediocre animations? It also succeeded in putting me on edge from the sound alone. Those mutants were creepy.

The demo didn't convince me to back it but boy do I love that they provided it.

I played through the original System Shock 1 when it was released on GOG. Their enhanced edition made the controls much more tolerable. That said, since i played through it fairly recently, i'm not ready to go back to it this early. Played the pre-alpha, was hoping to see how they handles the hacking interface, the weird "inside a computer" bits, but they didn't have any of that. They just had the panel hacking which took me awhile to figure out the panel was interactive.

Melee combat felt pretty trashy, but shooting should work well enough with what they got.

Woo, just went over the goal \o/

Happy to hear that I wasn't the only one concerned about the new soundtrack, and that they're addressing it.

I'd still prefer a more era appropriate soundtrack that pays homage to the music that inspired the original composer back in 1994, like how the art still looks much like the original concept art and renders. The new theme song remix they've published now at least sounds fairly consistent with System Shock 2.

I'm still not sure I'd really want a remake of the first game, which I guess I don't consider as aged as many others seem to do, but the clarifications around the sound design at least makes me more likely to back it now.