The quietly buzzing corridors of Citadel Station are affected by corpses. They’re silent, however every tells their very own story. Torn our bodies lie inches away from an audio log recorded simply moments earlier than their remaining stand. A file from a girl tells of her remaining days as she succumbs to a spreading illness. A pile of mangled stays, entangled in their very own guts, lookup with useless eyes at a graffiti mural that depicts the factitious intelligence that they worshipped like a god.
If this nightmare seems like a brand new BioShock recreation, then you definately’re solely half mistaken. These are all moments from System Shock, the sport that started the Shock lineage again in 1994. One in all historical past’s most necessary video games, the unique is nearly unplayable by immediately’s requirements due to a fiddy person interface and management scheme that’s virtually prehistoric. However a good-looking new remake from developer Nightdive Studios has demolished these historical limitations and highlighted that System Shock, regardless of its age, was the origin level of so most of the concepts that made its non secular successor so sturdy.
When you’ve by no means explored the corridors of Citadel Station, I feel you’ll be shocked at simply how a lot of BioShock’s DNA was drawn instantly from System Shock. Just like the worlds crafted by Irrational Video games’ lead, Ken Levine, Citadel Station is a spot gone to hell. The station’s synthetic intelligence, SHODAN, has taken over and has plans to decimate humanity. Like Andrew Ryan, she taunts you as you descend deeper into the station’s interconnected ranges, seemingly amused at your pathetic makes an attempt to foil her ascent to godhood. The kicker is that SHODAN’s rise to energy is your fault. Similar to BioShock Infinite and Levine’s upcoming Judas, System Shock is all about fixing what you broke.
BioShock is probably greatest recognized for its masterful narrative work and the best way its fallen art-deco metropolis conveys new tales in each room. System Shock comes from an period when video games have been largely led by mechanics fairly than storytelling, and so the core narrative that runs by means of it’s nowhere close to as outstanding and layered as BioShock’s. But the world remains to be wealthy, and nonetheless revealed utilizing the identical elementary strategies as BioShock. Your mission to destroy SHODAN takes you thru the a number of decks of Citadel Station, from the depths of its reactor to the heights of its bridge. And whereas every stage is made up of maze-like patterns of repeating architectural motifs that may make each ground really feel confusingly an identical, Citadel Station has an plain sense of place. It might not ship a narrative with the immediacy of Rapture, however examine its halls and also you’ll see a transparent goal in every one.
Citadel Station’s complete crew is lengthy gone by the point you arrive, and so the story is delivered primarily by means of audio logs. It’s a story method carefully related to BioShock, however System Shock pioneered it so efficiently again in 1994 that the remake has barely needed to alter them. They supply a voice to the deceased, every one furthering the tales of a handful of recurring characters. Some tales are confined to a deck, whereas others span your entire size of the station. Each is a miniature horror story, detailing the ultimate days of a inhabitants about to be decimated by a rogue AI, however they’re additionally the first supply methodology for clues to your subsequent goal. It’s this method that makes the audio logs so integral to the expertise, and in flip so superior to the best way many builders use them immediately. Trendy audio logs usually really feel like self-indulgent lore dumps fairly than important listens, therefore why so many people skip them.
All the basics of BioShock, which felt so new and thrilling in 2007, have been there in System Shock.
The contents of these audio logs are sometimes uncomfortably haunting, one thing solely exacerbated by the realisation that the grotesque cyborgs you battle all through the station are the mutilated stays of the voices you’ve been listening to. Your entire crew of Citadel Station, who simply months prior have been dwelling and dealing peacefully, are actually twisted, grotesque cyborgs with few wishes past consuming corpses and killing you. SHODAN has transformed your entire inhabitants into her private military, forcibly violating their our bodies with the applied sciences they created. There’s a parallel between these cyborgs and Splicers, the residents of Rapture who have been twisted by their habit to their very own science. It’s clear how BioShock constructed upon System Shock’s thought of a tragic inhabitants who fell sufferer to their very own genius.
It is a destiny you may fall foul of, too. Do you have to die, you’ll be compelled to look at your physique being grafted onto an enormous mechanical spider whereas the phrases “as a cyborg you’ll serve SHODAN nicely” flash throughout the display. However there’s a technique to escape such a grisly finish. Every deck has a Restoration Bay, a tool able to prompt resurrection. And since it’s an in-universe system, it not solely brings you again to life but additionally retains all of your mission progress intact since you don’t should reload an earlier save. Sure, System Shock has Vita Chambers, the BioShock system that was usually thought-about a concession to the less-hardcore fashionable avid gamers of 2007. There’s a ‘90s issue quirk, although; SHODAN is utilizing them to create her cyborgs, and so once you attain a brand new deck it’s important to seek out the extent’s Restoration Bay and reset its medical perform.
Fortunately you may simply flip the Restoration Bay’s cyborg-making mode off, however the majority of Citadel Station’s techniques aren’t that straightforward. Many blocked doorways or locked units would require you to rewire a Grid Entry Panel to achieve entry, a course of during which you create a pathway of energy between a supply and vacation spot node. Sound acquainted? It’s Rapture’s pipe-based hacking rendered cyberpunk. Even BioShock’s mini video games have their origins in System Shock’s puzzles.
The 2 video games’ fight comply with comparable rhythms, too. Your journey begins with a easy lead pipe that, very similar to BioShock’s wrench, stays an important device in your arsenal even hours later. It’s accompanied by pistols, shotguns, and rifles, every of which may be loaded with quite a lot of ammunition sorts to go well with the scenario. And whereas there’s no plasmid powers, essentially the most unique weapons draw vitality instantly out of your cybernetically-enhanced physique, draining an Eve-like energy gauge that have to be periodically topped up with batteries.
All the basics of BioShock, which felt so new and thrilling in 2007, have been there in System Shock. However till now it was laborious to suggest experiencing these origins to all however essentially the most devoted followers due to how archaic the unique model is. It doesn’t even have mouse look, by no means thoughts any of the opposite common UI techniques and controls that we’re accustomed to immediately. However Nightdive Studios’ remake brings System Shock into the 2020s with fashionable controls, a completely refreshed interface, an extremely placing visible type, and all the unique recreation’s many inventions intact.
System Shock is trustworthy – actually trustworthy – to its ‘90s supply materials. Which means labyrinthine stage design that’s straightforward to get misplaced in, obtuse mission goals, and fight that lacks the crunch of contemporary day shooters. It’s nonetheless an unyielding, difficult, hardcore PC recreation. However that’s not a weak point. Nightdive has utilized its upgrades with a light-weight contact, bringing simply essentially the most archaic parts as much as fashionable requirements, as a result of it understands that the sport itself – the expertise that lies past these historical graphics and interface – is as beneficial immediately because it was 30 years in the past. The way in which you play, not what you play, is what has been up to date. And because of these modifications, it’s now far simpler and way more gratifying to expertise the origins of BioShock’s genius. It’s all right here, surprisingly usually fully-formed, and after just some hours you’ll overlook you’re enjoying a recreation that predates Home windows 95.
Nightdive’s remake proves that System Shock was years forward of its time, and is a necessary historical past lesson for BioShock’s greatest followers.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK Information and Options Editor.
