While I can appreciate wanting to stay true to the original, I wish this game was more of an upgrade. Something like the 2023 Dead Space remake. That game did a phenomenal job of taking the original’s ideas and improving on them in every way. It felt like a new AAA game that just happened to mimic the original 2008 classic.

Instead, this trailer shows a comparison between the original and the remake and… that’s it? I guess it has better textures, but that’s the only change I see. The character animations are still awkward and clunky, the walls and floors are still just repeated patterns, and nothing seems improved.

Now, I don’t want to complain too much. The original 1999 System Shock 2 is a classic, and if they just re-released the original that wouldn’t suddenly make it a bad game. I just had higher hopes because this game doesn’t look “updated” for a new generation of gamers. It looks like a mod-pack to get the original game running on modern hardware. And those have been around for years.

Of course, re-releasing classic games is Nightdive’s specialty and I’m sure they did a great job here. And this game looks just like their remaster of the original System Shock so I shouldn’t be too surprised. But SS1 was just an ok game and SS2 was genre-defining. I would’ve liked more effort to go into this one. I guess my complaint is that it looks like the intended audience here is people who already have nostalgia for SS2 and it’s unlikely to introduce any new fans.

Anyway, the game is on Steam and is available now. Sorry for going on a rant; the game has Very Positive reviews and you should probably just ignore my whining and play it.