System Shock 2 was released in 1999 and I'm still hesitant to talk about it too much for fear of spoiling the experience for those of you who haven't yet played it. Yes, it's that good, which is why I'm not going to say anything in detail about this planned remake of a pivotal cinematic sequence until after this paragraph. But if you know what I'm talking about when I refer to "the big reveal," then you should probably keep reading.
The first appearance of insane AI SHODAN in System Shock 2 has to stand as one of the most memorable of all time. "When the history of my glory is written, your species will only be a footnote to my magnificence. I am SHODAN!" still gives me goosebumps. It's brilliant.
So when I heard about a planned remake of that sequence by Mr. Smo of the Polycount forums , my curiosity was naturally piqued. Inspired by a piece created by DeviantArt user JimHatama , which is a wonderful work in its work right, Mr Smo—actually Simon Pennington , a senior environment artist at The Creative Assembly—is setting about the task of recreating the SHODAN reveal in gloriously-detailed high resolution.
Images posted on the forum show his interpretation of SHODAN from two slightly different angles, as well as the corridor leading to Dr. Polito's body, an overhead cutaway of her office and even one of poor ol' Xerxes, the hapless Von Braun AI who fights a losing battle against her machine magnificence. There's also a "rework" of the politely explosive protocol droids we all know and love, done in the kind of detail we couldn't even dream of back in the 90s.
It's not an update of the full game (wouldn't that be nice?) but it's still a very exciting prospect. I can't wait to see what he comes up with when it's done.
