The System Shock remake we've all been patiently waiting for will arrive in 2022 by way of a partnership between Nightdive Studios and Prime Matter, a division of Koch Media that formed last year. To commemorate the deal, Nightdive has dropped more than a dozen new screens showcasing the dimly lit horrors of Shodan's first adventure.
This is Nightdive's first external publishing deal, and it represents "an important step in the growth of Nightdive Studios," CEO Stephen Kick said. "It will allow us to offer System Shock to fans all over the world, both in digital and physical goods formats, as well as fully honour our commitments to our fans and, in particular, to our thousands of supporters on Kickstarter, without whom this game would have never been possible.”
Originally released in 1994, System Shock is an early immersive sim that tells the tale of a rogue space station AI in the year 2072. It was moderately successful, spawning a 1999 sequel (one of my favorite games of all time) and one of the most memorable villains in videogames, the mad machine-god Shodan. Our weekend editor Jody described the Shodan reveal in System Shock 2 as one of the great moments in PC gaming a few years ago, and he's not wrong. Terri Brosius, the original voice of Shodan, is returning for the remake, and Nightdive says it has worked closely with other members of the original System Shock development team as well.
I promised screens, and here are screens. Click the icon on the bottom-right corner to see them full size:
Screenshots tell very little of the tale when it comes to any game, but these really seem to nail the look of the original System Shock, a gloomy, industrial cybertale of corporate greed and the unpleasantness that inevitably results. It's not the most sophisticated narrative ever, and my attempt to replay the original a few years ago did not go well—the mechanics and UI have not aged well. But I'm really looking forward to Nightdive's take on modernization: If it can restore accessibility while recapturing what makes the original so great, it should be a lot of fun.
