Four years after a $1.3 million crowdfunding campaign (and a subsequent total reboot), Nightdive Studio's ambitious System Shock remake is one step closer to release. In a Kickstarter update this week, the developer announced that System Shock pre-orders will go live on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store by the end of February.
Accompanying the pre-order launch is one last pre-release demo. Going from medical through to an EDM cyberspace nightmare, this build will feature full dismemberment, new voice acting, and a fresh pass of smaller features and bug fixes over previous demos. The update post includes a sneak at other parts of the game, showing properly menacing robots and blood gushing from computer terminals. All normal space stuff.
Nightdive also announced some major changes coming to System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition. While not a ground-up remake like the first game, the studio writes that the scope of SS2:EE has "evolved" into a more substantial remaster than initially intended.
Porting System Shock 2's source code into its in-house engine, Enhanced Edition will feature completely remade character and weapon models. But Nightdive has also wrangled in at least 10 fan-favourite community mods (including new models, textures and quest notifications) and is still gunning towards an impressive standalone VR version of the 90s im-sim.
SS2: Enhanced Edition will be included for free with pre-orders for System Shock remake, or for folks who backed at the $30 tier or above.
