After over four years of waiting, the System Shock remake of the original 1994 game of the same name is finally inching closer towards a release date. Back in mid-2016, its Kickstarter campaign was success, raising over a million dollars, way surpassing its $900,000 goal. However, System Shock took an intermittent hiatus in 2018 for the developers to “reassess [their] path” before, essentially, restarting the game from scratch. Finally, it seems that the game is getting closer to release as a free demo is now available to play and the developers, Nightdive Studios, are expecting it to release this summer.
Earlier today Nightdive Studios released an updated teaser trailer ahead of the demo launching. It starts with a tour through the updated Citadel station after the player wakes up from their six-month-long sleep, complete with a creepy voiceover before we see some fighting against the alien-like enemies. If that trailer seemed exciting, then good news, as a short demo is out today for players to try out some of the gameplay features in a “feature-complete version of the game.”
These features include the dismemberment system which allows players to blow apart their enemies as well as an updated lighting system letting players shoot the lighting out. New to this remake is the cyberspace feature where players can go into cyberspace to fight enemies and unlock doors in reality. One of the most important aspects of this remake is to stay faithful to the original while creating a more advanced, complex game. Therefore, an important change was to rebalance the weapons to allow more flexibility in how players choose to approach the game. There is also an updated dynamic soundtrack which will heighten the atmospheric tone as the players are exploring through the game.
The demo for System Shock is currently available right now on PC through Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG for free. It is expected to fully release in late summer 2021 for $44.99. If prospective players pre-order now they will receive System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition for free.