Thanks to a brand-new trailer, fans have gotten a fresh look at the upcoming System Shock, the long-awaited remake of the cult classic first seen in 1994. First announced back in 2015, the System Shock remake has endured not just its own franchise's tumultuous history but also its own challenges during development, even at one point getting placed on hold by Nightdive Studios to ensure the project stayed true to its original vision.
Part of System Shock's legacy ties it to the equally beloved BioShock, as after all BioShock began life as a spiritual successor to System Shock. This is why comparisons between the two series are so frequently made among critics and players alike. With this being the case, System Shock now stands in BioShock's shadow and will likely need to demonstrate it is as worthy of recognition as BioShock has become. However, from what's been shown so far and what players know about the original System Shock, the upcoming remake could very well be a far darker and greater game than BioShock.
What System Shock and BioShock Share
Beyond just their namesake, System Shock and BioShock share plenty in terms of game design and overall narratives. For instance, both games follow protagonists who wind up as tools for the game's antagonists. Many players will recognize this from the iconic "A man chooses, a slave obeys" scene with BioShock's Andrew Ryan delivering arguably one of the biggest twists seen in gaming. Similarly, in System Shock, a captured hacker has been brought before the treacherous Edward Diego and tasked with hacking into SHODAN in order to steal data on an experimental mutagenic virus to sell as a weapon.
Aside from a similar premise of exploring a ruined, overrun setting that's seemingly isolated and cut-off from the rest of the world, there's a significant portion of game design and mechanics that are comparable. BioShock's Plasmids (and later Vigors) giving the player inhuman powers through genetic modification draws its inspiration from the original premise of System Shock and its neural interface that could be upgraded and augmented throughout the game. Similarly, BioShock's "Splicers" who were victims of Plasmid abuse can be easily contrasted against the mutants and cyborgs populating the System Shock Citadel following SHODAN's rebellion. Overall, there are a lot the two games and their series share, which means that the upcoming remake of System Shock will need to go above and beyond to reassert itself.
How System Shock Could Be Darker
System Shock may thrive by telling a far darker story than BioShock. As a spiritual successor, BioShock had the advantage of being able to take System Shock's good parts and improve where it had maybe lapsed. As a result, System Shock could deliver a far more unfiltered narrative than what fans saw in BioShock. For instance, an easy point to make would be contrasting being stuck in space on the Citadel or under the sea in Rapture, with the natural conclusion being trapped in space with a rogue AI hellbent on either assimilating or exterminating the player is a far worse fate. Additionally, BioShock ultimately focuses on political ideology and the challenges of ethics within capitalism, while System Shock goes in a much different direction.
While both games dealt with issues of corporate greed and human progress gone wrong, System Shock took a much darker tone by tapping into transhumanism. Further additions to the body horror genre like Scorn and Resident Evil provide insight into transhuman life gone wrong that directly challenges the player, and System Shock can imitate that by forcing players to fight formerly human creatures led by an AI gone mad. This premise gravitates to a darker, visceral kind of horror that BioShock avoided, favoring to be more of a psychological thriller with elements of violence and gruesomeness. With the remake's expected improvements in graphical fidelity and design, as well as Nightdive Studios' chance to refine the original scope and story of System Shock, the game could deliver the most immersive, chilling experience of witnessing humanity's own technology transform it into something wholly inhuman.
System Shock is currently in development.