If there was one word to describe Nightdive Studios System Shock remake, it would be "claustrophobic." System Shock's world is a singular ship, the UNN Von Braun, whose layout was designed more for efficiency than any human comfort. There's often not enough space for both the player and the various mutants and malfunctioning robots prowling its cramped hallways.
That isn't the only threat the player has to deal with, however. The ship is being controlled by SHODAN, one of gaming's most influential AI characters. She has power over all the ship's functions and will throw roadblocks every step of the way. Thankfully, System Shock gives players the tools to get around her machinations. One of the most important is the ability to lower each floor's security level.
What the Security Level Does
The security level is a percentage value unique to each floor. By default, it starts at 100% and can be lowered by certain player actions. They can check its current percentage at any time by opening up the map. It's displayed in the top right corner.
There are a couple of reasons to lower the security value, and a certain part of System Shock's endgame requires that every floor's security level is low. But the most pressing and immediate reason is that certain areas of the map are locked away until the security level percentage drops low enough.
How to Lower the Security Level
There are two ways to lower the security level, one easy and one hard. Unfortunately, this is not an either/or situation, the player will eventually need to do both.
The easy method is to destroy the various security cameras littered around the facility. These can be hard to spot, but they can be located either by following the high-pitched beeping sound they occasionally make or by looking for their icons on the map screen.
The hard method is to destroy each area's CPU nodes. These green glowing modules are more important to SHODAN and will be better protected. They'll either be in hard-to-reach areas or guarded by an ambush. System Shock can be an unforgiving game, so players should prepare themselves before hunting these down.
System Shock is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
