Nightdive Studios have earned a reputation for producing stellar remakes and remasters of semi-niche titles form the 1990s. From a modernization of Id’s seminal Quake to a fine-tuning of the relatively obscure Shadow Man in the form of 2021’s Shadow Man Remastered, the indie outfit has done an exemplary job of preserving titles on which many gamers would have missed out had they been left to gather dust. Its potential magnum opus, however, is set to be a complete remake of the sci-fi RPG title System Shock, and it recently received a new trailer as part of PCGamer’s 2022 PC Gaming Show.
An eerie, tense, and claustrophobic experience, the forthcoming System Shock title looks to adhere very closely to the source material. The original game had a suffocating feel to it with tight environments and an unwieldy UI, and, while Nightdive Studios seems to have done a commendable job of updating the game for the twenty-first century, it also seems to have maintained the oppressive, rat-in-a-maze feel that made the first System Shock title so compelling.
The trailer also heavily features SHODAN, the iconic rogue AI who injected much-needed personality into the otherwise sterile Citadel station. A forerunner of Portal’s beloved villain GLaDOS, SHODAN is perhaps the most terrifying AI in all of gaming, and her long-awaited return should be a cause for celebration among sci-fi horror fans.
While it’s encouraging to see that the System Shock remake is still in active development, the lack of a concrete release date remains a cause for concern. Development was speculated to be nearing completion in late 2021, and many hypothesized that System Shock would likely debut at some point in 2022. However, midway through the year, fans have yet to receive a definite release window, and it seems as if the project may remain under wraps for the remainder of the year.
Nightdive Studio’s System Shock remake initially debuted as a Kickstarter project in 2016, and its development status has, at times, been a bit confounding. Should the product see a 2023 release, it’ll have spent around seven years in development, which, ambitious though the remake certainly seems to be, is quite a bit of time. Furthering the confusion, Otherside Entertainment is said to be working on a System Shock 3, though the status of that project very much seems to be up in the air. Ultimately, fans will more than likely have something System Shock-related in their hands at some point in the relatively near future, though what’s to come of the franchise beyond that is anyone’s guess.
System Shock is in development.