I'm not sure it's what Bioshock should've been, part of that games appeal is how it streamlined this type of game.
But I agree that'd have been a *better* game, if they pulled it off. And I like Bioshock. And I'm sure it would've sold copies in the thousands rather than millions, haha.
I enjoy the exploration aspects the lack of waypointing encourages, but I think if the maps were larger like some more modern games, the lack of waypointing would be supremely frustrating. Having more condensed and complex maps is pretty rewarding.
I just realized that the hallucinations from using too many stims are the enemy character models from the original game, which made me smile.
I beat it on Difficulty 3s again, to see if the achievement was bugged. And.. it is. It seems to be affecting both Steam and GoG versions. Womp womp.
A few other random ones are also bugged, like the hack enemies one, or even just "It's Over" which you should get just by, you know, finishing the game. But at least getting those once they fix it won't take 10 hours.
I've tried to find more efficient ways to run the levels, and I always end up losing time somewhere and getting really close to running out. I was watching a video of someone playing the beta, and apparently they were originally only giving you FIVE hours in the remake. I guess that means it must be possible.
Started a run on Story 2 and Cyberspace 1, and Combat/Puzzles on 3, to try and pick up some straggler achievements, and I think the game is more enjoyable when you get to explore every nook and cranny.
I'm not sure it's what Bioshock should've been, part of that games appeal is how it streamlined this type of game.
But I agree that'd have been a *better* game, if they pulled it off. And I like Bioshock. And I'm sure it would've sold copies in the thousands rather than millions, haha.
Yeah, probably. I'm definitely talking from the perspective of a Shock fan when I say that stuff. But when they go and use the "Shock" name, I get to take issue with what they did with it. They didn't pick that name because it meant something to those millions that had never played a System Shock. They picked the name to sell the game to people like me.
Started a run on Story 2 and Cyberspace 1, and Combat/Puzzles on 3, to try and pick up some straggler achievements, and I think the game is more enjoyable when you get to explore every nook and cranny.
I'm really slow crawling through the game in my playthrough.
I absolutely understand why they upped the max difficulty time limit to 10 hours. It takes more time and focus to visually scan a room in the remake than it does when the walls are flat textures and there's 3 sprite objects on the ground.
PROTIP: If you play this game and recently replaced your audio system receiver, make sure you've plugged the left speaker's banana plugs into the ports labeled Left, and the right speaker's banana plugs into the ports labeled Right, and not vice versa. No reason.
Cyberspace would be 50% less annoying if those green bastards weren't part of it.
Every time I unload a stream of shots at them...
Hated cyberspace in the original, left difficulty at 2 this time and suffering for it. I wonder if there are any hacks to get round it? Codes and locked doors though so need to complete them.
Struggling a bit at the moment with this. I tend to speed read the logs but feel that I need to go through them and work out where I need to go. Being able to mark stiff on the map would be very useful for this game!
They do have the ability to mark the map, but it's just one icon you can use, and you can't annotate, which is pretty limiting.
I couldn't get around to the game last week, but finally knocked out most of the reactor level yesterday, moving up to maintenance now. Hoping to make a bigger push forward this week.
They do have the ability to mark the map, but it's just one icon you can use, and you can't annotate, which is pretty limiting.
This is one of my big complaints of the remake, because annotating the map was a feature of the original game.
Finished the game last night. Some thoughts:
1. They did it. Despite all the development pitfalls and the challenge of remaking a game like this in the first place, the game felt like playing System Shock. It was satisfying to me both as a fan of System Shock 2 for nearly a quarter century, and also someone that played through the original (via Enhanced Edition) for the first time a couple months ago.
2. Cyberspace had too much cannon fodder, and not enough tools for fighting. This is the one area where I really felt the friction between the game staying faithful to the original (the same basic set of tools) versus doing something new (much higher enemy counts, excessive streamlining of layouts). I think the Descent style of gameplay was a good starting point, but it needed more than just, "shoot all the enemies in a room to open up the door to go to the next room where you'll shoot all the enemies to open up a door". This would have been a good place for some actual gameplay additions. It would have been cool if it was more exploratory and less combat focused.
3. I was surprised at how seamlessly the changes like recycling, weapon mods, and vending machines were integrated. I wasn't sure about those sort of things, but they fit smoothly alongside the faithful game elements.
4. Audio log audio is mixed too low! In the audio menu, I set everything except voice recordings (and the master volume slider) down to 80%. And it still felt like audio logs should have been louder.
5. The final sequence is just... bad.
Having to shoot things 10 times with a pathetically weak virtual pop gun is flat out not a good time.
I would have preferred something closer to the original's anticlimactic end sequence. Or just a cutscene. If there's one thing I hope they patch and improve for future playthroughs, it's this.
6. I should have paid more attention to setting my display name on Kickstarter when I back games like this. I always forget that the name might end up in the end credits. I just boringly appear as my first name only.
7. The sometimes overly-shiny Unreal Engine lighting didn't bother me too much, EXCEPT on the damn logic puzzles! The spotlight on top washes out the entire top of the puzzle, and makes it hard to see stuff. WHY? Tone it down so I can see!
8. I wish the environmental suit auto-engaged like the original game, instead of having to be manually toggled on.
9. Let me write on the map! This was the worst, least necessary regression from the original.
10. Ultimately, this game doesn't topple System Shock 2 from its pedestal. And honestly, I think the Enhanced Edition original might be the better game. But this will still be in the running for my Game of the Year, most likely.
Still struggling to find time to play this, but still making slow progress. Have cleared everything I can out of storage and maintenance and have made my way through some of the flight deck. It's nice to get some more distinctive environments (the office spaces) as the lower levels started to blend together.
I'm truly hopeless with managing my inventory, lugging around way too much stuff, depositing some in the mini equipment elevator, and leaving still more outside elevators for quick retrieval. Every SHODAN audio log reminds me of why I fell in love with this game back in the day and why it remains my favorite villain in pretty much anything. My 18/19yo kids are so sick of hearing me say, "Come over here and listen to this." 
I'm getting through this now, it took some time to really get into it and all the systems and inventory is a real pain but manageable.
Past the bridge separation now so have lost all the inventory I had stored carefully, completely forgot the story but basically before going to security you need to have your weapons, ammo and drugs that you are using all in your inventory.
Very enjoyable following the story and nice not to have so much hand holding that many games now include.
Past the bridge separation now so have lost all the inventory I had stored carefully, completely forgot the story but basically before going to security you need to have your weapons, ammo and drugs that you are using all in your inventory.
True, but the game does shower you with medkits there at the end.
This is gonna be me on my next SSR run. I ran out of money at the end to buy all the weapon mods, so I missed that achievement.
kborom wrote:Past the bridge separation now so have lost all the inventory I had stored carefully, completely forgot the story but basically before going to security you need to have your weapons, ammo and drugs that you are using all in your inventory.
True, but the game does shower you with medkits there at the end.
Yes, but not much ammo, and none for my configuration.
All in all very enjoyable expect that final sequence which was tedious.
Yes, but not much ammo, and none for my configuration.
That's why I always have a hard time not carrying one of the energy weapons. As long as there's recharge stations, there's ammo.
Next time I'll probably play even more miserly with ammo, and use the Laser Rapier a lot more. I don't know why I even bothered carrying both the railgun and plasma rifle at the end, when any boss-type enemy was just going to get a Berserked Laser Rapier up its tailpipe.
A new brief trailer for System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition was part of the Indie Horror Showcase:
No release date yet (DAMN!), but PS5 and Xbox releases are now officially confirmed.
Fingers crossed that means gamepad controls on the PC version. Really want to play this on my Deck.
Fingers crossed that means gamepad controls on the PC version. Really want to play this on my Deck.
I’m pretty sure every KEX engine port game I’ve played has PC gamepad support built in.
I would say the odds are pretty high you’ll get what you want.
"Not final footage?" What's left to be done to port something that old?
Finally a little insight on why SS2: Enhanced is taking so damn long:
“The biggest challenge is usually finding the original source code, and if that’s not available, reverse engineering the retail code of the game so it can be ported to our KEX engine.”
This problem extends to System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition as well, the studio’s current project. “System Shock 2 has been an incredible challenge as the original code has eluded us. We’ve found pieces, but many of the games’ libraries had to be reverse engineered which is one of the reasons the game has been in development for so long.” But Larry is confident that its release “will be a showcase of what our KEX remastering team is truly capable of.”
Pages