System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster (XSX) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: A sensational remaster of one of the greatest games ever made.

4.5

SHODAN Stopper

Fresh off their phenomenal remake of System Shock, the best remastering house in the biz, Nightdive Studios, is back with a superb remaster of its legendary sequel, System Shock 2.

Very much made in the Ghostbusters 2 mould of being a semi-remake of the original, System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster opens with your character once again awaking from cryosleep to find that the ship’s been overrun by murderous mutants and robots directed by a maniacal AI.

Much like their recent Quake 2 and Turok 3 remasters, Nightdive has decided to employ a fairly light touch on System Shock 2. Giving it a spit and a polish rather than a complete graphical overhaul, and it works incredibly well. It’s still the System Shock 2 that kept you up at night all those years ago (Bloody hell, I’m almost 40,) but running with the kind of fidelity and lighting effects that your average kid at the turn of the millennium could dream of.

On Series X, it supports both 4k and 120Hz if your TV can keep up, and although there have been tweaks here and there to models and some animations, ultimately it still manages to drum up that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach where, you’re never quite sure what’s around the next corner, and you feel liken you’re constantly being examined.

There’s a brilliant sense of pace and unnerving tension while you explore the twisting corridors of the Von Braun, praying you don’t get clocked by a security camera, which will inevitably send hordes of mutated former crew, twisted experiments, and suicidal androids barrelling towards your location.

Never in a game have I felt quite so hunted. None of the enemies ever let up once they’ve clocked you, and each fight feels incredibly desperate, especially when you’re out of ammo and the only thing keeping you alive is a sturdy wrench.

However, much like its spiritual successor, BioShock, dying isn’t necessarily the end. In each area, there’s a regeneration station that effectively acts as a respawn point every time you die, and you will die. A lot.

However, if you don’t find one. That’s it, Game Over, back to the title screen you go. Enter a new area and get jumped as soon as you open the bulkhead door. Tough.

Thankfully, though, System Shock 2 does feature autosave. Unfortunately, it’s the same function from 1999, which means it’s about as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

This led my old instincts to kick in fairly quickly, especially since you have to pay every time you respawn, and cash is relatively tight. Save often, it may be the difference between losing five minutes of progress and twenty.

Even 25 years on, System Shock 2 remains a fairly challenging game, and one that delights in punishing you for any act of recklessness. Turrets, robots, waves of respawning mutants. It loves to remind you at every opportunity that you are not in control of the situation, and any attempt to gain the upper hand will be rebuffed with several swift kicks to the head.

Your main way to at least attempt this is by levelling up skills in three main tracks, as well as your general stats, these are weapons (which deal with uh. Shooty and stabby things mostly), tech (which helps you be more handy by hacking, repairing and researching things), and psionics (attacking enemies with mind bullets).

By completing objectives handed to you by a female crew member who isn’t at all suspicious, you’ll gain upgrade points which can then be used to improve your abilities, though admittedly, not all builds are created equal in System Shock 2. It’s a safe bet to always upgrade your hacking abilities since they are invaluable for finding secrets, opening up locked crates, turning off security cameras, bypassing turrets, and occasionally finding more hidden upgrade points.

In other words, it pays dividends to make a character who specialises in a certain thing and carries a heavy stick. The amount of options for your build can seem overwhelming at first, and it is also completely possible to screw up a run, or in the very least make it much more hard going, by not carefully considering what to upgrade each time you make it to an upgrade station.

How many points you have in a certain skill or weapon class directly affects how accurate and powerful they are. So if you skimp on standard weapons, expect to be a terrible shot.

Regardless, it’s still surprisingly open-ended, you know, the RPG-style character building and upgrade mechanics are top tier when you ask three different people what to put points into, and they give you three different answers.

The most impressive part, though, is how Nightdive has managed to rework the game’s UI and controls to work with modern consoles and controllers.

To say that System Shock 2 made the most of mouse and keyboard controls is an understatement. There are menus for powers, notes, and your inventory, and in turn, each item in your inventory has several ways it could be interacted with, equipped, used, and examined.

Yet despite the masses of menus, the console version does an admirable job of allowing players to access a wealth of information and options with just a few button presses.

Every interface can be navigated with the d-pad and face buttons, you can cycle between the trio of PDA menus with the trigger buttons, and then quickly flick between each tab contained within them with the bumpers.”

The bumpers also allow you to quickly select your weapons and psi powers, thanks to a pair of new quick-access bars. Aiming can also be slowed down to help take more accurate shots, and leaning around corners has been simplified down to a toggle instead of a separate set of keys.

Though it is certainly impressive, it’s not perfect. On a few occasions, I did manage to get trapped in the inventory long enough to get beaten to death, but on the whole, everything you would need to interact with the world of System Shock 2 is right at your fingertips.

Nightdive has also taken to stuffing its remasters full of all kinds of DVD extras like concept art, old trailers, and office pics of the dev team. I love this stuff, and on PC you get the added benefit of accessing the files right through your install directory, in addition to an in-game menu.

Though I didn’t play the four-player cooperative multiplayer mode, since System Shock 2 is stuck offline on the Series X at the moment. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Though it’s great to see it reinstated for the remaster, I just don’t think it’s my cup of tea. There’s something about having a friend tag along that drains all the tension in most horror titles. It’s that sense of isolation, of not knowing what’s around the next corner, that makes System Shock 2 such a compelling experience. I feel this would be somewhat diminished if you have someone to keep you company and give you a hand cleaning up the mutants.

Though Nightdive did promise Mod support for the game, I’m not sure if this extends to the console version, and at this time, there is no sign of it on the Xbox at least. Maybe this’ll be added at a later date. It would be the cherry on an already amazing cake if this feature found its way to consoles.

One additional feature I love, though, is the treasure trove of development and marketing materials contained in the Vault. It’s a proper deep dive that includes early animatics, old adverts, stacks of concept art and even the full Prima guide to the game, just in case you get stuck.

Final Thoughts

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster is another feature-rich and labour of love from one of the best preservation teams in the business. Not only have they managed to bring System Shock 2 to consoles for the first time, they’ve done it in such a way that you wonder why it wasn’t done sooner. The new gamepad controls are superb, the glow up rides that beautiful line between modernisation and respect for the source material, and System Shock 2 holds up phenomenally. Remaining one of the finest immersive sims ever made, and now you can just sit on your couch and play it. You might want to keep the lights on, though.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster (XSX) Review