Rebooting the System. We talk to Nightdive Studios on remaking System Shock, out May 30 on the Epic Games Store
3.31.2023
By Craig Pearson
System Shock was a game in the nascent Immersive Sim genre, and remains a potent inspiration for modern gaming. The non-linear design, weapons, multiple hardware augmentations, and player-driven story inspired Deus Ex, BioShock (notice the nod in the name), Prey, and more.
Despite the pedestal it sits on, it stalled as a series in 1999 with System Shock 2, going into hibernation until Nightdive Studios revived it. System Shock has been updated, re-released in an Enhanced Edition, and, after a long development process, finally remade for modern systems. We are close to returning to Citadel Station. You can pre-purchase it now on the Epic Games Store. It’s out on May 30, 2023.
Stephen Kick, CEO of Nightdive Studios and Game Director for System Shock, talked to us about bringing a classic game back. A process that, at times seems, as challenging as dealing with S.H.O.D.A.N. herself. They weren’t just making a game, but working with a historical document, and a genre that’s since evolved across a number of decades.
“Updating System Shock, a 30-year-old game, was challenging, but at the same time incredibly rewarding,” Kick said. “We had over three decades worth of games that were released between 1994 and 2023 to look at and evaluate. How did System Shock inspire other games? How did future games improve on the immersive sim formula? How do we condense all the original controls onto a modern controller? There was an unending series of questions we had to answer along the way and it was a daunting task.”
“We had a few false starts along the way,” Kick said. “We even restarted development about two years into the project, and while it was an incredibly painful experience, we feel that we made the right decision. I believe the first Unity demo we released as part of our Kickstarter campaign was a great first step, and the Unreal powered version we have now is exactly what we were looking for.”
In remaking System Shock, Nightdive had to identify what made System Shock so memorable. A lot of games have added to the formula, bringing tech trees, huge open-worlds, and guiding hands that lead you through them, but modernizing the original title didn’t necessarily mean overhauling the experience to that level. The remake retains System Shock’s DNA.
“When we started development, we outlined core pillars of the experience that we had to maintain,” he said. “Those pillars included keeping the level design, story, and difficulty intact. System Shock doesn’t hold your hand and trusts the player with the information it presents. There are no quest markers, no objectives recorded in a log, no breadcrumbs to follow—it’s all up to the player. We also felt it important that any additions we made to the narrative only complimented the already incredible story that the original Looking Glass team crafted.”
So expect a game of interlocking spaces, rife with ambushes, and a map that forces you to visit every corner of the game, dealing with security bots, mutated humans, and more.
But things did have to move on. The original’s UI and music have received an overhaul, and the new look is moodier and darker than the original, but with a pixelated sheen that harks back to the era’s graphical style.
“I think once we had nailed down the art style it really found its identity,” Kick said. During our first public playtests we had trouble getting people to stop playing, which was a really good sign that we were headed in the right direction.”
Translating a game across three decades introduced some very specific issues, particularly when you’re attempting to retain how the game flows.
“One of the issues that arose came after we had rebuilt the original game in Unreal,” Kick said. “While System Shock is fully 3D, most of the tiles are two-dimensional planes with zero depth. When we started replacing the old tiles with 3D geometry, we discovered that we had to start moving big parts of the map around to account for the additional depth. As an example, just replacing an old 2D door with a 3D one caused a cascade of spacing issues across the whole map. ”
Another area that needed work was cyberspace. Cyberspace allowed players to enter the game’s security systems, collecting upgrades and fighting counter-attacks. Kick admits it was a challenge to remake.
“The hardest decision we had to make was how we were going to translate cyberspace,” he said. “The original was notorious for being difficult to navigate and control, so we opted for something that looked similar but played like your standard 6DoF style game. This change bled into the final boss fight, which also takes place in cyberspace. We completely re-imagined how it ends, but you’ll have to play it to see for yourself!
“Ultimately, I hope we did justice to the legacy of the original while delivering a game that modern audiences will enjoy.”
If you’re brave enough to enter Citadel Station, System Shock is out on May 30, 2023 on the Epic Games Store.