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Here’s my confession: I think I prefer System Shock 2 to Deus Ex. Not that I don’t love JC Denton like a son, mind you, it’s just that SS2’s creepy hallways and pitch-perfect antagonists have taken root in my heart forever.
So I gotta be honest, of all the whizzbang announcements spilling out of the Future Games Show, the one I’m most excited about is Nightdive’s KEX Engine redo—the System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster, which just got shown off during the show. It’s coming out on June 26 this year on Steam and GOG, a brisk six years after it was originally announced.
If you’re not familiar, SS2 is on the Mt Rushmore of immersive sims, and is a direct antecedent of the BioShock games (but it’s better). You’re a hapless schmuck trapped on a spaceship filled with mutated horrors and have to get the hell off of it through the judicious application of implants and skill points. Also, hitting psychic monkeys with a wrench.
The SS2 remaster has touched “every aspect of the game,” says Nightdive, and will feature “unknowable horrors, in high definition,” which is a very good press release bullet point, fair play. On PC, that means 4K resolutions and 144 fps, plus ultra-widescreen support for those of you playing on a kitchen door you’ve turned sideways.
We’ve also got achievements, gamepad support (blasphemy to some, incredibly great news for me personally), and full mod support, with “the ability to implement community-made missions at launch.”
Which is all I need as someone who really just wants a pretty, easy-to-run version of SS2 I can fire up and play on my TV, but the mad lads at Nightdive have also gone and resurrected the original game’s co-op mode, meaning you can play through the game with a pal on any other platform. Unfortunately, I don’t have friends, so you’ll have to figure out how that all works for yourself.
I’m eager to get my hands on this one. Nightdive did a great job with the remake of System Shock 1, even if I found it a little too conservative, but that same conservatism is exactly what I want from a remaster. If I get an SS2 that looks how I remember it (ie. better than it actually did in the ’90s) and plays easily, I’ll be a very happy man.
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Kurt Indovina
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