Consider yourself a caveman using bone arrows and a spear with a flint point to hunt a mammoth. All of a sudden, there is a burst of dazzling light, and a strangely clothed figure appears in front of you, giving you a contemporary sniper weapon. He vanishes back into the future after that. It doesn't matter if those terms haven't been coined yet—the item you are holding is very smart. You are amazed by the matte metal surface, and the complex mechanism begs you to have a look at it. Should you put it on a pedestal and worship it, or attempt to utilize it? Should you make it known to everybody or experiment on your own? Either way, your perspectives are permanently expanded.

That was 1994's System Shock, then. in contrast to almost all first-person video games from that era. It was released less than a month before Doom II and two years before Duke Nukem 3D. The original Doom, a lighthearted but obscene feast of carnage, was the height of contemporary shooters in the early 1990s. System Shock was just that—a severe lightning strike to a system that had only recently started experimenting with creating simple three-dimensional environments. Although it was at least ten years ahead of its time objectively, it seemed like a relic from the twenty-second century to me. I always felt like I was cutting it short when I called it a "shooter." It was the first realistic immersive simulation, a deft fusion of action, adventure, and survival. It remained unique for an extended period.

Keep it distinct from System Shock: Enhanced Edition.

Despite several obstacles, Nighdive Studios has been working on the System Shock remake since 2015. The firm has previously worked on System Shock: Enhanced Edition, a rudimentary remaster of the original with mouse look support and a few other quality-of-life additions. 2023's System Shock is a true remake. The main game has been completely redesigned using a contemporary engine and an upgraded user interface. The remake stays faithful to the original in terms of spirit, idea, and underlying philosophy, if you will. This game is an intricate, difficult-to-use beast from the past that requires the player's full attention. Compared to its sequel, it tests the thinking and deduction abilities much more. The game System Shock 2 was and still is contemporary; its predecessor wasn't.

The release of System Shock (2023) coincided with the ideal time to capitalize on the current culture's fixation with all things AI. It addresses the age-old dread of "mad" artificial intelligence that is out to wipe out humankind. The main character of the program is SHODAN, an AI with human characteristics that controls every element of life on the enormous corporate complex known as Cidatel Station, located in Saturn's orbit. As a hacker who was duped by a very dishonest TriOptimum Corp. executive, you were put in charge of turning off AI's moral constraints. SHODAN is attempting to reshape mankind in its own image and now regards itself as a god. Biological warfare, mining lasers, and forced cybersurgery are all part of the self-deification agenda. Of course, you have to put an end to this and stop being such a credulous tool.

Sweating and panting while sprinting through the hallways

Citadel Station is a huge building, much larger than I recall. It's a labyrinth of laboratories, offices, and steel corridors teeming with militarized SHODAN victims. Nightdive Studios chose not to grasp the player's hand in order to maintain the sense of being hopelessly lost. You are required to choose your own goals on the default difficulty level (more on that later). There's no breadcrumb trail or arrow pointing the way. While listening to audio logs—another creation made by the original game's creators that gained popularity—you have to choose where to go and what to do. For some players who possess, let's say, more "modern" sensibilities, this might provide an enormous obstacle. There's a lot of backtracking involved, so it's advisable to have a pen and paper close at hand in case you need to jot down a piece of code that will likely take fifteen hours to complete. Here, immersive sim refers to fully immersing oneself in the non-ergonomic mid-1990s systems.

Combat is rather simple, but exploration requires work. Robots, cyborgs, and mutants abound, but the power of your weapons will increase with time. There are many more energy and ballistic weapons available, along with the return of everyone's beloved laser rapier. The restricted inventory space still affects resource management, but Nighdive added a cargo elevator to each deck, giving you a common storage area for all things on the station. Recycling is another useful idea. Plenty of unnecessary garbage may be recycled in Citadel for credits, which you can then spend on upgrades for your weapons, cyberware, ammunition, food, and other necessities.

A contemporary artifact from a bygone era

You may choose several difficulty settings for Combat, Mission, Cyber (space), and Puzzles before you start the game. You may customize the combined experience to your tastes thanks to this clever approach. For instance, you will see an arrow directing you to your next goal on the simplest Mission level. With the exception of riddles, which I had adjusted to the simplest difficulty, I kept everything as it was. Some of them are very, really tough, and you may need to use your mental faculties for navigation and investigative work.

Even if System Shock (2023) may be a little too literal with its use of neon, it still takes a very good, retro-modern creative approach. Terri Brosius, the original voice of SHODAN, was engaged by the Nightdive folks, and she performed an amazing job. SHODAN is deliciously bizarre; it constantly makes fun of your sorry ass. It was unquestionably a penultimate villain that endured.

Will you be able to endure long enough to finish System Shock? Most gamers, in my opinion, may not. Decades of contemporary games and the ever-growing tendency of user-friendliness have rendered even the seasoned players of the original game hopelessly spoilt. System Shock is not something you can put off for a few weeks with the intention of finishing later; it takes twenty to thirty hours of concentrated work. You may as well remove it if you start losing continuity.

A contemporary artifact from a bygone period is System Shock. It takes perseverance, resolve, and a good helping of nostalgia. To make anything work, you have to put in effort. You should immerse yourself in it if that's okay with you.