4 ms·
The old System Shock was the first 3D game I played in my life. I was a kid and could not read English and did not understand what's going but had tons of fun.
by adeon 3y ago
The old System Shock was the first 3D game I played in my life. I was a kid and could not read English and did not understand what's going but had tons of fun.
I played the remake recently. I was decent, but I think it was _too_ faithful to the original in some ways:
- There's lots of junk items with (almost) no purpose that you can pick up.
- Buttons are often difficult to see on walls; you might skip an area because you thought you cannot progress because you couldn't tell there's a button from clutter
- Enemy AI is very simple and easy to exploit. Combat can feel a bit dull, because it's mostly the same kind of combat as the 1994.
- Inventory management UX could use some work. I found popping up the menu annoying.
- Large complicated maps, sometimes can feel a bit empty and comes with lots of backtracking. I kinda enjoy that though.
I liked the remake, and that the story and puzzles were faithful but I wonder if someone who wasn't a fan of the original would find it appealing. This might be a "where the hell do I go" game for anyone who hasn't played it before.
SHODAN's voice acting and over-the-top megalomaniac lines are a reason alone to play this thing.
Also I wished they had remixed or brought back the old soundtrack. The only place where I heard a hint of the original music was on the reactor level with the unusual bass line. It was my favorite track.
Reactor level music in the original (loud warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up80FfzySFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up80FfzySFA
New reactor level music from the remake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxku9cbIcMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxku9cbIcMQ
- gloryjulio 3y agoThe backers revolted when they revealed that there were too many changes. So the developers reverted many in order to be faithful. That's why it works like this
- adeon 3y agoUgh, I wonder if they made it worse. Do you know a link where I can read what kind of things were rolled back?
- colechristensen 3y agoIs the kind of thing where no matter what you do there is going to be a sizable group of unhappy people.
- lofaszvanitt 3y agoThat original is the Gravis ultrasound version, which wasn't that good compared to the basic soundbaster midi.
- jchw 3y agoI thought in general, MIDI on Soundblaster was rendered via OPL2/3 whereas GUS had wavetable synthesis with customizable patches. Would you not generally expect it to be better?
- lofaszvanitt 3y agoWell, it's a matter of preference. That's like amiga music vs c64 music. C64 music was much more closer to my heart.
- jchw 3y agoOkay, that's a fair point. Truth be told, I actually really do like the sound of those FM chips like the Yamaha OPL2, and the SID.
- lofaszvanitt 3y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EcgruWlXnQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EcgruWlXnQ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGFV_xxR64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGFV_xxR64 And Matt Grey did an awesome job with the remasters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrxPzxOwI_4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrxPzxOwI_4
- justsomehnguy 3y agoDepends on the composer. To this day I prefer ugly, but fun, ESSFM to GUS in DOOM/2. Duke3D sounds better on a wavetable board but AWE32/64 version (at least with a stock bank) is meh. ADD: if you never heard "Asphyxiated Soul": https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01865 https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01865
- andrewstuart 3y ago>> - There's lots of junk items with (almost) no purpose that you can pick up. A pity the remake does not have an option to switch off all the red herring items. Red Herring items really spoil a game…. it’s an idea that fortunately modern games seem to have left behind. This is the sort of thing a remake should fix or give option to fix. They should fix the “hidden button” problem too. Presumably it’s not too late for NightDive to do further updates.
- giobox 3y agoI spent my first 5 hrs collecting all the dog tags automatically, as naturally in any modern game this would lead to some kind of achievement. I only found out they serve no purpose at all when my inventory was completely full and I had to check on reddit if I even needed the damn things. I played the original, but my memory is somewhat hazy given its been ~30years. On balance I really like this remake, but it does carry some of the original's warts too.
- andrewstuart 3y agoEasy to imagine a "no useless items" option in gameplay settings. If a game has Red Herrings then I just stop interacting with items entirely. When items always have a purpose then they attract attention. Working out what is useful/useless isn't fun.
- deafpolygon 3y ago> Working out what is useful/useless isn't fun. Especially if you have limited inventory space. If you have plenty of space for the more useless items, then there isn't much harm (achievements would be nice).
- justsomehnguy 3y ago> Also I wished they had remixed or brought back the old soundtrack You don't listen to Bruce Willis albums in 2023. Because, just like the original SS OST, it was a product of that time. IMNSHO you need a genius to bring it to the modern times and not be that irritating.
- badsectoracula 3y ago> There's lots of junk items with (almost) no purpose that you can pick up. AFAIK the point is to use it with the replicator-like functionality. This wasn't in the original but System Shock 2 had a similar functionality so they sort-of backported it. > Large complicated maps, sometimes can feel a bit empty and comes with lots of backtracking. I kinda enjoy that though. Same here, it wouldn't be a proper "Shock" game if it wasn't for the labyrinthine maps (looking at you Bioshock) :-P.