The world is always crying out for remakes, right? There’s been enough of them in recent times anyway. One remake that has been on the cards for some time is System Shock, the remake of the classic first-person shooter of the same name from 1994. Well, the release date for the System Shock remake has been confirmed (again) and the developer has released a development update too.
System Shock was a revolutionary game that spawned the even better System Shock 2, while also paving the way for spiritual successors like BioShock and Prey. The studio behind the game is Nightdive, who is known for also bringing us remakes and ports of Quake, Doom 64, and Rise of the Triad, and it wanted to outline a few key changes to the System Shock remake after being quiet for a while.
Nightdive has explained that the game will be hit with some new additions for the upcoming cyberpunk-like first-person shooter; the Citadel space station has undergone a lovely coat of paint and is “ready for the big finale” says Nightdive.
Some of the other additions entering the game will be improvements to the particle and laser effects for weapons such as the plasma rifle, the dismemberment system has been worked on, and there will also be some new enemies to dismember as well. The dismemberment concept was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the older games, and regarding that system, Nightdive says “As you know dismemberment has been a high priority for us and every enemy is receiving a completely custom dismemberment model.”
Nightdive has always played it safe regarding the release date, continually choosing to be very vague about the end goal. Back in October, the developer explained that a March 2023 window would be ideal, and Nightdive has once again insisted that the March window is still in sight. The Nightdive has confirmed that the development of the remake is entering the “last major steps” of development, which would set it up nicely with that March release.
Even though a release window has been mentioned a fair few times now, Nightdive has insisted this will be it, and nothing will change now (hopefully). “The scope and scale of the project have evolved dramatically, and with Prime Matter joining the project, it’s enabled us to focus on quality-of-life improvements, bug fixing, and localization support – the last major steps towards releasing a game we’re all proud of,” says Nightdive.
Hopefully, we get a specific March release date sooner rather than later then.