5 Things a ‘System Shock’ Reboot Must Have To Be Good

It seems like System Shock, the classic cyberpunk first-person PC game, is making a comeback. In September, developer Night Dive Studios released a remastered version of the game, and the company recently told Fast Company it acquired the full rights to the System Shock franchise, clearing the way for a full remake that's is already in development. Way more ambitious than the simple remaster, the full reboot is designed after the original System Shock, but reimagined with all the bells and whistles of modern technology.

This is going to be tricky. System Shock appeals to a very specific niche of gamers, and capturing the essence of the original masterpiece will not be easy. As someone who loved the original game, these are five things I'd like to see in the System Shock remake.

Don't mess with the original story too much

I mean, no duh, but System Shock was good because it was subtle and creepy, and too often these days games try to beat you over the head with grander themes. Watch Dogs' laughable take on surveillance and Deus Ex: Human Revolution's soliloquies about cybernetics come to mind.

For a game like System Shock that essentially wrote the book on how to effectively sell a maniacal artificial intelligence, there's no need to shoehorn any tired tropes into a remake.

The tale is disturbing on its own, reveling in the sheer horror surrounding the rise of a malevolent computer and its ability to commandeer and control an entire space station. Granted, it's all about a hacker at its core, but that doesn't mean the protagonist should suddenly transform into an angst-ridden Everyman spewing dated pop culture references. Hopefully, the fact that the original creators will be involved with this project means we don't need to worry about this too much.

System Shock 2's vision of SHODAN

Though many fans know the game's evil artificial intelligence, SHODAN, mainly through the chilling climax of System Shock 2 and its terrifying final moments, the supercomputer of course was an integral part of the original game as well. Her iconic look is burned into the retinas of those who completed the sequel, and it ended up being a much more terrifying vision than the surgical, clean look of the original SHODAN. Any redesign of the AI or even tweaks to motives and personality would be forgiven, of course, only if Terri Brosius, SHODAN's voice actress, is part of the new project. No Terri, no SHODAN, plain and simple.

Even trippier Cyberspace encounters

Exploring Cyberspace, the wireframe wonderland in which players would be expected to enter from time to time in the original game, was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. The colors, the sterile enviorment, and the fact that SHODAN could be lurking around you made it even scarier than it had any right to be. There are so many opportunities for a new System Shock to incorporate Cyberspace in a meaningful way (how about virtual reality support?) that it seems like a no-brainer to make it one of the most important, inventive parts of the remake.

The same steely atmosphere of the original game

System Shock is not a forgiving or friendly game. It wants to destroy you at every turn. Nothing is safe. It's difficult to trust any of the characters you come into contact with in-game. Their portraits alone elicit a sense of dread that isn't present in a good portion of other modern cyberpunk thrillers. Generally, games are nicer these days. They don't want to be so hard or disturbing they to turn players away, but that's what System Shock is. It's a harsh world, and the remake shouldn't back down from that only to pander to new players.

A capable game engine

If Night Dive Studios is building System Shock again from the ground up, they might as well do it with the tools that will benefit most players.

Either the Unreal Engine or Unity would provide a solid foundation for a completely new approach. The original game was created with the engine originally designed for Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, which while impressive when it released in 1992, but has unfortunately not aged well.

Unreal or Unity's scalability and constant level of support would allow for a stable experience across a wide range of platforms, as well as easily support modders, who helped improve the original game for years after release.

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Given all of the possibilities floating out in the ether, it's hard to touch on every single aspect and elaborate on why it merits inclusion in the System Shock remake, but U have hope that things will work out. As a lifelong fan and System Shock 2 devotee, I'm excited to see where Night Dive Studios is planning on steering this ship, especially if the possibility of a third game, as the developer has hinted, is on the horizon.