SSR: System Shock Kickstarter

[6740c06984710ZylonBane]

On the pixel look I don't really care about it. Its a design choice and doesn't affect the gameplay in any shape or form.

Well, considering this is supposed to be a sort-of immersive sim, the egregious pixelation constantly reminding you this is just a game kind of undermines that.

[6740c069848ceNameless Voice]

While I'm certainly not a fan of it, I have to say that I barely noticed it while actually playing through the game.  Like the "hold up weapon when near a wall" thing, I didn't get that close to walls often enough to see it frequently.

[6740c06984aa4Pacmikey]

Give it a year and someone will make a mod that AI upscales all the textures, if someone isn't doing that already.

[6740c06984e97sarge945]

Humans can get used to pretty much anything quickly. Which is why people can still play the original game and get immersed, despite pixels everywhere. I would say System Shock 2 looks WAY worse than this remake overall, but it's still chilling because of the way it was put together.

I am not really a big fan of the pixelation either, but it blends into the rest of the game pretty quickly and the whole thing gets quite muted eventually. Now I only really notice in particularly egregious places, like the pattern on the audio logs or the triop logo on coffee mugs.

While I would prefer no pixels, it's not really a massive issue. I am very skeptical of anyone who says it is.

It seems that a decent number of people aren't fans of the style, but the only people really complaining that it "ruins the experience" aren't really interested in the remake anyway. People are doing the same thing with the animations "the game is ruined now!!!", yeah sure whatever.

I wonder how many of the complaints are genuine issues/criticism and how many of them are ad-hoc justifications for not liking something they have already decided to not play.

There are plenty of genuine, valid criticisms of this remake, issues far bigger than some pixelation, like softlocks, AI issues, physics issues, and gameplay missteps, but instead of keeping a level head, some people seem determined to blow absolutely every issue, no matter how small, completely out of proportion for the sake of feeling good about their choice to not play.

My biggest immersion criticism isn't with the pixelation at all, it's the constant enemy barks. When alerted, they will repeat over and over again lines like "target vanished", with no change in tone and no other lines. I know that they are literally cyborgs, but it makes them sound more like game AI than actual threatening enemies.

[6740c0698512bicemann]

Speaking of soft locking, though in this case nothing game ending, just annoying:

I had played through the groves prior to reading that you needed to complete the chess puzzle to get the 2nd backpack upgrade. Along the way I had come across that chess puzzle in Delta grove. The catch being that the initial configuration of only having a few pieces left on each side only happens when you first come across it. If you, like me did not realise what would happen if you lost, then your chances of getting that upgrade are next to nill (unless your an expert at chess, which I am not).

What happens if you lose on that initial configuration? Well it resets to a full chess board, with all the pieces present. Combine this with super top notch AI they put in for that one puzzle, and your not getting that done. I sat and spent 3.5 hours on it, before giving up. The AI is just too good for sucky chess players like myself. Checked Youtube for videos of the puzzle and 100% of them had the solution to it, but only for that initial configuration. Even tried looking up standard good chess strategies and those didn't work either, but did me a bit further in before I'd eventually lose.

Anyway. The Groves themselves - Some had music, and some did not. Majority of the enemies had next to no audio on them, even for dying. So made for a very quiet section of the game. The final grove (Gamma?) was a royal pain in the ass due to high biological damage even with the biological resistance ability (roughly 25 bits of biological damage constantly). Cost me the majority of my health packs and first aid kits. Not liking my chances for the later bits. Is it essential to upgrade to the later weapons to beat the game? Came across 1 plasma weapon and 1 rail gun which I never used in the original. Running low on ammo for my standard weapons. I had been doing very well health pack and ammo wise until the grove sections.

[6740c0698524bZylonBane]

An equal problem with the chess puzzle is why in the hell does winning a chess game unlock a door? That's some straight up 7th Guest nonsense.

[6740c0698535cNameless Voice]

Assuming they didn't change it since the beta, I actually thought the way to get the inventory upgrade was to climb around the upper reaches of the level (reachable via jump jets) and climb around the locked door that way.

I briefly puzzled over what the "correct" way to open that door was supposed to be, then gave up on it as not important.

[6740c069854b0icemann]

The door in question is only on the lower floor that the puzzle is on. Leads to a single room, with no other way in that I could find.

@ZylonBane I'm with you 100% on it being straight up 7th Guest nonsense.

[6740c069855efZylonBane]

11 megabytes of inline screenshots. Lovely.

[6740c0698593dToaste]

icemannOpen Lichess in the browser, set the strongest difficulty, choose black and then copy your opponents moves as your own in the browser. It's a game about hacker, so hack we will.

[6740c06985d70Xkilljoy98]

The door in question is only on the lower floor that the puzzle is on. Leads to a single room, with no other way in that I could find.

@ZylonBane I'm with you 100% on it being straight up 7th Guest nonsense.

That door needs you to do the Chess puzzle, what is dumb is that you need to do the Chess game to get an inventory upgrade

[6740c0698619bAutz]

sarge945
Um, based.

[6740c0698665cRoSoDude]

What did I just watch!?!?

It's difficult to describe my vehement disgust.  Suffice to say, I will never buy this.

Trying to pull some slight inkling of praise, I suppose that reminds me of this... but just barely.
[System Shock concept art]

Yeah that was pretty atrocious. I have no idea what they were thinking, frankly. Everyone knows the original cyberspace bossfight was pretty crap (except for SHODAN's face filling your screen, that was cool), but I'm surprised that it actually looks worse now. Instead of a quick 30 second spamfest with no audible hit feedback against a cyber carrot that pushes you around and hacks your vision, here's a 10 minute shootout against a distant cyber banana, still with no audible hit feedback, that for some reason takes place on the ground with FPS controls instead of the usual 6DOF cyberspace flying, and with a slow refire rate rifle. One gun, infinite ammo, possibly infinite health (from what others have said?), and tanky flying mobs that spawn in to distract you from shooting the banana. This is the riveting shooter gameplay I come to System Shock for.

It's like they combined the worst elements of the SS1 and SS2 SHODAN bossfights and made it take 3x as long as the two put together.

[6740c0698675fNameless Voice]

By making you have to play through the exact same sequence three or four times.

[6740c069868ffXkilljoy98]

System Shock (Remake) Early Pre-Release Demos

https://archive.org/details/system-shock-remastered-demo.-7z

https://archive.org/details/system_shock_remake_demo

If anyone has any interest in playing the older demos, there they are

[6740c06986a33Xkilljoy98]

Kickstarter Update/Patch Notes:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3827788

Also

[6740c06986ebcicemann]

Or to just put the main upcoming patch notes into a post:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLANS FOR FIRST PATCH

Below is a list of the upcoming items that will be included in the first patch of System Shock, which is currently pending:

    * Fixed Softlock in Research Level by making Elevator Lobby doors and Circuit Breaker Room door always open if that Quadrant has
    power disabled.
    * Fixed Softlock in Reactor when pulling the Reactor Self-Destruct Lever and reloading a save
    * Improved Realspace Enemy AI
    * Improved Cyberspace Enemy AI
    * Improved Magnum Weapon laser dot FX
    * Improved Mag-Pulse Weapon impact vortex FX
    * Add Headbob Option to Accessibility Settings
    * Added Autosave after using Surgery Machine on every Difficulty
    * Fix for Surgery Machine getting stuck in a permanent busy state
    * Fix for Energy Shield screen FX not restoring after loading a save
    * Fix for pressing Back in the Media Reader to not close entire MFD
    * Corrected the Escape Pod Status in MFD Status Screen when triggering Self Destruct sequence
    * Fixed a crash that could occur when entering Flight Deck with older DX11 versions.
    * Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting Maintenance Cyberspace.
    * Fixed a crash that could occur when playing Grove Chess.
    * Fixed Ragdolls to not fall into place when loading into levels or saves
       Players will have to save at least once to see it take effect after downloading this patch
    * Improved grenade rolling behavior when thrown.
    * Improved ragdoll behavior on Human Corpse attached to Cortex Reaver.
    * Fix for weapons with installed Modkits not always showing their attachments properly.
    * Fix Magnum laser sight FX not working properly when loading a save with it enabled.
    * Fix elevator music not stopping when the player dies in an elevator and respawns on another level.
    * Fix for Audio Log Portrait disappearing in certain cases.
    * Fix for game pausing unexpectedly after loading a game.
    * Fix equipment soft-lock that could occur when dying while arming an explosive.
    * Fix equipment soft-lock when saving and loading while focusing on a puzzle.
    * Credit Machines will dispense Tri-Credits when a Finance Chip is used on them.
    * Broadcast Monitors can now be shattered when attacked.
    * Minipistol Burst-Fire Modkit shoots three rounds instead of two, and can be toggled on/off.
    * Bio-Tanks that are destroyed will stop generating hazards after a short duration.
    * Items can be bound to the hotbar by pressing a hotbar hotkey while mousing over the item.
    * Balance tweaks to Maintenance Cyberspace Level
    * Removed duplicate Audio Log from Flight Deck

Again, this patch is pending.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a shame that there is no ETA on the patch. Stuff like Bio-tanks not generating hazards after being destroyed, improved enemy AI and fixing the soft locks, would be worth waiting a week and playing something else in the meantime, as I'd prefer not to get soft locked.

Some bugs I've encountered but don't see mention of above:

* Dead body physics being completely wonky
* Occasional lag spikes and complete silencing of audio in cyberspace
* Player death (but when at least 1 resurrection machine is switched back on) causes any nearby attacking enemies to vanish out of existence - Had this one happen quite a few times

[6740c06987104Autz]

Xkilljoy98
oink oink = gamePig.

But I don't see a clue when they are going to add a proper final boss with fail state.

[6740c06987202Nameless Voice]

Pretty sure they have no intention of changing the final boss fight, if they already didn't change it from the beta.

[6740c06987304ZylonBane]

It's mind-boggling that they put in all the effort to make cyberspace play like a shoot-em-up arcade game... then DIDN'T use that framework for the final boss fight. A truly epic example of self-sabotage.

[6740c069873e5Xkilljoy98]

I wonder if they will add in the missing cyberspace stuff, like the timer, logs, quad damage, stalker, and spawner.

[6740c06987641icemann]

I wonder if they will add in the missing cyberspace stuff, like the timer, logs, quad damage, stalker, and spawner.

They had timers in the earlier demo builds. Was a major negative as their incarnation of cyberspace requires a much longer time investment. I for one prefer it without a time limit.

Ability upgrades are sorely lacking however. I'm currently up to Engineering where in the original I'd have level 2 drill and other abilities, instead I've yet to find any upgrades. Now that said I've not been having any issues challenge wise. So take from that what you will.

[6740c06988227ThiefsieFool]

Respawning just seems totally busted right now, even on Combat Difficulty 3 you only need to ever fix 1 cyborg conversion chamber and then you are safe forever it seems.
This needs to be made into a setting or adjusted so you cannot respawn to another level on Combat 3.

[6740c06988362ThiefsieFool]

https://www.nexusmods.com/systemshock2023/mods/34 "Darker Maintenance"