| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 35 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 29:32:32 |
| Calls: | 333 |
| Files: | 990 |
| Messages: | 84,620 |
This isn't going to be a full remaster along the lines of the 2023
"System Shock" game, with an entirely new engine, new levels,
textures, sounds. Rather, it will be more akin to the 2015 "Enhanced
Edition" releases of the first system shock game; a shiny new gloss
atop the 1999 sequel. E.g., the sort of thing you can create for
yourself if you download all those fan-made patches and apply them
yourself.
On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 15:19:14 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
This isn't going to be a full remaster along the lines of the 2023
"System Shock" game, with an entirely new engine, new levels,
textures, sounds. Rather, it will be more akin to the 2015 "Enhanced >>Edition" releases of the first system shock game; a shiny new gloss
atop the 1999 sequel. E.g., the sort of thing you can create for
yourself if you download all those fan-made patches and apply them >>yourself.
System Shock 2 is one of my favorite games ever. For some reason, I
listen to the audio logs every time I play it and so now I have many
of them memorized from playing the game so many times. I like the
first game, but I don't think it is anywhere as good as the sequel.
Your post initially had me excited but what you describe here does not
make this remaster sound all that interesting to me. To be clear, I do
NOT want a full on reboot, but I want more then something that I can
do myself with various mods.
(actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the underlying engine is
replaced by developer Nightdive Studio's own Kexx engine, but this
hasn't been clarified one way or the other. But the game will largely
look and play exactly like the 1999 game).
But Kex is quite capable in that regard. It's been used in most of >Nightdive's more recent releases, including "System Shock Enhanced",
"Quake II (2021)", "Powerslave", "Dark Forces", "The Thing
Remastered" and even their remake of the 1997 "Blade Runner" game. Kex
Engine might not have the capability to pump out highest-quality
visuals, but it was purpose built to be able to interface or emulate
the game-logic of older titles.
I mean, sure, we all know eventually it's going to end up in my video
game library, but that's not saying much; that same library has four
copies of "Overcooked" in it. But I'm in no rush to buy the remake...
On Sun, 23 Mar 2025 06:20:07 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
<candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
Mike S <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote at 02:31 this Sunday (GMT):
On Fri, 21 Mar 2025 15:19:14 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson >>><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
This isn't going to be a full remaster along the lines of the 2023 >>>>"System Shock" game, with an entirely new engine, new levels,
textures, sounds. Rather, it will be more akin to the 2015 "Enhanced >>>>Edition" releases of the first system shock game; a shiny new gloss >>>>atop the 1999 sequel. E.g., the sort of thing you can create for >>>>yourself if you download all those fan-made patches and apply them >>>>yourself.
Your post initially had me excited but what you describe here does not
make this remaster sound all that interesting to me. To be clear, I do
NOT want a full on reboot, but I want more then something that I can
do myself with various mods.
Paying companies for re-releases that have mods packaged in seems to be >>their new favorite past time.
In fairness, it /might/ be more than just 'repackaging mods' but all
the screenshots I've seen don't make it look like the end-result will
be /much more/ than what you can make for yourself. Like I said, it's
equally possible that Nightdive will port the entire thing to their
Kexx engine, which is definitely more than just a mod-repack. I don't
know if they're actually using modded assets or making their own
either.
But the screenshots they have on GOG don't look all that much improved
over those of System Shock 2 Rebirth, and that makes the purchase of
the game a lot more of a hard sell. Visually, it seems they're selling
the convenience of not having to do all the work of finding /
downloading / installing / configuring the mods yourself, which is
cool (and, admittedly, I'll probably get the game just for that) but
is it worth grabbing it for $30? Especially since the changes are so
minor.
Here's an example of the changes, showing a zombie in the unmodded
1999 game, what it looks like in Rebirth, and what a pre-release
screenshot from the 2025 remaster. https://imgur.com/a/cXR2YeJ
What you're paying for is mostly the convenience of having all the
work done for you. Also, it doesn't hurt that this new edition will
probably be the new 'base version' for any future mods (in fact, one
of the advertised features of the remastered version is 'better
support for mods').