Some of us have been playing video games a long time. That means that when we played them for the first time, games like System Shock 2 weren’t classics but were instead innovative and unique experiences that were gratifyingly immersive. For the rest of you, it’s time to have some of those experiences for the first time. With the dearth of remasters that have been filtering out these days, it’s almost impossible to miss out on some of the best games of all time and thankfully, Nightdive Studios has allowed for that with the release of the System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remastered!
Man, has it been 25 years already? The original System Shock 2 came out so far back that it is honestly hard to recall that it changed the face of modern FPS adventure gaming. It certainly set the stage for the Bioshock series and honestly a fair number of other games as well. System Shock 2 puts you in the boots of a soldier on the UNN Rickenbaker, a military ship set to accompany the first faster than light (FTL) spaceship, the Von Braun, on its maiden voyage. Waking up from a long sleep in a cryopod, you find that the Rickenbaker and the Von Braun are both in the midst of an emergency and the surviving crew is nowhere to be found. The majority of the plot in System Shock 2 is told through voice logs and the occasional transmission, but unlike modern games, nothing is overdone. There is enough story to fill in the blanks piece by piece without overwhelming players with unrelated lore and the entire plot slowly and organically comes together as you play. You can ignore all the voice logs in the game (picking them up is optional) but you’ll be missing out on a lot of subtlety and the voice work is quite good as well.
System Shock 2 leads you by the hand through the mazes of corridors in the Von Braun but a fair portion of the game is optional, not just the plot. You can decide what to explore, where to go, and what to do within the bounds of the game, and the directed freedom keeps things from getting stale while still feeling somewhat open-world. To progress in the game you definitely do not have to explore everything but doing so nets you a significant amount of additional gear, ammo, and more so it’s definitely worthwhile.
The Von Braun is absolutely massive and you’ll do a lot of backtracking too, so expect to get to know the corridors and areas of the ship extremely well by the end of your time with System Shock 2. This is a first person game and while it’s not a boomer shooter, there’s a fair amount of combat as you progress and a wide variety of enemies. Unlike more modern shooters, run speed is directly related to stat increases and clicking on a stick actually roots you in place for leaning, making the controls a bit weird to adapt to at first. Combat is straightforward and enemies typically have 1-2 types of attacks that get a bit more powerful in the later areas of the game. You have finite weapons and ammo and your weapons degrade with use (excluding the psi-amp and hand-to-hand weapons) so you’ll also have to be careful with indiscriminate firing. You can buy ammo at shop terminals but it’s expensive and on normal, you’re better off just conserving ammo, going hand-to-hand, and finding what you need throughout the ship.
System Shock 2 allows for three different types of character builds, a soldier, a technician, and a psi operative. Each build has distinctive character paths and points to allocate to each, far earlier than most games offered these options and you can mix and match to best suit your playstyle. For this review we went with an equal balance of soldier and technician and minimal psi-powers but any build can work. Technicians can hack terminals and crates, fix gear, and modify weapons. Psi operatives can use mental abilities and drugs to boost their abilities, use kinetic attacks, heal, and more. Soldiers are the most straightforward with strong weapons specialties and more damage abilities. On top of the basic build, your body also has cybernetic augments, allowing you to install software that temporarily boosts your abilities beyond your stats, though it requires recharging eventually.
There’s even more going on than just multiple builds and weapons here though. System Shock 2 features a robust inventory system similar to Resident Evil, where you have a limited amount of predetermined space (which can be expanded with some modifications). You will come across far more items and gear than you can possibly carry and you’ll have to prioritize what you want to carry, what you want to leave behind, and where you want to leave it (the game saves the gear you drop where you drop it…near elevators is typically handy). Picking the right gear for the right area is essential to survival and weapons take up 3 slots each, significantly limiting what else you can carry. If you aren’t using it, dump it. You’ll need the space.
There are all kinds of weird monsters on the Von Braun too, and while there aren’t really bosses per se, some enemies are stronger and faster than others. Having played the game when it came out on PC, the remaster feels somehow easier than the original did, but perhaps that’s the shift to a controller. Some games designed for PC don’t make that transition well, but System Shock 2 nails the console play and controls very well on the PS5. The Playstation Portal is a bit weaker, struggling with the game visuals on occasion and limiting the menu system which is the center button on the PS5 controller but requires a double screen tap and a wait to access on the Portal, putting you at risk in volatile situations. There’s also a weird mapping issue with L1 on both console and Portal where you can’t map any hot items to the L1 menu in the build we received for review. The R1 mapping worked fine though and you’ll definitely want to map your weapons to those hot slots!
Of course, what you really want to know is what the remaster is bringing to the table. Rest assured, System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remastered is a fantastic and gorgeous update of the original game with no changes to the game itself. Everything is re-skinned and crisp in 1080p and the game loads smooth as silk and quite quickly on the PS5, though the transitions aren’t instant. Expect to only spend a moment or two waiting for saves to load or screen transitions between areas. The visuals are not the same as the System Shock remake however (review here). This is definitely a remaster and while they are beautiful environments, they’re more empty than other modern titles and the monsters definitely have a dated look to them (though the annelid arachnids are still super creepy). This is everything you could want in a remaster visually though, and new and old players alike will quickly become absorbed in the Von Braun’s plight.
Part of that is due to the extremely high-quality audio design of the game. For a game this old, full voice work is a rarity and the actors clearly took their jobs seriously. On top of that, the music is suitably creepy and subtle, lending a dark atmosphere to the different areas of the ship. While you’re not going to be hunting down the soundtrack, it’s perfect for the game in every way and significantly adds to the experience. Sound effects are the real winner here though, which monsters, creatures, robots, and ship noises at every turn and all with distinctive sounds that you can easily track to follow monsters entirely by sound. The skittering and moans really get to you as you play too – this is a game that is clearly designed to be played alone and in the dark and it works best as a horror game first and a sci-fi FPS second. Sound is enough to give you jump scares in the dark corners of the ship and you’re going to enjoy every shiver.
There really aren’t any issues with System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster. It’s a near-perfect game to begin with: an excellent story that has unexpected twists and turns, solid gameplay, great new visuals, excellent level, environment, and enemy design, and it loads lightning fast on the PS5. The early game is a smidge slow but once things get going, they don’t really slow down and before you know it the credits will be rolling and the game will be staying with you for a long time to come. Please note that there is also a cross-play multiplayer mode included with the game that we were unable to test for this review. At $30, this is an experience that you’re not going to want to miss. Go buy it. Shodan is watching.
This review is based on a digital copy of System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster provided by the publisher. It was played on a 55” 1080p Sony TV and the Playstation Portal. System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster is also available for Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.