System refresh
Familiar, but new: that’s the mantra Nightdive Studio has adopted for its remake of PC classic System Shock. The prospect of updating such a seminal work must be a daunting one, but CEO Stephen Kick is making all the right noises. Its concessions to modern design feel eminently sensible, the original’s awkward user interface reworked to more closely resemble its beloved 1999 successor. Yet Kick is also keen to preserve the original’s feel, refusing to budge on its lurid palette while getting out of the player’s way after early tooltips and control explanations so that we can figure out the rest ourselves. And there are just enough changes to the original that those who know it inside and out will find themselves wrong-footed from time to time – you are, after all, being toyed with by a malevolent AI. SHODAN, it understands, should still have the capacity to shock.