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Something was wrong with the Citadel station’s onboard AI, Shodan, and Abe Ghiran knew it. When Shodan began to take control of the station, he joined a resistance of surviving crew members. He made a safe house above a radioactive trench down on medical and left voice logs inviting other survivors to join them. When Shodan seized control of maintenance deck, shutting out all crew from the bridge, he identified a shortcut through the engineering level and tried to take her down. The others in his party were killed, but Ghiran persevered, trying to remain methodical.

When you first meet Ghiran, he’s in five pieces. Whatever took place in this room before you arrive, the brutality with which it concluded contrasts unsettlingly with his calm and brave voice logs. He’s just meat on the floor now, and his severed head goes into your inventory to use on a retinal scanner later.

Nightdive’s System Shock remake isn’t defined by the way it renovates the look of the original, but the way it assertively retains the feel. Were this a typical 2023 release, you’d have no idea who Ghiran was when you encountered his remains, nor any emotional investment in his story. You would have experienced it all at a sprint, picking up his head like the quest marker told you to, and charging off towards the next point on the minimap. But a typical 2023 release this is not. By the time you reach Abe, about four hours in, you’ve learned to drink in every detail of every room in the Citadel’s multi-level maze – to read every data stick, to listen to every voice log. Perhaps you’ve missed key items and areas, having expecting the game to highlight them for you. But it didn’t. It expected you to be paying attention.