System Shock Early Pre-Alpha Trailer

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Nightdive Studios has released a trailer for their upcoming System Shock game running in Unreal Engine. The team raised over $1 million on Kickstarter last year for the chance to update the classic title, and word on the street is that it will be a reboot with new mechanics and refined dialogue. Those of you who want to pre-order the game or merchandise can hit this link.
 
Is the video glitch effect part of the game or just editing in the trailer? I'm sick of it already...
 
  • Like
Reactions: AK0tA
like this
gunbust3r said:
Is the video glitch effect part of the game or just editing in the trailer? I'm sick of it already...
Click to expand...

There is a playable demo on Steam. Try downloading that to answer any gameplay questions you might have.....
 
While I am looking forward to a slower paced game than rocket jumping genre of today, this just looks aged. I could honestly go for more BioShock.
 
I signed up to back the project. Somewhere on the station there will be an elite cyborg representing my ass. Guessing the encounter between the cyborg and myself won't play out like Scott Pilgrim vs. Nega Scott.
 
Not as cramped feeling as the original, something I fear I'll miss a lot...
 
Looks like doom ans something from 5yrs ago... next...
 
Really was uninspired by that video but for me the zombification of every thing on Gods green earth is long in the tooth. They need to break out of this dried up scenerio and move forward.
 
The pre-alpha demo was up on Steam last I checked. Still felt like SS just with a much needed update.
 
eh, i mean it looks like a lot of work put into it, but i dunno why it just didn't do it for me. I do like the style, maybe the trailer just sucked and I should go try it out.
 
Was this video meant to get people interested? If so it failed miserably... I know pre alpha blah blah blah but this looks like total crap.
 
tetris42 said:
Lot of System Shock haters, kids these days.
Click to expand...

Without System Shock, many of the features in "modern games" like Fallout 4, Bioshock, Deus Ex (the entire series), etc., wouldn't have existed. IMHO, while Wolfenstein 3D/Doom opened the door, and put one foot inside the house of modern FPS gaming, System Shock got you inside the house, and provided the visible framework.
 
tungt88 said:
Without System Shock, many of the features in "modern games" like Fallout 4, Bioshock, Deus Ex (the entire series), etc., wouldn't have existed. IMHO, while Wolfenstein 3D/Doom opened the door, and put one foot inside the house of modern FPS gaming, System Shock got you inside the house, and provided the visible framework.
Click to expand...

You are talking about two different houses: Doom is a first-person shooter (FPS), while System Shock is roleplaying action (RPA; not RPFPS as I wrongly wrote).
 
Last edited:
What many not seem to realize is that system shock is not an FPS, it's an RPG with first person view. It's not supposed to compete with Doom or Prey, and that's a good thing. It's a very different game. Combat is a very small fraction of it. I don't even know why are they promoing with combat, I'd be more interested in the research, exploration, hacking elements of the game.
 
I really hope this turns into something amazing as the original was really advanced in it's prime. Unfortunately at the moment it looks like a DOOM 3, circa 2004 clone.
 
M76 said:
What many not seem to realize is that system shock is not an FPS, it's an RPG with first person view. It's not supposed to compete with Doom or Prey, and that's a good thing. It's a very different game. Combat is a very small fraction of it. I don't even know why are they promoing with combat, I'd be more interested in the research, exploration, hacking elements of the game.
Click to expand...

Most likely because they have no understanding of the original System Shock (I even managed to fuck up and call it an RPFPS, when I meant RPA or "Roleplaying Action" — FPS is so closely tied to action these days), merely trying to capitalise on nostalgia.

Anyone remember Syndicate? While I doubt it will be that bad, I have little hope for this.
 
Dont like the new art direction the first demo really felt like a recreation of the original this looks more like a reboot.
 
endalykt said:
You are talking about two different houses: Doom is a first-person shooter (FPS), while System Shock is a roleplaying first-person shooter (RPFPS).
Click to expand...

No, I am talking about the progression factor in FPS gaming. (After all, you yourself mentioned the FPS part in your classification of System Shock as a RPFPS).
To be even more specific, those classifications didn't even exist during the time Doom/System Shock were released (1993/1994).
Otherwise, why would Doom 3 feature storyline info on PDAs? (And there were tons of other elements in Doom 3 that were literally inspired by stuff dating all the way back to System Shock, which came out in 1994, to Doom's 1993).
Warren Spector & Looking Glass (devs of System Shock) saw Doom, but had been already working on a 3D action game that was using the Ultima Underworld engine -- with System Shock, they went way past that; yeah, they were THAT ambitious. (Of note is that Spector helped develop Deus Ex, and is now working on System Shock 3, quitting his job as a university practically overnight to do so).

Just look at games like ID's Rage: even that game had to pay a lot of indirect homage to System Shock-inspired features, since many single-player FPS games have had to follow much of the framework that System Shock provided.
Enough so, that even a gamer like me (mid-30s, and played a ton of Doom/Doom2 single-player, and multi via serial port), would be bored out of my skull with the original Doom/Doom2. (I recently played Wolf3D on Chrome, and while that was fun for a brief bit of nostalgia, I got really bored within 20 min after the memories faded, because its elements are very simplistic, and in practically every FPS game that came afterwards).

It's also telling that the System Shock framework was so influential, that there was even an attempt to make a "RPG" FPS with the Doom engine in 1996: remember Strife? (yes, I played that too).

Some useful info links about the development of System Shock:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118532 (starting from post #8)

http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/2396-warren-spector-on-origin-system-shock-3-more

http://gamingillustrated.com/system-shock-a-brief-retrospective/

https://www.wired.com/2016/02/warren-spector-system-shock-3/ (mostly about Spector's vision for what a FPS should be, and how he and his co-workers correctly predicted what future FPS games would veer towards)

And here is a solid overview about System Shock, and what it introduced to FPS gaming:
https://rakanalysis.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/system-shock-an-updated-retrospective-review/

Edit: Another overview, with some comparisons to Doom https://acantophis3rd.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/review-system-shock/

There used to be a really long article about the development and origin of System Shock, especially in comparison with Doom, which (unfortunately) I can't find anymore.
 
Last edited:
M76 said:
What many not seem to realize is that system shock is not an FPS, it's an RPG with first person view. It's not supposed to compete with Doom or Prey, and that's a good thing. It's a very different game. Combat is a very small fraction of it. I don't even know why are they promoing with combat, I'd be more interested in the research, exploration, hacking elements of the game.
Click to expand...

Agreed. You'd be better off comparing it to a survival horror than something like Doom.
 
gunbust3r said:
Is the video glitch effect part of the game or just editing in the trailer? I'm sick of it already...
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it's just the transition effect they used in the video. But I agree, they did overuse it quite a bit.

I backed this and it does look pretty good. I wish the graphics were a bit better because they do seem clean but fairly simplistic. That may be intentional, though.
 
M76 said:
What many not seem to realize is that system shock is not an FPS, it's an RPG with first person view. It's not supposed to compete with Doom or Prey, and that's a good thing. It's a very different game. Combat is a very small fraction of it. I don't even know why are they promoing with combat, I'd be more interested in the research, exploration, hacking elements of the game.
Click to expand...

Kinsaras said:
Agreed. You'd be better off comparing it to a survival horror than something like Doom.
Click to expand...

Depends on how you play the original System Shock (you could even cut out the storyline if you wanted to, to various degrees -- same with the puzzles/action).
Personally, being a greedy sort, I played on the hardest difficulty level, with all the story and all the puzzles (I wanted everything, lol).
Ended up with what I wanted: tons of intense fights, tons of skulking about (avoiding tough enemies), and tons of story, with puzzle "destressors" (my own way of looking at it), which made me a very happy gamer in 1994. (I was rooting for Abe Ghiran, up until I found his corpse on Level 3 -- then I felt depressed).

Heck, Doom 3 had to play up the horror part of itself (as did Quake 4, with its infamous "Stroggification" scene).
 
MavericK said:
Pretty sure it's just the transition effect they used in the video. But I agree, they did overuse it quite a bit.

I backed this and it does look pretty good. I wish the graphics were a bit better because they do seem clean but fairly simplistic. That may be intentional, though.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I look on this (remade) game as a nice stand-in until System Shock 3 comes out. They promised more story and more levels (as per their original Kickstarter progression tree), so it should be fun.
 
tungt88 said:
Depends on how you play the original System Shock (you could even cut out the storyline if you wanted to, to various degrees -- same with the puzzles/action).
Personally, being a greedy sort, I played on the hardest difficulty level, with all the story and all the puzzles (I wanted everything, lol).
Click to expand...
Not really, you couldn't cut out the story of system shock your first way through because the audio logs are essential to knowing where to go and what to do unlike bioshock where they are just optional story bits.
 
Last edited:
yourgrandma said:
Not really, you couldn't cut out the story of system shock your first way through because the audio logs are essential to knowing where to go and what to do unlike bioshock game they are just optional story bits.
Click to expand...

I believe you are right for the very first game you start, but you don't need to do it for even the first full playthrough (assuming you started, quit, and started a new game).
In any case, here is the breakdown for the initial in-game options (under Gameplay): http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/System_Shock
 
M76 said:
Yeah about as much as you can call obscure B flicks mainstream.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I want to say there was nothing mainstream about zombie movies until the early 00s, they were cult hits. 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead remake is where I remember them really getting some mainstream attention.
 
tetris42 said:
Yeah, I want to say there was nothing mainstream about zombie movies until the early 00s, they were cult hits. 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead remake is where I remember them really getting some mainstream attention.
Click to expand...

In the mid 80s they were getting reasonably wide release and being played in the local multiplexes. Plenty of them. then things cooled off a bit in the 90s, then in 2002 it all started up again.
 
tungt88 said:
Depends on how you play the original System Shock (you could even cut out the storyline if you wanted to, to various degrees -- same with the puzzles/action).
Click to expand...
You can ignore the story in any game, it's not the game's fault that some doesn't play it the way it was intended. The exact same thing happened to Alien Isolation. Who wanted an FPS hated and belittled it, who realized it wasn't an FPS loved it. (that game borrowed most of it's elements from System Shock as well)
raz-0 said:
In the mid 80s they were getting reasonably wide release and being played in the local multiplexes. Plenty of them. then things cooled off a bit in the 90s, then in 2002 it all started up again.
Click to expand...
Yes they had wider reach than even before that, still wouldn't call them popular and definitely not mainstream. I think the mainstreamization of zombies become a reality with the first resident evil movie. And then finalized by the walking dead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top