“Welcome back to Citadel station. We hope your somnolent healing stage went well.”
Perhaps it was a happy accident, or maybe Good Old Games planned it with the precise attention to detail of a rampant AI overlord, but it seems wonderfully fortuitous that on the same day as the release of Frictional’s new sci-fi horror SOMA we see the grandfather of the genre, the game that started it all – the original System Shock – re-released on PC.
This isn’t just any old re-release, though: This is the System Shock: Enhanced Edition.
Here’s what Stephen Kick, CEO of Night Dive Studios – the company who have produced the System Shock: Enhanced Edition – had to say about why this is the definitive modern System Shock experience:
“With System Shock: Enhanced Edition, we’re implementing game-changing improvements, including mouselook, widescreen, and a high resolution display mode. The classic game has never been more accessible to a modern audience.”
The System Shock: Enhanced Edition supports resolutions up to 1024×768 (which doesn’t seem entirely modern, but that’s in comparison to the original 640×480) and a native 854×480 widescreen mode. They’ve also included a toggleable mouselook mode, including more intuitive inventory and item management, combined with assorted bug-fixes and remappable controls.
But the best thing about having the System Shock: Enhanced Edition is that it’s still truly terrifying. It looks every bit of its 21 years but the feelings it evokes… that music, the atmosphere and the sounds, still send shivers down my spine, even today.
No… I don’t want to go back to Beta Grove… you can’t make me…
You can pick up System Shock: Enhanced Edition DRM-free from GOG right now. For a limited time, they’re also offering discounts on a System Shock: Enhanced Edition and System Shock 2 bundle, which is nice of them.
