Okay, you’ve played BioShock. Maybe you’ve even played System Shock 2. But have you played the game that started all this Shock nonsense, a.k.a. the 1994 classic System Shock? The game that also influenced classics from Deus Ex to Half-Life?
If not, it just got a lot easier.
Night Dive Studios, the team that re-released System Shock 2 on GOG.com and Steam two years ago, just put out System Shock Enhanced Edition on GOG.com. A collaboration between the studio and members of the mod community, the Enhanced Edition adds quite a few quality-of-life improvements:
“System Shock: Enhanced Edition now comes with official support for resolutions up to 1024×768 (compared to the original 640×480), and a native 854×480 widescreen mode. Gameplay is streamlined with a toggleable mouselook mode, including more intuitive inventory and item management. Combined with assorted bug-fixes and remappable controls, System Shock is now truly enhanced. Still, some gaming experiences are truly worth preserving, so you can also return to the authentic 90’s gameplay with System Shock: Classic – ready for modern systems, completely unaltered in all other aspects, and available in both the CD and Floppy editions!”
In other words, System Shock: Enhanced Edition doesn’t just make the game run on modern systems. It overhauls the game to make it playable, adding mouselook so you don’t have to deal with archaic early-90s shooter controls.
As for the game itself, System Shock 2 tends to get more love, but there’s a dedicated core of fans who prefer the original System Shock. Both are classics for a reason, so I recommend traipsing through System Shock if you’ve got the patience for severely dated 3D visuals. The game is on sale for 20 percent off ($8) until next Tuesday, September 29—or, if you own System Shock 2 through GOG it’s 40 percent off. Happy hacking.