(The player is referred to in game as “the soldier”, and nicknamed “Goggles” by the fanbase, due to the appearance of the cybernetic rig.) During his nap, the ship has fallen into utter chaos, with most of the crew either dead or turned into mutants. The player is a military soldier who, due to a computer error, has slept for an extended period of time and wakes up from hypersleep with amnesia. During its maiden voyage to the Tau Ceti star system, it’s escorted by military vessel, the Rickenbacker, just in case something goes wrong. 40 years later, however, the Trioptimum name is resurrected, and the company develops the first spaceship capable of lightspeed travel, the Von Braun. It’s really just the definitive version of a classic game, and it deftly demonstrates why Nightdive is the master of preservation.After the destruction of Citadel Station at the end of System Shock, Trioptimum was dismantled, and a world order established to prevent a similar crisis. You do have to go in with the understanding that its old bones are still there, but if you bounced off the convoluted interface of the original, you’ll have a better chance of acclimating here. Their reverence for the source material pays off, as while the System Shock remake is better tailored to modern tastes, it still has everything that made it special in its 1994 release. Nightdive has proven once again that they fully understand what made the classics so indispensable. System Shock is the perfect nexus between design and narrative choices. It creates a flow and atmosphere that are difficult to achieve. Or rather, she’s constantly a physical threat as you are in her very being. SHODAN is simply an omnipresent antagonist rather than a physical threat. System Shock is an experience that doesn’t lean on artificial set-piece moments to try and control its pacing.

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