System Shock 2: twenty fifth Anniversary Remaster Preview – How Nightdive Studios approaches remastering an influential basic PC recreation

Rising up within the 90s, I used to be raised on PC gaming on the finish of the MS-DOS period and into the earliest shopper Home windows working methods. Video games like DOOM, Quake, and Rise of the Triad had been the video games of my childhood. Corporations like Nightdive Studios additionally clearly have an affinity for the period, in recent times placing out a stunning variety of fashionable ports & remasters (together with for every of the aforementioned video games), alongside a ground-up remake of 1994’s System Shock. The tagline on the corporate’s web site reads: “Bringing misplaced and forgotten gaming treasures again from the depths.”

We at RPG Web site deal with video games with role-playing components, after all, so System Shock and particularly its sequel are ones we have been maintaining a tally of since Nightdive acquired the license practically a decade in the past, basically defining the founding of Nightdive Studios itself. At GDC 2025, I used to be in a position to go hands-on with an early model of System Shock 2: twenty fifth Anniversary Remaster whereas talking with Larry Kuperman – VP of Enterprise Improvement at Nightdive – in addition to producer Grover Wimberly at Nightdive, in regards to the long-awaited remaster.

So if Nightdive acquired the System Shock license greater than a decade in the past, why has it taken so lengthy for the remaster of System Shock 2 to be launched? Actually, the remaster’s title has even been modified to rejoice the sport’s twenty fifth anniversary in 2024.

“We began off with our deal with the remake of System Shock 1,” Kuperman says. “That undertaking was in growth longer than we had anticipated, however we had been very, very pleased with the result. It was an award-winning title. That mentioned, Nightdive has been able the place we’re courted by firms asking us to do different work. A few of the tasks required our shifting sources round from one factor to the opposite. We have completed DOOM 1 and DOOM 2, Quake 1 and Quake 2. I imply, these tasks weren’t one thing we needed to actually suppose lengthy and exhausting about “Can we need to do these?”, after all we did! So we have had a really full plate, however this recreation has been in manufacturing for a while.”

In contrast to the unique System Shock, which was remade utterly from the bottom up, its groundbreaking sequel is getting the remaster therapy.

With regards to remastering a beloved basic, Kuperman explains Nightdive’s method. “We need to ensure that gamers get the unique emotional feeling of the sport. It does have a really sturdy emotional affect, notably on the horror facet of it, so we wished to ensure that we protect it. It is a mantra of ours that certainly one of our video games ought to play the way in which you keep in mind it performed, not essentially the way in which it really performed again then, as you had been taking a look at it in your 14-inch CRT monitor.”

I, personally, have by no means performed the unique model of System Shock 2, though I’m conscious of its affect on future video games like Bioshock, in addition to its broader affect on the immersive sim and horror genres. Regardless of being new to the sport, enjoying the in-build remaster this week felt acquainted to me; a recreation that felt prefer it was from the 90s in one of the simplest ways potential.

“We maintain very a lot to the unique DNA of the sport. So, someone who has performed the unique System Shock 2  .. this may all be acquainted. ” Kuperman explains.

So what’s being added to System Shock 2’s remaster? When it comes to gameplay content material, really not an excessive amount of. Nonetheless, taking a basic PC unique and translating it to quite a lot of consoles is an enormous endeavor, particularly in relation to controls. Producer Wimberly explains:

“One factor that is essential to say too is the unique System Shock 2 was PC-only recreation, proper? You might solely play it with mouse and keyboard. We have optimized for controller help for the very first time with the remaster. We’re not solely aiming for PC, however we’re additionally releasing for all present consoles. So something that you are able to do with a mouse and keyboard must be playable with a controller in thoughts as properly. We have been exhibiting individuals the sport who play on Steam Deck .. they need to see how the controls labored there, and the way gamepad controls work.”

Nightdive understands that remastering basic video games needs to be extra than simply porting previous ROMs to Steam. True to their ‘bringing misplaced and forgotten gaming treasures again’ motto, one part new to the twenty fifth Anniversary Version is a Vault, which is able to maintain quite a lot of media concerning the unique creation of the sport.

“The System Shock 2 remaster goes to have a Vault. If you happen to’re not accustomed to that, it is one thing that was one thing that we began with Quake. It will have photographs, it will have the historic legacy of the sport, which we really feel is essential in our preservation components,” Kuperman states.

Nightdive additionally does not need to infringe on the unique design too severely, risking alterations made that might change values & properties of the sport that made it beloved within the first place.

“I believe it is truthful to say that video games in these days .. the idea about gamers’ skills was that you’d be capable to determine issues out with out essentially being advised. You in all probability did not want these 4 espresso cups that you simply picked up as a result of simply you possibly can, and also you shortly discovered that you will have restricted sources and you must handle them fastidiously,” he explains.

Kuperman continues, “The opposite half, that was a lesson that we discovered from these video games, is that the sport did not actually have waypoints. There wasn’t plenty of hand-holding, proper?  You were not getting ideas that say, ‘Hey, choose up the wrench as a result of you are going to want it.’ We discovered that gamers will rise to that and it is a secure assumption to make that individuals will determine issues out. We would like our tasks to recapture what was essential in regards to the recreation in these days. When it comes to issues that we do look to vary – we wish fashionable gamers coming to the sport for the primary time to have the ability to play our video games intuitively and to know how they work.”

As I continued to play by means of the System Shock 2 Remaster demo at GDC, determining tips on how to work the menus and stumbling round a derelict ship, I hear Larry chuckle to himself.

“I am all the time endlessly fascinated watching individuals discover ways to play System Shock 2 for the primary time.” 

System Shock 2: twenty fifth Anniversary Remaster is about to launch on June 26 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Swap, and PC (Steam, Epic, GOG).