System Shock Reboot: 9 Minutes Of Looking At Hackers

Night Dive's remake/reimaging/reboot/rejiggering of the frighteningly important proto-immersive sim System Shock is due for Kickstarter later today, and word is it may include a playable demo. Ahead of that, here's nine minutes of footage from the start of the game that are so impressive that I might have to end my moratorium on the use of the word 'stonking.'

This comes via Polyon, who also a ran a making of feature a while back. The footage does a great job of blending the original Shock's cool blue and industrial aesthetic with modern tech, I'd say. Obviously we'll have to wait and see if it really looks as smart as this in practice, hopefully with that aforementioned demo, but this is looking mighty fine. And creepy, too. Creepy is VERY IMPORTANT.

System Shock Reboot - as it is now known - strides optimistically over the line marked 'remaster' and into the more uncertain pastures of 'reimagining'. No blow-by-blow tart-up in a full 3D engine, it's now effectively its own game, but in a setting and with base mechanics from Origin's adored 90s action / roleplaying game.

This is not to be confused to be confused with System Shock: Enhanced Edition, a more traditional spit'n'polish that's already out on GOG (which Night Dive were also responsible for). Here's what that looks like:

And it's also not to be confused with System Shock 3, which comes from Otherside Entertainment, an outfit which boasts Looking Glass co-founder Paul Neurath and no less than Warren bally Spector.

Honestly, you spend 20 years waiting for a new System Shock game and then two and a half come along at once, etc.

We'll be sure to update you about the Kickstarter once it goes live, by the way.