hmmm
really not too sure about this one
System Shock is a funny thing really. No one bought it in 1994 (in part because the DOS version shipped on floppies three months prior to a far better CD release, and the Mac version could only run on PowerPC which had only been available since earlier that same year – though it’s not like 040 Macs were any more popular and running on an 030 would’ve been too much to ask, just that there went their attempt at a definitive release), but like, every AAA first person shooter that isn’t call of duty is system shock now. And all of its designated successors that aren’t Deus Ex are somewhere from kind of to very bad, even as much as people always want to go back to UU and Thief and Arkane’s stuff is somewhere adjacent to all that.
I don’t know who, if anyone, I’d want to attempt a direct successor.
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I don’t either but it certainly isn’t the guys who put out that horrendous Underworld Ascendant.
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The sequel is, not the remake.
Warren’s team is not as far along as they look.
And they’re funded by Starbreeze…
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at least people no longer claim SS2 is some kind of overlooked masterpiece the way they did a decade ago
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It was a flawed gem, at best. Like Dark Messiah was with incidental environmental interaction combined with the almighty foot.
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System Shock 2 was not very well balanced mechanically… nothing says “immersive sim” like hitting a brick wall in the last act because you didn’t spec for shooty guns.
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And whoo boy if you didn’t know what to do with the Psi menu with its myriad of options you’re not shooting yourself in the foot, you’re mind-blasting yourself to a full restart.
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I don’t want shodan to be in this game at all
trailer just feels like they are trotting her out like “hey! remember me! you love me, right! please love me”
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I’m thinking the issues with UA came from a paltry KS budget and not the quality of the team. Starbreeze is gone but Spector said there are a lot of parties interested in backing SS3.
Felix is on-point about the immersive sim problem. It doesn’t help that SS now has to compete with spiritual successors like Prey, and personally the derivative nature of imm sims has worn me out. More interesting stuff is happening with loose torch carriers like Tiger Style and Blendo.
That said, Otherside has hinted that SS3 is going to feature some newfangled dynamic AI. And if anyone can make a great game it’s Warren Spector.
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Fun story: I was once showing a game at an event where Warren Spector did an on-stage interview about the Epic Mickey 2 and I remember thinking at the time that he was spouting some real hot bullshit.
The hydroponics music slaps tho
People thought SS2 was good because Bioshock was dire
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I remember playing Bioshock for the first time and when the big twist happened I thought to myself “this is just the Polito twist again”.
PREY is the best sci-fi themed immersion sim since the first System Shock, just throwing that out there.
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I think Brad Shoemaker asked Ken Levine point blank if the radio guy was the villain lol
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Yes a million times yes, like finally a hegelian interation on the tired bullshit
On SB1 there was a thread like “two approaches to FPS design”:
- great job jumping through those hoops
- heh heh I made you want to jump through those hoops
Edit: I should find the thread to credit the poster one sec
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