System Shock | |
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Developer(s) | Nightdive Studios |
Publisher(s) | Prime Matter |
Director(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Programmer(s) | Matthew Kenneally |
Artist(s) |
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Composer(s) | Jonathan Peros |
Series | System Shock |
Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
System Shock is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Nightdive Studios and published by Prime Matter. It is a remake of the 1994 game System Shock by Looking Glass Studios. The game is set aboard a space station in a cyberpunk vision of the year 2072. Assuming the role of a nameless security hacker, the player attempts to hinder the plans of a malevolent artificial intelligence called SHODAN.
A remake of System Shock began development in 2015, initially developed in the Unity engine. After a successful Kickstarter campaign raised more than $1 million in funding, the game underwent a long development cycle of nearly eight years, being delayed several times (with release windows of 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023) as a result of changing to Unreal Engine and restarting development on the game from scratch twice after an ambitious attempt at a reboot for the series was scrapped after excessive feature creep. The final released game instead focused on being a faithful remake and delivering what the team initially promised in the Kickstarter.
System Shock was released for Windows on 30 May 2023. The game was ported to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 21 May 2024. It was also planned to release for Linux and macOS, however in May 2024 those ports were cancelled. It received generally positive reviews from critics, though some were divided on its faithful retention of gameplay elements from the original.