System Shock is getting remade

PC classic title System Shock is getting a fully fledged remake which will upgrade the graphics and hopefully keep the creepy feel

System Shock is a game which was released in 1994 by Looking Glass Studios and while it may look more than a little terrible by todays standards, the first person sci-fi RPG paved the way for plenty of innovations which came along in that genre and in gaming in general. Yes it is that important.

More than two decades on, the game recently got a major facelift from Night Dive Studios, which specialises in revamping older games to make them run on new hardware. But now it seems like that was just the first step for this developer and for the System Shock franchise in general.

Night Dive's CEO Stephen Kick had this to say to Fast Company:

"With most of its current catalog, Night Dive merely licenses the rights for a rerelease, and splits the sales revenue with the rights holder. Night Dive is becoming more interested in acquiring rights in their entirety, as this gives the company much more flexibility.

One example: Night Dive is developing a full remake of the original System Shock, going well beyond the basic rerelease that launched a couple months ago. Night Dive has acquired the full rights to the franchise, and Kick says he’s been working with Robert Waters, the game’s original concept artist, to reimagine his designs from the early 1990s"

That sounds pretty incredible, and also so unlikely after this many years. What form would this take? Would it just be too hard not to try to update the game for modern audiences, potentially ruining its vibe completely? The interview goes on to mention the possibility of a System Shock 3 - maybe that's where the company should start rather than mining the same old game which many new gamers might not care about.