The System Shock remake is almost here, which makes this a fine time to recall that developer Nightdive Studios is also working on an update of System Shock 2. The System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition, as it's formally known, won't be a full do-over like the upcoming remake of System Shock, but it does promise to make Irrational's great immersive sim look and play as well as it possibly can.
System Shock 2 was originally released in 1999, and even back then it wasn't a great-looking game. It was a brilliantly good one, though—it's no exaggeration to say that System Shock 2 is the game that made me a forever fan of the immsim genre—and while it unfortunately wasn't a sales hit, it earned widespread critical acclaim and proved tremendously durable and influential: There is literally no BioShock without System Shock.
Over the years, fans have created various mods and visual upgrade packages to give System Shock 2 a much-needed facelift, but it's a real hassle getting them all collected and installed. That's one thing the Enhanced Edition aims to simplify: pulling all those disparate resources together in a single package.
"System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition was created with the goal of reverse engineering the original code to port SS2 to the KEX Engine and made available on next generation consoles for the first time," Nightdive CEO Stephen Kick told PC Gamer. "Nightdive has also partnered with the systemshock.org community to integrate all the best mods and updates. All cinematics, textures, characters and weapon models have been updated."
"Our artists maintained the silhouettes of the characters while adding additional polygons to smooth out some of the sharp edges and the textures were all repainted using the originals as a base. We're by no means removing the original game either, so if you want to go vanilla and install the mods you want that will always be an option."
You can see the difference in the before-and-after screens above. It's stark, and almost surprising. In my mind's eye, System Shock 2 has always been sharp and realistically detailed, but when I look at these images I'm forced to acknowledge that perhaps the passage of time is more of a distortion field than I realized.
The visuals are the most obvious upgrade but Kick said the biggest difference in the System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition will actually be seen in the game's overhauled multiplayer. Co-op play was added to the original System Shock 2 in a post-launch patch, and to be blunt it was janky as hell: It was fun to pant and sweat with a couple of friends while running through the corridors of the Von Braun, but it was also a chore to get running and prone to crashing, and not really worth the hassle once the initial novelty wore off. Multiplayer in the Enhanced Edition "has been overhauled to create a seamless experience," Kick said, and will both simplify the process of connecting with other players and provide a smoother and more stable experience.
System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition doesn't yet have a release date, but the System Shock remake is less than two weeks away—it's set to come out on May 30. Pre-purchasing the game on Steam or GOG will get you the System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition for free when it comes out.
