Side Quests: System Shock (2023) Review

mmorpg.com:

I came late to the original System Shock after playing System Shock 2, a game that completely upended my understanding of what video games could be. With a blend of genres and some next-level cybernetic implant options, System Shock 2 felt like the sci-fi game I never knew I wanted. So going back in time to play the original System Shock, which I’d heard so many good things about by then, felt like a letdown. The second game improved upon everything in many ways, making it awkward at best to try to go back and play the original. But with System Shock completely remade by Nightdive Studios, the incredible world of Citadel Station is back and better than ever.

The remake is a faithful recreation of the original game, with updated graphics and gameplay mechanics that cater to the modern-day gamer. It’s not perfect, and in many ways feels stuck in time. But fans of sci-fi, cyberpunk, and space horror have plenty of reasons to be excited about this remake.

The game opens with a drone flying around a futuristic cyberpunk city before it finally slows and zooms in on you. You play as a hacker and immediately get caught in the act of… hacking. And while the security forces burst through your door and look ready to rough you up and lock you away forever, you’re given an opportunity to get your life back — at the expense of hacking Citadel Station’s Sentient Hyper-Optimised Data Access Network (SHODAN). In a plot that feels pulled from The Expanse and our world’s current foray into artificial intelligence, Citadel Station chief Edward Diego had you hack SHODAN to remove the ethical subroutines so he could manufacture and sell a mutagen virus on the black market. 

You wake up an unknown amount of time later aboard the Citadel