System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition shows off a major visual upgrade in new screens: 'All cinematics, textures, characters and weapon models have been updated'
The System Shock(opens in new tab) 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(opens in new tab). 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(opens in new tab): 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 thesystemshock.org(opens in new tab) 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
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