Developers at Nightdive Studios will be the first to tell you no two projects are alike. Nowhere is this more true than the soon-to-be-released remaster of System Shock 2. Announced six years ago as System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition, Nightdive reannounced the project under a new name — System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster.
This name change offered eagle-eyed fans a clue as to the remaster’s release window, which is only accurate preceding August 11 when System Shock 2 celebrates its 26th birthday. Sure enough, during today’s MIX Spring Showcase, Nightdive shared the exciting news that System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster will release on June 26 for PS4 and PS5.
As exciting as it’s been for System Shock fans to hear they’ll soon be able to play Nightdive’s long-awaited System Shock 2 remaster, one key question remains: why did it take six years?
Good things take time
Nightdive has been chipping away at its remaster of System Shock 2 in the years following its announcement, working on it in conjunction with other projects. While many of these harbored their fair share of challenges, System Shock 2 was unique in regards to the number and type of complexities the team encountered.
One of the biggest according to Nightdive developer Alex Lima was a lack of access to the game’s complete source code. To piece everything together, “extensive reverse engineering” was required.
“The codebase is a complex amalgamation of various legacy libraries developed by Looking Glass, along with some more recent contributions from both Irrational Games and Looking Glass,” Lima explains. “There’s virtually no consistent coding standard. As a result, we had to depend extensively on debugging and breakpoints to understand its functionality.”
Working with System Shock 2’s original engine was also tricky, especially when it came to porting the game to consoles.
“The game engine that System Shock 2 uses is large and complicated,” notes Nightdive developer, Lexi Mayfield. “It was originally designed for PCs from the late 1990s with a mouse and keyboard, and was only used for three games. As a result, porting the game to PlayStation was a long and arduous process, from both a coding and interface perspective.”
In general, remastering a beloved classic like System Shock 2 naturally takes time and attention to detail to get right, as highlighted by Larry Kuperman, VP of Business Development at Nightdive.
“While the game remains a classic, the code and graphics needed a considerable overhaul. The Dark Engine, developed by Looking Glass Studios for System Shock 2 and the Thief games, provided features way ahead of its time, which is one reason these games remain classics, but which also made the game challenging to work with. To fulfill our vision, it required meticulous re-coding in order to preserve all the aspects of the game that are important to players. Our team worked very hard over a long period of time to accomplish that goal.”
Old game, new tricks
Not only did the rigorous six-year remastering process allow for more effective improvements, it allowed the team to better leverage modern features on consoles.
“The porting process allowed us to make improvements along the way and take advantage of some of the modern features PlayStation offers, allowing us to run the game with a level of fidelity and playability that was previously out of reach,” says Mayfield.
Fans will have no trouble spotting these improvements on PlayStation. The game’s graphics have received a significant boost with the addition of advanced shader support, enabling previously unavailable graphical effects and improved lip-sync animation. GPU-accelerated 3D transformations and high refresh rate support also lend to smoother performance, particularly on modern displays.
System Shock 2 was originally a PC release, but don’t worry, the 25th Anniversary Remaster features full controller support for DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers.
“If you’ve played FPS games with a controller, you’ll feel right at home playing System Shock 2,” confirms Mayfield. “Abilities like leaning, quick-swapping between weapons and psi powers, and toggling weapon settings were all streamlined for the DualSense. We also added a customizable quickbar, allowing players to quickly swap between individual weapons and psi powers.”
Inventory items now offer a context menu to allow players to quickly examine, equip, apply and split items. “From there, it was a matter of going through every security computer, every replicator, every access keypad and weapon modification screen ensuring the player could interact with the world in every way they could in 1999 — except now from the comfort of their DualSense.”
If there’s still doubt over whether System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster lives up to the amount of time it’s taken to complete, Nightdive founder and CEO, Stephen Kick, assures:
“I’ve been closely watching the development and have been particularly close with the art team to ensure the original art direction and designs are brought to their horrifying conclusion. I cannot wait to share what we’ve been working on and hope fans and newcomers enjoy their time aboard the Von Braun.”
Get ready, insects… System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster arrives June 26 for PS4 and PS5!
