System Shock Remake demo impressions
4I had to do a second take on this as it was a bit too resource intensive to have my video settings all the way up. It is, after all, a pre-alpha build and not optimized. But here we are, I wanted to stream the current demo of the System Shock Remake to give my impressions of it. And right now, my impressions are fairly positive. There are some surprises in this as well, such as the puzzles being not a separate UI, but needing to be completed right there in-engine, in game. And I'm honestly not sure about that one. They're a little hard to see and don't entirely make sense. But that is neat that they're there, preserved but done in a different way.
Really, the game is looking great so far. I have complaints with the audio balance - even adjusting the volume, the sound effects are inconsistent, sometimes too loud, and the voices are just too quiet to hear. As was the music. I never really noticed it in the game at all. I think the standard enemies may need some idle noise as well as they scared me a few times coming out of seeming nowhere. But that's not entirely a problem, in fact having them be able to scare you may be preferable. I do like the pixelization on the textures, a call back to the fact that this is a remake. And I really, really liked the UI effect when you take damage. That was a fantastic way to give the player feedback that they need. Extremely well done, though a better audio cue would help as well. I do like that the security personnel have sparqs on them, as it lets you see where their attacks are coming from. I also like the glowing eyes t make them easier to spot in the distance, though the AI did seem to have issues noticing you if you weren't in their line of sight.
It's not without issues. Lighting a bit off in areas, a lot of darkness. Some of the enemies, even the guys on the benches, need some bone structure added to them as they have very odd ragdolling, with limbs going off in odd, unnatural direction, and hitting the enemies in the head with a pipe causes their necks to bend too far. There's this effect where reflections in glass are frosted, but the glass itself is clear. It's a cool looking effect, but it doesn't really look right. (I also had some objects disappearing in reflections.) I think the robots are a bit too shiny given how dark the game itself is. The sound effect for hitting a recharge station sounds more like something breaking, or an apple being bitten, than the electrical arc they were going for. And as mentioned above, despite your character making footsteps (and good footstep noises so far), enemies can't seem to hear you at all. Mostly minor complaints, but now is the time to bring them up.
I don't expect to see the full game this year. It is absolutely making progress, but video games are difficult and delays happen frequently. But I'm fine in waiting. I want this game to be done as best as they can. It's a remake, if people are impatient the original still exists and can tide them over. But what I'm seeing here has me pleased to be a backer. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag