Recent reviews by DancingOmelette

I backed this on Kickstater back in July 2016, when it had an estimated release date of Dec 2017, which I took with a bucket of salt because I haven't yet seen a Kickstarter game that hasn't gone long long past its target date. In the end, I've gotten exactly what I wanted - a faithful update of the original which still feels like playing an old game, but in a good way, not in the way where it's simply too dated to be enjoyable like the original has been for a long time. I first played (and loved) System Shock 2 somewhere around 2005, with the Rebirth mod because it was already pretty technically far behind at the time. That made me want to play System Shock 1, but with its restrictive UI and very low res it was just too hard to enjoy, so I'm very happy to now be able to experience this piece of history with no gameplay compromises and without feeling like it's been remade as a totally modern game - if I wanted a totally modern take on the same thing I'd play Prey again. So if you're like me and love classic Looking Glass immersive sims, but feel like you missed out on playing System Shock back in the day, this is for you and you'll love it. If you want a totally new cutting edge game, maybe not.

Having completed the medical level (first level) and just started on the research level, my one complaint so far is that melee weapons totally lack impact and feel very hard to judge in terms of reach and whether you've actually hit anything. Enemies barely react to being hit at all, and many swings that feel like they should connect don't, so you end up just swinging away until they finally fall over. Equally it's hard to notice impacts on yourself when they hit you in close combat so it can be hard to judge how close you are to death in the panic of a close-up fight. Since I found guns I've been sticking to them the vast majority of the time and combat is much more enjoyable that way.

It's not long, it took me about 4 hours for a single playthrough, but there's decent replay value in trying to get a good score on all the levels. The appearance of the levels is a bit drab and unimaginative, but the gameplay is a lot of fun and pretty addictive.