Alpha Demo For System Shock Remake Is Now Out On PC

Developer Nightdive Studios has just announced that an alpha demo for the System Shock remake is now available for PC via Steam and GOG. To celebrate the demo becoming available to a much wider audience, a livestream showing the demo plus a 30-minute Q&A will be on the Shacknews Twitch Channel.

System Shock is a first-person action adventure title that was first released in 1994 and was seen as revolutionary during its time. The game is set in the year 2072 in a cyberpunk-esque future. Players take control of a nameless hacker who is caught infiltrating files of the Citadel Station – a space station owned by the TriOptimum Corporation. To gain freedom, the hacker must do the bidding of the corporation which ultimately leads him to the middle of a conspiracy that may possibly mean the end of the world.

Originally developed by studio Looking Glass, System Shock did not garner the commercial success of its genre compatriots such as Doom, and was ultimately considered a flop. However, critics saw through its lackluster commercial outing and praised its revolutionary approach to the first-person shooter genre, such as its scale, physics system, and the implementation of true 3D environments. Others also lauded the game’s complex learning curve, which set a new standard for puzzle solving for the games of future generations.

System Shock is being developed by Nightdive Studios who is most known for their abandonware projects which include an Enhanced Edition for both System Shock and System Shock 2. Other titles in the developer’s repertoire are three games for the Wizardry series, cult-classic Harvester, and the Putt Putt series from the 90’s. It has also been reported that they are currently developing a new installment for the series titled System Shock 3 with the Chinese tech giant Tencent. This news comes from the announcement that the company will be assisting the dev team due to the planned game’s enormous scale.

System Shock is set to launch in 2020 for PC via Steam and GOG. No news has been released yet as to whether this will include other platforms or next gen consoles.