Nightdive Studios decided to do their Kickstarter for System Shock a little differently than most studios out there. They decided to release a playable demo of their project to give gamers an actual, playable taste of what they have in store for their Kickstarter project. It’s not just about listening to the developer’s vision, or seeing it through the lens of a pre-rendered trailer, it’s actually playing it for yourself and deciding if the full thing is worth your hard earned money and financial support.
Over on Kickstarter Nightdive is attempting to raise $900,000 to bring System Shock back to the marketplace. Within the span of just a single day, they’ve managed to attract the attention of more than 8,200 backers for a total contribution of more than $512,000 as of the writing of this article.
You can check out the pitch video below to see what Nightdive is promising and what they want to do to rekindle the classic from Looking Glass Studios.
They mention on the Kickstarter page that the free demo is a proof of concept and that things are subject to change, stating…
“We want to demonstrate our commitment and passion for System Shock by providing a fun and exciting experience to potential backers. This demo represents the look and feel that we want to achieve with the final version we’ll deliver to you, our backers. Please be aware, this is a proof of concept; the PERFORMANCE, FEATURES, and VISUALS are subject to change. We hope you enjoy your time aboard Citadel Station! SHODAN eagerly awaits your arrival…”
This is a pre-alpha demo. And while this demo is playable, it’s still not representative of the final product that Nightdive plans to deliver.
The demo will see players briefly scouring through a small segment of the Citadel Station, where they will encounter some of the frightening horrors and mechanical abominations that have overrun the floating facility.
Otherside Entertainment’s Warren Spector – one of the original creators of the very first System Shock – commented about the upcoming remastered edition, publicly stating…
“[…] we wanted to make a simulation-based game that would empower players to tell their own stories through their playstyle choices – an idea that’s still totally relevant today. I’ve long said that if you updated the graphics, sound and UI on System Shock you’d have something that competes directly with any game on the market today. Now the Nightdive folks are doing that update and I’m confident my prediction will be validated.”
The remaster of the cyberpunk, sci-fi, first-person survival-horror game isn’t scheduled to fully release until at least December, 2017. That’s a long ways away but also a realistic release date for game like this.
Running on the Unity 5 game engine, it will be interesting to see how they shape and mold System Shock into something palatable for today’s gaming industry. You can check out the remastered theme song for the game with the Soundcloud post below.
Nightdive’s Jonathan Peros wants to bring the musical sounds of System Shock to life with the help of Prague’s FILMharmonic Orchestra, the same group known for having performed the compositions for scores such as Halo, Thief and Civilization V.
If you need to taste this remastered version of the game for yourself, you can grab the free pre-alpha demo right now from over on the Steam store page or from the GOG store page. Alternatively you can learn more or contribute to the financial cause by visiting the Kickstarter page.
