System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition first-look; analysis of gameplay and proposed features

Source: Nightdive Studios

After many years of radio silence, System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition was finally revealed to the world. System Shock 2 EA was revealed with the official remake of the first System Shock game back in 2015 when Nightdive Studios secured the rights to the series. Since then, they started a Kickstarter to help the funding of the first game. It was inevitable that the second game would also get the remake treatment but it took them eight years and just weeks away from the release of the first game's remake to show it to us.

To the unaware eye, the game honestly doesn't really look like the remake we expected. Given the first game was recreated using a new engine, we expected the second game to follow suite. However, that doesn't seem to be the case as this game was an official "port" onto a new engine (the KEX engine).

According to what we see in the official "First Look" trailer, we can clearly see that they retained the original art style. Here is a list of improvments they mention in the official YouTube video:

"System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition was created with the goal of reverse engineering the original code to port SS2 to the KEX Engine and made available on next-generation consoles for the first time. Nightdive Studios has also partnered with the systemshock.org community to integrate all the best mods and updates. All cinematics, textures, characters and weapon models have been updated, and the Co-Op Multiplayer has been overhauled to create a seamless experience."

-Nightdive Studios

Again, this is not an entire rework of the game as the first one will be, it's just a technical and graphical update that gives the game modern bells and whistles of AAA games released nowadays. Mechanically, we'd expect the game to play just the same as the original game. This may come as a disappointment to some however, if you preorder the first System Shock remake, you get the enhanced edition of System Shock 2 for free. At a base price of $40 that's not a bad deal at all. We'll have to wait and see if they list the second game again under the enhanced edition or just keep it bundled with the first game's remake.

I will post a review of both the System Shock 1 remake and System Shock 2 Enhanced Edition once they launch.