OtherSide Entertainment has revealed our first look at the forthcoming System Shock 3, the long-awaited revival to the immersive simulation franchise.
The reveal came at the Unity keynote at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in Unity. The video below is “pre-alpha in-engine” footage, showing the series staples of a doomed space station, and the murderous rogue AI SHODAN.
It’s been a good few years for System Shock fans. Prey channelled some of the magic into a new setting, replete with terrifying beasties, mental manipulation and a ruined space station for you to explore. Meanwhile the System Shock reboot, produced by NightDive Studios, is due to land in 2020, a remake that’s grown in scope and hype equally over the past few years.
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So, why System Shock 3 instead of a host of other games? System Shock 3 has original producer Warren Spector returning to the series, becoming something of the public face of the game, and a strong statement of the team’s intent to make something that stands up to the game’s legacy.
The team took a hit when publisher Starbreeze imploded publicly at the end of 2018, and the game found itself without a publisher. At the time, Otherside Entertainment put out a statement claiming that System Shock 3 is “more than halfway completed”.
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Warren Spector added in that blog post: “We parted ways with Starbreeze (amicably), which means we are in the process of lining up a new publishing partner. Happily, given the pedigree of System Shock and the progress we’ve made so far there’s already a lot of interest. Has the situation affected development? Not really. The team is still, as we say, ‘psyched and cranking’ – in other words, continuing as normal. I’m confident we can bring System Shock 3 to market and have it take its place as a leading title in the immersive simulation genre.”
What do you make of the footage? Excited to get spooked by SHODAN in the near future? Let us know on Twitter at @TrustedReviews