Thirith on 12/2/2020 at 13:46
I'm not a hardcore System Shock fan, so YMMV, but other than Spector's involvement I didn't see anything that gave me cause for cautious optimism at the very best, and I've seen a fair number of design legends screw up in later years. Add to that the Underworld Ascendant situation and I had little hope for the project. I would still have liked to see something worthwhile coming out of this, but I was far from convinced that there was a good chance of this happening.
heywood on 14/2/2020 at 01:26
What I meant was even the most excited fans were still cautious with their hopes.
I'm a long time fan. SS2 is my #2 all time favorite game, and SS1 is top 10. I would love another Shock game, as Bioshock didn't really do it for me. So I was excited when SS3 was announced, but I figured the odds were in favor of disappointment.
Anyway, there's a bit of post-mortem rumor here:
(
https://www.techspot.com/news/83978-former-otherside-developer-system-shock-3-team-no.html) https://www.techspot.com/news/83978-former-otherside-developer-system-shock-3-team-no.html
There's nothing too surprising. Ambitions and fan expectations exceeded their budget constraints, especially after Starbreeze had to bail out. Finishing the project would have required finding a new publisher, and they weren't able to find one. My big takeaway is that if Warren Spector can't successfully shop SS3 in a good economy then there's little hope of ever seeing a sequel.
twisty on 14/2/2020 at 04:30
Quote Posted by Thirith
I'm happy to play a well-made, well-written
System Shock-like game, but for me it doesn't have to be a sequel, prequel or otherwise. There isn't anything specifically
System Shock I'd want out of a third game in the series that I didn't already get from
Prey.
Arkane delivered a master class in game design with Prey. Sure enough, they leaned upon the shoulders of giants for their inspiration (as all of their games have to varying extents), but there was such a masterful execution in many areas that it would be difficult to not to reference this as a benchmark against any other shock-like.
As I've stated before, I wish Otherside would have devoted themselves to a new IP rather than trying to resurrect an old franchise that they have long since moved on from.
heywood on 14/2/2020 at 15:14
I still haven't finished playing Prey. I only just started it over the holidays when I had some time off, and I'm having a hard time forcing myself to pick it up again. The look, feel, and vibe is much more Bioshock than System Shock, and it's not really scratching my Shock itch at all.
D'Arcy on 14/2/2020 at 15:52
That's strange. Did you play long enough, or only just started? Because it definitely gave me a System Shock vibe.
froghawk on 14/2/2020 at 20:46
The visual aesthetic is more Bioshock, for sure, but the actual gameplay mechanics are SS through and through.
heywood on 17/2/2020 at 17:49
I'm around 15 or 20 hours in.
The visuals are definitely not helping me get into the game. The mix of architecture styles seems weird for a space station and not very cyberpunk. The visual style of the UI isn't very cyberpunky either. And the game relies a lot on jump scares to build tension. I will commend them for making resources scarce, but I'm already tired of hoarding and crafting.
Sulphur on 18/2/2020 at 05:43
Not sure if Prey is meant to be a hard cyberpunk game to begin with. If you're looking at it from the aesthetics it's more decopunk than anything, and while I will agree it's kind of odd (brutalist construction and huge glass windows in a space station? what?) it's clearly in the traditional evocation of an im-sim environment meant to put you at a kind of unease.
Like what everyone else is saying though, mechanically it's the closest thing to SS2 there is, along with a few Arkane interpretations of them. It's pretty solid from that design perspective.
Thirith on 18/2/2020 at 11:41
Yeah, I'd also say that there's at least as much of a difference between System Shock and System Shock 2 as there is between the latter and Prey, mechanically and aesthetically. SS2 was quite the change from the first game.
chk772 on 2/3/2020 at 18:50
Interesting that System Shock is supposed to be Cyberpunk... I never saw it that way. It's a sci-fi title for me, like Prey. And, Prey is pretty damn good at mimicing System Shock, while bringing a lot of new to the table. One of the best modern title I've played in the last 10 years. IMO, Arkane really nailed that style of gameplay.
Shame that nowadays' target audience consists of brain dead, bored zombies, otherwise we would surely see a Prey 2, or a Dishonored 3.