I would love this to add something new to the mix so I’m hoping for a last minute rush of backers. I can go back and play the original System Shock any time I like. The stretch goals include all sorts of extra content which is something I’d really like to see. I’ve little doubt the demo is mainly going to appeal to those of us who were around for System Shock the first time around but that was always going to be the people putting in the lions’ share of the funding. This is perhaps a little unfortunate as anyone who hasn’t played the original might wonder what all the fuss is about. The demo doesn’t go very far of course and is over in about 10 minutes. If the rest of the game carried on in this vein, it would be well worth the asking price. It’s quite the trick to pull this off but I’d say the demo excels – it’s quite a bit better than I remember it in truth. The pitch talks about producing System Shock as you remembered it, rather than as it actually was. All of the rooms and environments are all the same yet at the same time massively enhanced. It’s an entirely playable first portion of the original game remastered into Unity. What I really didn’t expect from this was how it’s instantly recognisable as System Shock. The demo comes with all the usual pre-alpha warnings but is surprisingly polished. They are already far enough along to have produced a demo which I thought I should have a go on before forking over my cash. The remake is being done by Nightdive studios who have been responsible for several old PC games getting GOG releases, including the enhanced version of the original System Shock which most of us thought would never get a rerelease before it happened. This is one project I was always going to get behind as soon as I heard about it.

I’m as jaded as any by certain previous Kickstarter experiences but there have certainly been some notable successes. It’s not all that far into the stretch goals which is a clear sign of the reduced enthusiasm for Kickstarter these days if you ask me. I’m late enough to get around to looking at this that it’s already funded but with only 3 days left some more money certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause. The big Origin news in recent weeks has been the launch of the System Shock Remake Kickstarter.

System shock remastered open source