System Shock is a 1994 first-person action game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. The game is set aboard a space station in a cyberpunk version of 2072. Players assume the role of a nameless hacker who attempts to take down an evil artificial intelligence named Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network (SHODAN).
The title is regarded by many critics and gamers as a cult classic which redefined first-person experiences. Not only did it provide thrilling melee combat, but the claustrophobic setting impacted the horror genre as well. Popular franchises like BioShock draw inspirations from its level design and mechanics even to this day. When a System Shock remake was announced, it quickly broke records on Kickstarter and became a highly anticipated title.
Unfortunately, after raising over $1.3 million on Kickstarter from over 20,000 backers, the developer behind the long-awaited remake announced that the project is now on hiatus. Stephen Kick, head of Nightdive Studios, said that the developer needed to take a step away and get the project back on track because the team attempted to do too much. It's unclear what changes the developer made which altered gameplay to such a degree.
In March of 2016, Nightdive Studios released our video of our vision of System Shock Remastered. Done in Unity it was an immediate hit with almost a half million views on YouTube. In June of 2016 we launched a Kickstarter campaign to make the vision into a reality. It was tremendously successful with over 21,000 backers contributing over $1.3 million to the campaign. We put together a development team and began working on the game. But along the way something happened... We moved... to a completely new game. We shifted engines from Unity to Unreal, a choice that we don't regret and one that has worked out for us. With the switch we began envisioning doing more, but straying from the core concepts of the original title... As our concept grew and as our team changed, so did the scope of what we were doing and with that the budget for the game... I have put the team on a hiatus while we reassess our path so that we can return to our vision. We are taking a break... Please accept my personal assurance that we will be back and stronger than ever. System Shock is going to be completed and all of our promises fulfilled.
This will be a cause for concern to many backers because when games are put on hiatus, they sometimes never release, as a studio closes down or there are other problems. Hopefully Nightdive Studios will reemerge soon with a concrete plan. Until then, we can just hope that those who invested in the game will receive some assurance.
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