System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster - Reviews Thread

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Game Information

Game Title: System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster

Platforms:
  • PC (Jun 26, 2025)
Trailer:
Developer: Nightdive Studios

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 84 average - 86% recommended
Metacritic - 81 average - Based on 4 reviews (PC version)




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Critic Reviews


Analog Stick Gaming - Jeff M Young - 5.5 / 10
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster will certainly find its audience, but I'm unsure the dated design will cause new players to have the same appreciation for it that its established fan base already has. It's a shame Nightdive Studios didn't offer the same remake treatment of the original, considering how great the previous game's remake played and the wealth of visual upgrades that greatly helped its trek into modern gaming. While System Shock 2 is certainly not for me, I can still respect what it did many years ago, even if it hasn't aged particularly well.
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CGMagazine - Philip Watson - 8 / 10
There has never been a better time for System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster to grace consoles once again, and it's a must try for fans of Sci-Fi.
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Eurogamer - Rick Lane - 4 / 5
Still a classic, but a little of that vital weirdness is gone.
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PC Gamer - Ted Litchfield - 85 / 100
This light touch remaster makes a perfect pairing with Nightdive's far-reaching System Shock 1 remake.
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TechRaptor - Austin Suther - 10 / 10
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster is engrossing, deep, and atmospheric. It's a game that has aged marvelously, but even so, Nightdive's efforts in remastering this classic make it more accessible than ever before.
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Xbox Achievements - Josh Wise - 80%
Nightdive Studios has dipped back into the past again, surfacing this time with System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster. The title is slightly out,...
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XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 8 / 10
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition is a solid upgrade for an all-time classic. While I didn't personally get to test it, the thought of playing the title with friends in co-op sounds amazing, and the full mod support built into the game on PC should lead to some crazy scenarios.
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I bought it. Only played a few minutes of the demo back when SS2 first came out, so this is basically a totally new game to me. Looks like they did a damn good job with the remastered elements.
 
The review video shows the enemy hybrid corpse staying on the ground instead of fading away. If this remaster has no enemy corpses fading away than I might just buy this and experience the masterpiece again.

Hopefully one day we'll get a remake or a System Shock 3 with a good amount of budget that plays like 2. Would be my most hyped up horror related game next to the Resident Evil games.
 
Beware that the coop seems to have problems currently, so if you plan to get it to re-experience this classic in coop, it might be wise to wait a couple patches.

Aside from that it looks like a solid remaster that doesn't change shit up just for giggles. If you never played this now you have no excuses.
 
roosnam1980 said:
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Sloppy job on this... Kept saying it uses the dark engine not acknowledging that it's been converted to the kex engine (there is an intro logo for it even) like much of Nightdive's catalogue, from which the fancier new rendering features stem (though newdark had previously fancied up the game quite a bit already)... Kept talking about the sharper textures and higher quality assets (though some aren't so fitting tbh) not acknowledging much of it was available as easy to install mods (SHTUP environment textures for example) and that Nightdive worked with their creators for this... Playing like a fool despite saying it's a favourite game to play with a lot of experience with it... Not explaining anything right to the new guy playing co-op either, talking about where enemies would/should be not acknowledging their systemic dynamic roaming and spawns.... Not even explaining how they themselves respawn (from the constant silly deaths) because it utilised a system similar to the later Bioshock vita chambers... Talking about how the game's finally not stuck on old cd copies when it's been available digitally for years on the same platforms as this remaster... Etc... Meh all around.

The remaster itself is alright by me. Though it could have been an update on the existing versions, the conversion to kex probably took a bit of time/effort, even if in the end it's not doing much newdark (and I believe newdark was already prepackaged with the other releases, the same for the two Thief games, so you no longer need to mod them after the fact for good compatibility and performance on modern systems, only for the other graphics mods which you may or may not want) so doesn't offer much to the user experience. The same for the mods, though some of the character and enemy models seem to have been updated a bit further, not to any great extent or to what I'd like to see in a proper new release. But I'm okay with it, working co-op is definitely a big enhancement though for me this is primarily a solo experience like most immersive sims. It's probably the version to get from now on, just hyped as a bit more than it really is. And it's a shame they didn't go through with the VR implementation shown previously (there's talk of Meta cancelling it but they didn't have to work with Meta for it, just do it because they want to), I'd be raving about that.
 
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Dr. Suchong said:
Definitely on my radar 👍
Still have to finish the first.
That game is brutal.
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Part 2 is much more forgiving and you don't really need to have played the first because the only connection is SHODAN basically. I also played part 2 first and it still ended up being one of the best game I've ever played (still is).
 
As much as I adore System Shock 2, 30€ for this is too much. Considering I also have the original, which can be modded up. I might buy it for 10€.
 
Hudo said:
Didn't they work on a SS3 and then they cancelled it?
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Warren Spector worked on System shock 3 and then cancelled for Thick as Thieves. Not nightdive.

Those who backed or preordered System Shock 1 remake get SS2 remaster for free btw, was surprised to see it in my library.
 


The Chinese have it now (sold to Tencent by Otherside). Probably to make up for the disastrous Underworld Ascendant. But hey, I'm happy we got a spiritual successor in Raph's/Arkane's Prey.
 
JimmyRustler said:
Yes, but if this one sells well it may signal to the right people that there is still demand for it and the project might see the light of day after all.
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Yeah, Nightdive has already said on numerous occassions they're trying really hard to track it down and get that all figured out. They want to try and make SS3 happen, so, it's nice that there are people out there that still want to. I'd definitely love for it to exist, but we'll just have to wait and see.

This remaster is great, and I couldn't recommend it any more. I recently completed SS2 for the first time with mods so it was pretty damn similar to this. But this takes it all a step further adding more QoL features and making it all streamlined. Then there's the coop, so damn good.
 
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I got the original on GOG years ago. Had good beginning and seemed pretty cool. After 30 minutes I got the the space station, got killed by the first enemy I encountered, then I realized there was no auto save so I had to restart the entire game again.

That was the only time I tried playing it.
 
kiphalfton said:
Animations look super rough.

Should have gone the remake route, like the first game.
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I don't think they look bad at all, you just have to remember the game released in 1999. I love how Nightdive treat their remasters. They improve quite a lot, from QoL features to audio to visuals, all while keeping everything intact so that it looks and feels the same. A true remaster. It's awesome.

I'm sure they would've loved to have done a SS2 Remake, hell I know I would. I'd hope everyone would especially after how awesome the SS1 one was/is. But there's reasons why they didn't. I'm just glad we at least got this remaster.
 
Needs lighting mod STAT. This is supposed to be an immersive, dark, psychologic thriller.

Or is it just pure nostalgia bait
 
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Just in case nobody mentioned this already, if you buy the classic version on GOG, the remaster is $14.99 until 6/29. The classic version is not on sale though, it's $9.99. So altogether you save $5. I already bought it years ago so $14.99 is a steal to me.
 
Arsic said:
Is SS1 needed to understand and fully enjoy SS2?
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Not at all. There aren't many connections between the two. Both are petty much self contained. The summary video you get before starting part 2 basically gives you all info from part 1 that is somewhat needed for part 2.
 
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I'm still salty how SS3 was cancelled or whatever.. a new game with today's tech would be GOAT. Although Bioshock and Prey are plenty fun still it's not even close.
Anyway I'm gonna figure out now whether to grab it now or wait a bit, when I can actually fit this to play right away, it's been a long time now, like 10-15 years when played it.
 


System Shock 2 Remastered Review time! System Shock 2 25th Anniversary Remaster from Nightdive Studios is a remastered version of one of the best video games ever as far as 90s fps games are concerned and it led us directly to Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite! Its one of the best games of all time...and now Nightdive Studios made it even better!

Currently its a new steam game but the Xbox Series X and PS5 release was delayed a week!
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I would love to see a real remake of System Shock 2 one day. Or a sequel.

The remaster looks how I remember it looking with mods/upgraded textures about 10 years ago, so not sure what the point of this is…
 
I'm really enjoying this. It's got that typical PC game thing from that era where it takes a bit to get into it because there's the mandatory tutorial and it just takes a bit to come to grips with the various systems at play... but once you get over that hump, it is immersive. I guess that when I think about it, a lot of my favorite PC games were those that asked for some patience upfront, but backed it up with some really nuanced gameplay as a reward. I'm not trying to rush through and I'm not concerned about making progress; I'm just enjoying the experience.

Melee combat is pretty rough, but like Deus Ex, it's totally functional once you kinda *get* it. Though I do think combat is generally better in Deus Ex overall. In any case, though, I'm glad to finally be playing this game after all these years of hearing about it. It definitely has its hooks in me now.
 
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