Nightdive Studios, a company known for bringing back classic video games for a new generation, including Shadow Man, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, and the Turok games, made waves on the Internet when it announced it was remaking the classic first-person role-playing game System Shock. The company just posted a backer update video that shows just how much the studio has progressed on the project, and it’s impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKfnTnZuC5E

The biggest announcement in the video is bound to be divisive and possibly annoy many backers: NightDive Studios is no longer trying to remake System Shock, but reboot it. The Citadel Station of the reboot will not be a faithful recreation of the original station but instead include the occasional homage in the form of a room/hallway’s geography, door codes, and enemy placements. However, the essence of the new game’s world will remain faithful to the original. Plus, the new design lets NightDive Studios create a new experience that caters to multiple playstyles, as well as an expansive and seamless Citadel Station with as few load screens as possible.

NightDive Studios isn’t just revamping the world of System Shock, but its gameplay mechanics and systems, as well. The studio is introducing impressive “shatter tech” that lets players dynamically destroy frozen enemies. If, for example, the player destroys a frozen enemy’s leg, not only will the leg shatter, but the enemy will topple over and completely shatter when it hits the floor. The System Shock remake will also let players dismember the limbs of their enemies. This will likely result in enemies that have to be approached in different ways, depending on what limbs players want (or need) to dismember, as well as an adaptive AI that forces enemies to approach players differently depending on which limbs they currently have.

The System Shock remake/reboot seems to be taking a lot of notes from games such as Prey and Bioshock, which is fitting since those games were heavily inspired by the original System Shock game. While some System Shock Kickstarter campaign backers are no doubt annoyed the game will no longer be a one-to-one remake of the original System Shock, the update video demonstrates the new game will still provide a fun experience for System Shock veterans and newcomers alike.