But obviously the UI and player movement and just the way the player interacts with the game is getting a complete overhaul.' To wit: there's now mouse-look and a handful of Kickstarter backers will make cameos with their simulated corpse and accompanying audio log offering new vignettes about the horrors that proceeded the player's awakening on Citadel Station. When asked about how much of the game's level design and mechanics would stay true to the original, Kick says 'We're maintaining the original vision and the original aesthetic and narrative as close as we can. The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland.

To find out more about this, I caught up with Nightdive founder Stephen Kick at an industry event in sunny Portland, Oregon to discuss the developer's vision for a new System Shock. We liked the demo, and the game's Kickstarter is off to a rousing start, nearly meeting its $900k goal in three days, but there's still a lot of questions about how Nightdive will approach a 2017 version of a 1994 PC game from an era where you could only look along the X axis.

The Vancouver, Washington-based Nightdive Studios is currently walking this tightrope on its remake of cult classic sci-fi horror game System Shock. Likewise, Resident Evil's remake (and ReRemake) are easy on the eyes, but the 'better' voice acting is bad in a generic, boring way, whereas it used to be indescribably bad in a hilarious way. Wind Waker HD is a more vibrant spectacle than its 2003 GameCube forbear, but its new bloom lighting occasionally robs Link of some of his charm. Heck, even the best remakes still fall shy of their source material in at least some minor way. Change too much, however, and purists will complain that the feel or tone is too far afield from what they remember (see Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes).

Stick too close to the original and you run the risk of releasing an archaic project that maybe doesn't hold up as well in modern times as it did in its day (see Doom 3: BFG Edition). Remaking a classic video game is an intimidating prospect.

System shock reboot