Sonic Superstars PS5 Review

 

Sonic Superstars is a Side-Scrolling platformer game was released in 2023 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Sonic Team and Arzest, and was published by SEGA.

In the last 5 years ago, I've already covered the Sonic Mania review which I consider the title as being one of the best side-scrolling platformer of modern gaming generation. 

It goes back to its roots of the classic nostalgia of 16-bit era that made Sonic series an recognisable video game franchises.

It packed with amazing 12 zones, entertaining boss fights, quality gameplay and graphics, replay values, and many more has to offer that the fan of the series will be very pleased to see how this game had turns out to become another successful 2D platformer for Sonic series.

I am hoping Sonic Team would consider planning to make another collaboration with the Evening Star, the developers of Sonic Mania, to create a follow-up title, but unfortunately the plan has fell through which causing the development team to focus on developing an independent title such as Penny's Big Breakaway. 

While Evening Star was no longer involved, Sonic Team has hired Arzest, a studio founded by Naoto Ohshima who was best known for designing SEGA's titular mascot for Sonic franchise, to create a new side-scrolling platformer game titled as Sonic Superstars. It marked Ohshima's first contribution to a Sonic game since 1998's 3D platformer game such as Sonic Adventure.

It is interesting to see Ohshima made a return after 24 years since to join with Sonic Team to create a new 2D Sonic game that are designed for those who grew up playing the classic 2D Sonic games from the past.

Their goal is to create a faithfulness to classic 2D Sonic games using a familiar gameplay design that plays quite close to Genesis/MD 16-bit platformer, while they added the modern graphics which makes the visuals presentation quite different from the previous 2D Sonic game such as Sonic Mania that uses the pixel-art style design.

The game had gained mixed to positive reception at the release which many gaming media praises the game itself as an improvement over the previous 2D games like Sonic 4: Episode 1 and 2, but not as quite good in comparison with Sonic Mania are far more superior in terms of gameplay and visuals. 

I also heard that the Sonic Superstars had such a low sales that didn't meet SEGA's expectations due to being attributed to competition from the similar platform game such as Nintendo's Super Mario Bros Wonder, which is why its never been such a good idea to release it in the same month as their former console wars competitor's title.

   

I began to speculating the reason why this game didn't had such a good sales even the franchise itself is still popular as today, so I totally understand they made a bad decision to release it quite close to other platforming game's launch date, but I don't think the game deserves such a low sales because this game might be just as good which is why I am here to review this game to deliver several of things that they got the game right and some others that left to be desired that could have made the game bit better.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game started it out when Dr. Robotnik comes to the Northstar Islands in search for chaos emeralds, as he hires his henchmen Fang the Hunter to capture all the giant animals by trapping them inside the capsules so he can turn them into a badniks.

The game also introduces Trip the Sungazer, an armored-mysterious girl who is enlisted by the villains to protect and guide them in the islands hostile environment.

Having learned of Eggman's actions, Sonic and his friends join forces and travel to the Northstar Islands to take the villain down. 

The story is somewhat quite simplistic, so it's basically about the blue hedgehog and his friends set out to the islands to rescue the animals that are being held captive and stopping the mad scientist from stealing the chaos emeralds that allowing him to conquer the world. 

There are no actual dialog in the animated cutscene which is perfectly fine because we know exactly what's going on in the game, if you could understand the game's simple plot that I've mentioned above. 

The game shares with likable characters that are so recognisable in the whole series, so you have Sonic the Hedgehog who is a fastest running blue hedgehog speeding through the loopholes, has a cool attitude, and of course kicking Robotnik's ass like in every Sonic games is what I've liked about the blue hero hedgehog.

I also liked the other 3 characters which are also quite cool in the game too, so you have Tails which I considered him as Sonic's little helper and also his best mate in every Sonic games, and then you have Knuckles which is a tough-looking dude really good at throwing powerful punches but also can be knucklehead in some Sonic games, and lastly a pink hedgehog Amy who loves chasing after Sonic just like in Sonic CD which is kinda cute, yeah I mean really cute because she's really loves Sonic that's all.

Trip the Sungazer is pretty new to this game which, unlike Eggman and Fang, I consider her as docile and empathetic lizard girl due to her concern whenever she sees nature being threatened by these villains doing such horrible things is the reason why she really hated the way Eggman and Fang's action had treated the home island and captured animals.   

Then you have the main villain Dr. Robotnik are up to no good as always just like he did from the previous Sonic games. Just kidnapping innocent animals, stealing chaos emeralds, creating bunch of his minions bots, hiring his assistants, and of course conquering the islands is what really made the mad scientist quite memorable in the whole series.

I also got to say that the Fang the Hunter is also a decent right-hand villain in the game which you may know him from the early Sonic games that he first introduced as villain in games like Sonic Triple Trouble, and also appeared as playable roster in Sonic Drift 2 and Sonic the Fighters.

He describes as greedy and mischievous bounty hunter seeks to obtain valuables for monetary gain, and yes he just loves to talk shit with Trip when accusing her for the Trip's clumsiness...jeez what a dick, but also quite funny at the same time that's adds the game's sense of humour.

The overall presentation in this game are pretty good, as the game providing with really amazing animated cutscenes which I considered it as remarkable, bold, and colourful. 

I know many of you are not a fan of this in-game's modern style graphics as opposed to pixel-art style design like from Sonic Mania, so like I said earlier about switching development team which is why it made the game look different while retaining the classic-style gameplay.

I had no issues with the art-direction they chose it for this title which they did a great job of capturing the similar style of level zones in terms of settings environments and scenery, so stuff like you have stages such as Bridge Island Zone which is a tropical themed stages filled with waterfalls, rock structures, sunflowers, palm-trees and stone tiles decorating the checkered blue terrain.

Speed Jungle Zone takes place in a vibrant jungle housing filled with buildings overgrown with trees, pathways made of tarnished trusses, discarded machine parts scattered throughout the zone, and buried objects such as nuts and bolts.

Sky Temple Zone takes place on a floating island are decorated with large red fans that makes you fly above the platforms.

Pinball Carnival Zone is a pinball-based amusement stages filled with numerous of pinball themed environments and carnival rides to go on.

Lagoon City Zone is a ruined ancient city that has been submerged underwater and also features a lot of water slides.

Sand Sanctuary Zone is a desert area that has an abandoned temple that vaguely resembles one of the stage from Sonic & Knuckles. 

Press Factory Zone is an Eggman's empire-owned factory filled with industrial stuffs and workzone areas.

Golden Capital Zone is an extravagant temple filled with gold environments of buildings, black and white checkered floor, and there are numerous pools of lava in some areas. 

Cyber Station Zone is located within a virtual space that features a pixel aesthetic which all have voxel designs.

Frozen Base Zone is a subterranean industrialized base in a frozen region has an mysterious place hides many familiar technologies.  

Finally Egg Fortress Zone is a empire space station located in outer space which orbiting around the entire planet earth. 

Overall, it has simplistic story cutscene, likable cast of characters, and great presentation.

 

Gameplay

The game features the story mode which is basically an whole campaign that you can play the game in single-player solo or 4-player co-op.

You'll be visiting in stage select areas where you get to pick whatever the stage that you wanted to play on.

You'll play as whichever the characters you've picked in 2D side-scrolling perspective, as your main objective is to being able to reach it at the finishing goal as well as defeating Dr. Robotnik and other types of bosses in each stages. 

You'll start off with the basic controls, so pushing the left and right d-pad buttons or the left stick controls to move the player around, and holding down the d-pad button or left stick down will make them crouch.

Pressing the cross or circle button to make them jump on platforms as well as jumping on the enemies as jump attack, while double tapping or holding the same button will allow 5 of the characters do their abilities such as Sonic does ground spin-dash as soon as he hits the ground, Tails uses his twin-tails to fly above in mid-air as well as swimming underwater, Knuckles can glide through the stages as well as climbing up the wall, Amy uses her jumping attack with the hammer while holding down the button as soon as she hits the ground will allow her to perform rapid hammer attack, and of course Trip (which you get to play as her in Trip's Story campaign) has ability to use her spiky grip which sticks on both walls and ceiling to move across as well as she also can double jump to reach the higher platforms.  

While holding down the d-pad or left stick down then tapping the cross or circle button will allow them to do quick spin dash giving them a extra boost of speed manoeuvring to reach through the loopholes and platforming heights.

You can cycle the emeralds power ability by pressing the shoulder buttons or rotate it with the right stick controls to select any of these emeralds power which I will explain these for later on this review.

Most of the levels had filled with hazardous areas, smaller enemies and couple of dead ends in which you are required to avoid enemy's projectiles and falling off the stage. There are item box that comes in useful which gives you ability to perform any of these cool things like power sneakers which makes you run in high speed, invincibility makes you go invincible for 10 seconds, and of course the regular shield which protects you from enemy's projectiles and hazardous objects in one-hit damage.

You will need to collect rings which acts as the character's health, but getting hit by the enemies or any hazardous can lead you to lose many of rings in which you can still retrieve these remaining rings that scattered around everywhere before it disappears in next 5 seconds. 

The game introduces 7 emeralds powers when obtaining these chaos emeralds from the special stages, so you have avatar chaos which summon forth wave of clones of themselves stampeding across the stage dealing damage to enemies, bullet chaos will allow your character in midair launching an ball themselves in the direction demolishing most things, vision chaos which reveals several items being highlighted in a bright purple as well as enabling you to access things in several stages, water chaos which enables you to turn your character into liquid allowing them to traverse streams of water, ivy chaos which summon a large vines that travels upward enabling you to reach higher areas, slow chaos substantially slowing down the area and things around you, and of course extra chaos will grant you the extra power giving each character a unique ability when activated, so for example: Sonic gains a homing attack allowing him use chain attacks to quickly dispatch large group of enemies, Tails throws his small tornado that travels forward dealing tremendous damage on enemies, Knuckles uses his punches sending a projectile forward to hit targets from a safe distance, Amy can tosses her hammers forward effectively against air-based enemies, and of course Trip can shoot her fireballs that bounce around the terrain.

You may have a secondary objectives where you'll need to collect all 7 chaos emeralds to obtain emeralds power that I've mentioned it above before which can be found in the special stage, so you'll be entering in by going into a large massive gold ring (except the large blue ring are totally something else) can be hidden somewhere else in the main stage which grants you access to the special stage where you need to swing across through the stage faster to chase after the chaos emerald, so catch them before the time runs out.

If successfully gathered all 7 chaos emeralds which turns your playable characters into a super form can be activated, if you collected all 50 rings as requirement to use it, which allowing them to perform a ultimate power which means you can able to breeze through levels, instantly kills all enemies, and not taking damage from projectiles and hazards, but it can also drain down the remaining rings which means your super power form will get deactivated if the rings reaches to 0. 

So far, I'm really glad that the gameplay turns out to be really good because I did not expect the feel of the controls and physics itself are butter as smooth which proves that Sonic Team had learned the lesson when hearing the feedback on other 2D Sonic game like Sonic 4: Episode 1 & 2 are nothing sort of sluggish and stiff that took away the fun factor of the game, so going back to this which plays much better than I've expected because I think the developers wanted to make this game to be faithful to classic 2D Sonic games that we all love back then.

I can able to pull off many manoeuvring moves like spin dash, gliding, jumping, climbing, and being able to run around the loops from top to bottom which I finding the controls to be really responsive to play without any sorts of issue.

Despite the controls plays really well in the game, I wanted to point out the emeralds power concept which I'll admit it seems to look cool but I don't think it worked well for most part because it's likely that it will make the game quite too easy to beat regular bosses which is why I finding it unnecessary to use it in the game.   

I say I really liked the stages in each zones which shares many great segments such as trying to escape from big-long red creature in Bridge Island Zone, encountering with Fang that goes after you in Speed Jungle Zone, there are a man-made bridge and objects floating in above the sky while flying around with the winds of red-coloured fans in Sky Temple Zone, have fun bouncing around with the pinball flippers as well as getting on the fast-ride roller coaster in Pinball Carnival Zone, go for a water-slide then go deep underwater and smash all the gigantic fruits in Lagoon City Zone, run on the quicksand and squiggly snake body in Sand Sanctuary Zone, get bounced up by giant press machine and try to hit the switch before the whole stage explodes in Press Factory Zone, chase after Fang that stole your chaos emeralds in Golden Capital Zone, you're transformed into a pixel-art figure in Cyber Station Zone, you're welcome into the Shoot-em-ups style stages plays similar to SEGA's Fantasy Zone in Frozen Base Zone, and of course you're being forced into playing the stage in reverse after completing the first act in Egg Fortress Zone.

These are the really cool stages that I find quite incredibly fun to play which I really liked spending time to knock these enemies down, collecting rings, and go for the special stages to collect chaos emeralds is what really keeps me playing the game more than the hours.

There are quite of the boss battles that I find mostly decent except one of them sucks ass which I will discuss it at the end, so stuff like such as you have Eggman's mecha that welds round-metallic ball, the flying robot bug that shoots you with electrifying projectiles, the fat-rounded bot with stretchy-arms that loves to pounce on you, the Eggman's hovership that shoots out multiple of shiny disc-blade, the bouncy-clown bot juggling around with the spiky bombs that drops on you, the robo-squid deploying many minions to attack you as well as trying to electrifying you with the shock, the big-rounded monkey bot swings around the area while trying to squash you with the giant press machine, the golden-pig bot chases you around in rotating room, and there's few more to encounter in each zones which I find these regular bosses quite good to play, but except the Fang's final boss in Trip's story campaign which is really stressful to play is because I really don't like these cheap instant death patterns where you had to dodge these deadly laser that's being throwing at you without having to touch it and I also hated the Fang's mecha part where he traps you with the sticky-electrifying web takes forever to escape before he finishes you with the deadly projectile shot, so its nowhere near good as the Eggman's final boss which is slightly better on the main story campaign.

            

The game has 4-player co-op which I got to be honest with you guys is that I don't find these 4-player co-op well executed because it's basically a single screen play where you and your team must work together to beat the stages, but the issue is that your team partner accidently keeps running and jumping into the off-screen pretty too much otherwise you and your teams get both separated, so it could have been done better if the game has an option to include local split-screen or online co-op play that would have made it easier for the player to focus on their playable character that don't usually end up getting off the screen quite often or have the whole single screen bit zoomed-out when you and your teams get separated should have worked better.

There are another game mode called the battle mode which I got to say it's really fun multiplayer that they did the job right because it has several of matches such as the survival is where you had to avoid the cannon balls to survive until the end, the race is where you had to race through the stage and reach the goal before the other players, the star snatcher is where you had to collect many stars as possible within time limit until one of them that has most stars declared winner, and finally the zap scrap is where you had to face your opponent by shooting each other to earn the points until one of them that has higher points declared winner, so those are the battle games that are incredibly good to play for multiplayer.        

 

Overall, it has good physics control, decent single-player solo, and fun battle mode.

Graphics

I know you many people aren't the fan of these 3D model visual design that the developers made their choice to use for this title, as opposed to 2D pixel-art design like from Sonic Mania. I got to be honest with you that the graphics in this game is actually good in terms of colourful environments and multi-layered settings that made the stage look impressive. 

Stuff like you have the Bridge Island Zone that has moving clouds, large ocean, and steep waterfall at the background, the Pinball Carnival Zone has ferris wheel, castle, tracks, and tents at the mid-ground, the Golden Capital Zone are filled with man-made stuff at the large background environments, and the Cyber Space Zone are made of 8-bit neo-lights area which proving that these level settings design are incredibly fine and detailed. 

The parallax scrolling are quite acceptable in some stages because they made a mix of sharp foregrounds and blurred backgrounds of the levels quite easier to navigate for players to prevent losing track on platforming stages, and the best of all is the use of stage auto-rotation in bonus stage and final boss battle where you run around the Dr. Robotnik's big fat mecha bot in circle which I find it quite impressive to play.

The character's design is just as amazing which I really liked their classic aesthetic design just like from the classic Sonic games that we know back then. 

I got to say that the performance and resolution on PS5, XSX/S, and PCs is running smoothly on these versions, so the PS5, XSX/S (X Model) and PCs are fully on the 4k resolution (except XSX/S (S model) are running on 1080p) and providing full 60fps with no signs of slowdowns whatsoever which is incredibly smooth on these powerful system. 

The switch version is however runs on native 720p may be not quite as good in comparison with 9th-gen consoles in terms of texture details and filtering are looking bit rough, and it misses the bloom effects in many stages which is why the graphics environments on the switch version is missing some details, and then the frame-rate is kinda okay on in-game stages till you've reached to later one or two bosses may gonna drop the frame performances to 50fps making the Switch version an inferior to other console platforms does the job better for its visuals and performances, but that doesn't necessary mean the switch version is bad because it's still as playable throughout the game.

Overall, it has colourful environments, amazing character's design, and fine looking stage design.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in this game is pretty great in some stages, so you have some of these music like from Bridge Island Zone, Speed Jungle Zone, Pinball Carnival Zone, Lagoon City Zone, Cyber Station Zone, Egg Fortress Zone, and Special Stage is kinda sounds like the mix of classic Sonic games like the Sonic CD and Sonic 3, where as the Sand Sanctuary Zone is kinda gives it a style of Shantae series which I got to praise Tee Lopes for creating such incredible soundtrack that fits the style of classic 2D Sonic games, where as some of other soundtrack by Jun Senoue are relying on the Sonic 4's instrumentation which many people dislikes the way it sounded in previous game like Sonic 4: Ep 1 & 2, but thankfully I can think two of the soundtracks that did got it right with Sky Temple Zone and Frozen Base Zone are by far the Jun's best music for Sonic game.

The sound effects are recognisable with classic 16-bit jingles like jumping, collecting rings, and collision hit on enemies, where as I really liked the environmental sounds on background stages.  

Overall, it has great soundtrack and has recognisable sound effects.

Special Features

There's nothing much to say about this game...besides the debug cheat which includes stage select and sound test which is fine, but I got to be honest with this is that it's nowhere near good as the classic 16-bit effort is because in classic 16-bit Sonic games you can do lot of cool things to mess around in the stages like adding and duplicating more item box, enemies, large special rings, checkpoint, and goal post where as this game is completely absent which is quite a shame for those who likes to use debugging mode like from classic 16-bit games. 

Overall, absolutely damn shame. 

Advantages

Great presentation

Likable characters

Good controls

Decent single play solo  

Battle mode is fun

Fine visuals

Very good soundtrack

Disadvantages

Emeralds power is completely unnecessary 

4-player co-op mode isn't brilliant 

Fang's final boss is the weakest part of the game 

Pointless debug mode 

Final Verdicts

Presentation 8/10 - simplistic story cutscene, likable cast of characters, and great presentation.

Gameplay 7/10 - good physics control, decent single-player solo, and fun battle mode.

Graphics 8/10 -  colourful environments, amazing character's design, and fine looking stage design.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - great soundtrack and has recognisable sound effects.

Special Features 4/10 - it does have stage select and sound test, but misses true debugging mode.

Overall 7/10 - I got to say that Sonic Superstars is fairly better than the previous games like Sonic 4: EP 1 & 2 just aren't aging well as I remembered back then, but this game is not quite match the same quality level as the superior Sonic Mania which plays so much better in terms of control physics, pixel-art design, and has better platforming action that I finding it much appealing to play.

Sonic Superstars in other hand are genuinely good which I appreciate that the development team did such a fine job for its single-play solo shares with fluid controls, great stage segments, has 5 playable characters, fun special stage, and decent battle mode, but it's just the local 4-player co-op, use of emeralds power, Fang's final boss, and lazy debugging options seems to be a step back which I had a reason to give a score of 7, so if they could have done it better by adding the local split-screen and online play options for co-op mode, add more debugging features, and make Fang's final boss more forgiving to play would have made the game so much better in my opinion, but thankfully the gameplay controls and single-play platforming action turns out to be absolutely well which is why it is so much important to create a fun Sonic game that really matters the most to make fans of the series happy.        

The game is sadly had sold quite poorly at the release which is never be such a good thing to launch it at the same month as Nintendo's successful platformer title like Super Mario Bros Wonder just sells like a hot cakes selling over 4.3 million units in two weeks after the release. 

While SEGA's own platforming title didn't meet their sale expectations, Sonic Superstars is still a decent platforming game that I did not regret playing it because it's better to give this game a go, so you can get it for between £20 to £30 physically for all consoles platforms where as you can also get it on digitally from PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam for £55, so I can only recommended to those who are a massive fans of the franchise will able to give the game a worth of play.   

I am hoping that Sonic Team will consider to make another 2D Sonic games with better additional content and fun platforming action to see how it really goes in the future perfect. 

  

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System Shock PS5 Review

 

System Shock is a FPS Action-Adventure was originally released in 2023 for PC, and was later ported to console platforms in 2024 such as PS5, PS4, XSX/S, and XBONE. It was developed by Nightdive Studios and published by Prime Matter, and it is a full remake of the 1994's classic game titled as System Shock created by Looking Glass Studios. 

Now first of all, I grew up playing many traditional FPS games back in my childhood days when I thought about many great classics on the PCs like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, and Unreal which are basically just about shooting the shit out of these guys in pieces, so those were the good times when gaming is all about fun and addicting to play back then, but there's one of the classic PC game that I first remembered seeing at the computer shops that sells PC games software back then, so I've discovered the game called System Shock which is the 1994's title that was originally came out on MS-DOS computer...yeah seems quite old back then.

To tell you the truth is that I've never played the original game before, but what I've learned about this title is that it's one of the game that incorporate the elements of multiple genres including RPGs, stealth, FPS, platforming, and survival horror which pioneering the term known as "immersive sim" which uses interacting, reactive and consistent systems to create emergent gameplay and a sense of player agency.

At the release, the game was critically praise which hailed it as a major breakthrough in its genre, and it is also an moderate commercially success with sales exceeding 170,000 copies.

It also became a key populariser of emergent gameplay which later influence on other titles like Thief and Deus Ex, and it is considered one of the defining games of the immersive sim genre.

There are a sequel that was released in 1999 such as System Shock 2 for PC which then again I've never played it ether sadly, but what I've heard from many of gaming critics had regarded the title as being one of the greatest games of all-time which surpasses the 1994's original game for its open-ended gameplay system, atmospheric sound design, and engaging storyline, but sadly it suffers the poor commercial sales at the release which led the closure of the Looking Glass Studios in the year after the game's release, but it's still remained as the cult-following title being loved by the gaming fans and critics.

In 2007, Irrational Games released a spiritual successor called Bioshock which had gained many critically acclaimed reception by gaming media sites and it has stronger sales than the predecessor, so I did had a chance to play the game on PS3 for a week and I'm so amazed with the cinematic presentation design, innovative gameplay system, visuals and sounds, and of course some darkest sequences throughout the story campaign is just incredible to play especially it's worth re-playing it again with the Bioshock remastered collection on PCs and 8th gen consoles.

I also did enjoy the follow-up title such as Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite which are also just as well-received as the previous game that I also highly recommended to play these as well.

As I said previously about the 1994's original game that I've never played it before, in around my mid-2010s when I got older in later age I was originally planned to play System Shock on my old PC, but not until I've found out that the developer team such as Nightdive Studios has revealed the full remake through the kickstarter campaign in 2015 which is why I decided to change the mind by waiting for the remake instead because what I've heard from those, who previously played the original game before, had said that the 1994's title had not aged quite great as the 1999's sequel are slightly better in terms of game's design and controls according to them.

So going back to this topic, a long after a successful kickstarter campaign had raised more than $1 million in funding, the game underwent a long development cycle of nearly 8 years due to being delayed several times as a result of changing the Unity to Unreal Engine 4, as well as restarting the development on the game from scratch which finally got the game sorted by 2023-24 release.

So I finally had a chance to play the 2023's full remake of the 1994's classic original game on my PS5 which I bought the physical copy at day 1 after the console port's release date, as I'm looking forward to play this title that are so different from the FPS games because I really wanted to play the game that are heavily focused on hybrid mix of genres that really fits the style of immersive sim such as the horror, RPGs, and stealth that made the original game so innovative at the time in early-90s.

Is this the remake are being a faithful recreation of the original title? let's find out what the answer will be in this review.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game is set in the year 2072, as the story focuses on the protagonist known as hacker is attempting to access Citadel Station's files on the computer until being caught and held captive by TriOptimum Corporation's military team, as they taken the hacker to Citadel Station the guy introduces him as Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive who threatens the hacker by forcing into hacking the A.I system known as SHODAN that controls the station. 

After successfully hacking SHODAN which removes the AI's ethical constraints and handing control over to Diego, the hacker is put into a 6-month healing coma.

In 6-months later, the hacker awakens from the coma and finds that SHODAN has commandeered the station which filled with all robots have been reprogrammed for hostility, and the crew members has been either mutated, transformed into cyborgs, or killed.

As the entire whole station gone f***ed up, the hacker went on the mission to find the way of preventing SHODAN taking advantage of killing almost everyone on board, as well as uncovering the truth behind the whole station scandal. 

So far, the story is started out pretty decent through the opening intro that tells you about being captured by these military group who prevented the hacker from accessing the files without the authorisation from corporation, and then you have a corrupted executive that forcing you to turn SHODAN into a computer A.I monster that leads to killing many innocent station's crew members and not only executive had done horrible thing, but something even worse is that he had his secret plans to steal an experimental mutagenic virus being tested on Citadel Station and sell it on the black market as a biological weapon which is why many of these crew members had turned into a mutated creatures or built into cyborg.

You will have several of recording devices in many areas which linked to those who worked at the station before the shit happens took place which delivers an shocking but interesting truth backstory which explains the whole scandal that the corporation had done really awful things in the station.

I got to say the hacker are just an nameless protagonist which there's nothing to say thing because the nameless character you're playing is basically you or whatever on the mission to stop the station's A.I running which I believe SHODAN is planning to destroy all major cities on the planet in a bid to establish herself as god.

Many people and critics who previously played the 1994's original game or 1999's sequel had labelled SHODAN as one of the creepiest video game villain ever existed in the series. She's basically like you could say HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 1968's Sci-fi film such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, but way more sadistic and morbid because the way she's talks in her sinister tone kinda sounds like she wanted to annihilate you to death feels really disturbing indeed throughout the single-player game. 

I got to say that I really liked several of the enemies and bosses in the game such as Avian Mutant the flying creature, massive tank-legs machine Cortex Reaver, the marksman Cyborg Assassin, mechanical freak Cyborg Drone, the personal bodyguards like Cyborg Elite Guards, the moderately armored Cyborg Enforcer, the big and bulky Cyborg Warrior, even more big and bulky Diego Cyborg, the mysterious looking security Exec-bot, the flying airborne Flier-Bot, the monstrous hybrid animal Gorilla-Tiger, the laser shooting Hopper, the small floating maintenance bot, the large creature with huge claws Mutated Cyborg, and of course the tall creature with swollen brains Virus Mutant which I got to say the design concept on these enemies and bosses are looking quite horrifying and deadly that really fits well to this dark Sci-fi settings.       

             

The presentation design is incredibly looking good on the remake which I really liked the setting tone of the dark environments around the areas kinda gives a feels of sci-fi horror vibes. 

Stuff like you have the whole station had filled with 10 floors such as medical bases contains the advanced neurosurgery ward, the research labs has the production of many prototype technological developments, the maintenance department has facilities capable of repairing an extremely wide variety of station hardware, the storage cells provides a central location for storing much of the station's backup and emergency equipment, the flight deck serves to launch then receive and house the various shuttle craft that regularly conduct business with TriOptimum Earth, the executive suites and crew facilities sports a number of teleconference and board rooms as well as transporting to 3 groves areas, the engineering deck contains many of the station's support and communication systems including the primary antenna relays, the security department has towering central core shaft which rises over 8 stories high, the bridge control is the location of the command and control center, and of course the R which houses the station's reactor and support facilities.      

     

Overall, it has decent story dialogue, terrifying villain, great enemy's design concept, and good presentation design.

 

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of the hacker in first-person perspective as your main goal is to defeat SHODAN, so in order to do so you had to complete several of main objectives including puzzles, hacking, and disabling securities which leads you to the next floor each up to 10.

You will have your health and energy displayed on the top right-side, the stamina on top left-side, the mini-map on bottom left-side, and of course the inventory boxes on the bottom center. 

You control the player by pushing the left-stick to move and the right-stick to camera-aim look. While moving forward with the left-stick, you hold down the left thumbstick button to sprint across the room, where as without moving your player by standing still you can toggle the lean controls by pressing the left thumbstick button then move side to side with the left-stick controls can be used for taking cover while facing on the wall.

Press the cross button to jump used for platforming area, and press the circle button to crouch can be used for stealth play, and press the square button to interact objects as well as picking up the item.

You can access to your UI's menus by pressing the touchpad button which takes you to different options such as map screen which displays the whole level of map, the inventory menu allows you to select and re-arrange your weapons and items onto these inventory boxes, and the media menu that you can able to read text messages and plays audio logs that contains several of important infos and clues linking to your main objectives. 

On combat, you press the right trigger button to fire your weapon while holding the left trigger button is to steady aim for balanced firing accuracy, and you can reload your weapon by pressing the square button.

You can also change your firing mode by pressing the triangle button which switches your standard clip to different kinds of ammunition clip such as anti-personnel shells and armor-piercing bullets for example.

You can change your weapons and items by pressing the left and right d-pad button to navigate these inventory boxes which shown on bottom-center of the screen.

   

I got to be really honest with the control schemes on the console version because despite it's just a console port, I wanted to mention a good thing about the game is that you can re-configure your button controls and change sensitivity speed which is absolutely fine, but the issue that I don't like about is the lack of the toggle sprint button because I'm not used with holding down the left thumbstick button to sprint which makes it difficult to control the player while running, so I had to re-bind the sprint button to right thumbstick button instead, and I also wanted to point out these two shoulder buttons which doesn't function at all even it been labelled on the control options such as the left shoulder button is for using consume items and the right shoulder button is for throwing grenades which doesn't do anything, and you just don't want to re-bind these two shoulder buttons either because it could mess up your navigation on the UI's menus making it difficult to switch things.

As the shoulder buttons re-binding options and the sprint button has flaws which needs to be addressed that I've mentioned above, the rest of it like controlling players, aiming and firing the weapons, interacting objects, and changing and using items on the inventory boxes plays absolutely fine once you get used with the controls on the standard controller. 

Aside with the controls, the combat gameplay plays really good in single-player campaign because you have a various of weapons that does several of advantages such as the pistol which does a basic firing damage works well on smaller enemies and devices where as the magnum are slightly more powerful does a heavy damage shot, then you have automatic machine guns such as assault rifle and skorpion which fires multiples rapid of bullets in long-range distance, the powerful arsenal such as shotgun are short-ranged but deals a heavy damage shot works effectively against the elite and assassin guards, the bigger explosion grenade launcher does a large impact exploding damage works effectively on heavy duty enemies, the sparqbeam sidearms fires energy rounds that does a lot of damage, the railgun is a large high powered kinetic weapon which can fire a single high projectile damage works effectively against heavy duty enemies, the pulse rifle is a strong energy weapon that deals high damage but also consumes a large amount of energy when fired and it also can ricochet off the surfaces, the plasma rifle is a powerful energy weapon auto-fires purple energy projectiles which are highly effective against all targets.

My favourite weapon in the whole game is got to be a laser rapier is a long-beam melee weapon are devastatingly powerful tool which is capable of making a powerful melee takedowns works effectively against all targets in 1 or 2 hits. 

There 4 types of grenades such as frags are used for exploding damage, where as the gas grenade releases a deadly gas that will quickly damage against organic enemies, then the EMPs will temporarily disable robots and finally the smoke grenade will temporarily block the enemy's vision. 

These weapons works really well throughout the game because not only you can fire with a standard bullet mode, but you can also change the ammunition mode which gives you an option to use different sets of bullets and shells types such as anti-personnel shells uses these explosive pellets combine a chemical incendiary with a cluster of self-converting nanites makes really makes effective against organic enemies and then you have armor-piercing bullets provide considerable penetrating power works effectively against mechanised foes.

So far, the combat gameplay works very good for most of the time because you have various of the weapons that are some well-balanced, others has better accuracy, and the impact level of firing damage that are very responsive and an effective.

There are some really useful tool and patches in many areas that does a things like vital pack that slowly increases your health bar in 20 secs, the berserk pack will activate your strength power which temporarily increases your melee attack meaning that you can instantly kill enemies in 1 or 2 hits, the detox pack will reduce your poisoning level much faster, the sight vision pack intensifies retinal sensitivity to light making it easier to see in the dark, the stamina pack will reduce the fatigue caused by overexertion, and these battery pack that increases your energy bar are used for your energy weapons like laser rapier and the sparqbeam sidearms as well as your hardware attachments ability like jump jets, turbo dashing, and other useful things. 

Speaking of these hardware attachments with plenty of upgrades that really benefit your character's abilities such as navigation and mapping unit will display useful information like enemy locations and other hazards, head-mounted vision unit is a head-wear device that makes easier to find things like weapons and items as well as the other areas that are quite too dark, the target identifier will allow you to target your enemy's status info such as their damage and current attitude (being cautious or hostile), turbo motion boots will allow you to do cool things like dashing around the corner to dodge a ranged attack, and of course the environmental protection pack will protect you from taking damage from the radiation rooms. 

I say these hardware attachments just works really great because it really adds the variation of gameplay design to make it feel like a different FPS game providing a really impressive use of the RPG elements to it is what makes System Shock a very unique and creative way of playing this game.

What really makes the game interesting is that you can collect multiples of junk and scrap items in which you can convert them into currencies by taking these to the recycling machines so that they can deposit the bunch of coins out of the slot.

When you gather all the coins, you can spend these from the vending machines which gathers stuff like snacks, drinks, patches, and ammos which came in useful for most of the areas when you really need these to save up your ammunition and using up your health for survival strategy.  

There are several of great hacking segments which the original game was known for its problem solving that requires player to figure it out how to get to the new area such as hacking a security system through junction box, cracking the code, and shooting down multiples of security cameras that may activate stuff like elevators, doors, and bridges, but there's one of the best part of the game which is the cyberspace stages that plays really similar to classic 6-degrees of freedom title like Interplay's Descent in terms of gameplay design, so you'll be exploring around the inside digital realm of computer network while you must infiltrate specific areas with intent to steal or alter information. 

I got to say that I really liked how the game just plays in single-player campaign which heavily focuses on immersive sim aspects with the mix of RPGs and horror genres such as using a stealth to avoid contact with the enemies, organising items that you really need before using it, and gathering information such as audio logs may give you a clues for puzzles and hacking.      

The level design is very well done for its exploration where you get to explore around the areas to gather more items and currencies, and discovering a hidden rooms that has chunks of ammunition and items. I got to love the size of the level environment in each floors starting from small to big areas making it very interesting to explore around throughout the single-player campaign. 

Overall, very good combat, useful tools and attachments, well made level design, and several of great hacking segments.

 

Graphics   

The graphics in this game is pretty solid especially on console system which I am amazed that the game itself ran really decently on the PS5 system. 

The environment design are all crisp and detailed with hard surfaces and sharp textures are looking quite good on some areas, and I got to praise the use of the lighting system and shadow reflection in each rooms are just straight-up looking amazing giving a game's a dynamic look. 

The enemy's animation are quite smooth for its movement and AI's behaviour seems to be really responsive most of the time.

I got to say the gore level system is quite bloody which you can see the enemies gets sliced in half with laser rapier, their body get splattered everywhere when using the explosive weapons, and you could get their head blown off with heavy steel pipes is just looking pure disgusting, but damn good indeed.

As for the performance, the PS5 and XSX/S (X model version) gets full on dynamic 4k resolution ran on 60fps which runs incredibly well on both systems, where as the XSX/S (S model version) are kinda different story because it drops to 1800p resolution which is lower compared with the XSX/S (X model version) but retains a 60fps which is great news for those who owns the S model system really needed a smooth frame-rate to make the game perform well enough to play.

For 8th-gen system, the base model PS4, PS4 Pro, and XBONE (S model) has dynamic 1080p resolution where as the XBONE (X model) has full 4k resolution are capped on 30fps seems to be bit tad slower as oppose to 9th-gen system are performing much better in comparison.

I say base model XBONE that supports 966p resolution capped with 30fps are by far the weakest of all systems which likely that to those who have base model XBONE may not going to enjoy the game as the other console version that did the job well done.  

Overall, it has solid environmental design, smooth animation, stable game's performance, and of course damn good gore system.

 

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in this remake is actually cool for its atmospheric electronic music that really fits the mood of the game's settings.

I know many of you guys preferred the upbeating original 1994's soundtrack better, but I think the remake version of this title makes tons of more sense because this is immersive sim game guys and its supposed to be sounds more like Sci-fi industrial music, so kudos to Jonathan Peros did a wonderful job on his score. 

My favourite part of the music is the ending theme titled as "The Order of Death" by Public Image Itd because I really liked the chilling sounds of the 80's synth-wave style feels very catchy to listen.

The sound effects in this game is pretty outstanding with some ambient noises and environmental sound design are very well made throughout the areas, and the voice dialogue in this game is pretty acceptable during the audio log but I had to give a credit to Terri Brosius, who previously voiced her portrayal as SHODAN from first two games in the series, did such an terrific job on her role as one of the best villains in video games really nailed the performance.  

Overall, it has cool atmospheric electronic soundtrack, outstanding sound design, and terrific voice performance on Brosius's portrayal as SHODAN. 

 

Special Features

Umm...there's hardly had a additional features in the game, so got nothing to say I guess.

Overall, it's kinda shame. 

Advantages

Good overall presentation

Very good combat and exploration

Well made level design

Great hacking segments

Well focused on immersive sim aspects 

Solid overall visuals

Excellent music and sounds

Disadvantages

The lack of toggle sprint and shoulder buttons re-binding options needs fixing.

No additional special features 

Final Verdicts

Presentation 8.5/10 - decent story dialogue, terrifying villain, great enemy's design concept, and good presentation design.

Gameplay 7.5/10 - very good combat, useful tools and attachments, well made level design, and several of great hacking segments.

Graphics 8.5/10 - solid environmental design, smooth animation, stable game's performance, and of course damn good gore system.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - cool atmospheric electronic soundtrack, outstanding sound design, and terrific voice performance on Brosius's portrayal as SHODAN.

Special Features 1/10 - no additional special features.   

Overall 8/10 - System Shock is a solid reedition to the original game thanks to strong presentation, well designed gameplay, and the great single-player campaign that did the remake a whole job well done.

Like the PC version did such an incredibly well at the original release, the console port that came last couple a half weeks ago turned out to be quite smoothly on PS5 and XSX/S (X Model) due to stable performance and quality visuals are just looking good indeed, where as the XSX/S (S Model) are quite a bit on the low side for lack of 4k support but it still playable and ran better than the 8th-gen system like PS4 and XBONE that didn't quite match-up to PCs and 9th-gen consoles.     

I am happy to say that I really enjoyed the full remake which I don't regret playing it because it's the very first System Shock game that I've ever played since I didn't played the 1994's original game and 1999's sequel, so don't get me wrong because I adored all your positive things about the series that created the genre of immersive sim, so hopefully I will consider playing the 1999's sequel if the Nightdive Studios had a chance to re-release it as a remaster or possibly remake in the future.

Is the console port of the remake a must buy? for PS5 and XSX/S owners absolutely because the 9th-gen console is the best way to play this game which you can get it physically for between £30 to £40, where as the digital release for PS Store and Xbox Store which you can get it just for £35.

The PC owners who are really interested to play this should stick to the PC version which is a best way to start with the remake that you can get it on Steam just for a same price as the other two digital storefronts that I've mentioned above, so I say it is definitely a buy.       

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