[Update]: After nearly seven years in development, the System Shock Remake will finally be launching in March 2023!
The original System Shock was an excellent game that brought about a revolution in the RPG genre, but as I've come to realize last year when I tried to replay it, the RPG mechanics aren't actually that well balanced. The biggest issue is the relative power level of the various weapons and cyber-upgrades as some of them are nearly mandatory, while the others are mostly pointless, leading to long stretches of gameplay with basically no improvements to your character.
Thankfully, it does appear that Nightdive Studios are aware of these issues with the original since they have recently posted a Kickstarter update on how exactly they aim to make the RPG mechanics compelling in the upcoming System Shock remaster. Here's what they had to say:
"As I mentioned before, we have a pretty good vision of where we want to take things and what RPG systems we’ll be leaning towards within our budget. Also, RPG systems can imply a lot of things, so I'll go over some core concepts that we're following with the overall systems design.
* Stats are boring - Instead of letting the player feel stronger with stat boosts and level identification, we’re more in favor of ability and skill depth. As the player progresses, they will get more abilities/weapons, which will take skill to master (player skill, not skill points)
* Things should make sense - We want to have vending machines, but they're mainly for food/drinks that the player can get to help heal themselves or provide a slight boost to their abilities. You won't hack a vending machine to get a gun, since why would a vending machine on a space station have a gun?
* Upgrades are good in moderation - Throughout the game, the player will find upgrades to their abilities and find better weapons. We're not going to get crazy with this one since the point of the game is to have fun, and not noodle around in your inventory. If something is tedious, don't expect us to do it.
* Multiple ways to solve a problem - We're going to assume our players are smart and want to find creative solutions to problems/enemies. We'll provide the tools/weapons/abilities, and the player will decide how they want to solve the problem given their playstyle.
I know that isn't very detailed, but it's still early in the game’s development, and things can change. Those rules above are what we're confident in delivering. At the end of the day, we always ask ourselves “What would Looking Glass do?” and strive to carry on their tradition of innovation and quality while being as faithful as we can be to the original game."
As you can see, these are all fairly reasonable "rules" and that is a very good thing since System Shock Remastered, despite being successfully Kickstarted at $1,115,701, is still on a bit of a budget and as such can't afford to go outlandish with the RPG mechanics. Its easy to start adding new features and promise the stars right now, but once it comes down to actually delivering on those promises, then things start getting a bit sketchy. Its best to keep things simple but effective, and I'm incredibly happy the developers have decided to go down that route as it a great assurance that this project will one day see the light of release.
Speaking of which, if you would like to contribute to the Kickstarter you still have 3 days to do so. The cheapest tier that will net you a digital copy of the game is set at $30, and in order to give you an idea of what you're going to be putting your money towards, the developers released a free demo on Steam.