For many of the older video game aficionados, System Shock is a household name. Not only did it pioneer the vaguely-defined genre of the so-called 'immersive sim' games, but it also brought with it a creeping dread not often found in video games at the time. It wasn't enough that you were terrified of anything and everything as you crept around the broken-down corridors of that corpse of a space station, but you also had to contend with the unnerving presence of the artificial intelligence of SHODAN.
Sadly, whereas its successor, System Shock 2, received loads of modding support, the original game received virtually none. Now that's about to change with the release of System Shock ReWired, a new fan custom campaign for System Shock 1.
Whereas mods can mostly bring System Shock 2 up to date in regard to graphics and the like, the same cannot be said for the series' progenitor. Quite the contrary, the original System Shock is quite ugly, rugged and borderline uncontrollable at times. Even then, it retains a significant portion of its charm, and after close to two-and-a-half decades, the modding community has finally birthed a whole new campaign for the game, called simply: 'ReWired'.
System Shock: ReWired offers an extremely impressive amount of stuff packed in its tiny filesize of 250 kb. What you will find here are 3 brand new levels that are branched out into non-linear playgrounds each, 4 new cyberspace sections to shoot your way through, completely new puzzles, logs and more!
The campaign of ReWired is set in the damp hallways of UNN Bismarck, a medical vessel that has been taken over by SHODAN. Once aboard, the player will have to seek out the source of this technological, but also biological infestation and root it out completely. The premise itself is, of course, fairly close to that of the original game, but that's just how it goes, and not to mention the fact that this is the very first fully-fledged mod campaign ever released for System Shock.
Since the mod is compatible both with the original build of the game as well as with the more up-to-date GOG version, there's no reason for you to skip out on this release if you're a fan of retro gaming.
