System Shock Remake Gets Major Update with Expanded Final Encounter, Female Protagonist

The update brings a host of new content to the System Shock remake, including balance changes and gameplay content.

Developer Nightdive Studios has released a new update for the PC version of its System Shock remake. The update, numbered at 1.2, brings with it a host of new content, including a new female hacker protagonist, gameplay enhancements, and an expanded ending.

On installing the update, players will be able to pick the new female protagonist through the New Game Configuration screen. As for the reworked ending, the final encounter against antagonist SHODAN now features a new cyberspace domain, complete with new gameplay mechanics. Check out the full patch notes below.

Studio founder Stephen Kick had spoken about the contents of the new update earlier this month. For context, the ability to choose the protagonist’s gender was originally mentioned as one of the stretch goals for System Shock remake’s Kickstarter campaign. Kick spoke about the choice, while not having a direct impact on gameplay, allows players to project themselves into the world.

The System Shock remake was released on PC back in 2023. Since then, console versions for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S has also been announced for a May 21 release.

PATCH NOTES:

A female Hacker has now been added as a playable character

– Select the Hacker’s appearance from the New Game Configuration screen

Reworked the entire final fight with new mechanics and a unique flow

– Face and defeat (?) Shodan once more in her new cyberspace domain

Cloud Sync support has been added

– You can now pick up and continue your game on whichever machine you find yourself on.

Other major changes

Alpha Strain enemies have a new attack
Avian Mutant enemies have a new attack
Cyborg Diego has new movement options
Continued refining enemy AI and behaviors
Mission waypoints have been implemented for (Easy mission difficulty)
Better Gamepad handling and implementation
Major optimizations across the entire game — Steam Deck users rejoice!
Achievements are properly awarded when completing the requirements
Some first person Hacker animations have been corrected
General combat and speed balance adjustments across enemies and weapons
Credits added to the Title Screen
Improved quest logic behavior across several areas of the game
Players can now no longer save over the AutoSave, and the AutoSave will now only appear in the Load Game menu
Game Over screen can now be skipped
Recycle Station ‘inventory’ size has increased to 4×3 from 3×3 to allow recycling of bigger junk items. Scrapper rejoice!
The max payout from a Recycle Station is now 120 Credits
EMP stun duration has been reduced by 25%
SHODAN will lock the Research control room door if the player fires the Mining Laser at Earth
Detox patch now has a 25% protection bonus against environment hazards while active
Fix a soft lock that could occur when dying while interacting with a Surgery Machine
Items dropped inside of elevators should no longer disappear
Pathfinding performance improvements in Flight Deck and Groves
Fix a case where the player was able to clip through the world by loading games while crouched
Fix a case where plasma projectile FX would spawn every frame and wouldn’t clean up properly, causing major frame drops

Minor changes

Easier to see total counts of collected Media items
Added a button to the entrance of the Security level to ensure you can backtrack to the rest of the Station
General FX improvements and tweaks
New artwork on monitors across Citadel Station
Enemy callouts and vocals are less frequent now
Better text sizing for all languages
Jump Jet behavior improved
The color of some projectiles were tweaked
Sped up animations of using Dermal Patches
Enemies who are near Restoration Bays will be teleported to their spawn location to ensure the Hacker doesn’t get softlocked by being killed repeatedly
Save files are now counted incrementally
Fix ups of various Cyberspace levels and enemy placements within
Better handling of Hacker death in unlikely scenarios
SHODAN now has a surprise for the player when Diego is killed on the Security level
Total Enemy Reinforcements have been increased across all levels
Reduced the number of enemies that can bunch up in the same Reinforcement Volume
Enemies will remember the player for longer on all difficulties
Enemy line of checks include the projectile collision radius whenever possible so that their attacks fail less often
Fixed an enemy ambush that wasn’t activating properly in the Medical CPU room if the player comes back later in the game
Kickstarter corpse tokens added to enemies
Enemy awareness in the Flight Deck trap room after saving and loading has been fixed
Diego boss AI adjustments, largely in the first encounter
Cortex Reavers can now perform a strafe jump to more quickly engage the player
Mutated Cyborg and Tiger-Gorilla dismemberment has been fixed
Cyborg Mantis walks faster, will sprint more frequently, and HP increased slightly
Flier-Bots now have an Autocannon in addition to Gas Grenade attacks
Striker-Bots now have a Laser Cannon in addition to Homing Missile attacks
Flier-Bot and Striker-Bot textures have been improved
Fix for Hoppers and Mobile Lasers not being able to hit the player while leaning behind a wall
Security-1 Bot now has a rapid fire attack pose
Cyborg Warrior now has a moving attack similar to the Security-2 Bot
Cyborg Elite Guard head-mounted laser attack damage increased from 60 to 80
Alpha Strain long range attack now has a unique animation
Skorpion default inventory size has been reduced from 4×2 to 3×2
Assault Rifle damage increased slightly from 24 to 25 per round
Plasma Rifle now has an animation to unload the active Plasma Core
Abe Ghiran’s Head inventory size has been increased from 1×1 to 2×2
Missing character portraits have been added
Cyberspace I.C.E Shield FX has been improved
Wire Puzzle has new FX to more clearly indicate the required power level to solve it
Fix for Circuit Puzzle dead-end nodes filling from the wrong side in some cases
Fixed holes in the walls in Research tiles,
Berserk patches now cost 5 Tri-Credits from a dispenser instead of 4
Shotgun ammo cost in Ammo Depots has been reduced from 15 to 14 credits
Loot table adjustments to reduce quantity of ammo received from Exec-Bots, Flier-Bots, Striker-Bots and Cyborg Enforcers
Ammo adjustments in Reactor, Alpha Grove, Delta Grove, Engineering, Security, and Bridge
Reduced the number of First Aid Kit pickups in Flight Deck, Security and Bridge
Assigned the correct idle animation to the Cyborg Drones (No more hovering guns while they are charging)
Jump Jet improvements while in Low Gravity Volumes
Loading a save while falling will properly restore the player’s velocity
Barrel dispensers will no longer drop their dispensed barrels when the player leaves and comes back to a level.
Energy Drain Mines will no longer prepend multiple “Destroyed” strings to their name after being repeatedly destroyed
Fix for player losing Low-Grav/Repulsor mods when switching to certain weapons
Improvements to how the enemy AI handles changing Repulsor Lift direction
Reactor’s Repulsor Lifts have been adjusted slightly to fix potential soft locks
Fix for the player being able to exit the Diego V1 arena by blocking main doorway
Doors will more elegantly restore their collision state when loading a save
Shotgun shell texture has been fixed
Crack-O’s are now no longer considered Junk
Fix for certain wall monitors not breaking when attacked
Fixed small animation issue with the Isolinear Chipset on the Bridge
Fixed sparking cable issues on Maintenance
Fix for several achievements not completing properly
Small text adjustments and spellings
Music playback adjustments
Fixed a potential audio component memory leak when concurrency limits were reached
Added a Controller Vibration accessibility option
Improved gamepad support on MFD
Improved automap performance
Fixed several visual artefacts on the automap
Automap will always update the map info bar with the data for the currently selected level
Implant tooltips will no longer display off the edge of the screen on certain display configs
Fix for the ‘Back’ button on gamepad causing the player to crouch when exiting menus
Credits updated
Other minor improvements, adjustments and balance tweaks