Fans of the legendary action role-playing survival horror video game have yet another thing to look forward to because Nightdive Studios has recently revealed that System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition will feature a fully playable VR mode.
The enhanced edition of System Shock 2 was first announced in August 2019, during the studio’s stream celebrating the game’s 20th anniversary. This January, Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick shared the first hint of the studio’s plan, when he tweeted a screenshot showing a VR controller being used to play a prototype of the game.
“During the process of reverse-engineering the missing libraries for System Shock 2, we had an opportunity to play around with the idea of creating a standalone VR version,” explained Kick during his IGN interview. “And so we brought on an [VR] expert to look about the cod and give us a brief idea of what kind of things we could do.”
Inspired by Valve’s hit VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, Nightdive Studios realized that virtual reality could greatly improve players’ immersion in the game and improve the overall gameplay.
The standalone VR version of System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition is still in the early stages of development, so it won’t be out anytime soon, and certainly not before the main System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition release. Once it does finally arrive on PC, it will support cross-platform play, allowing a player with a VR headset to play together with a friend without one.
Nightdive Studios is also working on a remake of the original System Shock, which was supposed to be released in 2020 but ended up delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
