The System Shock remake is getting a massive patch with a revised ending, choice of female player character '8 years in the making', and a significant quality of life improvement

Nightdive's System Shock, our pick for best remake of 2023, is getting its largest patch to date, including a revised ending sequence, choice of gender for the Hacker, optional waypoints, and more. The overhaul update is set to go live on April 11, so you might want to put off diving into a new run for a week.

Let's start with the lady Hacker, as she actually seems to have been in the works the longest. "[Hacker gender choice] was a stretch goal for Kickstarter oh, seven, eight years in the making," Nightdive founder Stephen Kick told me in an interview at the Game Developers Conference ahead of the announcement. «We knew we wanted to patch that in, it was just one of those things that we knew wouldn't have any kind of immediate effect on gameplay, but just having that option kind of adds to the immersive quality of the game.»

Even though the change involves a complete model rework and new voiceover grunts, it'll be a subtle difference in-game given that System Shock is entirely first person and the Hacker's a silent protagonist: You only see them from afar in beginning and ending cutscenes, as well as an iconic, gruesome game over scene. Still, as Kick pointed out, this choice can add so much to immersion and roleplay. «It's one of those early gaming staples, where it's an everyman or everywoman kind of scenario.

»You could put yourself in the shoes of the character and kind of project yourself into the world as opposed to there being a preset personality that you're playing as."

Kick and Nightdive business development director Larry Kuperman were more tight-lipped about what the 1.2 update's «Upgraded Ending» entails, but they both agreed that it's «worth replaying.» Kick acknowledged that the move was in response to criticism of the game's original final boss, a virtual reality puzzle/shooter section with different mechanics from both System Shock's regular immersive sim gameplay, as well as the other VR sections throughout the campaign.

«A lot of the criticism