Lead art director Evelyn Mansell says in a game you want a gun “that does weird things.
What separates a good one from a bad one.
Whether or notDoom 3s shotgun is one of the good ones (it is).
There wasnt much to see in the original - nothing beyond the tip of a barrel.
Here, the weapons are very much the star of the show.
Heavy, industrial things covered in thumb-print smeared LCD screens and superfluous greeblies.
NERF guns that’ve been painted by a 12-year-old and covered in spaceship parts.
The idea was to make it look like a miniature, like something built for a movie.
Everything has an exaggerated physicality that makes System Shocks tech feel more like a movie prop or a replica.
All of Robbs designs would make excellent toys.
That really fed into the new aesthetic.
Theres all this grunge as if everything has been covered in artificial weathering and oil washes, she says.
The team mostly trusted in the players willing suspension of disbelief to do a lot of the leg work.
A consistent art style sticks with people much longer.
I ask Mansell how you even set about trying to do something new with something old.
They set out to recreate the game as people remembered it, not updating it exactly as it was.
Messages are stored on USB sticks.
Readouts are shown on CRT monitors.
There arent any touch-screens in sight, everything is interacted with via big chunky buttons and heavy leavers.
It definitely comes through in the game itself - everything is very industrial and lived in.
All of the physical, grimy tech helps sell the station as an active work-place.
Theres been an obvious effort to avoid sleek, clean sci-fi, as Mansell puts it.
Its the difference between an oil rig and corporate offices.
Its in the weapons where you’re able to see these ideas come together.
We really wanted to give the feeling of campy, movie props, she explains.
Its fascinating to hear just how much is involved in making a shooty thing for a videogame.
We talk for a long time about video game guns.
How do you determine a good videogame gun from a bad one?
It makes me think about how to use it, the gameplay implications it offers.
As Mansell puts it, the other aspect is aesthetics - how does it feel?
Mansell feels that all these little effects and touches all pour into making these things great.
And whether or not it has cool little vents on the side?
And whether or not it has cool vents on the side, yeah.
