Personally, I've never played System Shock 2, so I don't know how much this lifts from it, and I didn't like System Shock 1, but this I kinda dig. It's intuitive enough to keep you wanting to explore its world. There's some pretty decent writing, and the basic combat functions competently, though not great. But that's okay, because exploration is what this is game is all about.

Compared to System Shock 1, the interface and controls are way simpler and easier to interact with, so they don't get in the way of the gameplay. You can dual-wield, which usually means holding a flashlight in one hand, and easily switch between weapons with a mouse wheel, though I would've preferred binding weapons to digit keys. Weirdly, to reload, you have to hold down R and then click the mouse button corresponding to the hand you're holding the weapon in. I guess that's to give you more control over what you want to reload, but it made me spend like 30 minutes thinking you can't reload a gun until the clip is near-empty.

There isn't really much to say about the core gameplay: you're literally just exploring, key-hunting, picking up notes and shooting enemies.

But man, this game needs A LOT of polish. So I'm gonna just mention a few things that I think need improvement:

1. The game looks like it's from 1996, but runs like the latest Call of Duty. Very optimization, and almost no graphics settings. All you can do is turn off a couple of effects.
2. But not all effects. There's still some very modern-looking lighting. That looks disgusting to me. I hate when retro graphics are mixed with modern effects. To quote a youtuber I used to watch as a teen, when he was talking about fan builds of Quake 2 with "upgraded" graphics, "it's like taking an old lady and dressing her up like a hooker." I understand that it's a matter of taste, but why force these effects on the player? Just give us the option to turn them off.
3. This game really really needs a map. I mean, from what I've played the level design seemed intuitive enough that I was able to figure out where to go, but I foresee getting lost at some point in a game like this.
4. Also give me the ability to save wherever I want. I get that this might be against the game's vision or some shit, but having no ability to save makes me less experimental and increases the risk of me dropping the game at some point, if I run into a situation where I die a couple of times and have to replay the same like 15-minute portion of the game, because it only lets you save at specific spots. I mean, fans of Resident Evil might like this, but not me.
5. Make the player automatically pick-up ammunition. It's really annoying when you wanna loot a corpse and they have an item you want and a gun that you already have, so you can't just click "retreieve all items" because then you'll quickly fill your inventory with repeated guns. So what you have to do instead is right-click on the gun and select "pick up ammunition", forcing you to basically pick up the other items manually. It's just a chore.
6. Voice-acting. I found kinda hilarious that the local Cortana lookalike speaks with this noticeable vocal fry. It sounds like the dev got his sister to voice her. And there's one of type of enemy that makes this super loud grunt that you can't tell where it's coming from. Like, the enemy might be in front of you, but the sound almost sounds like it comes from behind.

I'd love to return to this game in the future. I hope these things get patched, and then I'll probably raise the rating too. It's just a few things holding it back from realizing its potential.