It’s not that there are a lot of secrets to find in the 2023 remake of System Shock as that most of the game’s events are kind of a secret by modern standards. One of the less dramatic events you can find in Citadel Station, however, is a peculiar cameo by a few old friends. Here’s where to find the Mystery Science Theater 3000/RiffTrax cameo appearance in System Shock.
And Other Science Facts: Where to Find the Hidden Audio Log in System Shock
If you’re like me (and I know I am), you may have looked at the achievements list in System Shock and noted there’s one called “In the Not Too Distant Future,” with an icon that looks like Crow T. Robot. It’s linked to finding “the hidden Audio Log.”
This isn’t that difficult to figure out, but you can’t get it until relatively late in the game. It also requires significant backtracking.
You’ll first need to find the Turbo-Motion Boots v3, which can be found out in the open in the Delta Quadrant of the Engineering Deck.
The Boots cost energy to use, and let you hover, slow your descent, and make surprisingly floaty, long-distance jumps. The Boots v3 give you significantly more vertical reach and are necessary to unlock a few particularly well-hidden secrets throughout Citadel Station.
Once you have the Boots, return to the Executive Deck and head west, into the big fancy theater. You may have come through here while you were exploring earlier, but there isn’t much to the theater aside from a hard-to-find Medpatch. There are a lot of rooms like this in Citadel Station.
If you stand in the theater and look up, however, you may notice a skybox seat with a broken railing.
It’s too high to reach with v2 Boots, but the v3 gives you just enough additional vertical reach that you can get through the gap in the skybox’s rail.
When you’re up there, you’ll find a dead human and two destroyed robots sitting in a very particular order, with an audio log on the ground behind them.
Pick up and play the audio log to unlock the “In the Not Too Distant Future” achievement for System Shock, as well as a short black-comedy bit by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy.
Why are they here? What happened? Is SHODAN dabbling in assassinating beloved nerd-comedy figures from 50 years ago? Who knows? Either way, that’s where you get that achievement and find the MST3K Easter Egg in System Shock. Now leave me alone. I’m bitter.
