System Shock 2

The Good
God only knows why the sequel to System Shock was released even after the original did not make enough copies. System Shock 2 takes place in 2114, which is 42 years after SHODAN was hacked on Citadel Station. The starship Von Braun, which is owned by TriOptimum, is claimed to be the first faster-than-light vessel in human history. But not everything is what it seems to be.

Before the game begins, you must do some basic training, followed by one of three advanced ones, than you have a choice of being in the marines, the navy, or the OSA. After the training, the real game begins. You are faced with the same situation of SS1. You are transported to somewhere, put to sleep in a cryo tube, then wake up in the medical deck with no memory of the past few weeks, realizing that something is wrong, as you see people dead on the floor and an evil alien race, simply known as The Many, running around all over the place.

You are also given a more cybernetic interface which is more advanced than the one in SS1. You can store more inventory, and refer to the map, find out what your current mission objectives are, and research items that you have found. But what you do in the game will depend on your profession, and the skills that you acquire for it. If you join the marines, you will spend a lot of time in the game shooting at everything (alive or not), but if you have joined the navy, expect to hack locked doors and security systems. If you are with the OSA, you get to develop psionic powers such as the ability to pull objects toward you, stop alarms, do more damage to aliens, and heaps more.

This game is basically about exploring. Explore all areas and you may accomplish a task given to you by a fellow crew member or SHODAN herself. More often than not, audio logs can be picked up. Playing these logs is important as door keycodes and secondary objectives are given to you, plus some rather interesting information about experiments involving monkeys and conversations involving other crew members.

You have an arsenal of weapons that you can use to take out enemies, and these include the shotgun, plus some energy weapons like the laser pistol and the EMP rifle. With the exception of these two weapons, ammunition is fairy limited, but unlike SS1 where you have to search dead corpses, you have something called a replicator, which allows you to buy ammunition for whatever weapon for a certain number of nanites, which can be lowered if you are able to hack the replicator. Energy weapons need to be restored using an energy unit.

Most of the enemies you meet have good AI. When they see you, they tend to follow you around all over the place like puppy dogs. What gave me the creeps is the protocol droid. Not only does he sway left and right while he walks, he looks hideous as well. The hybrids, the first enemies that you meet in the game, attack with a shotgun at first, then manage to throw grenades even when you are on a deck up. There are security cameras that actually do something, alerting The Many to your presence. They are able to find you, no matter whether you think you are hidden.

In almost every area that you go to, there is always machinery in each corner of a room, operating at its full potential. There are also flashing monitors that are similar to the ones in SS1. System Shock 2 is supposed to be scary, and this is demonstrated by the dark lighting in some areas, and the creepy music, as well as certain enemy sounds. Later in the game, you must perform tasks for SHODAN. Her voice sometimes gives me the creeps, especially when she stutters.

To distract you from your mission, there are mini-games that you may pick up along the way. These games have interesting objectives. (One game is an adventure where you must slay goblins, while another is a clone of Minesweeper where you must avoid revealing corn.) Also, these games look much better in your PDA than they do in the pissy 128x128 square that they are restricted to in the original.

The Bad
You get e-mails throughout the game which give you new objectives and some “cyber modules” which you can use to upgrade your stats throughout the game, and they play automatically. Playing them the first time is useless as you usually fight off enemies when they are playing, so you have to go to one of those quiet spots, and listen to them again there. Listening to them a second time is not worth it, considering that you have to get from point A to point B in limited time.

Even though they do not affect the game in any way, there are a couple of bugs. One of them allows you to jump out a window and go through a little spacewalk. If I do this, I fall down quite a distance and cannot get back inside the building.

The training is useful, but it would be better if there was an option that allowed you to return to the training immediately, instead of having to start a new game and do it again if you happen to forget how to do things.

I recently brought a copy of System Shock 2 which only lets you watch cut-scenes only once. Subsequently, the game just bypasses them, making me feel that I am actually playing a CD-Rip that has the cut-scenes removed from it. Installing the only patch to the game did not work, so the only way that I can watch those cut-scenes again is if I crash the game on purpose, forcing me to reboot the computer and starting the game again.

The Bottom Line
System Shock 2 is similar to its predecessor. You are faced with the same situation of waking up from a deep sleep to a massacre. Before that, you have to do some training, and this is really good because it lets you know how to perform certain tasks, and if you forget during the game, you can always go right back to the start and repeat the training. Also, SHODAN is back. Only this time, you work for her instead of against her when you get proper into the game.

I agree that System Shock 2 is scary. It has scary music and some dark lighting that gives the game its scary feeling. You also get to hear some scary e-mails. So in conclusion if you are going to play the game, then be prepared to be scared.

The Good
Ok, so I can do what most people did and pick out the individual aspects of the game. Which of course, is perfectly acceptable. Except this game transcends it's parts. The pure game experience is what it's about, the quality of the graphics and whatever just affect this and make the experience better or worse. I'll just mention some of these anyway: -The graphics have aged well generally. The lighting is still quite advanced and the look is very smooth. -The sound is the best in any game yet. I can't stress this one enough. Everything about the way this is structured audibly is peerless. The use of total silence, the haunting voice of The Many that drifts between speakers, SHODAN's bioelectrical crackle that accompanies hers, the squealing sound of many of the enemies...I could go on. Also the voice acting is really terrific. Dead serious, and cleverly changed when you know The Many has a hold on them. -The ship design is great. It looks the business, and the atmosphere created through the lighting and sound makes it believable. -It's an RPG. You can develop your character's stats. Albeit, not in a big way. -The AI is pretty intelligent.

So far, this game wouldn't be anything very special(ish). But it has a feeling and a magic that is impossible to describe. It's the genius of Looking Glass. The emotions that it brings out in you; fear, isolation, depravity, loss, paranoia...Ok, they may be the easiest of emotions to play with at this stage in computer gaming. We certainly can't do love yet. But they're so extreme it's incredible. It's a shattering experience, and there is no game like it. Plus; the immersion is SO great, you FORGET yourself whilst playing. You forget you're playing a game, you forget life. You are placed into this world and that is all that exists. If you ever feel really angry, play this game. It turns everything you feel into fear and survival. No game can do this except System Shock 2. Fact.

The Bad
Nothing is perfect. The stats system is not balanced well, some missions seem seperate and pointless in regards to the plot. The monsters are a bit cartoony. Rickenbacker was a little annoying to play and I wasn't to keen on the level design. And it doesn't build up to a huge crescendo at the end. There are tiny things that could annoy you but who cares? Given the quality of the gaming experience, any bad point seems like nit-picking.

The Bottom Line
It really IS genius because it has something that no other game has. Don't ask me to describe it. You can't ask a poet to explain every metaphor. Just play it. You won't forget it.

The Good
I love the story, the plot and the way it is presented. Finding all those small hints like audio-files, etc. keeps the experience very intense. The atmosphere created in this game is beyond description. I screamed and jumped up several times in my chair in front of the screen, because the way the enemies were presented and placed "scared the hell out of me". The level design and the tasks you have to fulfill are great, never boring and always an interesting challenge.

The Bad
It's extremely tough even at the easy level for a casual FPS-gamer like me. I really had a lot of troubles because of the sparse number of ammo. Sometimes the advices given by the advisor were a bit difficult to follow, especially because they changed all the time. But I suppose that's mostly a problem for beginner like me. The main problem with this game is: it's a time thief, it steels almost all my after work time.

The Bottom Line
System Shock is a wonderful experience for every gamer who loves to be sucked in into a virtual world. The immersion in this game is quite unreached and there are only a few games which give you such an intense experience of being in a virtual world.