Description
2072; orbiting Saturn aboard TriOptimum Corporation's Citadel space station. You awaken from a six-month healing coma with a broken memory and a newly-installed cybernetic interface to discover that most of the other occupants of the station are dead... or worse. The station's self-sufficient AI, SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) has assumed total control and seems hell-bent on destroying all human life. TriOptimum believes you are Citadel's last hope. Can you save yourself and smash SHODAN's evil plans?
System Shock incorporates first-person shooter and adventure gameplay styles, with role-playing elements thrown in. To complete the game, you'll have to explore the ten levels of Citadel, solving puzzles, fighting enemies and fulfilling objectives.
On your way, you'll encounter numerous enemies - robots, cyborgs and mutants, all of which can be fought back with a variety of weapons. Some of the weapons use ammo, while other have infinite ammo and instead draw on your electric energy. Some weapons are more effective on certain foes - e.g. the dart gun only works on organic enemies, while the magpulse is best used against robots. Once killed, the enemies can be searched for ammo and other items. You can also find items in crates, cabinets, corpses or just lying around on the ground.
Apart from weapons and ammo, you'll find patches (such as medical patches, which replenish your health; berserk patches, which temporarily increase your strength but cause hallucinations; detox patches, which remove the harmful effects of radiation and biohazard; etc.), grenades of various kinds (EMP grenades work great on robots, gas grenades are good for mutants, land mines can be used to set traps, etc.), battery packs for replenishing electricity, first aid kits for restoring health, and others.
Thanks to your implant, you can install various pieces of hardware into your body, such as a booster which makes you go faster, or a head lantern to bright up dark areas. As you progress in the game, you'll find higher versions of existing hardware, which are more effective and useful. However, most hardware uses up your electric energy while it's active.
At some places in the game, you have to find a wall-mounted "cyberjack" to go into cyberspace in order to find data that will help you, remotely open doors or unlock sealed areas, or give yourself clearance to access off-limits areas. Cyberspace is represented as a 3-D wireframe place, where you fly around freely in three dimensions, shoot hostile cyber-guards with phasers, and collect files represented as colorful cubes.
The story of the game is mostly told through e-mail messages you receive, and electronic diaries (logs) left by various characters (as well as SHODAN herself), which are scattered around the space station.
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
The Press Says
| High Score |
DOS |
Jan, 1995 |
5 out of 5 |
100 |
| Just Adventure |
DOS |
Feb 07, 2002 |
A |
100 |
| Abandonia |
DOS |
Mar 06, 2009 |
5 out of 5 |
100 |
| Just Games Retro |
DOS |
Jul 24, 2004 |
98 out of 100 |
98 |
| Pelit |
DOS |
Jul, 1994 |
97 out of 100 |
97 |
| PC Gamer |
DOS |
Jan, 1995 |
96 out of 100 |
96 |
| MikroBitti |
DOS |
Nov, 1994 |
93 out of 100 |
93 |
| PC Games (Germany) |
DOS |
Oct, 1994 |
90 out of 100 |
90 |
| Power Play |
DOS |
Nov, 1994 |
87 out of 100 |
87 |
| GameCola.net |
DOS |
Nov, 2008 |
7 out of 10 |
70 |
Forums
Trivia
The CD-ROM version adds SVGA modes, full speech for e-mails and logs, slightly improved intro/end sequences and a few other adjustments and additions.
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There were rumours of a possible sequel, soon after System Shock's release, but fans had to wait five years for
System Shock 2.
