Windows

System Shock 2

How's your memory, mobygamers?

Here's the deal: I'm at the "Deck 5 - Crew Quarters" level, OK? I'm instructed to get all 4 pieces of the code to activate a transmitter of sorts, adequately located above a basketball court (?). The pieces of said code are hidden in plain sight in several of those pictures that decorate some walls. After some meandering around, I got my code. According to the pieces I found, it would be either [64587] or [68457]. Right? Apparently not. None of those work. After trying about seven hundred thousand ways of mixing and matching the pieces of code, I give up and go get a walkthrough. Everyone else had the code [14106]. Wha--? One guy even has the screenshots to prove it. I go back to my game, go back to every single picture; my code is definitely either [64587] or [68457], man! But, out of pure desperation, I go to the transmitter thing and type in 14106. Poof! It works. Well, fuck me.

Anyway, Shodan has this little argument with Xerxes, and afterwards she, it, whatever, instructs me to go back to Ops (that would be Deck 4) and re-program the three Sim Units. That was what I did to complete that level, so it would be more like re-re-programming, but whatever. Only, damn, I can't even remember where those things were, but OK, let's do it. I wander around Deck 4 for a few minutes and find one of the Sim Units. Only there isn't a single thing I can do with it: Right click, left click, double click, middle-button click, shoot, hit with a melee weapon, curse out loud --The thing won't pay any attention to me. Crap. Back to those walkthroughs then. Up there, everyone tells me to go to the big elevator thing in the middle of Deck 5, which will take me to Deck 6 --What? Hum, OK, Shodan told me otherwise, but let's try that. You were right about that code anyway. Only I can't use the elevator up at Deck 5, since Xerxes has it locked or something. Now what? I checked about half a dozen walkthroughs, and every single one of them tells me the same: After inputting the code at the basketball court antennae thingie, head to the elevator in the center of Deck 5 and proceed to Deck 6. Nothing about going back to Deck 4 to re-re-program those fucking Sim thingies. But Shodan told me to do it. In fact, it's listed as my next to-do thing, which is also the only to-do thing I got blank. And, furthermore, I can not fucking use the elevator up at the center of Deck 5. So, I'm stuck. I'm stucker than stuck.

So, my question, I guess, would be: Does anyone remember anything like this? Is this a bug so complex it even sports deliberatedly wrong gameplay instructions complete with voiceovers and all? Do I have a real Shodan that's connected to my PC and re-making the puzzles in the game so they don't respond to any walkthrough on Earth to drive me crazy? I don't know, I'm lost here people, so any help will be appreciated.

Dude, I wish I could help you, but I ain't there yet. I'm still in the Hydro... whatever deck, the one with the creepy goo all over. I've got to find 4 thingies and put them into 4 environment regulators or something like that.

And... you said SHODAN was giving you instructions? I'm still working for Dr. Polito, no sight of SHODAN yet. It would be nice to meet her, although why would you work for her? Don't tell me it's the same like with Atlas in "Bioshock"...

I remeber going to Deck 6 before Deck 5, but I believe you can tackle those in any order. As for the sim units, I remember having to track down three red ninjas across Deck 4 (there should be an audio log talking about how the IT head reprogrammed the sim units and gave the codes to his three "special friends"). So, kill each of those red ninjas and get a colour coded card. They're the same colours as the sim units, use the right card on the right colour = reprogrammed sim unit.

That's what I remember anyway. Strange that it's not in any walkthrough.




.... *cough cough*

*cough cough*

Yeah, I think that probably warranted a spoiler warning.

Well, I got it solved via the good ol' "reload an early save and do the whole thing all over again". Apparently, the game didn't count the three Sim units as reprogrammed, even though I'm positive I did get them all. In any case, that's old history now, I'm almost done with Deck 6 and I guess I'm getting close to the end, so dog help me I guess :P

On a little side note: In the last few minutes I got an INSANE amount of cyber modules. Suddenly I got almost every single level up to the max and I'm carrying all kinds of weapons (most of which I'm still learning about), and all of them are modified at least at level 1. Looks like they're preparing me for something... :dread:

Oh, one more thing, since we're on this: Is it just me, or are the psi powers completely useless?


You think? Every single SS2-related article, website, picture or whatever out there features Shodan's big menacing stare prominently. I didn't even know who/what the hell Shodan was when I started the game, but I already knew I'd end up working for her/it sooner or later.

Psi powers are pretty useless. It's a different experience if you play through as a pure OSS agent and are forced to rely on them. You can get through the game that way, but you have to force yourself into it. For supplementing a weapons or tech character, I found them bleh.

One of my favorite things in SS2 was the 'psi pull' power (which popped up again, with more useful capabilities, in BioShock). Unfortunately, there were exactly FIVE places in the game that I actually found a use for the power. Seriously - just five objects that are high-up, out-of-reach, only available through psionic powers. And every time, it's just a few nanites or bullets. Psi-pull is so cool but so pointless :P

[Side note: I really think SS2 is a 'grower' - at least, for me. I know, I know, most people love it the first time they play it. However, I found it very lackluster the first time, a bit better the second time (but still not great) and now... dammit, I'm itching to play it again! Maybe the third time will be the charm?]

Yeah, I think that probably warranted a spoiler warning.

Well, I know I'll meet SHODAN sooner or later, because she's on the cover and all, and I knew you were going to work for her, because it was mentioned on another SS2 forum. But I ain't there yet, still working for the annoying lady doctor, so don't spoil for me the details of my second (after the first SS) encounter with the mischievous, malevolent, magnificent computer babe.

This just reminded me of how long it takes to play through SS2. I've been playing this for 4 months or more, in doses of 30 mins to 1 hr because the game ate my nerves. A bit like a really good TV series you come back to every week, drooling for the next episode. Great game. ^^

I'm playing it now... Wandering through the Body of the Many... my last save says 11 hours, but somehow it seems so much longer... it was years ago when the scared marine first stepped into the abandoned science sector... and now I'm nearing the end... the radioactive tunnels with the nerve cluster made me nearly run out of medical hypos... and I have to defeat the Many... What will happen afterwards? Will I merge with SHODAN? Will I have to defeat her as well? Will I be able to cast a spell on her, turning her into a real girl, and have sex with her? Man, now that would be a great ending...:)

Not to spoil anything else, but the ending is great right up until the last cutscene.

Curious to hear what you think of the whole experience after you finish.

Ha ha! Yes, the final cutscene :D

Best not to say anything more...

Ha ha! Yes, the final cutscene :D

No sex with SHODAN, right? Somehow I knew that... :(

Those hentai games have really messed you up man.

Not to spoil anything else, but the ending is great right up until the last cutscene.

I was thrilled by the layout and ambience of the last level, but found the actual gameplay climax to be incredibly disappointing.

Well, I have to agree. But let's remember how lame the final showdown was in System Shock 1!

Well, just finished it last night. The final fight was incredibly lame, and also so unveliably impossible I could only beat with applying a cheat. I don't know whether my pc's too fast for this or what, but that thing would run around so fast I just wouldn't have time to properly aim, let alone do that other thing you need to do >:(

Anyway, the final cutscene is fugly as hell, but I did like the ending. It wasn't exactly worth calling mom at this time at night to tell her about it or anything, but adding those two to the main plot in such a way at the last minute was a nice touch. Especially since I had been following their own sub-story with great interest throughout the entire game.

This game SO deserves a remake with better balanced gameplay (meaning a better engine for the shooting parts and the addition of psi powers that are actually worth your cash) and nice graphics. Can't believe I missed it back in the day.

Well, just finished it last night.

Congrats, Doc! The funny part that I also finished it last night :)

The final fight was incredibly lame, and also so unveliably impossible I could only beat with applying a cheat. I don't know whether my pc's too fast for this or what, but that thing would run around so fast I just wouldn't have time to properly aim, let alone do that other thing you need to do

Wait a sec... we are talking about System Shock 2, right? The "thing" (if you mean the final boss) doesn't run at all... just sits there. All you have to do is to hack the three terminals, the shields drop, and then just a couple of shots into it... it's over. In fact, I found the final battle unbelievably easy compared to the rest of the game.

Now the battle against the Many - that was a nightmare. I guess you probably mean that one, right? Shooting into stars and all? While avoiding the 34589076 rumblers and the "I won't die till you destroy my brains which are stored somewhere else for convenience" guys.

The battle in Cyberspace? That wasn't too bad, I thought. The end cutscene was short, but fitting.

That final battle with The Many was stupidly easy. I just ran in circles round it, with a whole line of Rumblers chasing me. It was ridiculous, as they run at exactly the same speed as you, so they can never catch you. For someone watching from afar, it would've looked like some old-fashioned comedy sketch :)

That final battle with The Many was stupidly easy. I just ran in circles round it, with a whole line of Rumblers chasing me. It was ridiculous, as they run at exactly the same speed as you, so they can never catch you. For someone watching from afar, it would've looked like some old-fashioned comedy sketch :)

LOl, I did just the same thing, but how in hell did you find it easy to stop and to aim at those spinning stars?! Not to mention the floating dudes who shoot at you all the time. Man, that was a hard battle! Of course, after the reavers were eliminated, 48976 medical hypos used, and 358907 bullets of anti-personal ammo wasted on re-spawning rumblers, I managed to hit one star per circus run...

Maybe I hit a (quite useful if it was indeed the case) bug or something, but the moment I destroyed the six hidden brains and started whipping the last floating thing's ass, the rumblers just turned around and went away on their own. So much for loyalty and the collective mind and whatnot :P I was left alone with the brain thing and I took all the time in the world to destroy it.

The fight I was talking about was the last one, indeed. The head does sit in the middle of the room, but there's some kind of full-bodied ghostly projection that keeps respawning over and over again and runs around at demon speed shooting fireballs or something --that's the one that drove me crazy. Maybe the ghost is just something that appears in my copy? o__O I certainly saw a thing or two nobody else seems to have seen, so I'm seriously thinking this copy it's haunted :P

Don't worry - I saw them too :) Some kind of strange Shodan Juniors running around. And they did give me a bit of trouble.

the rumblers just turned around and went away on their own

Really? I guess they liked you, then. In my case, they wouldn't stop attacking till I jumped into the destroyed brain. Maybe they don't like Jews or something.

but there's some kind of full-bodied ghostly projection that keeps respawning over and over again and runs around at demon speed shooting fireballs or something

Oh, I see, and you tried to kill those projections? Well, then I guess it would be impossible. You shouldn't pay attention to those creatures. Hacking three computer terminals is a matter of several seconds if you've conserved your ICE picks. Then, killing the bad girl is a matter of other few seconds.

Overall, the final fight took me less than a minute, while the fight with the Many (dying and reloading included, of course) took roughly two hours.

In defense of the PSI powers, getting Tier Four and Photonic Redirection (invisibility) is worth it for the Body of The Many level alone.

Then, of course, there's the regeneration in Tier Two. Easily the most useful power in the whole game, IMO.

As you are playing SS2 in 2008, I'm wondering if you run it with Windows XP or a previous version ( Win 95/98/2000 ). I want to play SS2 again, 9 years after, but, first there's an incompatibility with Win XP, second I didn't find any valuable patch to update the game. Have you any hint about it?

You see, I have 3 computers at home, a Pentium III with Windows 98, an early Athlon with XP, and the most powerful one, Quad-Speed thing, also with XP.

Now, I played the entire game on the first computer. I tried playing it on the third, but it didn't run, it crashed just after the menu.

However, I remember attempting to play SS2 on my second computer (the Athlon one with XP), and I think it ran flawlessly. So I think that perhaps XP is not the problem, maybe it's CPU or graphics card or whatever.

I used to be able to run SS2 under XP, but didn't play very far. I later reinstalled it on the same computer with the same OS and it always crashed after the training. It's probably not impossible to run it under XP, but a lot of people seem to have some trouble with it.

Me, I played it on XP Proffessional SP2. I did apply a hell of a lot of patches before playing the game; most of them were meant to enhance the graphics, but maybe there was one or two that fixed some compatibility issues, I can't remember clearly. I could upload the entire package to rapidshare or something like that, and you could give them a try if you're interested.

In any case, I can confirm a problem with dual-core processors, as I ran into it when I upgraded my PC: You can see the menues, but as soon as you enter the game the computer will crash badly. The solution for this is: Run game, when you're at the menu alt-tab back to Windows, fire up the task manager (ctrl+alt+del), go to the "processes" tab, right click on the SS2-related process and choose "affinity", then deactivate the second core in the window that pops up. Go back to the game and it will run smooth as silk :D

Not only dual-core, but single core hyper threaded (like late P4) solutions are also susceptible to that problem. I ran into that crash problem as well. It can be cured the same way.

I'm interested in your package, because it looks like there is no other way to run SS2 with Windows XP. Of course I could try to play on my old PC but I'm afraid his Winwows version is only the 3.11 one, and I don't know what happened to my updating CD or diskette for Win 98 or 2000.

Carefully look through this forum thread and I'm sure SHODAN's butt will get kicked once again in no time.

I'm sending it up to rapidshare as I type this. As soon as it's done I'll PM you.

Thanks Doc, I'll try your way and let you know the result.