System Shock

The Good
GAMEPLAY: Deep, complex, comfortable, interesting level design, very morbid atmosphere. Tons of variety in guns, grenades, etc. If you could think Doom or Quake but with about ten times more ideas added, much much more depth and an actual storyline, a mystery, with adventure game item collection involved. [5/5]

GRAPHICS: For their time (1994, just after Doom) out of this world. About Duke Nukem 3D level, but with a more 'there' feel, but not as sharp. Tons of variety in colours, textures, etc. Very creepy, cold and hard electronic feel. Surreal. [5/5]

AUDIO: The voiceovers are somewhere from OK to quite amateurish, and this goes two ways -- realistic and cheesy. The soundtrack is very melodic and catchy, dark and moody. I love it, I think it's one of the better game soundtracks ever. [3.5/5]

PLOTLINE: Ah yes. As games go this is intelligent and sophisticated. Essentially you wake up in hell, or something close to it, and have to find out what's going on. Which turns out to be the AI you hacked earlier has gone psycho and has killed everyone on board your space station. Except you, because you're not supposed to be there. Thus, you must slay it. Hey, it works for a game! [4.5/5]

The Bad
SHODAN (the beserk A.I.) has a realistic voice (the sort you get when you ring the bank and the computer speaks back) but some real crappy dialogue.

The Bottom Line
A mix of FPS and adventure genres, dripping with a cold, hard atmosphere. Cyber-horror is all I can call it -- your haunted house is a haunted spaceship and your zombies are cyborgs. You solve a mystery and blast anything in your way with some truly mean, nasty weapons. A very dark, cold and morbid mood prevails the entire way. [4.5/5]

TRY THIS GAME IF YOU CAN -- IT'S GREAT! [http://www.the-underdogs.org] should have it -- you need DOS, or Win95/98/ME. For WinXP I'd suggest you get a copy of Virtual PC from Microsoft and install Win98 on it, then run the game through that. Trust me, it's worth your time!

The Good
I still find myself wishing I could play this game from my (misspent) youth. Immersive, tremendous storyline, controls, intelligent, and often truly creepy game. I've never played a better single-player game 17 years later.

The introduction to the game was incredible, the logs of (soon-to-be-dead) crew members was so well done. Atmospheric and central to the game. The sense of space and isolation was a core draw for the game as well. The sound, for the time, and music were also unprecedented and COOL. I recall the graphics being great, but I remember the sounds and music more.

And SHODAN, come on, what a super villain. That voice is STILL creepy and just evil.

The Bad
I never got all that much into the cyberspace aspects, which seemed somewhat dated even back then. Very minor complaint.

The Bottom Line
I WISH this game could somehow be re-made or something similar and as equally immersive come out on the market. In fact, I keep looking for the "next System Shock" but have yet to find it.

The Good
A famously good space-bound RPG, this was the follow-up to the same team's 'Ultima Underworld'. Boasting a proper 3D engine, years before 'Quake', this came out at the same time as 'Doom' and suffered commercially. Game-wise it's top-notch - it looks and sounds fantastic, and the quest on which you embark is deep enough to keep you playing for several weeks. It's probably the only game to capture the early-90s cyberpunk fascination effectively, and it has an amazingly intense atmosphere. It's hard, too, in a good way.

It's excellent in so many ways that it makes me unhappy, and is still great fun today.

The Bad
Allowing for the age, the only thing that marks the game down is the clumsy interface. Long before 'mouselooking', it requires you to co-ordinate your movements with both the keyboard and the mouse, and can be tricky to use in a hurry.

The Bottom Line
Excellent, nostalgic, hugely atmospheric space-bound sci-fi RPG.