System Shock 2

Moby ID: 590
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

In the year 2114, forty-two years after the events described in System Shock, a soldier joins the military organization Unified National Nominate (UNN), receiving the number G65434-2, and is shortly thereafter assigned to the military space ship Rickenbacker. This ship's duty is to escort the Von Braun, an experimental faster-than-light starship, on its maiden voyage. However, the next thing the soldier can remember is waking up in a cryo-tube on the Von Braun. It appears that both ships were infected with something so horrifying that nearly the entire crew was either killed or mutated into monsters. The soldier is contacted by a woman who identifies herself as the only human survivor. His first task is a rendezvous with this woman, for which he will have to traverse the monster-infested corridors of the ghost ship.

System Shock 2 is a hybrid of first-person shooter and role-playing game. In the beginning of the game the player chooses a career for the protagonist in the UNN. This choice grants bonuses to the protagonist's initial skills. Marines specialize in combat, navy officers can repair weapons and hack computer terminals, and OSA agents may begin the game with psionic powers. Notwithstanding this initial choice, the player may choose to learn any of these skills as the game progresses, spending acquired cybermodules to develop the main character in a RPG fashion.

As the hero traverses the corridors of Von Braun, he will have to avoid death at the hands of hostile creatures and robots on the way, acquire a variety of items, and complete missions to unlock new areas and advance the story. The game emphasizes survival rather than elimination of enemies; in many situations the protagonist is underpowered, and new enemies may appear in already explored areas.

Combat is done in FPS style, with both ranged and melee weapons. The ranged weapons can accept a few different types of ammo, each of them efficient against different foes, and can shoot in two firing modes. However, ranged weapons deteriorate quickly as the player character uses them, and will eventually break down after prolonged use.

Healing items, such as medical hypos and medikits, will save the hero's life, while other items will shield him from radiation, cure him from poisoning, or temporarily boost his attributes. The soldier can find armor to wear and implants which will amplify his skills, as long as their battery doesn't run out. There are also some alien items that the player has to research (which usually requires finding specific chemicals in the ship's chemical stores); researching weapons and items allows the player to use them, and researching enemies' organs makes it possible to deal more damage to them.

Apart from finding them lying around, items can be bought from "matter replicators" for nanites, the game's currency. Nanites are also used for cybernetic activities (hacking electronic systems), repairing broken weapons and improving them, healing the protagonist on surgery tables, and, after death, resurrecting him in special chambers found on most levels.

Cybermodules are received for successfully completing objectives or found during exploration. They are used to enhance the main character's attributes: the player can improve his strength, agility, endurance, as well as his cybernetics and weapon skills; psionic powers are also acquired in this way. Psi powers allow the protagonist to move objects from a distance, paralyze enemies, become invisible, etc. A special "psi amplifier" must be found in order to use them, and the hero spends "psi points" each time he uses a psi power.

Like in the first System Shock, much of the background story in the game is revealed by finding messages left by crew members before they fell victims to the mysterious infestation.

Spellings

  • 网络奇兵2 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

146 People (144 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 91% (based on 61 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 282 ratings with 24 reviews)

Shockingly great

The Good
Have you ever had a complex relationship with a game, which started with hatred and ended with love? No? Well, then maybe it's just me. I've had quite a few of those relationships. One of the most notable ones is my love affair with System Shock 2. It took me such a long time to appreciate it that it was quite amazing that people had enough patience to listen to my never-ending whining: "What's so great about it... I don't like it... why does everybody like it and I don't...", without giving up and saying: "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, the game sucks", just to make me shut up.

Actually, I don't really need to write another Good section about this game; MobyGames is full of positive reviews for System Shock 2. But my review should stress the game's greatness even more. Why so? Because actually such a game is not at all my cup of tea. Yet I ended up loving it. It takes a really great game to make me feel this way in spite of my own preferences.

The primary reason for my initial dislike of the game was its entire premise. I wasn't really into the whole "you are alone, now explore a huge spaceship without any characters and fight monsters" kind of thing. Even now, first-person shooters involving respawning monsters is hardly my favorite genre. I generally prefer games set in less claustrophobic environments and featuring more talkative NPCs. And that's a solid proof of this game's greatness: very little in its premise interested me, and yet I found myself addicted to it so badly that I needed a serious break (I didn't touch the game for two weeks at one point).

If you played the first System Shock you'll have a general idea of what to expect here. In fact, I'd say that the sequel improves upon its predecessor in terms of gameplay refinement. While the original game had certain RPG touches in form of modifications and item-gathering, it was still primarily a first-person shooter. The sequel has now turned into a full-fledged RPG, and in my opinion this was a commendable evolution. The gameplay became even more addictive than before, because in addition to all the exploration and the interaction possibilities the first game offered you, you now have a cleverly designed RPG system to occupy yourself with. You create and shape your character during the course of the game. You can steer it towards one of the three sharply defined "classes", which correspond to the traditional fighter, mage, and thief in RPGs, you can go for an all-around character who is moderately skillful in everything, or choose to mix advantages of either class the way you like.

If you think that this system is just a small addition to the FPS formula, let me tell you that it is much more than that. The role-playing in System Shock 2 is remarkably flexible, fitting the choice-driven design philosophy of the first game like a glove and enhancing it with the new mechanics. Above all, this system satisfies the desire to play the game in different ways. See that locked box? Can't hack it? Damn, gotta invest more points into hacking skills... but I have low strength, I can't carry enough weapons... so maybe invest more points here? Trust me, if you come to this game from a RPG angle (as I did), you'll be spending hours in front of those upgrade machines just trying to decide where to put your precious skill points. And isn't that the beauty of role-playing?

The amount of stuff you can do in System Shock 2 is overwhelming. You can research body parts of your enemies to gain advantage in battles. You can modify your weapons. You can hack into security computers to disable cameras. You can repair broken machines. All this require appropriate skills - and since, per RPG requirement, you can't have them all, you'll have to decide yourself which are the ones you need most.

But even without the RPG part, the game delivers tons of high-quality gameplay. It works wonderfully as a survival horror game - in my opinion better than most "real" survival horror games, because instead of clunky interface and maddening camera angles you have real issues to be frightened of: tough enemies, weapon degradation, hostile security system, etc. At the same time the game plays smoothly even when it turns into a regular first-person shooter. You have to be smart and use the right type of ammunition, as well as the right tactics against the enemies.

Another great feature that System Shock 2 has inherited from its predecessor is the high level of interactivity. Almost everything you see can be picked up or thrown away. The game satisfies a powerful instinct of the player, which is to touch and to grab everything he sees. What makes it even better is the fact that nearly every item is useful in this or another way. Since your inventory is limited, you'll have to decide what to take with you and what to leave behind, which once again leads to decisions and planning.

There are huge locations to explore here; along with quality, System Shock 2 delivers quantity. Even though it is set entirely in closed environments, you really feel there is a world here. There are so many areas to explore, including so many entirely optional ones, that the game manages to feel open-ended even though it is confined to such a seemingly narrow, haunting space.

Of course it wouldn't be the same without the fantastic level design. The space ship Von Braun, on which you will spend most of the game, is a magnificent piece of work. It is "alive" in the sense that it doesn't feel artificial at all. Sure, you'll see upgrade stations and other weird places "just for the game", but the overall feeling is that you are in a real location. The high amount of items for everyday use, their placement, the layout of the rooms, graphical detail - all this adds an incredible feeling of realism. The game's environments magically draw you into themselves. That is the chief reason for the game's extreme atmosphere.

Moving on to that: this game creates a unique environment that mesmerizes the player thanks to its impeccable level design and general artistic appreciation of the macabre. Granted, System Shock 2 is not entirely horror-themed, it lacks setpieces, and personally I found the atmosphere of the previous title somewhat more convincing; but even so, the game is guaranteed to glue you to the computer screen just because it draws you into its world and never lets go.

Most other games rely on graphics to create atmosphere; this one knows how to do it with sound. The music itself is perhaps not that cool (again, I liked the music from the original more), but the way it is used in the game, turning itself on suddenly, then leaving you alone when you least expect it, is great. But the true stars of the show are sound effects. They are simply impeccable and create an aural experience that is hard to forget. Anyone who has ever heard those hybrids muttering something to themselves knows what I'm talking about...

System Shock 2 is also a gripping tale masterfully channeled through the medium of a video game. Story-telling, and not just "story", is the key word here. Sure, the actual narrative has its great moments. The terrifying plot twist (a really terrifying plot twist if you've played the previous System Shock) in the middle, the interesting struggle between villains, the basic, but convincing concept of "technology vs. nature" philosophy - the storyline here is most certainly above average. But if you simply want to see such a story told through cutscenes in a video game, you'll find better examples in other titles. It is the way the story is told that makes it stand out. Most games tell you a story that happens now, at the same time as you are playing the game. But System Shock 2 tells a story that has already happened. You learn it by finding and reading audio diaries scattered all over the space ships. I know that the first System Shock did that first, but the sequel improves this technique by adding more details and a wider range of themes.

The beauty of it, of course, is the optional nature of the plot (you can ignore those diaries entirely and still complete the game, without understanding much of its story), and the fact that this technique can be implemented only in a video game, by fully integrating the story into the gameplay and making it part of the exploration process.

Thus the storyline, which can seem paper-thin if you don't bother to discover its parts, becomes rich and detailed if you construct it by careful reading of the logs. It's the "little" stories of the characters that make up for any trivialities found in the main narrative. Those include some really great moments, made possible by the "retro" technique - you'd read letters written by someone to his beloved woman, uncover plans that were made and ultimately failed, witness with horror how people gradually submit to the "call of the Many", have people who do not exist any more share with you their fears, etc. For example, a very memorable and touching moment for me was reading a diary I found on the body of a female cyborg I killed: a young girl is scared, because she was chosen to become a test subject for a certain scientific experiment... That's what the game does with such an "inferior" gameplay concept as "looting the corpses of people you kill"!

The Bad
The story that you uncover in logs is engaging because you experience it in a pure text form, like a book. The present story, however, the story that you experience as the protagonist, is structured in a rather unexciting way. The plot is built like a series of missions, all of which are just standard RPG quests, overbloated to a disproportional size. For example, you are told to go to a certain place; then you find out that the access is blocked, so you have to fix whatever is blocking it; for this you have to go to another place, which is in its turn blocked because... etc. It takes an extremely long time to come to the first real turning point of the plot; a simple mission to meet someone at a certain place turns into a monstrous assignment that will make the player explore several huge levels while impatiently waiting for the plot to advance. Unfortunately, you'll have to go through all this because, with all its gameplay flexibility, the plot advancement in System Shock 2 is absolutely linear.

Many players hated the weapon degradation and the monster respawning. Actually, I wouldn't mind either of them; but when put together, they are mighty annoying. It's bad enough not to be able to use your gun after just several shots; but it gets much worse when there are always new enemies popping out at you. Ammo is extremely scarce, and enemies who carry guns will drop them in unusable conditions. I played the game with the latest patch, which apparently corrects those issues, but monsters still respawned and weapons still deteriorated as I played. Either I did something wrong with the config file, or I should really shudder at the thought that it was even worse in the unpatched version.

The Bottom Line
Everything that was so great in System Shock is back again, with the fantastic addition of a real role-playing system. System Shock 2 doesn't get the extra points for originality and innovation as its predecessor, but it is nevertheless an absolutely amazing game in which storytelling, atmosphere, and gameplay are not only excellent each for their own sake, but merged together seamlessly to create a truly extraordinary experience.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2015

The scariest game ever made - not for the weak of heart

The Good
Atmosphere: you will fear the lonelyness, you will become paranoid as hell, and get really, really engaged in the game. With letters written in blood on the walls, alarms sounding, things exploding and falling appart without warning, dead bodies piled up everywhere, ghostly aperances forever re-experiencing their last moments of life, and distant screams and zombies mumbling in undead voices for you to come to them; either to kill them, or join them, or both. Even today, this game is has to be the scariest game ever made!

Story: At the heart of all the terror lies an engaging and evolving plot; something goes horribly wrong aboard mankinds first FTL inter-stellar starship, and the joruney of your dreams, has become your worst nightmare from hell.

Voice-acting: Will at times send chills down your spine.

Graphics: Similar to that Thief - not good, not bad, just in between; graphics is not really important in a game like this.

Gameplay: With sci-fi RPG-elements, a bit advanced but mostly easy interface, and several ways to complete different tasks: System Shock 2 is one of the better First Person Shooter / adventure games out there.

The Bad
At times TOO scary; but maybe that's a good thing?

The Bottom Line
This game is not for the weak of heart, but if you are looking for a good scare; look no further. This is quite possibly one of the best FPS-games ever made: better then Half-Life, better than doom, and unique even today.

Windows · by Stargazer (99) · 2003

YOU WILL BE AFRAID

The Good
Scared the pants out of me. . . and scared the pants out of friends next to me (and they were just watching me play!!!) Basically any game that has zombies literally apoligizing for crushing your skull gets a "best of" vote from me!

The Bad
How dare you ask if theres anything to hate about this game. . . okay compared to other games the graphics are a wee bit less. . . though thats nitpicking since its surpasses Quake 2 in graphics, comparable to Half Life graphics. . .

The Bottom Line
The scariest game in the world!!! Play it with 3d sound, a full thermos of coffee, at 2am and with all the lights off! BEAT THAT!!!

Windows · by Mark Cuarto (4) · 2001

[ View all 24 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Which SS2 am I playing? o__O Slug Camargo (583) May 20, 2008
Damn the Many... Unicorn Lynx (181780) Apr 3, 2008
No spawn and no degradation? Unicorn Lynx (181780) Mar 18, 2008
Just Finished, ITS AMAZING!! ricardoe Oct 7, 2007
System Shock 2 Expansion Pack on WinXP dave solin Sep 12, 2007

Trivia

Animations

In addition to using the Dark Engine, the game also uses some animations from Thief, most notably the zombified crewmen with the shotguns and pipes. They use portions of animation from the guardsmen in Thief, specifically when they walk around searching for your character, and when they run over to attack you.

Basketball

In Thief, part of the training mission included a little basketball court at the beginning of the game. In SS2, this basketball is carried over and is found up on a ledge on the 'street' level of the very first training mission. Go around the 'pillar' to the right of where you arrive on the street. You can mantle up to a sloped surface, and on the flat part of the ledge will be the basketball. Bounces very appropriately, too!

On the Recreation deck will be a basketball court, towards the last part to explore in the level. You have to be on the upper running deck to shoot, but if you make a basket with the basketball or even just clip the rim, you'll get a very funny email. Be sure to bring it up in your PDA, as it reads differently than it sounds.

Bugs (Spoiler!)

In a cutscene on Deck 4, the walls will drop away and a cut-scene will begin. However, you can still move around and if you fall off the platform that the room has become, you CANNOT get back up, short of killing yourself or loading your game! A neat little bug.

Cancelled Dreamcast version

There was going to be a Dreamcast version of System Shock 2, but it was cancelled

German version

The localized German version of the game was slightly modified for fear of banning. Some corpses were removed (e.g. a hanged man), and all blood was colored green.

Mods

The graphics for character models in the game was considered by many to be the low-point in the 3D Design. So some fans took it upon themselves to create unofficial high-res models which are known as System Shock: Rebirth and can be found at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/etienne.aubert/sshock/sshock_rebirth.htm

Multiplayer

There is a patch available for System Shock 2 which does not only allow adjustments of the respawning and weapon wear and tear, but adds a cooperative multiplayer mode.

Release

System Shock 2 was published by Electronic Arts instead of Eidos, which was Looking Glass‘ world-wide publisher at the time. This is due to the simple fact that EA held the copyright for the System Shock franchise -- the firm had acquired it with the purchase of Origin Systems.

Sales

Although System Shock 2 was rated a masterpiece by all major magazines, sales were only mediocre. Ironically, the game shared the same fate as its predecessor: Both games never reached a mass audience, partly because of bad marketing efforts.

Shodan

The voice of Shodan was done, as in System Shock, by Terri Brosius. She is the wife of Looking Glass Audio Director Eric Brosius.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 2000 (Issue #188) – Best Sound Design of the Year
    • November 2003 (Issue #232) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • GameSpy
    • 1999 – Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • 1999 - Best Genre-Bender (together with Drakan: Order of the Flame)
    • 2001 – #12 Top Game of All Time
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #22 in the "Readers All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
    • April 2005 - #39 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2000 - Best Game in 1999
    • Issue 01/2000 - Best Action-Adventure in 1999
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/2000 – Best Game in 1999
    • Issue 02/2000 – Best Atmosphere in 1999

Information contributed by -Chris, CaptainCanuck, George Shannon, Great Hierophant, M4R14N0, PCGamer77 and WildKard

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Macintosh, Linux added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: xroox, JubalHarshaw, George Shannon, Unicorn Lynx, chirinea, Sciere, jlebel, dorlthed, DarkDante, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 17, 1999. Last modified March 14, 2024.