System Shock

aka: Alien Commander
Moby ID: 681
DOS Specs
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The year is 2072. A hacker from a Saturn colony breaks into computer system of TriOptimum Corporation and gets arrested. He is taken to the Citadel Station, where Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive, offers to drop all charges against the hacker, as well as grant him a valuable neural implant, if he agrees to hack into SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) , the artificial intelligence that controls the station. The hacker removes the AI's ethical constraints and undergoes the promised implant surgery, after which he is put into a six-month healing coma.

The hacker awakens into a horrifying reality: with her ethical restrictions removed, SHODAN took control over the station, reprogrammed all robots and machines to suit her needs, and disposed of the crew members by either transforming them into mutants and cyborgs, or killing them outright. Rebecca Lansing, a TriOptimum counter-terrorism consultant, contacts the hacker and informs him of an even more terrifying possible future: SHODAN's plan involves using the station's mining lasers to annihilate all life on Earth. The hacker must explore and traverse the desolate corridors and rooms of the large space station, fighting SHODAN's minions on his way to thwart her maniacal design.

System Shock is a first-person shooter with puzzle-solving and light role-playing elements. The gameplay incorporates gradual exploration of the Citadel's ten levels, interaction with the environment, problem-solving, fulfilling objectives, and combat.

On his way the hacker encounters 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 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. The player can also find items in crates, cabinets, corpses or just lying around on the ground.

Apart from weapons and ammo, the player can find patches (such as medical patches, which replenish the hero's health; berserk patches, which temporarily increase his strength but cause hallucinations; detox patches, which remove the harmful effects of radiation and biohazard; etc.), grenades of various kinds (EMP grenades are effective against 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 the hacker's implant he is able to install various pieces of hardware into his body, such as a booster which makes him go faster, or a head lantern to bright up dark areas. As the player progresses in the game, higher versions of existing hardware are found, which are more effective and useful. However, most hardware uses up electric energy while it is active.

At some places in the game, the player has to find a wall-mounted "cyberjack" to go into cyberspace in order to find helpful data, remotely open doors or unlock sealed areas, or give himself clearance to access off-limits areas. Cyberspace is represented as a 3-D wireframe place, where the protagonist floats around freely in three dimensions, shoots hostile cyber-guards with phasers, and collects files represented as colorful cubes.

The story of System Shock is mostly told through e-mail messages the protagonist received, and electronic diaries (logs) left by various characters (as well as SHODAN herself), which are scattered around the space station. The game features separate adjustable difficulty settings for combat, mission objectives and puzzles. The CD version of the game includes full speech for e-mails and logs, as well as higher-resolution, more detailed graphics.

Spellings

  • システムショック - Japanese spelling
  • 시스텡쇼크 - Korean spelling

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 23 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 194 ratings with 22 reviews)

Brilliant does not even begin to describe this game.

The Good
Warren Spector came to be known primarily because of Deus-Ex, an incredible game in its own right. However, Spector's been around for much longer than that, and has been involved in some of the greatest games ever created - System Shock being one of them.
System shock is a game alright, but stands in the spot light alone. No other hybrid has brought such perfection to the table, no other hybrid has brought gameplay to a level that even pales by comparison. System Shock is incredible right from the get-go: even the introduction sequence, with its great graphics and excellent soundtrack, gives me goosebumps every time I see it. An amazing presentation of an excellent story, which is implemented very well indeed.

By far the most spectacular thing about System Shock is its atmosphere. It doesn't take sudden Half-lifeesque explosions to creep you out; a simple e-mail by Shodan would suffice. The game induces severe claustrophobia, particularly when played late at night with high volume levels; exploring an empty space station, constantly wary of any cyborg ambushes... and Shodan's face taunting you on every monitor!

System Shock is probably the only cyberpunk adventure I've ever enjoyed (that includes books as well). The simple but effective story, the way it unfolds through e-mail messages you collect while exploring the station... the detailed surrounding: empty beverage cans and candy wrappers thrown about the place, blown lamps and panels... and of course, cyberspace itself, with all of the concepts contained therein. System Shock is magnificent.

The engine is quite good for it's time - not as crisp as Doom or as fast as Descent, but the highly detailed textures and gouraud shading all around make for an extremely convincing game world. The CD version supports high resolutions, and with a fast enough computer (a typical P166 can't handle even 640x400 well, be warned) the game looks simply beautiful. The game has a steep learning curve, but the controls are so good it's a matter of a couple of hours before one becomes fully fluent with them.

And finally, the soundtrack is one of the most important elements of the game. Though it's MIDI (which means you guys without wavetable cards are really missing out), it complements the level design so absolutely perfectly the game would be so... lesser without it.

The Bad
System Shock is impressively close to perfection: only two things bother me.

First, the ending sequence is a little disappointing. I was expecting a major cyberspace combat or chase with Shodan, but that didn't happen; neither was there a particularly impressive end animation (unlike the intro), the only impressive thing being the "neural net" System Shock logo.

The second is the game engine. It is beautiful, but it is by no means fast. In 1994, Doom was already a year old and 486s were becoming prevalent. But even at 320x200, the game does not run very well on a 486! At over 320x200, the game grinds even on a Pentium-class machine. I wish it was easier to make newer machines play older games, I bet this game would rock at 640x480 on an Athlon...

The Bottom Line
A game that beats Deus-Ex in some respects, kicked Half Life in the nads some five years before it was conceived, and gave most adventure games a serious run for their money in the storyline department. It still amazes me how little System Shock is known. Get it! Play it! I assure you, it's an experience of a lifetime.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2002

The Finest First-Person Shooter Ever Designed.

The Good
Everything. To put it into perspective, if this game were released tomorrow, in its current state, it would be better than 99% of the games released all year (well, 2001). Even with the archaic graphics. Even with the dated AI technology. The core gameplay is so damn good. In fact, the gameplay is more varied and detailed than today's modern classic, Half-Life.

Another way to put it into perspective: A much more well known game released about the same time as System Shock is Doom. Doom is more widely known, and is more widely praised, as shown by the accolades for Serious Sam, an evolutionary throwback of a game releases recently.

Think of Doom's graphics and gameplay: Both are very, very dated. The gameplay is simple, easy, and dumb as a post. Shoot, run, shoot, run, hit switch to end level. Ad nauseum. Exciting in its day, but modern games (some of them) have evolved past that point. The wonderful thing about System Shock was that its gameplay was already evolved, almost ten years ago.

It has a coherent, interesting story that is integral and important every moment of the game. The story is enriched by audio logs scattered about the station, e-mails, and scraps of information gleaned from the stations computer net. The logs, presented in mostly well-acted audio, do wonders in fleshing out the game world. They tell the stories of hopeless groups of survivors trying to fight the mutant and cyborg onslaught. You hear their hopes for stopping the computer SHODAN, and pick up their fight. All the while, you receive e-mails from your contact on earth, instructing you and guiding you through the station. You also receive mail from your nemesis, SHODAN, as she mocks you, threatens you, and occasionally, fears you. She is present throughout the entire game. While approaching a CPU node with mayhem on your mind, she chirps in "Enter that room, hacker, and it will be your grave. You hesitate, but continue. And indeed, when you destroy the nodes, she sends a small army of cyborgs to do you in. She repeatedly ambushes you, taunting you in her computer-psychotic voice. It's unnerving, and the effect has not been repeated in any game I've played, sequel included.

System Shock's interface is also leagues ahead of Doom's. While much more complicated and cumbersome, it allows you to do so much more. You can lean around corners, you can crouch and even crawl on you belly, you can jump across chasms, you can look up and down. Aiming is also more interesting. You use a cursor to aim your guns and fire them. It does take a while to get used to it after years of mouselook, but I do like the more realistic effect of the aiming cursor. In addition, the recoil effects of the weapons is perfect. You feel like you're firing off a powerful machine gun when you rip off a burst from the Skorpion. The view bows back, and as you swing the gun from side to side the recoil swings with it. It's an amazing effect, particularly from such an aged game. It makes using the fully automatic a more visceral experience.

Finally, the gameplay goes FAR beyond the "find key, find door" gameplay that has been so prevalent since the release of Doom. You have a specific, detailed purpose in this game. No ambiguous alien invasions, no purposeless mazes masquerading as "levels." The enemy, SHODAN, is always plotting some insidious fate for earth, and you, as the hacker, go about the various levels attempting to stop her. Never do you wonder "why am I here? What exactly am I doing?" Each level, from the medical deck to the executive deck, serves an obvious logical purpose. Even the mazes are presented within good context. To put the gameplay into perspective, only very recently have FPS games struggled to break the gameplay barriers that Doom presented, while System Shock obliterated them almost TEN years ago!

This game defines what it is to be a classic. It is nearly perfect in every way, and is the epitome of the PC gaming experience. It is my opinion that computer gaming would be much better today if System Shock had been received the same Doom was, as it's a considerably better game that would hold its own today.

The Bad
Very little. The graphics are outdated, obviously, and the sound and AI technology is lacking. Also, the level design is very blocky, by today's standards. However, those are all limitations due to age: considering it by 1994 standards, the game's technological aspects are brilliant.

The Bottom Line
Well, I did so already. I'll just add that it is a VERY good game. It's not for sale, but certain websites on the internet have the complete CD version for download. I don't think Mobygames would appreciate it if I posted the link. Sorry!

DOS · by Doug Peterson (5) · 2002

Gameplay, atmosphere, and storytelling in an amazing union

The Good
For many years, I refused to play this game. That was because I wasn't interested in games in which the player is trapped in one location and has to fight monsters without being able to talk to anyone.

I'm still not particularly interested in such games. It took me an extremely long time to get into System Shock. It's a tough game because it offers you so many possibilities and such rich gameplay from the get-go, while being confined to one location only, the space station. To be honest, I can't handle this game very well even now. It is devilishly addictive and deeply claustrophobic, and not all feelings it evokes are positive. After a session with System Shock I feel tired and overwhelmed. I can only play it in small portions and with long rests.

The greatness of System Shock lies in the fact that it blends all the main aspects of game design like no other game before and only very few after. Every part of the game - be it the meticulous interaction with objects, the ominously appealing visuals and the eerie music, or the gradual discovery of the past struggle against Shodan - is so flawlessly integrated into each other, that when you begin playing System Shock you feel as if you were swallowed by some powerful entity with rules of its own. Maybe it's a strange thought, but I find the game not entirely dissimilar to the memorable villain it portrays.

Atmosphere is a decisive factor in the game. Even with the limited technology, the designers managed to create a noticeably more sensual, immersive product than the already groundbreaking Ultima Underworld titles. System Shock draws you into its world with a force that some people might find nearly terrifying. You can read here on MobyGames another review of this work, in which the author confesses that the game has affected him mentally, causing him to have nightmares. I don't think he is exaggerating. I've played many games in my life, including some with extremely horrifying and disturbing material. But System Shock is one of the very few that forces me to mentally prepare before I begin playing it. You are pulled in with such intensity that the world of the game becomes your world.

The story here must be "felt", lived from within the game. When written down on paper or told to someone, it loses its meaning. It is basically a story with two characters, the protagonist and the antagonist, the female computer Shodan. The whole idea of the plot was to show how a regular human being (and not a particularly virtuous one - after all, the hero of the game is a hacker, a kind of burglar) single-handedly defeats a mighty artificial intelligence. You and Shodan develop a morbid kind of relationship over the course of the game. Shodan keeps intimidating and teasing you, adding even more horror and stress to your perilous exploration. She is so arrogant and so sure of herself that she doesn't get angry, she is always calm and even sounds indifferent, and that's what is so scary about her. Shodan becomes a part of your life, and there is something creepily intimate in her constant interaction with the player. The way she would suddenly send you e-mails and talk to you can get genuinely disturbing.

The game world is, in a sense, another big enemy of the protagonist. Finding your way through the ultra-complex space station, solving its riddles, finding the items you need, gathering information, struggling against the hordes of enemies Shodan sends at you - the story of the game is directly experienced by the player, and let me assure you that it is a dramatic and intense one.

But of course, the highlight of the story is the revolutionary "retroactive" storytelling. Basically, besides the story that unfolds now, in front of our eyes, there is another story in System Shock: the one that happened before we arrived. You unravel it by reading logs left by the crew members. This idea is pure genius, because this way storytelling truly becomes an integral part of the gameplay. Finding out what happened by actively searching for information is exciting. You learn about the tragic fate of the people who once inhabited the space station. You get to know them when it is already too late. The beauty of this is the purely gameplay-bound, optional nature of the plot. It is not being forced on you like in most other games, but emerges when you make full use of the gameplay mechanics offered to you. This is one of the rare instances when a plot device is truly unique to the medium: something quite different from cutscenes and more than snippets of text feedback, this mechanic gracefully escapes the influences of books and movies.

The gameplay of System Shock was not only revolutionary for its time - it is still unsurpassed by most games. The it manages to stay suspenseful and tight while at the same time allowing you to interact with everything and explore is yet another testimony to the game's genius. Following the tradition of Ultima Underworld, the interaction in the game is incredibly refined. You can pick up nearly everything you see, you can smash and throw things - almost nothing of what you see is a mere decoration, everything can be interacted with in this or another way.

The level design is another brilliant aspect of the game that contributes to its great gameplay. Despite being set in only one location, System Shock is a very non-linear game in the sense that the way through the game is not shown to the players. They have to find it by themselves, and this is perhaps the biggest challenge of the game. Each level in System Shock is absolutely huge and very complex. Since you can usually choose any path you want during your exploration, the levels turn into small "worlds" that have to be explored, learned, understood, and completed (there are usually one or more main objectives on each level, plus several secondary ones) to proceed. The exploration process is a delight in its own right.

System Shock is also quite awe-inspiring from a technological point of view. Of course, it couldn't be as fast as Doom, but it blows it out of the water when it comes to level design and interaction made possible by the engine. All the revolutionary features of Ultima Underworld games now come in full 3D. Everything you do in the game is shown as a graphical effect - tossing things on the ground you can see how they bounce, and it is simply incredible that such an effect was achieved with such an early, primitive physics system. When you smash things, it is visually displayed. The level design is not only creative - it is also technically astounding, with objects everywhere, and a huge amount of detail stuffed into every place you see.

I loved the difficulty level system. Basically, you are allowed to customize every aspect of the game. Want to solve tricky puzzles but feel inept in combat? You can choose the puzzles to be hard, and the combat easy. Satisfied with the overall challenge, but can't adapt well to the cyberspace? No problem, just leave everything on high difficulty, but put cyberspace all the way down, making it a nearly automatic journey. Like moderate challenge in everything? Be my guest. The game can fully suit your needs, whatever they might be. I really can't understand why other games haven't implemented this system.

The Bad
Like any other early 3D game, System Shock doesn't go easy on the eyes, and its graphics haven't aged very well. This is not a criticism, but rather an inevitable side effect. I know people who couldn't get into the game for this reason, even though they loved the sequel. I also played the sequel before the original, and my enjoyment was somewhat reduced because of that, especially in the beginning.

The part that really annoyed me was the cyberspace. It took me ages to figure out how to move in that place. I was constantly struggling, and in the end simply avoided it whenever I could. Fortunately, most of those trips are optional.

There is a certain monotony in the level design of System Shock. You are confined to an admittedly huge, but homogeneous location, with many architectural elements repeating themselves regardless of the floor you are currently exploring. The darkly tense atmosphere and the overbearing presence of machinery and electronic enemies at the expense of friendly organic creatures can be hard to stomach.

The Bottom Line
In retrospect, it looks like System Shock was one of the very few games in the history that managed to be a daring experiment and a perfectly crafted, balanced product at the same time. It is strikingly advanced on both technological and artistic levels, without sacrificing one for the other. Gameplay, atmosphere, and story-telling reach a remarkable unity in this game. Breaking through genre barriers, sending a powerful signal far into the future, System Shock is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

DOS · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2015

[ View all 22 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Video review DJP Mom (11333) Oct 21, 2010
Finally completed Unicorn Lynx (181780) Oct 18, 2008
Voices? Unicorn Lynx (181780) Apr 3, 2008

Trivia

CD version

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.

Ending (Spoiler!)

If you engage the mining laser BEFORE activating the station's shields, then you'll destroy earth! And guess what? Shodan sends you an e-mail thanking you and inviting you to a celebration! The e-mail also includes a nice picture of a city being incinerated, but unfortunately the game restarts afterwards, so no robo-party.

Engine

System Shock's engine was derived from that of Ultima Underworld, from 1992. Nonetheless it was more advanced that that of Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, featuring sloped surfaces, variable gravity, realistic physics, '2.75d' environments (with limited 'sector-on-sector', but otherwise 3D), functional camera viewscreens, weapon recoil, leaning and several other clever things.

References to the game

  • During the end-game sequence, you hack into another corporate computer to grab some data. The data is info on some powered battle armor, which made its way into Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri..
  • In the end sequence, the hacker breaks in the corporate network of a corp. called 'Tetracorp'. In System Shock 2, the name tetracorp is printed on a generic two-state switch. Kinda rough change of business..
  • It is hinted in the Wing Commander and Crusader games that they are set in the same universe as System Shock. For example, an article in a "newspaper" from the Crusader: No Remorse box mentions an artificial intelligence and the Citadel station.

References

  • The Hacker's employee number, 2-4601, is a reference to the inmate number of Jean Valjean, the protagonist in the novel Les Misérables.
  • There is a reference to the movie Soylent Green in the game (although it's spelled slightly different). In level 3, Maintenance, there is a relay panel in the northern section called "Soylant Green Filtration".

Sequel

There were rumours of a possible sequel, soon after System Shock's release, but fans had to wait five years for System Shock 2.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #98 on the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #24 Top Game of All Time
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #15 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #43 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games Poll"
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1995 – Best Action-Adventure in 1994

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Ashley Pomeroy, dasfatso, DreamWeaver, PCGamer77, Stefan Pieratzki and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by xroox.

PC-98, Macintosh added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, MrFlibble, firefang9212, somato.

Game added January 6, 2000. Last modified February 19, 2024.