System Shock 2

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 cutscene will begin. However, the player can still move around and if they fall off the platform that the room has become, they cannot get back up.

Cancelled Dreamcast version

A Dreamcast version of System Shock 2 was planned, 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 game's visuals. So some fans took it upon themselves to create unofficial high-res models which are known as System Shock: Rebirth and could be found here.

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‘ worldwide 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 was one of the writers at Looking Glass Studios and is the wife of Eric Brosius, who was the studio's composer.

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