System Shock 2

The Good
This is, simply put, the scariest computer game ever - period. It's not a hyperbole - in fact, it's understatement. As the not-so-lonely amnesiac survivor of starship Von Braun, you'll wake up from what seems to be surgery-induced narcoma to find that the ship has become hell - incarnate. Something horrible (no kiddin) has happened, and dead bodies litters the floors. Horrendous monsters now populate the gloomy corridors of the giant, multilevel spaceship - some of them looking as your old crewmates, others completely alien and surreal. And even more sinister presence haunts its spaces. To survive, your only guide are the voice logs and messages you find scattered on your path, and the voice of what sound like to be one of the few remaining humans on the ship, who urges you to join her at the higher level of the ship. As usual, nothing is like seems to be...

The best sum-up of how immersive this game was given back in 1999 on a Internet comic strip. One of the characters finds his roomie sitting before the computer, in terminal catatonic state, eyes fixed on the screen in fear. The other guy look at him, then the computer, then him again, and says "Playing System Shock 2 all night, uh? Oh well then, I'll go pee all over your things" and leaves the catatonic guy to his thousand yard stare.

How did they do it? The winners here are two - storyline (a superior sequel to 1994 cult hit "System Shock") and sound. Oh my - the sound of SS2. Don’t ever CONSIDER playing it without a decent soundcard and a great headphone (better if of the closed type). A surround system will give you a heart attack. The guttural, sometime threatening, sometime imploring voices of the monsters; the acting of the voice e-mails, slowly revealing the horror of last days of starship Von Braun; the click and hiss of the ship machines (the security cameras...); the echoes; the music... everything conspire to keep you on you toes for all the time. You’ll not hear a single sound without feeling your stomach jump. You not turn a single corner of the entire ship without fearing the worst - literally.

Of course, one of the reasons you'll fear the worst is that this brilliant RPG-FPS hybrid is very, very tough to play. You'll have plenty of choices for weapons - but these will break or jam very often, and on this game ammos are as rare and precious as water in the desert. Most of the time, you'll resort to play seek-and-hide (you hide, and the "others" seek...). In one particular moment, I found myself stranded in a dimly lighted office, with "something" (a very disgusting and pathetic "something") calling from me at the other side of the door. I knew that "it" was going to enter soon, and get me. I didn't have any more ammunition - I was helpless. The only thing I could do was hide behind a desk, not moving a muscle, hoping that "it" would go away. I felt so scared and miserable that it took me a while to realize it was just a game (and believe me - I'm NEVER scared, and I rarely play games). I stopped playing it was some time before I steadied myself to continue.

Even the little moments (when the action slackens and you can look around to understand what's going on) have an ominous quality. One voice message (for the initiate its the "Janet, I think she speaks in English!”) still gives me the goosebumps after all these years. And some of the cut scenes (the mess hall - or the rescue shuttle pad) are very, very effective. Where "effective" means one thing: scary as hell.

And then there's Shodan, Her Maleficent Electronic Majesty. Those who had already played SS1 will recognize immediately the old bitch's "qualities". For the newcomers, prepare to meet the scariest, meanest, craziest, subtlest and most devious villain of the history of computer games. She will toy with you, sometime will even give you some glitch of hope. But never turns the back on her, or you'll regret it.

As someone else said - there's only one game sequel I look forward to, and it’s SS3!

The Bad
OK, the graphic design of the characters is not very realistic - so what? BTW, if you're put off by this kind of things (you shouldn't) there's a very nice add-on with completely redesigned character graphics.

The only other no-so-nice thing you may say about this game is that the final levels are a bit rushed up (but the ending is GREAT). But believe me - the Von Braun levels are enough to keep you busy for a long time.

The Bottom Line
The scariest, best, scariest, most clever and scariest FPS & RPG ever done!

The Good
The game sets you as a soldier, fighting a battle for a doomed space ship. In the beginning of the game you're overwhelmed by the amount of character developing decisions you have to make, but in the end it really doesn't matter since so much of what happens in the game is in your own hands and not in the statistics of your character. System Shock 2 offers horror sequences, tough to solve puzzles, a lot of FPS action and RPG-style character development. It's very easy to get lost and become frustrated in that huge spaceship with all its dark corners and narrow passageways, but if you give this game enough time it will surely scare the living crap out of you and give you one hell of a pleasant ride, that's a promise.

The Bad
The weapon deterioration! You fired a clip with your pistol and the pistol fell to pieces. At least that's how it felt. Fortunately, an unsupported fix to this problem arrived on the internet soon after the game was released. It sure made the game better for me at least!

The Bottom Line
One of the scariest, most gruelling games of all time. The graphics were fantastic back in the day and it can still hold its own in this genre. It was actually only a few months ago that I managed to complete this game after having it installed on the same system since 1999!

The Good
When I completed System Shock 1, many years ago, I knew I wanted more; more of the same highly detailed game world, wonderful plot, and clever game devices (the minigames and cyberspace, to name two).

Shock 2 was worth the wait.

The environment was wonderfully done - at times, there was a feeling of anxiety and terror that I had not felt since playing the Thief series. It's rare for a game to have that effect - I approve. The email messages, voice logs, and other communications you would receive only added to the haunting atmosphere. The attention to detail the designers paid to their product was exceptional.

Shock2 had three career paths you could undertake, and as the game progressed, you could begin to blur the boundaries between character types. There was (usually) more than one solution to any given problem, and any given character type can successfully complete the game using his native skill set.

The two villians (Shodan, and The Many) fighting against each other, with you in the middle, was an excellent plot setting. Especially so on a derelict starship; there is a sense of lonliness, and at times helplessness in this environment, just as in shock1.

The Bad
There are only a few things things that I didn't really like:

While a nice touch, and a nod to the original, the minigames weren't as innovative as they were in the previous game (I mean, it's the same concept, reused). The game was sadly lacking in the large number of innovations that shock1 had, but that is only a minor gripe. I mean, one can only stretch limits so far.

My major gripe was with the endgame - it quickly turns into a Quake-like fragfest, completely ruining the stealthy, Thief-like feel to all of the previous areas of the game.

Oh, and one more minor point - while there are numerous plot twists, they are, alas, easily predictable and no longer surprises by the time they happen.

The Bottom Line
Well worth the price of admission, for such a detailed, haunting experience.