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
Atmosphere and storyline were top notch. Whoever said storylines in FPS games didn't matter (like John Carmack), are dead wrong. System Shock 2 hit the nail dead on in the story department. From the creepy audio emails, to the ghostly "visions", this game oozes in fear and tension. The taunting audio emails from SHODAN are well worth the price of admission... The audio soundtrack in the game was also great.

The Bad
Looking back now, the graphics are a bit dated. But that wouldn't be fair, since this game has been out since 1999.

The Bottom Line
If you had to choose between System Shock 2, and Doom 3, place your money on Shock 2. While Doom 3 has the hype and slick graphics engine, Shock 2 makes up for it with it's atmosphere and storyline.

The Good
After first time encountering the absolutely marvelous "Deus Ex" appearance, I easily fell under the words "Huh, Deus Ex is everything but original, real originality lies in System Shock 2", especially since both games are made by the same creator. I could easily made this whole review as a comparisson of those two games, 'cos both of them have so much in common, yet there's a huge difference when it comes to addiction to those two games. Instead, I'll just try to concentrate on describing this game in specific, without much comparing it around (but there'll be some comparissons further as you read, nevertheless).

Sure, the thing I usually fall for is good story, and this one seemed to have really taunting one, but no matter this could be called more adventure oriented game than pure action shooter, I could name some shooters with even more profound story with much better atmosphere, I'll name "Half-Life" for example. Now that's the game no man on Earth should pass. Okay, the story makes you choose one of thre classes to play as, a marine (concentrating more on a firepower and macho tactics), a navy seal (being more of a stealth man than the one of action, lockpicking instead of blowing things up), and a psi trooper (using more of psi boosts and powers), though no matter which class you choose, you'll be able to upgrade your charactr to use lockpicking, hacking or psi skills.

Okay, typical boring story, marooned on a huge scientifical ship, you don't remember anything for the past three weeks, and you've been just unfrozen. But there's no way to stop and ask for directions, as it seems that there's a big mess on the ship you're on. With a help of some survivors (or so you think in the beginning), you'll get a few directives that will save your life, and then you'll choose how to proceed any further. Seems that some strange experiments went off-the-hook on the ship, and you'll have to tame 'em. In the beginning it'll be less interesting unless you prefer having a lack of weapon arsenal, and running around all night long, and you'll have to search the ship for messages, logs, and thus finding out about the story and surroundings, and all the strange events that occured while you were god-knows-where.

I'm not sure why I put story under this section, I guess it varies a bit between good and bad point, so it's acceptable more or less. The atmosphere, on the other side, is quite impressive. I mean, nothing we haven't seen before, but it's spooky alright, and you can hear your enemies mumbling or walking behind the corcer or somewhere down the line ahead, so they'll hardly surprise you, but when/if they do, you'll jump back sometimes, that's guaranteed ;))

Okay, until I developed a touch for controls, I was a bit confused and thought that engine has some recoils on occasion, but seems it's pretty much okay, running fast enough, in multiple resolutions, and inventory and interface handling is quite easy once you get accomodated with all the terms. Some songs are also well suited for the atmospherical experience, but they only play on very certain places, and always on the same ones, though. Now let's see if there are reasons for not liking this game...

The Bad
As much as this game looks pretty fine graphically, and I'm refering to ship and the rooms only by saying that, characters, monsters and animals plain suck! Their low line of polygons is simply not understandable for 1999. I mean, "Jedi Knight" which was two years older had the same, or even better looking characters.

I never played original "System Shock", nor have ever seen it, so I cannot comment on that one, but I think that this is pretty cheap try on the sequel. I guess they tried to make a decent sequel, but if that's what they can call their best (and keep in mind that four years passed from the original game), then this kinda sequel can only be for those fans of original game, and barely for someone new. Newcommers to FPS world should better try "Deus Ex" or "Half-Life" for starters. Frankly, I never liked "The Thief" when I first tried it, either, so I guess I just don't like taht kinda graphic in general. It seems kinda too tall for me. I dunno, but this game really looks more tall than wide, and I know this is rather improper view for commenting upon a game, but once you'll start to play it, and see the 3D engine and how it looks form the inside, you may (maybe) just be able to spot that point. But if this was considered a good game, I wouldn't care about the graphic at all... however, I don't find this a good game. Not by a far.

Okay, now, does any of you enjoy having infinite monsters or enemies in any kind of FPS game? I think not, I mean, if we aren't allowed to have infinite ammo, why should they be infinite enemies, and how was that closer to reality? Well, it's not. I mean, you can barely break through some level and kill every monster and hybrid on the way, and getting low on ammo and armour, and then when you need to go back, the level is full of 'em again.

Oh, and one more thing... that SHODAN female badguy is by far the worst nemesis I've ever encountered. Not only she's stupid, but pretty much annoying. I don't want to go offensive to all those fans of original "System Shock", because maybe in original she knew grammar more, but it's pretty bad to see a computer that doesn't even speak properly. I mean, it's a computer, for Pete's sake! Computer is supposed to be something most effective and highest scientifican achievement, yet it's incapable of talking the way we could understand it. And then she want to play a God? Yeah right, what kinda God would have less abilities than we do? ;)) If you're searching for real computer AI nemesis, try battling CABAAL :)

The Bottom Line
I seem to have mentioned all the points, and no matter I've equally said good and bad things about this game, I'm still glad to have it under my collection, and will try to get the original "SS" as well. It's an interesting game, yet very annoying at some points, but worthy passing it once. However, I highly recommend trying "Deus Ex" instead. That game realy made a new standard considering such games, plus it has superb plot and atmosphere. Hey, did I mention that ending in "SS2" is like the worst ever to be found? Well, it is, seems like a cheap shot to make availability for a sequel. I hope they'll make none of it, though.