Both figuratively – in the form of increasingly desperate audio logs – and literally, as apparitions that recreate the crew members’ final, ghastly moments. To add to the atmosphere, the ghosts of the Von Braun – the faster-than-light spaceship where your descent into hell takes place – still inhabit the vessel. The high difficulty crowns SS2’s unrivaled sense of danger. Enemies respawn over time, and even areas which have been previously cleared can become death traps. Resources are scarce though: weapons degrade with every single shot and have a nasty tendency to either break or jam during tense firefights. Throughout the game the player can customize his character however he chooses: improving his attributes, selecting traits, training the skills required to equip and repair more powerful items, finding implants or learning any of the 35 available PSI-powers, that range from temporarily buffing stats to firing mental projectiles and even the ability to teleport yourself. Early on the player chooses one of three classes: the gun-toting marine, the psionically-endowed OSA agent or the techsawy navy hacker. What truly separates SS2 from its predecessor is the use of a complex character system, resulting in a game that is both FPS and RPG in equal measure. As a result, System Shock 2 shares many of its strengths with the original Thief: The player is able to hide in the shadows of the large, intricately designed levels, with different surfaces generating different levels of noise, potentially alerting nearby enemies. First and foremost, Irrational had access to the Dark Engine, which would first come to use in the 1998 stealth classic Thief. His company, Irrational Games, was granted the rights to work on a sequel, allowing for a proper, triumphant return of SHODAN, the devious rogue AI that had so masterfully served as the first game’s main adversary.ĭeveloped on a shoestring budget in an office that can be aptly described as Looking Glass’ broom closet, there was constant symbiosis between the two companies. Among the select group of aficionados was a young Ken Levine. However, the game managed to develop a cult following over the years. System Shock obtained wide critical acclaim, but sold poorly. Sadly, in what would become a pattern for Looking Glass, releasing a product that was years ahead of its time didn‘t pay off. The fact remains that in an age where games like Doom limited its content to navigating mazes, finding keys and shooting stuff, System Shock featured a complex (if convoluted) UI that allowed the player to jump, crouch, peek around corners, jack into cyberspace, read logs and manage an extensive inventory. Whether the 1994 System Shock can be considered an RPG is up for debate. How could anyone possibly forget playing – No, experiencing! – that? The creeping feeling that the very environment you inhabit is your mortal enemy. The exceedingly polite, if somewhat pushy and accident-prone protocol droids, or the partially vivisected monkeys rising up against their captors. The cyborg midwives tending to their “little ones” while rattling off motherly stock phrases of affection. The ungodly sight of blood and bizarre biological growths covering walls and ceilings while a horrific symphony of terror created by computer terminals, whirring security cameras and the ship‘s relentlessly droning engines plays in the background. Who could ever forget playing System Shock 2? Who could forget the mindless, pipe wielding mutants patrolling dimly lit hallways. System Shock 2’s Project Manager and Lead Programmer There are a lot of things that can go wrong.”

It requires you to constantly be very focused and intense. There’s a horror element to the story and characters are terribly disfigured or in pain or whatever, but that’s actually less important to me than the fact that the game is really, really hard. I would probably describe it more as being about tension than horror. “For me the important part of System Shock 2 is the difficulty and the resource scarcity.

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