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System Shock 2 Review
John Meyer III
00/12/0000
System Shock 2…it’s scary...
Disclaimer: System Shock 2 is a Sci-Fi Horror.
My first impression of the game: âScaryâ¦It had my heart racing. It brought flashbacks of Event Horizon to my mind. Oohâ¦the agony of it all. Only I am the victim, and not the spectator this time.â
Ok, SS2 was really fun to play through. It had frightening graphics, and some excellent parts of the RPG genre incorporated into the game. SS2 is a cross between an RPG and a FPS. It has all the elements to make it an RPG, but in a first person perspective.
The story takes place in the Future, 42 years after 2072 when a Rogue AI âShodanâ felt that she was a goddess and was destined to take over the earth. Her AI was erased by her hacker/creator. Now 42 years later, you start out and in training you decide how to go about your learning skills. You can choose to be more inclined with weapons, technical skills, or Psi Powers (Psychic/kinetic Energy). You can also mix up the skills, and become talented in all the areas, although I recommend strengthening one area first before going for the next area. Once you have decided where you want to increase your skills, you select a service to enlist in, sort of like a military. Your Choices are the Marines for âWeaponsâ, the Navy for the âTechnical Fieldâ, or the OSA for the âMindâ.
After selecting your service you will spend the next 4 years training as an operative. You select what areas in your field you want to strengthenâ¦this game has depth. At the conclusion of your 4 years of training, you actually start into the gameâ¦your ships security has been compromised by an unknown force, and your job is to survive.
Graphics:
The developers of this game did a bang up job with the graphics. The smoothness and sharpness of the futuristic environments portrayed the sci-fi horror persona of the game nicely. There were some acute lighting details that I noticed were impressive. There were some in-game movies, which played smoothly, however they were small to preserve the clarity. The enemies that you will encounter will have a nice overall gruesome look. Their movements could be more fluid, but again, their clumsy walking does adds more to the feel of the game. The game environments were incredible in SS2. There was a lot of detail incorporated into creating a feel that will immerse you into the environment, you will believe you are in a spaceship, on a catwalk, in a city, or wherever the level takes place. The environments are very realistic (in a sci-fi kind of way). These graphics are some of the best I have seen in an overall perspective. Textures, signs, character skins, all had a realistic look, and were high in detail. The excellent graphics in SS2 just make for an unbelievable atmosphere to consume your senses. Nicely done Looking Glass.
Sound:
I was very impressed with the sounds. I like it when the sounds of your footsteps changes depending on the surface you are walking on. One of the best sound features of the game was the voices that some of the first enemies would make. A very frightful and possessed voice could be heard echoing through the corridor as you were chased. The music wasnât to dominant throughout the game, though there are some nice tracks on the CD. Sound was definitely a major factor in adding to the scare factor of the game. It will raise the hairs on your neck!
Gameplay:
Alright, lets see here, we have a nice big RPG menu for moving items around, similar to the RPG Ultima Underworld. This game has everything that you would expect in an RPG. There is a lot of depth to the game, with different paths to choose that will inevitably change the outcome of your characters strengths and weaknesses. There are so many choices that are left open to decide your outcome. And no matter which choice you make overall, you will not be limiting your characters chance of survival. For example, if you chose the OSA over the Marines, you wonât be handicapped because of a minor area in weapons. There are 5 tiers of psychic ability levels, and 35 different psychic powers to annihilate your enemies with. Whether you choose OSA, Navy, or Marines, you will be given tons of options to tantalize your RPG fantasies of power. Controls can take a while to configure to get everything just right. It can be painfully frustrating and frightening when you happen to pull up your map and menu screens, while in the middle of a battle. The way it works, there are two distinct modes. A battle/action mode, that puts you in the basic FPS controls and attacks nice and simple with a point and shoot. The other mode is the item/menu/map mode. In this mode, your mouse becomes a cursor on the screen to select items in a room, to add to your holding. Also this is where you can check your map, and use the items you have stored. If you have played other RPGâs by Looking Glass, you should already be familiar with the layout, and have no trouble adjusting to the settings. For those of you who are FPS gamers, that are unfamiliar with the RPG menus, SS2 has an in-depth training sequence. This can be very helpful to those who just have no clue what they are doing.
Lastability:
System Shock 2 has all the great features of both worlds of an FPS and an RPG. With this combination, and the incredible gameplay, sound and graphics set forth by Looking Glass, and Irrational Games, SS2 will be one game that will be hard to set down, and one that you will be wanting to come back to just to see what you missed the first time. There are so many different paths, and combinations of advancing through the game, which adds to the overall depth of the game. You will find that it may be easier to get past certain levels with special skills that you may not have trained well enough, and going back and doing it over to achieve the perfect sequence of training will add to the replay value of this great game. I enjoyed playing this game for the first time, and although scary, I still came back to challenge myself again.
