System Shock 2 Review
Jan. 23rd, 2007 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
demonicgerbilAtmospheric, creepy, perhaps even scary.
System Shock 2 is the 1999 sequel to the classic 1994 game System Shock. Thankfully System Shock 2 borrows the best of other first person shooters in its control scheme, making the game at once intuitive to control while still keeping all the atmosphere of the original intact.
The game is set about a hundred or so years from now. Space travel, lasers, robots, and super powerful artificial intelligences are all common. You play an unnamed UNN soldier on one of mankind's most historic missions - a voyage to break the speed of light. The voyage becomes even more historic, with a signal detected from the Tau Ceti system. The ship, the Von Braun, detours to investigate and things start to go terribly wrong. Your character wakes up from cryo sleep just in time to narrowly survive dying from exposure to vacuum. From there its a race for survival against insurmountable odds, and strange creatures.
The game has two modes of control. The first is 'shoot mode' where it controls like any other recent First Person Shooter. Use WASD to move, the mouse to look, and various other keys to perform other functions such as weapon selection, item use, and jumping. The controls are tight, familiar to anyone who's played a first person shooter in recent times, and easy to pickup. The second control mode is based inside the character's multi-function display and lets you listen to log files, look up information, manage inventory, conduct research and similar matters. Switching between the two modes is as simple as hitting the tab key.
The game offers a multitude of ways to play it. You can play a gun heavy marine, a technical specialist that can hack, repair, and research anything, a PSI user throwing fireballs and stunning robots with his mind, or a blend of everything. You receive 'Cyber Modules' which can be spent to acquire new skills, improved statistics, or pick up new PSI powers.
Combat is usually fast paced, and quite often used in such a way as to keep you on edge. Enemies will approach from behind, remain blissfully unaware of your presence, and exhibit other such behaviors in a wide-range so that you can never be quite sure of what's going to happen. Enemies have a range of attacks, from melee, to the same sorts of ranged attacks you can have, on to even use of PSI powers. The enemies also have a variety of weaknesses. The Human-alien hybrids that are encountered early on are susceptible to attacks that later robotic enemies, gun turrets, and completely alien enemies are not susceptible to. The aliens have their own weaknesses, and so do the robots. Using the right tool for the right job is very important.
Also important is the management of resources. There is only so much ammo, nanites (the in-game 'currency'), and other items to go around, and wasting resources may mean that you'll find yourself without anti-personnel ammo when you're staring down a group of Hybrids, or stuck with just the Argon laser when fighting off an alien enemy. Further making management more difficult is the fact that weapons will slowly degrade as they're used, requiring either their replacement with other weapons picked up off the ground, or their repair and periodic maintenance - which uses up nanites and maintenance tools.
The enemies come in a great variety, from the alien worms and spiders, to the human-alien hybrids which undergo evolution as the game progresses turning into two further classes of enemies, to the robotic enemies under the control of the Von Braun's hacked artificial intelligence, Xerxes. The first enemies encountered are the hybrids, and they are perhaps the scariest, with some of the creepiest vocal samples ever recorded in videogame history belonging to them. You'll be walking along, and all the sudden you'll hear one mumbling to himself somewhere nearby, "We are, we are, we are, we are." And then his screamed battle cry, where he tells you to run as he tries to crush your skull with a blunt instrument. I know, it doesn't sound creepy reading about it, but just take my word, it is.
In fact, the voices lend a lot to the game. SHODAN eventually makes a return, from the first system shock, and still has her characteristic speech pattern. The Many, the aliens, have their own speech pattern which combines three voices that alternate in and out as their dialogs progresses. Combine that with the dark atmosphere of the game, the logs you can pick up and listen to get the story, and the well laid out level design and you've got a game that will keep you on the edge of your seat as it progresses.
The game's graphics are pretty good for its age. Only the alien spiders really look like they could have used a few more polygons in their build. Fans have made improved higher-res textures and new enemy models, however, that can be downloaded and installed depending on your taste.
Though perhaps the biggest hurdle to enjoying System Shock 2 is the difficult in running it on a modern computer system. A number of tricks have to be used to get it to run on a Windows XP machine. Other tricks have to be used to trick it to run on a machine with hyperthreading. While I considering it worth the effort, it may not be worth it to every user, and this difficulty really hurts the game's appeal. It doesn't matter how good the candy tastes if you can never reach up and take it, you know.
Having said that, the game is fun, it's pretty scary at times, very atmospheric, and a general all around good time. It's definitely worth playing.
Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:
Gameplay: 7
The gameplay is pretty much stock for a First Person Shooter. The controls are fully customizable, which is a big plus that not every game gives you. The survival horror and RPG elements added to the FPS genre in this game are a harbinger of things to come, such as Deus Ex, and are welcome additions to the sometimes staid genre.
Graphics: 7
The graphics are pretty good in quality for the time, and they contribute greatly to the mood of the game. The only thing that really doesn't look so good are the spider enemies. I'm going to have to call this an "Above Average" here.
Sound: 10
Some of the sound effects are not entirely great, but the vocal pieces, whether from SHODAN, the Many, or one of the crewman's logs are entirely fantastic and pretty much make the whole experience worthwhile.
Replay: 7
System Shock 2 is quite replayable as there are a wide variety of ways to get through the game thanks to the scarcity of Cyber Modules to upgrade with. Even someone that concentrates in PSI powers cannot take all of them, meaning that there are a wide variety of choices for any character type to make on the trip through the game.
Other: N/A
With the multiplayer patch, it is possible to play System Shock 2 cooperatively with your friends, up to four of them. However there is always great difficulty in getting all of the computers involved to talk with each other. Some of this is due to the presence of routers and other NAT devices, I'm sure, but generally it seems to take my friends and I an hour or so to get the game started when we want to multiplayer. That's pretty much inexcusable right there.
Overall: 9
System Shock 2 is a great game. The whole experience is greater than the sum of its parts. It's definitely a 'must play' for any fan of horror (whether it's survival or not), action/adventure, first person shooters, or action rpgs. It's unfortunate that it's very difficult to get the game to run on modern computers - visits to forums that deal with the game will be a must to get it going. But once you do get it running, it's worth it.
System Shock 2 is the 1999 sequel to the classic 1994 game System Shock. Thankfully System Shock 2 borrows the best of other first person shooters in its control scheme, making the game at once intuitive to control while still keeping all the atmosphere of the original intact.
The game is set about a hundred or so years from now. Space travel, lasers, robots, and super powerful artificial intelligences are all common. You play an unnamed UNN soldier on one of mankind's most historic missions - a voyage to break the speed of light. The voyage becomes even more historic, with a signal detected from the Tau Ceti system. The ship, the Von Braun, detours to investigate and things start to go terribly wrong. Your character wakes up from cryo sleep just in time to narrowly survive dying from exposure to vacuum. From there its a race for survival against insurmountable odds, and strange creatures.
The game has two modes of control. The first is 'shoot mode' where it controls like any other recent First Person Shooter. Use WASD to move, the mouse to look, and various other keys to perform other functions such as weapon selection, item use, and jumping. The controls are tight, familiar to anyone who's played a first person shooter in recent times, and easy to pickup. The second control mode is based inside the character's multi-function display and lets you listen to log files, look up information, manage inventory, conduct research and similar matters. Switching between the two modes is as simple as hitting the tab key.
The game offers a multitude of ways to play it. You can play a gun heavy marine, a technical specialist that can hack, repair, and research anything, a PSI user throwing fireballs and stunning robots with his mind, or a blend of everything. You receive 'Cyber Modules' which can be spent to acquire new skills, improved statistics, or pick up new PSI powers.
Combat is usually fast paced, and quite often used in such a way as to keep you on edge. Enemies will approach from behind, remain blissfully unaware of your presence, and exhibit other such behaviors in a wide-range so that you can never be quite sure of what's going to happen. Enemies have a range of attacks, from melee, to the same sorts of ranged attacks you can have, on to even use of PSI powers. The enemies also have a variety of weaknesses. The Human-alien hybrids that are encountered early on are susceptible to attacks that later robotic enemies, gun turrets, and completely alien enemies are not susceptible to. The aliens have their own weaknesses, and so do the robots. Using the right tool for the right job is very important.
Also important is the management of resources. There is only so much ammo, nanites (the in-game 'currency'), and other items to go around, and wasting resources may mean that you'll find yourself without anti-personnel ammo when you're staring down a group of Hybrids, or stuck with just the Argon laser when fighting off an alien enemy. Further making management more difficult is the fact that weapons will slowly degrade as they're used, requiring either their replacement with other weapons picked up off the ground, or their repair and periodic maintenance - which uses up nanites and maintenance tools.
The enemies come in a great variety, from the alien worms and spiders, to the human-alien hybrids which undergo evolution as the game progresses turning into two further classes of enemies, to the robotic enemies under the control of the Von Braun's hacked artificial intelligence, Xerxes. The first enemies encountered are the hybrids, and they are perhaps the scariest, with some of the creepiest vocal samples ever recorded in videogame history belonging to them. You'll be walking along, and all the sudden you'll hear one mumbling to himself somewhere nearby, "We are, we are, we are, we are." And then his screamed battle cry, where he tells you to run as he tries to crush your skull with a blunt instrument. I know, it doesn't sound creepy reading about it, but just take my word, it is.
In fact, the voices lend a lot to the game. SHODAN eventually makes a return, from the first system shock, and still has her characteristic speech pattern. The Many, the aliens, have their own speech pattern which combines three voices that alternate in and out as their dialogs progresses. Combine that with the dark atmosphere of the game, the logs you can pick up and listen to get the story, and the well laid out level design and you've got a game that will keep you on the edge of your seat as it progresses.
The game's graphics are pretty good for its age. Only the alien spiders really look like they could have used a few more polygons in their build. Fans have made improved higher-res textures and new enemy models, however, that can be downloaded and installed depending on your taste.
Though perhaps the biggest hurdle to enjoying System Shock 2 is the difficult in running it on a modern computer system. A number of tricks have to be used to get it to run on a Windows XP machine. Other tricks have to be used to trick it to run on a machine with hyperthreading. While I considering it worth the effort, it may not be worth it to every user, and this difficulty really hurts the game's appeal. It doesn't matter how good the candy tastes if you can never reach up and take it, you know.
Having said that, the game is fun, it's pretty scary at times, very atmospheric, and a general all around good time. It's definitely worth playing.
Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:
Gameplay: 7
The gameplay is pretty much stock for a First Person Shooter. The controls are fully customizable, which is a big plus that not every game gives you. The survival horror and RPG elements added to the FPS genre in this game are a harbinger of things to come, such as Deus Ex, and are welcome additions to the sometimes staid genre.
Graphics: 7
The graphics are pretty good in quality for the time, and they contribute greatly to the mood of the game. The only thing that really doesn't look so good are the spider enemies. I'm going to have to call this an "Above Average" here.
Sound: 10
Some of the sound effects are not entirely great, but the vocal pieces, whether from SHODAN, the Many, or one of the crewman's logs are entirely fantastic and pretty much make the whole experience worthwhile.
Replay: 7
System Shock 2 is quite replayable as there are a wide variety of ways to get through the game thanks to the scarcity of Cyber Modules to upgrade with. Even someone that concentrates in PSI powers cannot take all of them, meaning that there are a wide variety of choices for any character type to make on the trip through the game.
Other: N/A
With the multiplayer patch, it is possible to play System Shock 2 cooperatively with your friends, up to four of them. However there is always great difficulty in getting all of the computers involved to talk with each other. Some of this is due to the presence of routers and other NAT devices, I'm sure, but generally it seems to take my friends and I an hour or so to get the game started when we want to multiplayer. That's pretty much inexcusable right there.
Overall: 9
System Shock 2 is a great game. The whole experience is greater than the sum of its parts. It's definitely a 'must play' for any fan of horror (whether it's survival or not), action/adventure, first person shooters, or action rpgs. It's unfortunate that it's very difficult to get the game to run on modern computers - visits to forums that deal with the game will be a must to get it going. But once you do get it running, it's worth it.