System Shock 2 (possible spoilers)

[Nadril]

Man, why did I wait almost 10 years to play this game? I remember playing the demo of it when it came out, enjoyed it, but never actually got the game.

 

 

 

Well after countless trial and error I got it to work on my XP machine, and as of today I beat it. God damn, I am convinced that SHODAN is the best villain ever now.

 

 

 

From a gameplay perspective the choices you could make towards your character were great. I, myself, went a bit of a melee person and then near the end got a bunch of psi stuff to help heal me. Now I'm mostly comparing this game to half life (released around the same time) and I still do think that half life beats SS2 in terms of gameplay.

 

 

 

Of course, that isn't what this game is about, now is it? The story in System Shock 2 is top notch and certainly is one of the best I've been a part of in an FPS, hell almost any game.

 

 

 

[hide=Spoilers possibly]SHODAN... man. I'm kind of sad they reused the whole surprise element for Bioshock because SS2 did it so much better. I got a chill down my spine, and this is playing a 10 year old game, when I first actually met shodan. Everything it says has it believing that it is better than you. Than the ship. Than the many.

 

 

 

I have to say that for a bit I was conflicted. On one hand, I knew that SHODAN was ultimately evil. On the other hand however the many were killing off all of the humans. The problem is that The Many, even for an alien race that is mostly based off of parasites, seemed almost... well... almost good. All they wanted to do is protect their young, and to prosper. This had a negative influence on the humans and had to be stopped, but man.

 

 

 

Of course The Many were creppy as hell too. The thing that caught me off guard is that during the entire time Xerxes and "the many" refer themselves as the collective, as one entity. What I didn't know until the end is that this was actually true, the many was literally "one" with each other. As one of the PDA messages put it "They are actually one... working together not as individuals but as certain organs of a body".

 

 

 

 

 

It's a little fuzzy after that, but what I got from some of the messages is that SHODAN actually created "The Many" in order to only fuel her image as being a being of ultimate power or, well, a god. There really is nothing more evil than a being creating life only to lead a puppet through to kill it, and of course help it along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

I am wondering if I have missed much from not playing System Shock 1, however. I know SHODAN apparently came into existance because of a hacker?[/hide]

 

 

 

I think thats about it. Is there anywhere where I could find more information about the games backstory? SHODAN is the first character in a game since the G-Man to really intrigue me.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways I know a lot of people love Bioshock here and, trust me, Bioshock is a spec compared to what SS2 is.

[Mr_Putter]

SS1 was better...and I actually played SS2 first so it's not nostalgia or anything, I just legitimately think it's better.

 

 

 

SS2 had too many problems - degrading weapons, respawning enemies, awful character models...Everyone I've talked to has said it's so immersive and creepy, but I was pooped right out of immersion every time I had to reload because of the unexpected difficulty messing me up, or any time I saw one of the Many, or those big balls of muscle.

 

 

 

I have Bioshock, but haven't played it yet (other than the demo). From Bioshock's demo, it felt to me like what SS2 should have been graphics and mechanics wise, just with all the same depth as SS2.

 

 

 

Edit - You can find out more information by playing SS1, or google or whatever. But I'll let wikipedia explain cause it does it perfectly:

 

 

 

Before the beginning of the game, the protagonist a nameless hacker is caught attempting to remotely access files concerning Citadel Station, a space station owned by the fictional TriOptimum Corporation. The hacker is taken to Citadel Station and brought before Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive. Diego offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a confidential hacking of SHODAN, the artificial intelligence that controls the station. To entice cooperation, Diego promises the hacker a valuable military grade neural implant.

 

 

 

After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the protagonist undergoes a surgery that fits him with the promised neural interface.

[Nadril]

I have to agree that the degrading weapons were an annoyance, but like I said I ended up focusing more on melee because of that and saving weapons for the enemies that I needed it for. With the Crystal shard and almost maxed out "Exotic" I kicked [wagon] :P.

 

 

 

 

 

The character models and such never bothered me. Of course there are mods these days that change them so =P. Same thing for the degrading/respawn. And either way I was more focused on the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways I did check out wiki for some more info and got a lot of what I wanted :P. Also, Bioshock really isn't on the same level as System shock 2. Gameplay wise I'd say its better but the story isn't as good.

[nine naked men]

I've got it, but I still haven't gotten around to making it work on my computer. :x

[Mr_Putter]

Of course there are mods these days that change them so =P.

 

Still, too many bad design decisions keep it away from being excellent. In my mind, mods ought to improve on an already amazing vanilla, and not need to dramatically change the gameplay.

 

 

 

SS2 is great, don't get me wrong. It's just that it's so grossly overrated for an underrated game, if you follow. The cult following it has praises it endlessly around the internet, when really it doesn't come close to its cousin, Deus Ex.

 

 

 

The other over-rated cult game: Beyond Good and Evil.