System Shock® 2 (1999)

It's clearly an old game, and I highly recommend installing some mods to make it look less painful, but it is definitely worth playing even today. I suggest not going for a hard difficulty to better enjoy the story and the game loops without highlighting the part of the game that haven't aged too well ;)

This game predated half-life, theif, or any other rpg shooter and was just plain amazing from start to finish. Does a good job at keeping you feeling lonely and isolated, and at the mercy of things you dont understand. When every shot counts, every upgrade critical, and wondering if you didnt take the wrong skill tree. This game made today with graphics of today would blow you away.

I love this game, but it's jank as f***.

I went through 4 different character builds before I managed to finish the game. I got to the next to the last level with 3 of them. To be fair, I wouldn't have put so much time into it if I hadn't enjoyed it. I ended up going heavy on psi with moderate emphasis on conventional weapons. Invisibility, the wall, and the health drain thing were what enabled me to finish. I enjoyed the idea that different opponents had different strengths and weaknesses forcing you to diversify your abilities. I went with psi emphasis because my temperament and reflexes favor range weapons and stealth. The cons for me were that opponents frequently appeared from nowhere and some had the ability effectively to shoot around corners. The controls using mouse and keyboard aren't very precise, sometimes leading to the inability to use the hide and pop out to shoot tactic. I gave up on the resurrection feature early in my first character. I just seemed like a waste. I saved very often. If you repeat a segment you can often get through it with no damage. The other thing I discovered was that hacking security stations is only useful to disable turrets. A thing I learned from other games was to save before hacking and reload if the first hack try fails. Saves nanites. The graphics look a little dated but I kind of like the feet. All in all, I'd happily buy it again.

Damn! This was the first game I bought brand new on its release day back in 1999. I could only play the game for 15 each time then I wanted to puke and felt mentally broken down. It took me 10 years to be able to finnish it. It has the best story ever in any game. And the replayability is endless. Even today it is scary as hell. I LOVE it!