System Shock® 2 (1999)

title says everything

System Shock 2 starts amazingly. 5/5 for the first 15% of the game (before the player enters Hydroponics Deck). 2/5 after that. Issues: 1. Enemies respawn. It wouldn't be such an issue if not the next problem: 2. Backtracking in the worst possible way. "Go collect 5 keys hidden somewhere in this deck, insect. By the way, the deck is huge and full of boring corridors and similarly-looking rooms, pathetic human. Got the keys? Great, go back to the previous deck and find the specific place where you can use them, you, scum. Oh, and by the way, all the enemies have respawned, so you must kill them again, dirty meatbag". Do you think it becomes better later in the game? No, because the next issue is... 4. The same boring gameplay loop from the beginning to the end. "Find 5 pieces of code, kill 3 assassins, destroy all the eggs..." It becomes especially awful by the end, when you visit another place. 3. RPG elements. Half of your skills are useless. Repair? Not needed. Modify? Almost useless. Research? Either useless or absolutely necessary, if you want to obtain the strongest melee weapon in the game. I think if you need to raise the skill to use it only one time in the entire game, that's an example of a bad game design. Heavy weapon? Only useful for the grenade launcher. Exotic weapon? Only useful for one weapon. And some other skills are absolutely critical - Hack, for example. 4. PSI. Exactly the same reason as with the RPG elements. A ton of PSI powers (something like 50), but how many useful ones? 5 or something. That would be good if the game was easy, but it's hard, so you can't even use the powers for your own fun, or you'll find yourself in the nearest Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Chamber really soon. The UI for switching the powers is horrible - it's difficult to choose the right one during battle. But the first part, when the game is scary and mysterious, is really cool. Especially the cargo bays - exploding robots still come to me in my nightmares.

... Just for releasing this masterpiece. Insta-buy for me even though I already own two copies(one box, one jewelcase). This is a Survival Horror FPS with heavy character building elements(more than spiritual sequels that starts with B), and can't get enough of playing with dozen playthroughs. The best charm with System Shock 2 is the presence of SHODAN. It's better to play System Shock 1 first, but not really required(SHODAN will brief what happened between 1 and 2). Summary? Buy it. Period.

Forget about your so-called survival horror, everything is about atmosphere. And this game has it all. This feeling of emptyness, that urge to pay attention to every sound, to keep a count of every single ammunition... Claustrophobic corridors inside, agoraphobic space outside... No communication except for a single human beeing, ghosts appearing in the middle of nowhere, a Crazy IA and a few audio logs left behind for you to understand... This is it... "I am not affraid", you say... "You will be..."

A friend and I were comparing notes on this brilliant game when it first came out. I was telling him how I was glued to the screen, how I couldn't stop playing it, how it was the absolutely perfect fusion of a FPS and an RPG, and how scary and moody and awesome the ambience was. He, on the other hand, insisted he could only play for an hour at a time. Naturally, I asked him why; he answered "Because that's how often I have to empty out my shorts. Damned monkeys." It really is that scary, and it really is that good. If you're on the fence, don't be. Just get it. You won't be sorry.