System Shock® 2 (1999)

The original System Shock was a landmark title, merging twisted cyberpunk horror (originating the concept of message logs from dead crewmembers as a horror device), with Die Hard-style missions, and an escalating sense of power as your cyborg Avatar gains increasingly ridiculous cybernetic modifications like jetpacks. System Shock 2 came along and introduced gamers to the horror of performing janitorial maintenance on a busted ship while being hassled by respawning zombies and all you have to fight them off is a gun made of futuristic play-doh. The horror of a mad computer using viruses to turn human crewmembers into invisible mana ray monsters is replaced with the usual alien hive absorbing humanity, the mission design is 1 step forward, 2 steps back (the entire first half of the game is spent repairing a broken elevator), and instead of every cybernetic upgrade being a new toy to play with, they've been reduced to abstract stat upgrades in an action game (unless you pick up one of the super rare OS upgrades that can let you do things like learn to swing a wrench with an overhead swing!) This game stops being scary after the first hour and quickly gets annoying. The entire point of the Dark Engine and its AI was for the player to be avoiding fights, and in this game half the fights are mandatory. Play the first 2 Thief games if you want the dark engine at its scariest. The ending will have you flipping your keyboard in rage.

1999 didn't seem to be that good year for computer games. One year can be a long time for technical progress. In 2000 we had masterpieces like deus ex or no one lives forever, which were worlds ahead in having game fun in comparison to this title. To me system shock 2 is a very difficult game. I think, it belongs to this kind of ego games for people who want to tell proudly to everybody that they played it to the end titles. It's hard to get into it. The controls are clunky sometimes and therefore I had to die and reload often in fights, which was nerving, because the enemy was respawning after each corner out of nothing. It's hard to get the orientation and to find out what to do next, which is work not fun. A few time ago I played dead space which is comparable to this title and I didn't like, too. This part was enough, therefore I am lucky about saving my money for the remake of the first system shock.

System Shock 2 is an undeniable classic in the gaming world, having inspired its spiritual successor BioShock, and is an absolute must have for anyone who appreciates a great game.

Why does a marine need "cyber modules" which are "hard to come by" (even though they can be uploaded remotely (?!), meaning they're some kind of software and therefore infinitely copiable) to use an assault rifle? And why does the assault rifle break after two magazines and needs to be repaired by a consumable (?!) repair kit? Why is there a machine that revives you (for a fee LOL) even though you can save anywhere? That's right folks, yet ANOTHER overrated "immersive" Looking Glass trash. Ugly too, as it uses the primitive Thief engine. Avoid.

I avoided this back in 99... Was a bit of a graphics whore at the time (still am to a certain extent :-) ) and just could not get past the poor presentation, even for the time!!.. I toyed with playing it for many years but could never bring myself to do so. I'm glad there are a few reviews in here that reviewed it from todays perspective rather than that of nostalgia otherwise I would have already clicked buy. Man I just am still not sure I could see this through.