System Shock: Enhanced Edition

Though SS2 enjoys a unanimous 5-star rating, I just had to say it: Regardless of genre, this game is in my top three list of the best games of all time, equally good to Falcon 3.0 Gold and Baldur's Gate (entire saga). Overall quality of SS2 is absolutely unmatched by any similar game (the original and prophetic Deus Ex one sort of comes close, but not quite). I will not reiterate all the praise that others have already given this fantastic (in every sense) game. I just had to add my 5-star rating and comment here. NOTE: If you are skeptical about dated graphics, don't be. Just get and play this game. You will forget about the graphics 30 minutes after you start playing. Personally, I've played and completed it half a dozen times over the years and it only gets better as you explore new classes and skills (not that there are a humongous number of them, but still there's a good variety to keep things fresh for over a decade). Get this game. I rarely insist on recommending a game. I do here. Get it and discover a benchmark... WARNING: You may begin to hate despise most modern games after you play and complete SS2.

The tag immersive sim is incorrectly applied to this game, so if you are looking for something like Deus Ex or Thief - this ain't it. It's also not really a typical RPG - it has no classes, stats or levels. Not saying it is not immersive, it's just that label is commonly used to describe different kind of game. This is at it's core a DUNGEON CRAWLER with a mix of adventure and first person shooting. The levels are mazelike by design - because it's what the genre is about. It's a game where you need to keep a notebook to keep track of important info like what are you supposed to do and where to go. I admit I didn't think I would enjoy this game as much as I do, I'm somewhere hafway through and I'm loving it. And I'm not that into dungeon crawlers - most of them I find boring and repetitive - this game something else though. And the enhanced editions ability to mouselook and rebind all controls really make a world of difference compared to standard edition. Some caveats though - latest patch introduced horrible stuttering that tanks the performance. You can fix this by reverting to previous version and disabling auto update in the launcher options. The downside of this version though is the risk that sometimes the enemy AI might bug out or your map notes get deleted. The AI thing is not that common and if you just keep your notebook updated you should be fine.

I never played the original game before this, but I had fond memories of the sequel. Horror stories of the original UI and control scheme kept me away from this, but Night Dive Studios have made some very nice quality of life changes, Mouselook most notably. They also upscaled the resolution. Strongly recommend this version. As for the game itself, as long as you know what you're getting into, you'll enjoy it. Surprisingly immersive despite it's age.

As soon as you get used to the controls, this becomes one of the best FPP games I've ever played, right next to Metroid Prime, Prey, Bioshock, and a few others. Difference being we wouldnt have nearly any of them if this game didn't exist. I refuse to give games bonus credit just because they were "first" and I'm not doing that here. Yes I know it didn't invent every mechanic or the immersive sim genre, but it was the first actually good one, and it still holds up today. That isn't nostalga talking, my first time properly trying this game was just over a year ago. Can't wait for the remake though. Looking good You may not be interested if you want a more DOOM like experience, but for those who care more about depth, world building, enviromental stories, lore, and combat options beyond shotgun/pistol/AR/rocket gameplay, know that this game is something special and groundbreaking

The impact this game has had on modern gaming is almost incalculable. I originally bought this game with the intention of playing it for the soul purpose of completionism. I felt like I couldn’t get myself to play System Shock 2 without having played the first game. I beg you, don’t look at this game with that mindset. Play System Shock to play System Shock. This game can more than stand on its own. This game is a masterpiece. Sure, it has some rough edges. Sure, the game is old. But if you just give it a chance, in a very short amount of time all of that melts away into pure immersion. The enhanced edition also deserves a lot of praise. I would have never been able to experience this game on the level I did without full mouse controls.