System Shock® 2 (1999)

It is no joke that a lot of people call this the quite possibly scariest game they've ever played on the PC. Set 42 years after the events of System Shock 1, mankind has begun to make even greater steps into space with the cutting edge Von Braun, created by TriOptimum, that is able to travel faster then light while being escorted by the Rickenbacker. However, several weeks later the ship picks up a distress signal from the planet labled as Tau Ceti 5 where the crew brings onboard something that slowly takes over the minds of the crew and eventually mutating most of them into horrific creatures that are still aware of what is going on, but can't do anything about it. You play as a soldier who had prior to the Von Braun going on its tour been assigned to it and wake up in a cryogenic tube with no memory of what has happened. It is up to you to face the mutated crew and hacked security system while also finding out about how all this happened. This game was number 1 on the game request list here on GOG for a reason and now you get the chance to experience the horrors onboard the Von Braun and Rickenbacker for a low price as well as no hassle with getting it to run on Windows Vista, 7 and such.

Amazing - not only have GOG done the impossible and sourced the rights to system shock (previously thought to be so mired in legal red tape as to never be republished) but they've gone and patched it up to work on modern machines without any messing about, and boosted the supported res' to boot. Bravo.

You owe it to yourself to play this game! With it's wonderful fps and rpg elements this game is a pleasure to play. The game pulls you in to it's eerie hallways and terrifying enemies with its great story filled with suspense you won't want to stop until you reach the end. It's co op gameplay is fantastic as well. It has aged amazingly well and with mods like ss2 rebirth and Shtup it just looks great! The gog team has made it mod ready so you just have to copy the files straight into the "data permanent mods" folder and you are good to go.

Was very excited to see this get a re-release, and it does not disappoint. Don't let its age fool you, it is still very deserving of a playthrough. An active mod community means hi-rez textures are available (google SS2 Mod Manager, does a great job of implementing them) Game functions perfectly on Win 7, plays in 16:9 widescreen. This along with Deus Ex are my top 2 must have classic PC games. Would recommend to any serious PC gamer.

When a friend of mine told me that this game was available a couple days ago, I *immediately* went to GoG and bought it. There are only a handful of PC games that I would say are diamond classics, such as Star Control 2, the Wing Commander series, FreeSpace 2, and System Shock 2. This game was a trend-setter in my mind. I hadn't really played any first-person that had RPG mechanics and story elements like this one at the time. They are still excellent to this day, and I'm sure games like Morrowind through Skyrim took their lessons from this. This one is not sandbox-like, however; it is story-driven. The story is a darn good one. You start out thinking you understand what is going on, but you keep getting led on by the game's villain. The villain has to be one of the most menacing presences I've ever experienced in the game. The first time you hear the voice, you will actually dread it. The excellent villain was both chilling and darkly comic. There is a reason that IGN had this villain (from a game that didn't get too much attention at the time, if memory serves) make its top 100 best video game villains. The game is not short, but not too long either. I had done multiple playthroughs with different approaches and had a blast with each. Though it is fairly linear, there are different ways to go about doing things. If you can tolerate antiquated graphics (hey, you're on GoG, so I'm assuming that's a yes), then definitely get this game. You will not regret it.