System Shock 2 is a decent game, but my problem is I just don't have the benefit of having played it before Bioshock. This is a Ken Levine and Irrational Games FPS space survival game where you are a soldier who awakes from Cryosleep without remembering much about your surroundings. You arrive out of your pod and you can see somethings gone wrong.. terribly wrong. Thankfully you have a mysterious voice to guide you, to help you get to safety. First, you'll need a wrench, then you'll need to get aquainted with your psionic skills, which you can upgrade to give you Tonic-type abilities. Fights can be difficult, so you do have Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines which will reconstruct you if you die in battle. You can also hack vending machines to get to locked off areas or reduce prices at vending machines.. or if you have a lock-pick (called Ice Pick), you can use them to hack for you. Yes it all sounds familiar. Its not "just like Bioshock", because well.. for one.. its in space, and there are some differences, but the similarities in situation, application and story progression are quite noticeable. So it's a good game, and in today's day and age, I've rated it a 3/5 - because it is good, it just feels like I've played it all before. Finally, the graphics are surprisingly bad for 1999. This was released in Aug 1999, the year Dreamcast launched.. I had/have a DC and the rudimentary construction of System Shock 2's character models and environments are very basic in comparison to graphics we saw in 1999. The odd angular heads of character models are particularly horriffic - in the opening cutscene, I wasn't sure if I was a human or a frightening alien - lol. - Thankfully there are ways to mod the game with some upgraded models and textures, if you want to test your patience and figure it out. Anyway, in conclusion, its a good game, but it's a very familiar game. If you have the benefit of nostalgia, great.. if you don't- you should enjoy it anyway. :)
