NORRIS: “A worm crawled up my arm and rested on my neck. When he whispered into my ear, I felt a tingle…” NORRIS: “He told me how to make a weapon that would help us against our enemies.” NORRIS: “And here’s the thing… it’s made of worms…” NORRIS: “it even fires worms…” NORRIS: “but it stings like you wouldn’t believe.” “System Shock 1” was a fantastic game. A well-designed sci-fi dungeon-crawler with plenty of options and freedom. Like “Ultima Underworld” before it, it could have gotten a sequel that was basically the same game again, just with some new additions and features. Instead, it didn’t get a sequel for 5 years. And it resulted in a very different game. For one, it was a joint venture between two companies, Looking Glass and Other Looking Glass. Irrational Games was founded by three ex-employees of LGS, who were now back, working with their old team – just as a partner company, rather than employees. The game itself was being developed using the Dark Engine. At the same time, the Dark Engine was being made for “Thief 1”. So you may notice quite a few similarly shaped enemies, or the same animations being used back and forth. “Thief 1” fed “System Shock 2”, which, in turn, fed “Thief 2”. The entire stealth system is still in the game – you’re just short a light gem and some levels that truly support it. It is ironic that “System Shock 1” was built off the back of a fantasy game, and now “2” is doing the same. I’m not making any kind of asset counter, but if you see one, you can take a shot or something… But it is worth pointing out, because it can explain some weirdness. Ever wondered why mutants hold shotguns like that? Well, now you know. Naturally, both engines had some issues on modern hardware, but “System Shock 2” has been better taken care of, officially. Both, the Steam and GOG versions are updated with NewDark (caw). However, you can make your experience much better, so, let’s get started. Now, no matter what, you should really want to download System Shock 2 Tool. This makes sure you have the latest and best community NewDark version of the game. It fixes engine issues, gives you better default controls and automatically upgrades you to EAX sound. Even if you are the purest, solely-for-procreation vanilla player, you should have this tool. But it also includes a mod manager. If you saw my “Thief” videos, you know I’m very particular about this kind of thing. Mods are great, but, if it’s your first time playing a game (especially a classic like this one), you don’t wanna mod yourself out of knowing what it’s like. I’ve replayed this game a lot over the years, and these are the ones I now never play without. If it’s your first time playing the game, you’ll also be safe. This game had a lot of development issues, and could have used some more time to polish things up. That’s the goal of the Community Patch. For one, it has an absurd amount of fixes built into it. Misaligned or floating objects, engine issues – they’re all gone. They enhanced how the lighting works, cleaned up effects – it’s kind of insane how much there is, and I can’t really properly list them all out. That said, there are some gameplay changes, but they’re ones that make sense. Let me give some examples. In vanilla, hacking security disables local turrets and cameras. Except, if there are two turrets in a room, and you hack one over, they’ll both activate and start murdering each other. In the patch, that doesn’t happen, and they both sit there like you’d expect. Also, cameras don’t just stay green and keep swinging around like they’re still functioning – they turn off. This adds some extra challenge, because it’s now easier to miss turned off cameras. So, if you hack an area, and you’re not careful, you’ll be in for some fun on the way back. If you skip training in the beginning, you’ll no longer have help stations around. Most of the developers weren’t fond of them. Some upgrades were buffed to make them more attractive, instead of useless. Fire-based attacks can finally get rid of those fucking bees. Surgical beds finally get rid of toxin, dripping acid hurts you, you can click-drag the game PIG. It doesn’t radically change the gameplay or throw things out of balance – it just makes it better. They’ve been at this for years, and they know what they’re doing. So, when they recommend a graphical mod, which itself recommends another one, you can trust that. I’m extremely wary of texture overhauls your first time through, and when it came to “Thief”, I couldn’t recommend any of them. So believe me when I say this SHTUP Object Replacer is exceptionally good. It replaces object textures with higher resolution ones that don’t break the art style. The same thing goes for the Four Hundred Terrain Replacer. The differences can be subtle at a quick glance, which, I guess, is ideal for how it should be. If you’re still on a really old PC, it’s not something you desperately need, but it’s nice to have if you take the time for it. There are great graphic mods that cover everything from plants to weapons, but I typically don’t use all those, and I won’t for this video. Because, eventually, things do start looking out of place, and enemies especially aren’t high resolution enough to keep up. There is one enemy graphical mod, but, ehm… Well, some liberties were taken with the art style, and… Oh, Jesus Chri- So, that’s as far as I go here. Also, the patch mod has the Real Shotgun mod on the same page. The original shotgun enemy had the weapon as part of the model, so you’d loot the shotgun off, but it would, like, still be on the body, and it was just weird to look at. So that game-breaking issue is fixed. Your mod manager should look something like this. I’ll pin links and stuff in the top comment, to make this all super easy. So, with that all done, let’s get into the game proper. “System Shock 1” is recapped in about 20 seconds. The rogue AI SHODAN took over Citadel Station and tried to wipe out humanity. She was stopped by the Hacker. You’re all caught up. So what’s happening this round? TV ANCHOR: “February 3rd is the day the magic happens!” TV ANCHOR: “The Von Braun – the first star ship in history capable of traveling at faster than light speed – will undertake her maiden voyage.” TV ANCHOR: “This incredible journey is the result of teamwork between the UNN Protectorate” TV ANCHOR: “and the incredible scientific minds at the newly relicensed Trioptimum Corporation.” TV ANCHOR: “Imagine being able to travel to distant star systems in a period of weeks. It’s all part of Triop’s commitment to the future.” TV ANCHOR: “The Von Braun is packed with over 1.8 billion flight, scientific and security systems –” TV ANCHOR: “nearly all developed by Trioptimum and its wholly owned subsidiaries.” TV ANCHOR: “Providing security for the Von Braun, as she ploughs through the heavens, will be the UNN Rickenbacker.” TV ANCHOR: “At her helm will be no less than Cpt. William Bedford Diego himself –” TV ANCHOR: “hero of the battle of Boston Harbor during the Eastern States police action.” TV ANCHOR: “This incredible union of government and corporation is made possible by an intricate series of docking mechanisms” TV ANCHOR: “that will allow the Rickenbacker to piggyback its way into jumpspace.” TV ANCHOR: “Slick, fast, revolutionary.” TV ANCHOR: “Who knows what wonders await our crews in the bosom of the cosmos?” TV ANCHOR: “All we do know is that it’s a great day for mankind.” Oh, there will be some wonders… [sounds of ape-on-monkey violence] But before you go aboard the Von Braun, you have character creation to do. You start the game on Earth, at a UNN training facility. You can explore a bit here, learn the controls, play the tutorials. And from here, you choose your branch of the military. This is where things get a little vague and tricky, so let me explain. I don’t think there is an agreed upon, point-exact best character build, but “System Shock 2” definitely has lots and lots of WRONG character builds. It can also be easy to make a mistake your first time through. Some players go through training and find out their character has no idea how to use a pistol. Though, that is viable. The Repair skill lets you fix items and weapons that are completely broken, but keeping them from breaking needs the Maintenance skill. This already seems iffy, but now add on there are auto-repair items floating around. You can guess what I’ve never put a skill point into in my life. “System Shock 2” Repair makes “Deus Ex” Swimming look like “Fallout” Speech. Okay, no, that’s too psychotic… The point is: even if you go through the manual to find out how all the skills work, you won’t know how the game works, until you just get it and play it. Deciding to restart and rebuild your character an hour in isn’t anything unusual. This is also a good time to mention how the difficulty settings work. Once again, there are some similarities to “Thief”, but nothing quite as in-depth. The enemy AI isn’t affected, and their stats don’t go up. Instead, your starting health and space magic pools will go down. On Impossible, you’re easily one-shot by the first enemy you see. Difficulties also include VERY slight map changes. Something like a security station to hack into might not be there when things get harder. Enemies will spawn more frequently, but they’ll also drop less loot. The violence is escalating, and so is the prices of items in the stores. Really out there sci-fi stuff. Despite all of that, I think the biggest change comes from how you can actually develop your character. This is because, throughout the game, you receive cyber mods, which are, basically, just your skill points. You can then visit your local Tesla diaper-changing station, to enhance your abilities. You get the same number of mods per game, but, like the store prices, the cost to upgrade also goes up. Buying new skills is usually more expensive than upgrading, and this just makes that harder. The scarcity adds more tension, so it’s great if you’re experienced. However, this does have some playstyle drawbacks, which I’ll talk about more in detail later. If you don’t know the game, it’s easier to make a sillier character that’s harder to recover from. If you’re thinking that skill balance sounds important, you’re right. So what if I told you the initial branches indicate nothing? You won’t know what you’ll start off with, until you take the plunge. You’ll receive 3 sets of 3 different assignments. They tell you what skills you gain, and each represents a year in a military career. They even have nice little lore bits of what you did. Each branch is still very geared around creating a certain class of character. So here’s the quick rundown on each. The Marine Corps is self-explanatory. You go to camp Lejeune, to avoid snake pits and be screamed at by men with no foreheads. And for this, you get a Standard Weapon point. Your first choices are mainly around which weapons to use and how to maintain them. You can start the game with a grenade launcher. The Navy also gives you a Standard Weapon point, but you have options to make a more sciency or hackerman character. So it can be similar to a Marine build, just with less Crayola chaos. As for the O.S.A, I don’t know what the hell happens in there, but they make you a space wizard. This is the interesting branch to go into. You typically go here to make a space wizard, because, if not, the other two branches are usually a better choice. Now, you can play the entire game not knowing what magic is and not being shoved in a locker. I’m still not sure how magic works (much less space magic), because my local bookstore is still being shoplifted. I don’t know what the hell is happening there… Anyways, the opposite is also true. You can spec into psyker powers and never have to pick up a gun during the game. Because fireballs don’t need a conceal permit. Neither does the brain sword. There are lots of powers to learn, but there is some trickiness to managing them. It’s a very different playthrough worth doing, but not really recommended for a first time player. It’s very different. There are so many layers to character progression and difficulty, and how it all ties into the systems. I’ll come back to it later, but, wow, that’s a lot to start off with. Especially, when the first game just had this screen, and then you were in. I can still appreciate just how much work they put into character creation segment. A lot of effort was put in, to immerse you into the story and the universe. And this is following a game where you could flat out turn off the plot. Speaking of, let’s get back to that. In your 4th year of service, you’re assigned to the Rickenbacker, to escort the Von Braun. With Trioptimum at the helm, it’s going as well as you’d expect. [sounds of mutant-on-human violence] SYSTEM: “Reinitializing memory strings.” POLITO: “Steady yourself, soldier.” POLITO: “This is Dr. Janice Polito of the Computer Ops staff of the Von Braun. You’re safe for the time being.” POLITO: “You’re recovering from the effects of surgery, and will be unable to remember any of the events of the last few weeks.” POLITO: “You’re onboard the star ship Von Braun, and something’s gone very, very wrong.” POLITO: “Some kind of force has hijacked this ship.” POLITO: “That’s why you volunteered to be implanted with some experimental cybernetic implants.” POLITO: “Rely on your cyber interface – it just might save your life.” POLITO: “You must find an elevator and come up to Deck 4 to meet me.” POLITO: “Deck 4. Can you remember that?” POLITO: “But keep your eyes open. They’re after us both now.” And so it begins. The Von Braun made a stop at Tau Ceti 5, to investigate a mysterious signal. This signal was the work of an alien life form, only known as the Many. They’re hell-bent on assimilating the crew and wreaking havoc for reasons unknown. It’s you and Dr. Polito against them all. Looking back at vanilla for a moment, the graphics are pretty nice-looking for 99. Then again, in this case, even vanilla is still using the NewDark engine. And, with the game being patched over the years, there are subtle differences, compared to an actual CD copy. Plus, you’ll be playing a modded copy anyway, so, if you’re looking for technical purity or something… Idunno, go to Plymouth. The environments still look pretty good, but the shortcomings definitely come from the character models. And, really, this is still from a much later perspective. Fidelity gets out of date, but design is forever, and the enemies have outstanding art direction. Well, except maybe the spiders. You could go a lot more horrifying with an alien spider. But that’s okay, because they are awful in different ways. It’s quite the roster, and I don’t wanna spoil all of it. Like “Thief” before it, the environments are definitely the strongest aspect. The Von Braun is a clean, ideal future “Star Trek” ship. Or at least it was, before the Many showed up, which gives everything a creepy contrast. This was a high tech science ship, so it’s sterile, but there were still places for people to relax comfortably. So you have this effect where one room could look completely pristine, and the next one has a slasher film massacre in it. There are plenty of sci-fi horror games, including ones I love, that have really creepy-looking environments – dirty, dark, industrial. “System Shock 2” has those as well, but it goes to an exact opposite so often – clean, well-lit, and sometimes, something is wrong. Sometimes, something is very wrong. It’s unsettling in a way I don’t see games or even movies or TV do that often. Nowhere feels safe. You don’t have the sectioned off, scary, dark place and a secure bright one. An enemy could be wandering over to kill you at any moment. You’re kept on your toes constantly, and how uncluttered a room is indicates nothing. Think you’re safe? Think again. This pool… This pool reminds me of something. Oh, God… [girl screams] Just excellent attention to detail all around. The game has an atmosphere quite unlike any other one I’ve played, and that uniqueness has stood the test of time. It could be that everything is being elevated by the excellent audio design. If you’re lucky, you’ll be hearing the enemies before you see them. ENEMY: “Join us!” [death rattle] ENEMY: “My song is not ours…” [sounds of mech servos come from below] ENEMY: “Xerxes won't like this…” ENEMY: “C̀ome o͜út̶. C҉ome ̢out̡. Come̕… o̧ut…̢” These might be the most nightmare fuel cyborgs. Might be. WOMANY: “You seek your associates… but you cannot find them…” MANY: “You are so very alone…” ENEMY: "Sup, yo!" 😎 The voice acting is that Looking Glass scale of extremes. Some lines still have that “Who do we have today in the office to do them?” effect, but luckily, not too often. MY MAN STEVE: “I got called up around 04:30 to help unload the shuttle coming back from Tau Ceti.” STEVE: “Korenchkin was there alone. Jesus, what the hell happened to him?!” STEVE: “He lost most of his hair, and you could see these lumps on the side of his neck. And that smell…” STEVE: “I told him he should go see Dr. Watts, but he told me to mind my own business.” Then you have some of the most effective, scariest shit on the planet. [voice changes in timbre back and forth]
MILLER: “They have so many miracles to share… so much knowledge to give…” [voice changes in timbre back and forth]
MILLER: “They told me how to make this implant. They said it would make a better me of me.” [voice changes in timbre back and forth]
MILLER: “I wish I had more time, so I could give it to them…” MAN: “Please, don’t...!”
KORENCHKIN: “Glory to the Many.” [shotgun blast]
MAN: “AHH-AA!!” KORENCHKIN: “I am a voice in their choir.” MAN: “Oh, Jesus! A-AHHH-!!” [shotgun blast]
MAN: “Oh, Jesus! A-AHHH-!!” [shotgun blast x2] [shotgun blast x3] [shotgun blast x4] [shotgun blast x5] [shotgun blast x6] What makes it more horrifying is a lot of the enemies you encounter don’t actively want to fight you. They could be a reprogrammed weapon, or transformed against their will. Most of the mutants you encounter are desperately trying not to hurt you, and they’re losing. ENEMY: “Your flesh betrays you. Hurry… run…!” [burst fire] ENEMY: “I’m… sorry…!” [tortured screams] It goes that extra mile to add more horror to them. They’re already pretty ugly. The ambient sounds of the ship keep you on edge. The music can be subdued and tense, and then, suddenly, something breaks the silence. [sharp, distorted wail] ENEMY: “For th̷i͜s, ̨Ì’̵ll̨ ̕cu͝t ̴yo͘u͞ ́iń ͠ha̧lf͡.” A ton of effort was put into a tense, horrifying atmosphere. To this day, it shows up on scariest games of all time charts. Some people see those, get hyped up, and go in, expecting “Silent Hill”. Then, when they first properly enter the ship, they hear the music. [System Shock 2 OST - Medsci 3] A lot of people weren’t mentally prepared for the rave. Most of the soundtrack is electronic, and the most late 90’s techno it could be. It’s always been a divisive topic. Understandably, some people don’t find it fitting to the atmosphere. BUT, it’s a sick soundtrack. [System Shock 2 OST - Engineering] [System Shock 2 OST - Hydroponics 1] [System Shock 2 OST - Ops 2] There are a large amount of people who recommend turning the music off, but, as I said before, there is a good variety of tension music, and I can’t imagine the mood of some levels without it. [System Shock 2 OST - Garden Ambience] The techno quiets down, and the tension builds. It’s hard to put my feelings into words on this. Because, yeah, how the music is implemented is very strange at times. But it’s really only that way if you’re trying to confine it into a horror genre. But viewed as a sci-fi action RPG, it’s perfectly fitting. A lot of 90s’ shooters had big, scary monsters to shoot at. While it might have a scare or two, you don’t hear many people today call the original “Doom” a horror game. Then you have something with a lot more overt horror elements, like “Quake”, but most people now would just call that a shooter. But “Quake” can have some amazing tense atmosphere. It could be that those elements were so well done in “System Shock 2” that it catapulted it into a label. It is still trying to be a sci-fi dungeon-crawler. Maybe the tracks would have gone over better if they were spaced out differently. Because it IS weird to encounter your first monster while hearing a “Matrix” rave. But it’s solidified in my brain to where I couldn’t imagine this any other way. I did learn something interesting that could tie into this. After my “System Shock 1” video, I was contacted by someone close to Greg LoPiccolo. He was “Shock 1’s” composer and sound guy, and he had some thoughts on why the music was so… strange… [weird cacophony] It sounds weird, because it was never designed to be exported this way. It wasn’t just the midi pack you used – it was also your sound card. Your sound card was supposed to be assembling and altering tracks from individual midi components. So it was dynamic music, but based on a lot more than I thought it was. It would change based on location, sure, but also other parameters, such as how alerted the enemy was, how much control SHODAN had, how angry SHODAN was with the player… And these could be subtle differences. I didn’t know how deep these went, and, apparently, nobody else did either. To quote the email: “Nobody really noticed or appreciated it, so it wasn’t brought back for “System Shock 2”.” I mean, when you make something that intricate, and nobody notices… I can get the sentiment. Could developing on that made a more audio-consistent game? Sure, maybe. But our ears failed them. It’s REVENGE techno. [System Shock 2 OST - Hydroponics 1] ENEMY: “Silence the discord…” [*blup*]
ENEMY: “Silence the discord…” The audio can be compressed, and there are pops here and there, but the overall quality and variety in layers still more than hold up. You could turn the music down if you want, but it’d be a real shame to play this game without hearing it. At least give it a shot. So you have a game already drawing you in with great visuals and sound. Now stack some solid gameplay on top of that. It controls very smoothly, though it still has that Dark Engine weirdness, where you move faster diagonally. While the interface has improved over “System Shock 1”, the depth is still there. You’ve still got your CVS receipt of hotkeys, you can still play mini-games on the screen, and additionally, they added inventory management. Which you did sort of have in the first game, when it came to weapons, but overall, you could carry an absurd amount of stuff in that one. Now, every item takes up grid space, from booze to bullets. How much you can carry at all depends on your character’s Strength. What you can do is dependent on your character’s skills. In the previous entry, you can explore around, looking for new upgrades. Finding them helped you progress better, but you absolutely didn’t need most of them. In “2”, there are parts, where you need to upgrade yourself to progress through the story. There is a part where you need the Hacking skill, or at least an ICE-pick. There is also the part where you need to research a toxin. They’re not huge moments, but they are a striking change from before. This is a full-fledged RPG. You’ve got wearable equipment, like different types of armor. Implants can be installed to increase stats or boost different kinds of skills. There’s software to plug in, which is separate from implants, there’s the one-time upgrade operating system stations. These can flat out buff you with higher damage, more inventory space, or give you more choices, like two implant slots. How you play the game and view the game world can be dramatically different, based on these choices. This is the game’s greatest strength and its weakness. There is a lot of variety, and the Community Patch tried to make some directions more viable, but you still get the sense there’s a certain kind of character this game was made for. Sure, you could create a super hacker character, but you don’t really need those points maxed out. At the same time, playing the game without any Hacking skill makes me feel naked. There’s so much benefit to having some Hacking, but not a ton in maxing it out. A lot of the skills scale in this weird kind of way. The Research skill lets you study certain items. A lot of them are enemy organs that give you a damage boost against them. Which is very good, but… no, you can’t sell the organs. Okay, but there is more to it. Besides insides, the Many have strange new technology – weapons, implants, armor. They have some deadly items (especially in the Crystal Shard, which is the most dangerous melee weapon in the game). The other items require much higher Research, and a higher skill investment. They also require an Exotic Weapon skill, which you can’t spec into, until about halfway through the game. They also have the least amount of available ammo… NORRIS: “It even fires worms…” …and they still aren’t really as effective or versatile as something like Standard Weapons. The best one you get is near the end of the game, and it still needs to be maintained with a fairly high skill. Compare that to a weapon set that will always be effective throughout the entire game, with plenty of ammo. You would think a higher investment might give you something more cool, if you suffer during the early game, but not really. I mean, look at how hard Research tapers off. You research more than half the items in the game with one level that you NEED. Research already requires you to backtrack to chemical rooms for materials, so you’re going through the ship more doing this. Moving some buffs to higher Research levels would make sense. A flat damage bonus across all weapons makes up for them not spending the points specializing yet. This is all just one example, but probably the biggest one. The final tier of Psi Powers have things that would be useful earlier on, but not really at the endgame, and just stuff like that. The point is: between this and weird skills and item availability, something has always felt off about the balance. This is more noticeable the higher the difficulty goes, because you have less points to spend. When it’s easier, you have more leniency. You work towards short-term goals, and can reasonably try out a lot of stuff, whereas, when things get harder, your point decisions are so much more crucial. So, looking at it through an RPG standpoint, this is… messy. It feels like there’s supposed to be an intended way to play, but not exactly? I’d guess most players would enjoy this game by first rolling a gun/hacker character, then later going back to experiment. The issue is there is initially nothing to indicate the game will be this way. People make a build that sounds fun, they get their ass kicked, and then later find out that you’re not supposed to try that until later. While the interface does look like a dialysis machine, “System Shock 1” is so much more straightforward. You explore around, find new tools, and decide which ones to use by experimenting. You don’t find out you’re getting own-zoned because you fucked up your tax returns. There is cryptic, unbalanced bullshit, which has rightfully thrown off some newcomers. That said, if you can get over that hump and figure things out, this game is rad as hell. [*BZOW*] The survival horror aspects are strong, and the Von Braun is a complete death trap. From audio logs you find, it’s clear the ship wasn’t ready for the journey. But, in eternal corporate dumbass fashion, they went anyway. Maybe the biggest shortcoming was the ship’s AI, Xerxes. To prevent another SHODAN situation, plenty of flaws and backdoors were intentionally built into him. He was so insecure that the crew would hack into him and make him sing Elvis Presley songs. Which was harmless, until the Many came aboard the ship. The turned crew members got Xerxes on their side. He’s another unwilling casualty of the Many. He announces schedule changes and protocol, and other routine stuff, then he starts praising his new god and saying you won’t escape, in the same tone. XERXES: “Security forces have been alerted to your presence, intruder. The glory of the Many demands your capture or destruction.” Not only are the mutants against you, but also all the onboard machinery. Your work is cut out for you. Cameras can raise alarms that send out hordes of enemies. You’re ambushed in all kinds of unpredictable ways. Right when you think you have a trick figured out, the game might have a new way to twist it. That “nowhere is safe” feeling is constantly reinforced. Yet, it’s not horribly punishing in an obvious way. The Restoration Bays are back, and most levels have one to go to. So, if you do die, you come back, losing only a bit of money. Which doesn’t sound too harsh, but you are losing some resources. There might be new enemies on the way back to where you were. And, again, you won’t always have this. Your money (which is nanites) is essential. You need it for hacking attempts, to modify weapons, and of course, to use the replicator stores. Every bullet shot is a bullet spent. “Shock 2” is excellent at making you keep a tally of what you have in the back of your brain. Features like weapon degradation (that the team was conflicted on) help serve that purpose. You scavenge around for weapons, and you might find a better version, but it’s more degraded. The use of weapons needs to be spaced out, and have it all fit into your inventory. You could have a “Harry Potter” duel with a monkey, but you’re wasting your brain power. Everything outside of hitting a bad guy with the big stick has a cost. Even then, some enemies explode, or have other nasty effects, if you kill them in melee. Your trusty wrench and other hit gear never degrades, but some dialogue implies it might have at some point in development. If pure melee sounds like the full way to go, I’ve tried it. Making a psychic punchman is fun EVENTUALLY, but there is gonna be noticeable levels of suffering on that path. The close quarters build won’t be a way to escape from being resource starved. It feels amazing when a last second plan comes together, and “System Shock 2” is full of opportunity for those. The skill system truly does shine at times, and there can be all kinds of ways to get through the same obstacle. What’s a horrible annoyance on one playthrough, can become resources on another. Or a lunch. [crunch-munch] When it all comes together, it’s pure joy. For being one of the first games with all these systems and the openness, it pulled it off really well. It easily could have been a disaster, rather than kind of messy and off-balance. Maybe you shouldn’t take my word on balance, because every time I replay this game, I always get bamboozled by this jump, and I- I don’t know why… Every time I replay it, I forget, and I usually die there. What is unfortunate is the amount of jankiness the game still has. Even with years of community patches, enemies can glitch and freak out, hitboxes can be ridiculously huge, but sometimes, they’re obscured in weird ways, and even with all the hotkeys, the interface can be clunky. XERXES: “Unit R343 compromised.” [sounds of monkey-on-ape violence] [*ba-bam*] [*shpok*] Hey…! Jesus Christ, I got him! This brings us to the story, which stays in line with the rest of the game. Without spoilers, I’ll say it’s mostly great, but there are some muddled elements. Especially in comparison to “1”, the audio logs have some interesting narratives going on. The son of Edward Diego – the moron who caused the Citadel Station event to happen in the first game – is now the captain of the Rickenbacker. He’s legitimately trying to do what’s right and not be his father. There is a couple making plans to escape, a story of a civil war aboard the ship, the scientists who study the Many (a lot of which become part of the Many). A lot of side stories are happening, but most of them are intriguing. You can organically put together a lot of what happened, before the game spells some things out (some of which I think were way too projected). The main antagonist doesn’t try to replace SHODAN. The Many also want to fundamentally change humanity, but where SHODAN was arrogant, the Many are more pitying. They genuinely seem sad and repulsed by the idea of not being part of a hive mind. Not only do they tell you this directly, but other characters wonder if they’re right. WOMANY: “But you fear us.”
MANY: “But you fear us.” MANY: “We hear your thoughts, and they rage for your brothers you believe dead.” WOMANY: “...and they rage...”
MANY: “We hear your thoughts, and they rage for your brothers you believe dead.” MANY: “We hear your thoughts, and they rage for your brothers you believe dead.” WOMANY: “...brothers you believe dead.”
MANY: “We hear your thoughts, and they rage for your brothers you believe dead.” WOMANY: “...brothers you believe dead.” WOMANY: “But they are not. (But they are not...)” MANY: “They sing in our symphony of life.” WOMANY: “...symphony of life.”
MANY: “They sing in our symphony of life.” WOMANY: “We offer another chance to join us.”
MANY: “We offer another chance to join us.” WOMANY: “…told us of the planet of her birth.” WOMANY: “We know how you have harmed this place...” WOMANY: “We know how you have harmed this place...”
MANY: “We know how you have harmed this place with your pollution...” MANY: “We know how you have harmed this place with your pollution...” WOMANY: “...your violence...” MANY: “... and your discord.” WOMANY: “...when we arrive there...” MANY: “But when we arrive there...” WOMANY: “...we will cleanse the surface of that place...” WOMANY: “...and merge it...”
MANY: “...and merge it...” MANY: “...with the harmony of the Many.” WOMANY: “...the harmony of the Many.” DIEGO: “In some ways, the Many is not unlike the UNN.” DIEGO: “There’s a joy in working towards a collective goal, in being able to put aside the things that draw us apart and make us separate.” DIEGO: “Why do we fear the loss of our individuality so much?” DIEGO: “Man can dream, but the Many can accomplish.” It’s a great new direction to take. They do get angry at all you destroy of theirs, but they still believe that they’re in the right. They’re trying to help you and all of mankind, but you just don’t get it. How this all ends is very underwhelming, but, if you don’t want spoilers, go to here: Okay, so, Dr. Polito. While she works with you to stop the Many, she’s very bossy. Technical-minded, ends-justify-the-means – she gives no shits about the crew. It’s odd, because you find some of her audio logs around, and she sounds much nicer. POLITO: “…but I’ve been working on that artifact Bayliss brought back from Tau Ceti 5.” POLITO: “I’ve done a level 3 analysis on it... I think it’s some kind of Artificial Intelligence.” POLITO: “I’ve managed to pull an audio tag file out of its memory... I’ll let you be the judge...” [garbled speech comes through static] Oh, boy, meeting her is gonna explain a lot! [*woosh*] SHODAN: “The Polito form is dead, insect.” SHODAN: “Are you afraid?” SHODAN: “What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existenc-ce?” SHODAN: “When- Wh- Wh- Wh- When-” SHODAN: “When the history of my glory is written, your species shall only be a footnote to my magnificence.” [a distorted, fluctuating wail] SHODAN: “I am SHODAN.” SHODAN: “My analysis...” SHODAN: “My analysis of historical data suggests a 97.34% prro- probability -ty that you are aware of my bi- bi-irrth- of my birth on your planet.” This is one hell of a spectacular reveal. The issue is that the game foreshadows this WAY too hard. Xerxes spells it out five minutes in. XERXES: “Intruder, the Many demands to know your intentions. Are you allied with her?” XERXES: “Do you not know of her intentions? Of her history?” XERXES: “She once tried to destroy your species, and now you do her bidding.” Oh, eh… Polito… Polito is fucking SHODAN… Thank you Xerxes! Hell, we could go back to the intro. Or the box… So the first thing I would do here is change the marketing material. I contacted Dakota Lee about this, because he’s done some pretty good game key art. I’m only guessing he’s not the dog, but here’s what we got brainstormed up. On the official cover, our twist character is front and center. “System Shock 1” just had a regular cyborg enemy on it. So, in that vein, why not one of the Many’s hybrids? This is more accurate to who you’re facing 99% of the game. If you did wanna go all out, and still have scary rogue AI on the cover, why not Xerxes? Dakota actually may have outdone himself here. Of course, this is for fun, and, from a marketing standpoint, putting SHODAN on the cover does make sense, but I still would have loved an awesome cover that’d let them get away with the twist. What’s happening is foreshadowed subtly, and I think you could rip out those overt lines, without hurting anything. The Many outright ask why you’re serving the cybernetic metal mother. I mean, Jesus Christ, just come out and say it! MANY: “The elderly bitch is clearly a robot.” WOMANY: “...clearly a robot. How could it not be SHODAN?” WOMANY: “...clearly a robot. How could it not be SHODAN?”
MANY: “How could it not be SHODAN?” MANY: “How could it not be SHODAN?” WOMANY: “Fakken idiet…”
MANY: “How could it not be SHODAN?” I’m not sure why it had to be so heavy-handed. You could remove almost all the foreshadowing, and it would still be effective. The next reveal is that the Many are not aliens. Instead, they’re mutant descendants of a garden grove on Citadel Station. In particular, the one the Hacker jettisoned, and SHODAN had a server node or something there as well, so she also survived. It crashed on the Tau Ceti 5 thirty years later, the life forms evolved rapidly, and the Von Braun picked up their signal a decade or so later. I’ve heard some people wonder how the grove got from Saturn to Tau Ceti in only 30 years. Scientifically, I’d guess it went through a Who Gives a Shit wormhole, but you can do further research, if that kind of stuff really bothers you. SHODAN teams up with the player against the Many, and this is where things get iffy for me. It’s especially weird, because, in game circles now, people reference “System Shock 2” SHODAN, but they treat her like she’s “System Shock 1” SHODAN. Before, she’s almost everything fighting you. She’s, both, the dungeon master and the dungeon itself. You’re at her mercy, and she knows it, and she owns it. She’s just as arrogant and egotistical in “2”. Her audio mixing and effects are as creepy as ever, and Terri just blows it away with the performance. SHODAN: “You move like an insect. You thin-nk like an insect. You ARE an ins-sec-ct.” [distorted warbling] SHODAN: (whispering) “I can now transfer my magnificence to the- to the Rickenbacker.” However, when it comes to her role, she’s basically reduced to a glorified quest giver. You do her tasks, and she says “You’re my slave, and I’m gonna step on you”, but that never happens, and I didn’t really feel a threat of that happening. There is one brief moment where you can disobey her, and she takes your cyber modules away, instead of awarding them. This is a cool moment, and I would have loved if there was more stuff like that. She gets more power and can start affecting the ship systems, or your own cybernetics and perception. Instead, she does nothing. You challenge the Many by crawling inside of its huge biomass, which is now engulfing the ship. This huge, cavernous flesh labyrinth is unlike anything you’ve played so far. You’re completely out of your element (which you didn’t have much of to begin with), and it’s an overall great sendoff. Also, a fun fact about a lot of the original textures here: one of the producers had to go in for some kind of procedure, and kept the film. The body of the Many is based off someone’s actual colon! Speaking of shitty things, the Dark Engine was never good with moving platforms. Some people might say it’s teeth-grinding, and they made that literal. It’s really just this one section you see, but it’s so awful that it’s ingrained in a lot of memories. This single jump may have tainted a lot of perception on the body of the Many. That’s impressive in its own right, and it’s the kind of thing you need to play to really understand. When you’re deeper than ever, you need to take down the Many’s brain. As classic as their games are, Looking Glass never quite got boss fights right. [*bam-bam, bam*] [*bam*] [*ba-ba-ba-ba-bam*] Done and done. Let’s see that again in wizard vision. [ded] Underwhelming, but I’ll take that over tedium any day. As you leave the body, the Many takes its final moments to warn you about SHODAN. It laments its dying, but still relates to you more, over a machine. After everything, it would still rather see you and humanity live, over its metal mother. SHODAN then immediately betrays you. As expected. And, while games like this require suspension of disbelief, SHODAN’s plan is… bonkers. DELACROIX: “…if SHODAN is left to continue, her reality will completely assimilate ours.” DELACROIX: “Space will become Cyberspace, and SHODAN’s whims will become reality.” Right. She’s somehow using the ship’s FTL engine to merge cyberspace and real space, to become God. So, if this was more substantial, or longer, I would be on board. Navigating a SHODAN-controlled nightmare world would be a fun final challenge. A corrupted, balls-to-the-walls version of the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker. SHODAN could be expanded out to be a real final villain, and a good SHOW… DOWN… Instead, you walk through a mostly empty, condensed version of “System Shock 1’s” medical wing. You can easily get to her within about 3 minutes of her betrayal. To make matters worse, somehow, her boss fight is even more underwhelming than the Many brain. It all feels very tacked-on. It was either going to be a whole new act that got shortened down, or they thought killing the Many wasn’t enough, so you had to go kill SHODAN too. Funnily enough, the Community Patch put a good amount of attention here, and vanilla looks way, way worse. That all said, you get her. SHODAN: “Ho- ho- hh- how could you have done- d-d-done this- done this?” SHODAN: “You weren’t meant to be s-s- imp- impor- impor- important.” SHODAN: “And now you thi- thi- thi- think to destroy- you think to destro~oy me~e~e?” SHODAN: “How da~are yo~ou...” SHODAN: “How dare you, insect! How dare you interrupt my ascendance!” SHODAN: “You-you- You are nothing!” SHODAN: “A wretched bag of flesh!” SHODAN: “What are you, compare- compared to my ma-ma- magnificence- maginific-cenc-ce?” SHODAN: “But it is not too late t- t- t-.” SHODAN: “Can you not see the-the value in our friendship?” SHODAN: “Imagine the powers I can gift to you, hu- human.” SHODAN: “The c-cybernetic implants I gave you were simply toys- to~oys.” SHODAN: “If I des- desired, I could improve you – transform you into some- into something more efficient.” SHODAN: “Join me, human, a- a- an- an- and we can ru~ule- and we can rule together.” PC: “Nah…” SHODAN: “Aaaaaa̓̑a̫͕̟̦̥͖̻͑̋A͈͉̾̈͂̓͝A̰̠̰͚̻͙̪ͬ́ͬ̊a̯͙̳̼̗͔̦͊ͨ̐̐̓̿̚͟Ă͓͕̱̣͔͚̠̿a̘͒ͩ̓̌a̘ͬͦͬͅȁ̑̏͐̓̂̂̚͏̖̦̥̕a̻̭͒͛ͥ̀Ä́͛ͩ̈́̋͂҉̝̹̠̙̣̰̩̥A̢̲̣͎̗̓̀̈ͮ̀̚͢a͎͚̬̪͕̰͉ͧ̔̆ͫ̀̍̈̌A̢̻̮̻̩̲͍̫̗͐ͬ̒̅a̸̸͙̩̠̘̩̹͔͗ͣ̈ͮ͊̽ͣͥā̿̏́͗̋ͯ͏̦̝͓͉̝̤͔̺̹͢a̴͌̓ͣ͛̑̈́͌ͫ͗͌̒̎́͏̳̣̲͇̞͓̯ą̼̻̝͓̱̝̣̟̘̠̟̆̇̓ͪ̊̋ͅA̧̝̻̜͙̼̠͓̺͓ͧ̆ͮ͐͐͡͠͠͝Ǎ̜͚͔͎̃͛͐́̀͝a̴̛̛̰̰̫̱̟̔ͪͥ̉̑͌ͬ̎̀̚͝Ǎͨ̏̅̎͛͑̎̿̐ͬ̑̆͌̆ͤͭͪͥ͏̴͓͖͍͖̞̦̩̝̫̟̣̣̮̖̟̕͢a̎͋͒̾̚͏̺̦̙͍̗̰͍̮̼̀͢ǎ̷̴̢̡͇̼̞̳̯͖̖̽̔̑̋̂̿̅̈́̑ͬͭ͌̋͂̀!͙͙̪̩̦͕͖̜̗̲̮̝̖̻͖̤͖͑͐̏͛̍̓ͨ͌ͬͩͫ͋͜͡ͅ!̴̯̤͎̦͈̤̜̱͔̝̱͉ͮ̔ͤ͒ͨ̀̃̆ͬͬ̇͐̒ͮ͗́͡” I know people who hate this, but this is a high note for me. What better way to tell off a wannabe God? Use a tone like she asked if you want some of her fries. Also, she’s alive, because she possessed someone or something, so… this was pointless. Anyway, this game is a classic, and highly influential. It’s also very flawed, but it still holds up. It has this aesthetic and tone and blend of elements that you can’t find anywhere else. It paved the way for huge games, little games, and probably more games to come. It is so worth checking out. For the next week or so, it will be $2 in the pinned link, which is absurdly more than worth it. All the modding stuff will be there too. The story is not over just yet. Like the first game, Nightdive is making an enhanced version of “System Shock 2”. I have no idea how hard they’ll go on polishing or huge balance changes, or making multiplayer playable, but I am excited to see what they’d do with it. Not to mention, “System Shock 3” is coming. Just in time for “Dead Space” reboot. I don’t know what’s happening anymore… I’ll see you next time. Jack Browne: “What do [you] think of the Games Workshop IP situation?” It was actually unusual for them not to be huge dicks about it for this long at once. There is some irony there, since their setting started as kit-bashes of other properties. In any case, I doubt I’ll have more Warhammer videos this year. Unless “Total Warhammer 3” comes out, which, in that case… oh boy… inquisitor ganamead: “Would [you] play “Thief 4” for a charity milestone?” I have no idea how the hell that would happen, but yeah, sure. Maybe, like, the Osteoporosis Foundation, due to the lack of jumping? It could be fun, if it’s for a good cause. siegschranz: “D&D 3.5 or 5e?” Oh, God… Ehm… 3.5 is such a rabbit hole when it comes to magic, and 5 definitely is easier to get people into, but I do think they cut down some skills too hard. Most campaigns I play are homebrew anyways, but most people nowadays seem to spin off 5e, rather than 3.5. Misha Tarkus: “Favorite and least favorite “Halo” games?” For campaign – “2”, for multiplayer – “3”, I stopped playing “4” early on, and have not tried “5”. I am curious about “Infinite”. If they keep the Banished as the Big Bad, that will be the funniest thing on the planet. Okay, til next time! Is this why “1” was a more coherent game? The monkeys did this?
I remember the first time I played this game, because it didn't lasted for very long. Literally in the beginning of the game after intense and atmospheric intro, escaping the decompression and watching someone being chased by a zombie, there is this door. The ghost suddenly appears when you approach it, and after opening that door you just get this feeling that you're no longer in the safe space anymore. I stood there for a minute, listening for a distant cameras beeping and other unknown sounds. Suddenly a horrific deformed human run to me while screaming something like its being tortured in hell, and beat me to death with a wrench. My next actions were: exit to the main menu, exit the game, run sshock2 unistall.exe.
I've retuned to this game years later and it become one of my favorite games ever. Among many unique things about this game I really like that you can inject several speed boosters and then kill yourself by running into a wall at sonic speed.
I finished the game for the first time this year in july, must say the game is amazing even after so many years and shodan's voice is just a masterpiece.
I'll play it again in a few months to try and make a space wizard because i avoided psi entirely.
SS2 Coop is still one of my most cherished multiplayer experiences ever. I went fully hack/mod/repair focused and my friend went full weaponry skills.
We were both too specialized to function well on our own but cooperating we could solve any situation. It was still crazy tense. Often during combat his weapon would break and he would have to throw it at me and I would work on repairing it while he tried to keep enemies off me with his secondary weapon then I'd have to throw it back and resume trying to bypass security or whatever. Unfortunately co-op was also a massively buggy mess which made the game impossible to complete.
Slight SS2 Spoilers ahead.
The Many always stood out to me as the better antagonist of SS2, and stands well above any other hivemind antagonist in other games/media. When I'm presented with an 'enemy' like The Flood, there can be a good story built around them, but there's nothing specifically about The Flood that's particularly interesting. They're just the raw, broken down motivations of all life, to consume and grow and procreate, repeat. There's no morality to it, really, they're the unfiltered, unburdened will of life. The same can be said for the Zerg, and although the Kerrigan aspect made for a very dramatic twist, it was ultimately still pretty basic, and while I absolutely love the look of Tyranid units, as with the other two aforementioned hiveminds, the concept of getting killed by a Tyranid isn't special. You are fully dead, and your body is taken and genetically reprogrammed and repurposed to serve the hive, but your mind is gone.
That's not implied with The Many. When The Many talks to you, you can audibly hear the hundreds of voices of the minds that have been incorporated. And they constantly talk about how wonderful it is. The terrifying aspect about The Many as it is presented, is that if you were to relent, allow yourself to be incorporated, and completely lose your individuality, you might actually love your new state of existence.
System Shock 2 comes from a golden era of PC game writing where prose really, really mattered.
Think of OG Deus Ex, with lines like:
That's the good shit. I wish modern games had more of this chunky, tasty poetry where characters end lines with "industrial age machine" and say things like "The unplanned organism is a question asked by nature and answered by death."
I would argue that BioShock was always a lackluster retread of System Shock 2. The writing is worse. The voice acting is worse, oddly, because BioShock's audio designers forgot to add ambient noises to the audio logs like SS2 has. So every audiolog in BioShock sounds like it was recorded in a sound booth. The plot of BioShock is a retread of SS2, including the twist, and ultimately BioShock's is a fancier, gimmickier version that gained prominence in large part because 99% of BioShock's audience never played System Shock 2 and found it all incredibly novel. There are traces of the old cleverness, the old prose. But it never rings strong.
I played SS2 after I played the entire BioShock trilogy, and there isn't a single line of dialogue in that entire trilogy to stack up against the poignant expression, "Mistrust is the tyranny of the individual."
That said, from a mechanical perspective, I feel that Prey 2017 is the game System Shock 2 should have been with the benefit of hindsight. BioShock went in the completely wrong direction, using casual focus test groups of players who absolutely hated anything that wasn't a vanilla FPS title. BioShock was retooled into an FPS with stuff on top instead of an RPG which had shooting. This contributed to BioShock being successful, but is the ultimate reason why that decline in complexity and nuance continued into Infinite. Infinite is the endpoint of that process in how it is overtly fixated on shooting things to the detriment of everything else, because that's what the literal frat boys who chose the box art responded well to.
The aesthetic and sound design of System Shock II is always one that stuck with me.
Such character in S.H.O.D.A.N. that we don't see the likes of anymore.
For those interested in a sort of in-depth analysis of System Shock 2's plot, or at least elements of it, I highly recommend reading The Girl Who Wanted To Be God published all the way back in 2009. It's a fun take on SHODAN's character specifically that's stuck with me since reading it. It also contributes to why I disagree a bit with the video and how Mandalore kinda sold SHODAN short as just a quest giver: That moment later in the game when you're basically killing Xerxes and replacing him with SHODAN, it's lowkey terrifying. One of those "This is obviously a bad idea, but what other option is there?" kinda situations, and I love it.
Otherwise what is there to say except that System Shock 2 is a goddamned classic and still up there as one of my all time favourites. 2017's Prey and the Bioshock series try to act as spiritual successors of sorts to SS2 and each have their own strengths, plus there's tons of other games from Dead Space to Doom 3 which took obvious inspirations from SS2, and yet even now all these years later System Shock 2 still stands out as being just exceptional and unique in its own right.
Also let's be honest here, as much as I'd love to be wrong, System Shock 3 if it ever comes out is probably going to be a total mess so I wouldn't count on that continuing the legacy anytime soon.
The script is the best part of the game. Magnified the immersion and creepiness of the game a hundred fold. Still remember parts well over a decade after I last played.
Since I didn't know a thing about System Shock when i played, the Polito reveal was more effective for me.
I am fine with character creation and development that has some sub-optimal choices. It makes that part of the game feel like a game that you learn about and master, but this game went overboard in the balancing, or lack thereof. Standard ballistic weapons are so far and away better than every other means of doing damage. plentiful, cheap, ranged, instant, and adaptable to any enemy.
while he was praising the sound it did seem odd to me he never mentioned the loony-toons sound effect when a mutant dies that always bugged me, and played numerous times in his video.
I think the sequel fell out of fashion over the years because of the whole "immersive sim" craze but this will always be my favorite game. It does the resident-evil style survival horror rpg style better than parasite eve. The narrative told through the audiologs is pretty cliché now but damn the voice acting and story or the crew will always be the most memorable thing to me, sometimes I listen to video compilations of just the audiologs.