Excuse the Blood, had a shocking evening! (System Shock 2 (PC))

Member Name: Mechman68

Product:	System Shock 2 (PC)
Date:	07/09/01 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary as hell, Quite difficult, Good unfolding Plot

Disadvantages: Later levels boring, Engine sometimes cluncky, Very complicated upgrade system

Ah, scary games. What can be said about scary games. Only 3 games have ever scared me. Aliens vs predator playing as marine or predator, Realms of the Haunting, and this. Each game is very different but are all scary, and designed to be so. So, is this game all scare, or are there other things to see under the surface. System shock 2 is the sequel to an older game called, i am sure you can guess, System Shock. The first game was a really good one and I still play it today. So what makes this different to that, well read on..

The premise to this game is this. The human race has just developed its first light speed capable starship and it is on it maiden voyage (remind you of a certain titanic ship). It is in orbit around a planet called Tau Ceti 5, and this is convienently the place where the garden grove pod from Citadel station (Fans of the origonal will know what i mean) landed. The mutants from it infect the crew with a annelid worm turning them into zombie like monsters. Guess what, you are on your own to fight them. On a side note, the plot is one of the games biggest advantages, leading the player thought the game, and carrying on the story from the orginal. Dont feel bad if you havent played the original, as you dont have to know exacly, but players of the original will see the links.

The start of the game actually deserves a mention. When you first start you head in the recuitment center and begin training. After Basic training, you go onto advanced training, and there are 3 different courses to choose, one for each of the carrears on offer. Then you make your choice about weither to become a marine, a navy office, or a OSA agent. The marine is weapon orrientated, the Navy officer is technically minded, and the OSA agent can use Psionic abilities. One thing to note though. Although there are three choises, there are only actually 2 different classes. This is because the Marine and the Navy officer are very similar.
The technicall skills avalible are all, bar one, for use with weapons. So without using loads of weapons you cannot use your technical skills. And on the flip side, a marine cannot survive without the techinical skills needed to maintain and improve his weaponry. Once you have made your choice, you then choose three missions for your character to go on. You dont actually get to play these missions, but they give you free upgrades dependent on your character class you have chosen.


The gameplay is easy to learn, and not very confuising. Bear in mind this is a ACTION ADVENTURE game, similar to Deus Ex. A rpg game viewed from the first person perspective. Movement is usually done with the standard FPS mouse/keyboard combo, except most item manipulation is done with the right mouse button. Throught the game items will be found a collected and these are stored inside your inventory. This inventory stores ALL items, if it be ammo, items, weapons, healing supplies, EVERYTHING bar 2 exceptions go here. The two exceptions are NANITES, which are like currency, and are used to buy items from replicators and whenever you use a technical skill. Also CYBER MODULES are stored separately, which are used to buy upgrades for your characters abilities.

The system of improving your character runs thus. Instead of gaining experience as in other RPG games, you gain Cyber Modules for completeing goals, and these can be used to buy upgrades. Upgrades are sorted into 4 different catagories: Weapons (Standard, electric, Heavy, Exotic), Technical (Hacking, repairing, maintaining, research, modifying), Stats (Strength, Endurance, General PSI stat, agility, Cyber affinity), and PSI skills. These are sorted into 5 different catagories based on power, and you must have at least one skill in the previous teir, then buy the 'tier neural dicepline'. Once you have this you can buy skills from this catagory. All skills, asside from PSI skills, can
go upto a maximum level of 6. Weapon and some key pads require a minimum stats in either a weapon skill, or a techical skill. For example, a pistol only requires level 1 standard weapons to use and level 1 maintain to repair. But a fusion cannon required level 6 Heavy weapons and level 4 strength to use, and level 4 maintain to repair.

The game flowes along smoothly, as you work your way around the Von Braun, completeing goals. Never in the game do you ever speak, or speak to anyone. All your goals and information is radioed to you from another character in another area of the ship. As a matter of fact, you only see other characters twice, and one is dead. The games levels, for the most part are well put together, and fun. Unfortunately the fun weakens when you get to the end levels in much the same way as it does in Half-life with the aliens world levels. The enemies you face get harder at the right times and you never find yourself out of firepower to defeat a monster. Ammo is evenly rationed, although you will want to conserve it at the beginning, as it is hard to comeby early on.

The graphics are pleasing enought, although the engine is atimes cluncky and unsmooth, particularly with people, but considering how irregulalrly you meet any it not usually a problem. The game has no system hogging features which is nice, but has few tweakable options, only the resolution.

The game itself is only of avarage length, and the game has no mods to speak of ( at time of writing), so it is only finite lenght, and the changeable difficulty level only changes the amount to of modules it takes to buy upgrades. Overall, this is a worthy succesor to the origonal in some ways, but I think its reduced length and far more complicated upgrade/weapon maintanence systems will put some people off, and i for one will never stop liking the origonal. However, for the new gamer, this is a fine game and is damn scary to boot. Nothing beats walki
ng down a trashed corridor, hearing 'We are, we are, we are' coming at you from some direction will send a chill down everyones spine. This is a game everyone should play, and most will enjoy although it is quite linear, and the only changes you can make are what upgrades to get, and which class to be. This game will be in the hall of famed games, but not on a par with the origonal.

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