SHODAN: Easily one of the best villains of all time, with a creepy distorted voice, and no desire to hide her disgust for a worthless bag of meat such as you. She created the aliens and she wants you to destroy her rebellious children. But something else came onboard, a hostile AI with delusions of Godhood. Those that land bring back a hostile alien lifeform which infects the crew, turning some into zombie hybrids and others into far worse. The story itself is pretty straightforward, a ship is in deep space when they are hailed by a nearby planet. The logs especially add to the feeling of a living ship, portraying more than a dozen perspectives on the grizzly events. Rather than telling the story in cutscenes, bits and pieces are revealed through log entries, commuications with unseen helpers, scripted events and ghostly encounters. Story: This is by far one if the most unique features of the game. Difficulty rises nicely with ability, but even grunts are not routine (those monkeys can be hard to hit)! Rather I think it adds a little humor to what is otherwise a serious story. The game has been criticized for the hokeyness of some enemies, including psi-monkeys and cyborg ninjas, but I don’t think this takes away from gameplay. There’s a nice nod to the first game in the last level which shows the love the game designers had for this material.Įnemies: There’s a nice mix of biological and technological opponents as well as things in between. And the environment changes around you, it really is a living ship (at least in one sense of the word). Authenticity of experience is more important than intricate detail in my view. This is one thing I love about game engines from this period, big open spaces with admittedly less detail but greater scope and less load screens. Instead of being shepherded down a single path, each deck is arranged functionally, with many different paths and countless nooks and crannies. Level Design: I’ve played a number of sci-fi shooters before, but none with such a clearly laid out ship design. These underrated gems still offer unique gameplay, and System Shock 2 shaped FPSs and RPGs for years to come. It may seem strange to review a game from 13 years ago, but just because it isn’t the latest and greatest doesn’t mean you should ignore an old game.
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