SYSTEM SHOCK 2 PLOT PC

Along with the main difficulty setting (whatever you do, don’t play on normal) the three character types provide an increasing level of challenge. Finally, the OSA agent has a variety of psionic abilities (think Bioshock’s plasmids) but limited ability in gun-play. The navy officer is more a jack-of-all trades, avoiding combat where possible and making particular use of other skills (such as hacking) to meet objectives. Marines are the gung-ho element providing the point and shoot dynamic more comfortable with modern gamers. Character creation and the eventual build you choose have a discernible impact on the way you play. Other than Deus Ex, few other FPSs have followed a similar design preferring the simplicity of point and shoot over a more insightful system that manipulates the core gameplay. In this sense the RPG element is probably the most intriguing component of the game. The relentless pursuit by the Many across the Von Braun, whilst your ammo depletes and your nerves fray is what makes System Shock 2 a balls-to-the-wall challenge. Yet that won’t have you hiding under the desk begging for mercy though. If you’re not a fan of mouse and keyboard then the number of keyboard shortcuts System Shock 2 employs will probably give you an embolism. Yet there is no antagonism between the genre types they merge seamlessly to create one utterly terrifying and highly absorbing game that’s hard. Part FPS, part RPG, part survival-horror System Shock 2 revels in the fact it cannot be easily pigeon-holed. Problem is do you trust her? And will you follow her instructions as you piece together just what in the blue hell has happened to the crew of the Von Braun? With infected roaming the corridors of the derelict ship beckoning you to join them, one lone mechanical female voice could prove to be your salvation. Then you awake from a cryo-tube remembering bollocks all about the recent past, discover cybernetic implants grafted to your body and note with considerable concern that all hell has broken loose on the Von Braun. Re-released on GoG and Steam earlier this year, everyone with half a brain should be picking this up so they can truly understand what the phrase ‘innovative genius’ really means.Īssigned to the crew of the Rickenbacker, a military escort for the Von Braun - a new faster than light ship on its maiden voyage, the expectation was this would be a nice cushy little detail looking after science pleps for the next couple of years.

SYSTEM SHOCK 2 PLOT PC

But anyone with a PC really has no excuse now. Sadly this means many modern gamers have only ever played a close approximation of the real deal a first-person shooter with RPG depth that’s exquisitely nerve-jangling throughout.

Even GLaDOS, the manically bonkers artificial intelligence from Portal, owes a passing nod to System Shock 2. Unless you were fortunate enough to pick up the game shortly after its 1999 release your only experience of cowering on the Von Braun from unrelenting terror would likely be via Dead Space (which borrows wholesale form System Shock 2’s plot and design) or Bioshock, it’s frequently referenced spiritual successor. Until recently System Shock 2 had been one of those titles stuck in infernal legal limbo. Of course, this is an easy mistake for younglings to make. Snot-nosed kid: And where the plot is progressed through the random recordings left by the now dead crew? Snot-nosed kid: Where the crew landed on a planet only to bring something back with them, which has subsequently turned the crew into rampaging, deformed mutations of their former selves? Snot-nosed kid: Is the game set against the backdrop of a derelict spacecraft where everything is not as it seems? Snot-nosed kid: Do you feature weapon modifications and an inventory? Snot-nosed kid: Are you a survival-horror?

System shock 2 plot