By: PseudoNim
Exciting things aren?t a frequent commodity in today?s spam,
media hype and advertisement-infested world, and first-person
shooters definitely aren?t one of them. While good ones do come
out once in a while, in general, this seems to be a dead field, and
a breeding ground for rip-offs, carbon copies and bad parodies.
Still, a ?breather of fresh air,? a ?glimpse of innovation,? (or any
other of the many cliché words that today?s world is infested by)
can still be seen once in a while, and System Shock 2 is one for
sure. While not as incredibly rich and engrossing as Half Life
(though, frankly, I got bored of that faster than I got bored with
SS2), it is nonetheless a very solid game.
The feature that differs SS2 most from the other games present on
the market today is the RPG element. I should mention, though,
that I must disagree with EA in that the game is ?sci-fi horror role
playing? - the only part where you jump in your chair is when you
really get into the game and some bulkhead comes crashing
down. I?ve seen no other place which is in any way horrific, and
the enemies most definitely aren?t. The reason the enemies are
anything but scary is because you can almost never tell what they
are - mainly due to the extremely poor graphics detail of all
character models. For some reason, every enemy I?ve encountered
so far - other than a wannabe C3PO lookalike and a robot
ostensibly from Crusader: No Remorse - can only scare a
professional 3D artist into tears, mainly because they?re
mindwarpingly badly designed. They just sort of look like
irregular-shaped blobs with a pipe sticking out, which turns out to
be a shotgun or a wrench, depending on the stage of the moon
and the mood of the PC.
On the other hand, I found the environments (or, rather, level
design) to be incredible. While, when viewed from up close, the
textures do seem somewhat blocky, when viewed from a
perspective instead their being low-resolution affects in no way the
incredible detail of any given room or corridor. Displays with a life
of their own, blood on the walls, bullet holes in walls et cetera are
beautiful; and more, smoke effects are actually believable - nah,
bar that, realistic - something I don?t recall seeing in any recent
games.
But the main appeal of the game isn?t due to the half-assly done,
disturbing 3D models of enemies, or the wicked, atmospheric
environments. We?ve seen better 3D models in Half Life, and the
environments weren?t any worse. However, Half Life was purely a
3D shooter, while System Shock 2 is also an RPG, i.e. role-playing
game. Here, the attribute ?role-playing? is somewhat stretched,
because there?s really only one role you can play - of a hardened
(marine/navy/Black Ops dude), but you actually have to keep track
of stats, gain levels, manage a more or less vast inventory, and
perform tasks strongly dependent on the skills you have. As an
example of the above, some computers, doors and crates are
locked from ?unauthorized personnel? - so you might need to use
a convenient Hack button that pops up when an object need more
than just a push to open. Frankly, I almost fell off my chair
laughing when I saw the ?Hack? button; fortunately, there?s more
to it than clicking it and waiting for a result. But hacking is
nowhere nearly as difficult as in the real world, either - just click a
few squares, see what happens. Also, things like weapon usage,
repairing weapons (since they degrade from usage), upgrading
them, researching items and so forth require appropriate skills to
be learned.
A separate mention should go to Psi skills. This is a separate path
which a player can choose to follow (though one doesn?t have to
be Psi-only, and choosing another discipline doesn?t prevent the
user from learning Psi skills; however, I find it hard to believe that
a marine could learn any Psi in real life.) There are five levels of
Psi skills, however, it?s probably quite unlikely that a dual-class
character will make it to the higher levels, since there won?t be
enough cyber modules. A cyber module is a sort of a currency
which buys you upgrades to your skills/statistics, and they?re
relatively hard to come by - so exercise caution when using them.
There are also units called ?nanites,? which are another kind of
currency - for buying ammo, medical hypos, antirad hypos et
cetera, as well as using skills that require brainpower, like hacking
or repairing. Thus, parallels can be drawn between classes -
Marine is a Warrior, Navy - Cleric, Black Ops - Mage, but, unlike
D&D, you can mix classes and wear armor while casting spells.
More futuristic, I suppose.
The interface of the game is very intuitive, with a few glaring
exceptions. You have a well-arranged inventory screen,
log/email/history MFD, as well as a stats display MFD. There?s also
a very good map, including locations of upgrade units (places to
spend cyber modules for enhancements), replicators (to buy
medical hypos, etc), chemical rooms (used to perform research on
unknown objects), and so forth. On the other hand, one of the most
retarded things I?ve ever seen is that when you wish to research
something, you have to right-click on it, which is okay, but you
cannot drag it onto the research MFD, which it is by no means.
Granted, if you hover the mouse over the unresearched object, the
game will tell you, ?Right-click to research,? - but what?s wrong
with dragging it onto the research MFD? The chemicals required
for the research process can be dragged onto it with no restrictions
whatsoever. What I did find to be useful, though, is that no matter
which MFD, or how many of them you have open, a few keys
immediately return you to shoot mode - such as Tab, left mouse
click, middle mouse click, etc. It?s a good feature, should you have
been unfortunate enough to start reading the map with enemies
still around.
We must not forget, however, that this is still a first-person shooter
at heart. The movement controls are standard, with nothing to rant
and rave about. I found the running to be somewhat sluggish, but
it doesn?t really hamper gameplay too much. However, two very
neat functions that haven?t been done so far, and that I find
absolutely essential to proper gameplay are climbing and leaning.
For example, you can stand behind a wall, and slightly lean to
right/left in order to fire a quick shot and retreat back before you?re
shot at. It?s much more efficient than strafing, because if you?re not
precise, you might strafe too little, or just a touch too much - and
the laser turrets in the game have incredible precision and shot
velocity. If you happen to be standing on a ledge, you can also
lean forward, to snipe something below you. In regards of
climbing, I?ve always wondered why this wasn?t done before - after
all, if there?s a 1.2 meter box in front of you that you can?t
jump on, why not just climb it? It just makes intuitive sense,
and System Shock 2 does it very well.
The atmosphere in SS2 is incredible. While you don?t have the
Aliens premise, a lot of work has been put into making you
feel anything but at home. However, I do believe that the
soundtrack should?ve been worked on a bit more - there?s either
none in some parts of the level (or one that I can?t recall because
it?s so bland), or another one, which is a very fast beat with no
visible pattern or rhythm to it. They seem to depend on the
position in the level, though it?s usually a fair bet that when the
fast-paced one starts to play, there?s someone around to kill.
Which brings me to an interesting point - when you clear out an
area, don?t expect to leave it, come back and find the bodies
there. The bodies will be gone, and in their place will be more
mutants, because enemies respawn. At first, I was quite annoyed
at that, but then I thought about it some more, and it occurred to
me that it perfectly suits the premise of the game, where the
human body is only used for transportation - effectively making it
impossible to kill it, so long as the cybernetic parts are replaced.
(Let?s not, though, get into biology, and how, when the cybernetic
brain is destroyed, circulation ceases et cetera. Let?s just assume
that?s how it would have worked if the controlling alien race was
too advanced to worry about that.) It does keep you on your toes,
though, since you never know where a mutie might fall from.
And, last, but not least, believe it or not, there is no multiplayer in
this game. Absolutely none. Not even across IPX, or split-screen.
Unbelievable as it is, it?s a fact. However, the developer is
currently working on a patch which will add cooperative
multiplayer for up to 4 players via TCP/IP, which should add some
enjoyment to the game. No deathmatch might turn off some
players, but, on the other hand, the coop mode does allow player
damage. So while the company officially states that this patch isn?t
for deathmatching? well, some creative souls will have some fun.
So that, in a nutshell, is System Shock 2 (this is the part for a
philosophical reflection moment). Is it a good game? Or is it a bad
game? How did life originate? Are we alone? Whichever way you
put it, you?re likely to enjoy this if you liked Alien vs Predator or
Half Life, though there isn?t nearly as many cool gizmos to do
(different view modes, anyone? Permanent cloak?). However, I
would probably suggest waiting for a patch to resolve the
multiplayer issue. I don?t think it?s acceptable, in today?s society, to
release a game without multiplayer. Ethical norms just don?t allow
it. And apparently, there are some other glitches, judging from
EA?s website; though, in all fairness, I must admit it?s been quite
stable for me. The character models in the game are incredibly
scary, though. I think, if I got down one day with some Coke and
really brushed up on my Max skills, I could probably do something
better, and I usually consider myself ?artistically challenged.? So,
all in all, this isn?t a bad game - but it?s not a groundbreaker,
either. As you may have noticed, nowhere did I compare it to
System Shock 1 - the reason for that is, I?ve never played it. It was
on my ?to-play? games list, but I?ve never gotten around to it, thus,
I?ll leave the comparison up to you. And do check out the demo
before you buy - it gives you a pretty good feel for the game.
18/20
12/15
26/30
16/20
0/5
8/10
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Rating
80%
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By: Wolf
A very long time ago, the masterpiece ?System Shock? was
released, being dubbed by UK PC Gamer, at the time, as one of
the ?Best Games Ever?. It was one of those games, like Terra Nova
and Battle Zone, that were truly great but nobody ever bought. It
has been quite a long time though since this unique blend of Role
Playing and First Person Shooting style game has entered the
market, and we see if System Shock 2 can repeat it's older
brother's success.
The Introductory cutscenes tell you of a big production company
called ?TriOptimum? (which makes just about everything) and
some space ship building company having teamed up to create
the mother of all space ships, called the Van Braun. The Van
Braun is a research ship with a new hyperdrive engine so it can
reach previously unexplored areas of the universe, accompanying
it is the UN Rickenburker. You, being a trusty little grunt, are
placed along with a stockpile of other grunts on the Van Braun,
presumably for security duties... BUT, something goes horribly
wrong..*gasp*. The catch is, it doesn?t tell you what goes wrong.
All you know is that your awakened from your stasis, that a big
creature just attacked a woman (as the intro shows) and that some
woman is rambling off messages to you.
System Shock 2 uses an enhanced version of the ?Thief? engine,
adding neat little touches here and there to brighten it up. The
graphics look rather nice and normal, nothing special to tell about
them, except for two things. One is that the unit models look like
they could have had some more work done on them, and the other
is that the explosions are crap. Now really, explosions seem to
always be at the bottom of the programmers ?things to do? list
(which usually only gets half completed, *cough*), but personally
the first time I see a droid explode, I recoil in shock at the blocky
barf mess that?s traced onto the screen in a small icky looking
splotch. For the rest, the engine is used to full effect to pass on all
the atmosphere you?ll need.
The sound in System Shock 2 is done really well I must say, with
eerie music in the background, sometimes breaking out into
something more thumpy, which signals your about to plow through
a pile of bad guys. The audio logs are done well to, with real
emotions being displayed by the voice alone, all adding to the
atmosphere. The gun sounds are all satisfying as well, and
especially some of the monsters voices are brilliant (like the
Cyborg Midwife who speaks in an freaky women synthesized voice
of her little darling ones, and tearing your heart out and doing
something gruesome to it).
After a bit of character creation, and I say a bit because it hardly
matters diddly squat which Corp you decide to join
(Marine/Navy/OSA), you get thrown into the game, having just
emerged from stasis. You have to wonder around to pick up basic
weapons and items and collect ?Cyber modules? so you can
upgrade your Cybernetic Rig (you). As you wander along and start
smashing up some evil zombies, you really start to get engrossed
in the unfolding plot, as you read audio logs which you find in a
continually steady stream, the reasons for the monsters existence
are made apparent. The plot gets rather vague near the end, but
you can still piece the whole thing together in the end. To get to
the end though, your going to need a healthy sized arsenal of
weapons to blow away any opposition, of which there is quite a
lot. You get your Wrenches, Assault Rifles, Emp Blasters, Grenade
Launchers, and a stock of ?exotic? weapons to dispose of all
baddies. One really great feature in System Shock is ?hacking?. On
most keypad locked doors you are presented with an option to
hack it, and if your hacking skill is sufficient ehough, and with a bit
of luck, you can hack the keypad and open the door successfully.
As you start plowing through the zombies thrown at you, small and
grand objectives make themselves apparent to you. Like finding
an energy crystal, then a recharge station to charge it, and placing
it in an empty battery block to charge the door and open it, or
other likewise straightforward tasks. Also hindering your path is
the TriOptimum security network. Riddled throughout the ship are
security stations, which you can hack to disable the security system
temporarily, or turn off an ongoing alarm. The security turrets can
sometimes be rather hard to take out, as they posses pinpoint
accuracy and have a rather rapid rate of fire. What is also
apparent, with most bad guys possessing long-range attacks, is
that they never miss much. This would have to be one of the first
games where the AI actually takes account of your current strafing
maneuvers and anticipating your next move, while still not being
perfect.
Here we come to the really bad part. It had been promised at E3
that System Shock 2 would ship with multiplayer, but many people
will be sorely disappointed to learn that this is not the case. Due to
multiplayer taking too long to complete, they decided to just ship
the game without it, with a patch coming out in due time. I?d love
to go into a whole rant and rave about this current trend with
games being shipped off half completed with a mumbled promise
of a patch that will complete it ?sometime in the near future?, but
to spare you the agonizingly long read, I will refrain from doing so.
No points to be scored here, but if the multiplayer patch is
executed properly and works well, it should add a lot more value
to the game.
The one sad flaw I would have to comment on in this title is that
the RPG aspect is still rather shallow, I would have loved to see
your stats upgrade as you use them often. Perhaps still being able
to ?buy? your stats as well, but as with any real RPG, you gain
advances as you utilize them which gives much more of a thrill
then just popping by a terminal and buying them. The game is
rather short to, having completed it in 10 hours (that?s what the
saved game says, x2 to get the actual playing time) is still rather
short, although for most people it should keep them happy for
many an evening. System Shock 2 certainly appealed to me,
although looking back on it now, it is hard to explain what made it
fun to play. Perhaps it's the whole atmosphere of the game, the
unraveling of a long story while blowing away evil looking things,
the satisfaction of getting one step closer to the master behind it
all.
15/20
15/15
27/30
18/20
0/5
8/10
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Rating
83%
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