Gamers love Bioshock if Metacritic is to believe. The eerie atmosphere, the phenomenal writing, and the crushing isolation make for a compelling game. System Shock 2 did the same thing, and did it to masterful effect years earlier. You awaken in the Von Braun, after a brief tutorial, and you’re plunged straight into the hell awaiting you. While, the game itself is dated, the overall design still makes for a scary fucking experience. The ghosts, the logs, The Many, and so much more just sow the fervent paranoia of the diligent player hard in their skull.
You see that gun? Be prepared to shit yourself when it breaks.
Masterful sound design do much to make us forget the dated graphics, and a superbly told story really pushes it past the usual idea of monsters, blargh, fuck! System Shock 2 is probably the finest example of a horror game ever made. It broke down doors, standard conventions of gameplay just brutally subverted in one of the finest twists in gaming history. The notion it created back then has since been reconstructed, deconstructed, and enjoyed life as a cliché of sorts. But at the time of release, System Shock 2 was incredible for what it did.
This isn’t full of jump scares like Resident Evil, or the psychotic imagery of Silent Hill. It’s paranoia tempered with a fine coating of fear, and for that System Shock 2 succeeds in areas where many have failed. Dead Space and Bioshock both fail in many regards, but this is just due to chasing the wake System Shock 2 left.
Words cannot do the awful you’re about to witness justice.
So, why haven’t you played this? And if you have, you know why it is among the greatest games created. System Shock 2 is just as sexy to play as Deus Ex, but you may very well end up huddling in a corner when your shotgun is out of shells. There’s a few naggling features sure, but I’d chalk it up to the limitations of the era. For what it is though, System Shock 2 is the sort of bonafide classic everyone needs to get a taste of once. Don’t mess with the retexture mods, they turn one of the most unnerving enemies you’ll face into a big titted supermodel from hell. Take it as it is, a document of design long since lost upon designers. A testament to the strengths of a young studio who has since found great fame as it were. Irrational may possibly be my favorite American studio, they gave us System Shock 2 and Freedom Force. They made Bioshock, and gave us the excellent SWAT 4. SWAT 4 is more of an heir in my opinion than Bioshock, if for the simple reason that your assumptions about your environment will lead you awry.
In System Shock 2, you’re a marine in space, silly worn out trope of gaming these days. Silly worn out cliché back at release. Despite all your military prowess, it won’t steel you for what comes inside the Von Braun. It doesn’t make the awful any less horrible to see. When you awake, it’s just you in this vacant ship, traversing it to find out just what happened.
Like a Star Wars character with an extra dose of grade A nightmare fuel.
Looking at the stills of System Shock 2, it’s a little hard to imagine what made it so scary. But the voices of The Many, the metallic tinge in the Midwives, and the blistering steel of a vicious AI all but make up for it. To hear a legion of voices in the dead of night with your headphones donned is terrifying, but to realize your down to a wrench and low health makes it pants shitting at times.
Wait until you hear her speak. Good luck seeing babies the same way.
In short, System Shock 2 is a phenomenal game. I would regard it as more important the original Half-Life for a thousand reasons. Half-Life did much in terms of advancement and immersion, but System Shock 2 never imparted the same feeling of badassery a certain bespectacled MIT grad gave. Despite the guns, the cool psychic powers, and even years of horror games in my wake, System Shock 2 still is unnerving. Still potent, and just finely aged, sort of like some whiskey that makes voices whisper in your head.
Search container? Well, what’s the worst that can happen?
In short, just buy it. It’s worth the huge price used. It’s a damn shame this franchise has gone without a worthy heir. Now, if I’m to believe things System Shock 3 is in the spanners, which is a bit like saying the third Blair Witch is coming.
Happy Halloween guys and dolls, tune in tomorrow for a look at one of my favorite indie titles.
In parting, here’s one of my favorite animated shorts.
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