Easily one of the most innovative and unique games I have ever played, System Shock proves that even 28 years later it remains a highly immersive and enjoyable experience. Despite hearing numerous statements that the game was like "playing an operating system", I was surprised by how intuitive the game's mechanics and user interface were. There certainly is a learning curve, but I got used to it after about fifteen minutes, and I found the game to be a remarkably rewarding experience. Despite having many elements in common with shooters of the era, the game is endlessly dedicated to immersing you as much as it can via its mechanics. A big part of this is the weaponry, and how different enemies react to other weapons and ammo types. Cyborgs and robots will go down easier with armor-piercing rounds, though traditional ammunition is best used on the mutants. The labyrinthine and nonlinear level design is also fantastic, allowing the player to return to every floor at any time and even requiring backtracking to complete missions, requiring memorization of each of the floors' different rooms to best optimize paths and shortcuts. This gives the player a strong Metroidvania-esque feeling of returning to previously challenging locations with upgraded abilities, giving you a brief power trip in a game otherwise set out to crush you at every turn. While I don't see System Shock as an unfair game by any means, it is certainly outwardly hostile to you at every turn. Everything in this game, from the enemies, the environments, and even your weaponry can turn you into red paste, necessitating a careful approach to every step you take. This is echoed in the game's storytelling, isolated to audio logs (one of the first games to use them!) detailing what exactly happened on Citadel Station before you awoke, and spelling impending doom for those recording. You never meet another human being in this game due to the limitations of the time, so your interactions are solely limited to logs or calls. This lends a tone of utter isolation and dread to the game, and while I wouldn't call it a horror game by any means, System Shock definitely could have been one under a different context. Shodan's mocking speeches to the player are not only eloquent but also performed wonderfully by Terri Brosius, who feels incredibly convincing in her spiteful hatred of humanity and delusions of godhood. The game does a wonderful job of conveying not only its scenario but also smaller details about the world via these logs and it's easy to see why it became a mainstay of the genre. The game's visuals are no slouch either. While they may be seen as incredibly dated nowadays, there simply wasn't a 3D PC game at the time that looked better than System Shock. For example, Doom 2 came out the same year, and while not a bad-looking game by any means, doesn't render environments in nearly the same detail as System Shock. The environments are surprisingly detailed and every tile which makes up the game world even has a name. You'll even find proper 3D objects such as cabinets and test tubes adorning the space. This is paired with a varied, atmospheric, and inventive soundtrack that features futuristic electronic sounds, epic guitar solos, pan flutes, and even good old Nine Inch Nails-inspired grinding industrial. It all adds to an atmosphere that is not only immersive but unique as well and serves the purposes of the game perfectly.

System Shock to this day is a phenomenal game, almost perfectly weaving RPG and adventure game elements into a shooter package and inspiring so many games afterward. Through a combination of immersive gameplay, strong worldbuilding, and a fantastic atmosphere, it still makes for a highly entertaining time even nowadays. Sure, there may be minor flaws, level 3 is brief but hellishly unfun, and cyberspace is a gimmicky mechanic, but these feel so minor in contrast to the game's qualities. Highly recommended.

This game gets slept on harder than a hooker at a narcoleptic whorehouse. The atmosphere is great- with some weirdness- the writing is really good, and it's a pretty well-paced game that's fun the entire way through, even though the combat's kind of weak. Main problem- it's really, really, really old, and while the enhanced edition fixed the weird controls, the game's age and first impressions turn people off. Give the game a chance, though, and it's as interesting and deep as a lot of modern games.

This game is awesome. An easy top 5 entry for me and just so many excellent elements and forward thinking ideas despite its age. I played it all the way through after being inspired to give it a shot after mandaloregaming's review. Every now and then I try playing old cult classics and they just don't stick for me, especially early era 3d games that didn't age so well. This game has incredible art direction, great sprites, and animation; citadel station is super well designed and feels thought out - a real blast to explore.

Shodan is such an incredible villain and performance that it really lets me looks past the very poor "we let whoever was in the office that day record the audio for this log" voice acting performances (although to be fair, first game to ever have voice logs at all). You feel her presence throughout the game, and the steady learning of each area, her minions, and the tools you acquire over the journey to fight back really keeps you engaged. While the OST is all over the place, most levels have memorable tracks and great atmosphere. Goofy B horror abounds, an eerie station, freakish mutants and cyborgs roaming the halls, and you got yourself a fun adventure romp.

The game even has heavily customizable difficulty settings. Its crazy to think just how many things it got right, and just how many of those things shine through with the addition of mouse look. I'd recommend this game to everyone.

There are a few things that suck though - mainly cyberspace and pretty bad audio mixing in a few places. My ears do explode whenever there's radiation present.

Final score: Your memo/Your memo

It feels like you're trying to operate an alien calculator when you play System Shock. In reality, System Shock is like a cross between the original Doom and Ultima Underworld. Miles better than the 2nd one: the color palette, the atmosphere, the retro music, the mind blowing fact that you can play fucking pong through a program inside the game, hacking Minigames and so on make this one of the most unique seminal games I've ever played. Don't be ashamed to use a guide, you'll get lost very quicly.

Visualshock! Soundshock! System Shock! Wait... Wait no, that doesn't sound quite right...

I have no idea why I like System Shock. It's so unflatteringly of its time, so oppressively obtuse, so nakedly cruel that I should have been repulsed as soon as I awoke on Citadel Station. Instead, I was hooked from the moment I finished watching the intro sequence, which is quite possibly one of my favorite opening cinematics in gaming. Easily in the top ten.

Before I get too deep into my review, I'm going to suggest you ditch it entirely and instead watch MandaloreGaming's excellent dive into System Shock: Enhanced Edition. I share a lot of the same opinions on the game but couldn't possibly express them as eloquently as he does. One point of his that I keep coming back to is how the original System Shock controls like it's played on a graphing calculator, and I will admit that if I had to navigate the game using whatever weird pully and lever system it had in place, I probably would have bounced off it pretty quickly. Thankfully, the Enhanced Edition lets you play System Shock like a proper video game, and that makes fighting through SHODAN's bowels more manageable, but no less dangerous than it was in 1994. In fact, the Enhanced Edition of the game provides a ton of options to tweak System Shock to your liking. You can shut a ton of pointless HUD elements off if you want, though I couldn't bring myself to do that. Chi Waves don't really mean anything mechanically, but it's dumb and weird and perfectly suits the whole hackerman aesthetic the game embodies. I couldn't bring myself to mutilate the HUD despite compromising on how the game controls, nor could I scale back on the story, or difficulty. This is all to say that I feel I still had a pretty authentic experience with the game despite the more modern control scheme.

When not being aggressively archaic, System Shock is aggressively... aggressive. Citadel Station is an incredibly hostile environment, as it should be since you're essentially running through the physical form of the game's villain, SHODAN. Originally the station's AI, SHODAN had her ethical constraints removed and is now trying to become a God, one who happens to enjoy dabbling in unethical science experiments and who would like to drill a hole in the Earth. She might even get a little help with that if you're not being careful. You pose the only threat to SHODAN and her plans, and in response she's turned all of Citadel Station against you. Its security systems, its mutated inhabitants, even its network... There is no single part of the station that isn't hostile towards you. System Shock can be downright mean, it's almost like the game doesn't want you to beat it, and SHODAN's constant mocking of your efforts really helps sell you on the sense that it's you versus the game. I shouldn't love something so hellbent on making me have a bad time, but the oppressive difficulty of System Shock also comes with a profound sense of gratification when you overcome it, even if many of these victories are minor and far between. Maybe it also helps that I like when SHODAN calls me an insect, but I'm a sad loser and you all knew that about me already.

I also adore the audio logs in this game. The acting is not great, but that makes for a fun contrast with Terri Brosius' performance as SHODAN. There's also a lot of inconsistencies with what is being spoken and what appears in text, which helps create this sense of creeping madness as you can't fully trust what you hear and what you see. Of course it's also (extremely) possible this is just the result of some miscommunication during development, or there being different scripts that went out to programmers and voice talent. It's all part of the charm regardless.

Every single part of System Shock is weird, pointless, clumsy, obtuse, or downright unfair. It probably shouldn't all come together as well as it does, and it definitely shouldn't appeal to me. I'm sure I have a few dozen reviews out there complaining about mechanics or design flaws that are present here, and yet... I kinda love System Shock. I love how it beats me down, how it puts its heel on my neck, calls me a worm, and deafens me with its "music". Maybe I'm just a sucker for abuse, because the only reason this isn't a perfect 5/5 is because it didn't hurt me enough. SHODAN should've bricked my hard drive after sending my browser history to my friends and family, only then would System Shock be considered a true masterpiece, but I still think it's an incredible game regardless. It is also hard for me to recommend playing it, but if you're half the masochist I am, you should definitely stick to the Enhanced Edition or wait for Nightdive's remake to drop, assuming that's still happening.

Cyber Punk + Space Horror + IA gostosa

Imprevisível e desconcertante ao extremo. Da tensão pelos menus e cenários claustrofóbicos, até o terror por uma ameaça inisível que sempre está presente do início ao final, System Shock é um jogo sobre como o quão conturbada e conflituosa é a nossa relação com o plástico e o metal.

Ao mesmo tempo há esse charme nostálgico em System Shock que o torna tão singular e gostoso de se jogar. Mesmo que estejamos falando da versão remasterizada na qual os controles são (absurdamente) melhorados, ainda há esse clunky do original prazeroso de se interagir, e que consegue tornar System Shock uma delícia de se jogar.

System Shock é similar ao que um vinho é, na medida em que é um excelente Survival Horror.

Além disso: se não tem como empilhar caixas, então não é Immersive sim

The highly influential, but commercially unsuccessful inspiration for some of the best video game franchises of all time. Now with mouse look, making it almost as easy to pick up and play as the sequel. It takes less than a minute to beat a mutant to death with a lead pipe, what's not to like?
In all seriousness, this game is pretty good. It probably has the highest enemy and weapon variety out of every game that ends in -shock. The levels are also a thing of beauty, clearly designed more like a realistic living space than a video game level. I'm also a fan of the music, which is simply excellent and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that industrial is the definitive music genre for cyberpunk settings.
The difficulty is also highly customizable, as an example, you can set story to 0 and never have to listen to an audiolog or find a password ever again. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's convenient.
My closing thought is that I suggest people try it, it's really not as hard to play as it looks.