After being severely disappointed that I am presently unable to achievement whore in the System Shock remake due to technical difficulties, I decided to revisit the original, albeit with the un-enhanced control scheme this time. Oh boy, this is uh ... kinda not that fun. Especially on Combat 3. [Future Nilichi here: Skill Issue.]
Playing System Shock blind for the first time has a lot of value as a pure exploration and "pay-attention-to-every-piece-of-text" game. However now that I know where everything is, all that I'm left with for this 3,2,3,3 run is a lot of aggravation at obnoxious highly damaging and sometimes respawning hitscan enemies. I now see why this game only became a cult hit, it is actually physically painful to play in its unaltered DOS form. [FYI I actually had to reduce DOSBOX CPU cycle usage down to 40%, otherwise Shodan was invincible since her attack logic runs on a frame dependent timer.]

Anyway this has been a wonderful refresher on how Immersive Sim design principles can be implemented outside of an ARPG context. Believe it or not there are multiple solutions to many of the roadblocks ahead. I realized after I spent far too long on the first mastermind-wire-puzzle that I could have just used my sprinting velocity off of some ramped geometry to clear a pit. Though what I find more interesting is how ammunition management and player movement are handled. Your avatar can lean, crouch, and go prone. Which you're expected to make use of to minimize your hitbox to RNG your way through encounters. Firearms often accept multiple different types of ammunition, and loading is handled by physically moving the mouse around. You're still just clicking buttons in a UI, but this small change leads to a much greater sense of physicality for your actions.
Grenades, finnicky as they are, effectively require you to reach into your inventory and then manually toss them one at a time.
While System Shock doesn't have as many obviously abuseable player abilities that facilitate a higher degree of emergent problem solving as in its descendants, the base philosophy of providing the player with a toolset to forge their own path forwards is very much present here. The simulationist and immersion focused mindset that guided LGS are clear in how players are expected to piece together their objectives from scattered audio logs, loose pieces of paper, and the occasional email beamed into their cranium. Dropped items persist throughout level transitions and corpses linger. Actually come to think of it, with the way resource management is handled along with the pacing of combat, this is a Survival Horror game from before Survival Horror was called Survival Horror.

My main issues really are how clumsy it can feel to actually use the QWERTASDFGZXCVB movement bindings to direct the Hacker. Yes that is actually what they're using by default instead of WASD or ESDF. It's an extension of SZXC, with keys for turning, leaning, angling, and recentering the main view, along with height-stance control, all arranged to be within reach of the left hand. Honestly if I could look up and down with the mouse wheel it probably wouldn't even be that bad. I think you can actually rebind the keys in dosbox, but I'm here to suffer.

Second main issue, which is shared with Enhanced Edition, is how this is yet another game with an inverse difficulty curve ... kinda. The regeneration bays, they're unlockable vita chambers. Or rather vita chambers and all "checkpoints-that-respawn-you-with-all-defeated-and-damaged-enemies-persisting" descend from System Shock regen bays. Anyway this allows for the developers to expect you to deal with some incredibly dickish hitscan ambushes. I must have played SSEE on combat level 2 for my first run, because holy shit this is brutal. The Reactor is especially obnoxious. I can see how to trivialize it in hindsight by grabbing equipment around the station in a certain order, but there's a real chance that first time players will have an awful time down there. Now, I think this design is kinda interesting when you're trying to beat the 7hr time limit, and first time players can experience the novelty of being able to explore more of the station after bruteforcing the encounters with the regen bays online. However for people that already know the general layout of the game very well, I've found it rapidly devolves into frustrating tedium. There's also some weird hitbox jank that's a lot more noticeable to me now. Melee seems to be affected by how you angle your view, which is ... weird.

About audio in this version of System Shock; unless I'm mistaken, there have been less abrasive tones than in the Enhanced Edition. Something that really stands out to me with the mixing is that large mechanical doors and moving platforms feel too loud. I think the DOS version of the soundtrack sounds slightly nicer than in enhanced edition by default for some reason, but I'm not sure. The adaptive score can be rather harsh depending on how the MIDI messages are being interpreted but here they've been quite nice.

Anyway this game is fundamentally really cool and should be played by all hardcore PC addicts, but esoteric UX prevents making a general recommendation.

We don't talk about the autobomb maze.

It took me almost a whole year to beat it (got a cool OTG adapter with multiple ports and could play it with mouse and keynoard instead of just keyboard) but I finaly did.

I don't have much to add from the commentaries of my previous review, though I do like that over the course of the game the protagonist starts getting contact support from Earth to do his mission, which gives a less generic "lone survivor vs machines" feel to the game. The last section has really interesting setpieces, with the station blowing up and having to reach a dettatching bridge, though I had hoped the last level was a lot more climactic (I think the only thing Shodan can do is make garbage pixels appear on screen and mess up your controls, I was expecting more from a generic villain who thinks it's god lol).

That said, I think I will score this higher than Doom because even if both titles become repetitive with going around looking for keys and stuff, System Shock doesn't disrespect the gaming medium like what Doom's intention is (John Romero's famous statement about story in games being the same as story in porn, that it's not the main focus, bringing videogames to the low tier of throwaway trash) and instead builds an organic setting and atmosphere that at least attempts to make you feel something for the people who died at the station, instead of killing them indiscriminately like in Doom (despite the people who got possessed there were former companions of the main character).

I'm not entirely sure why I decided to play this game. I did look to see i had system shock 2 installed on my computer, and was curious if I happened to also own the first one. I did. I'd always heard this series inspired a bunch of games like BioShock, hell they both have shock in the name. The game came out in 1994, and I played the enhanced version, but I really enjoyed how kind of “un-handholdy” it was. It plays a simple cutscene and drops you into the game. Since it is 30 years old, the controls are not modern at all, and very unique, as you have to grab items, by clicking on them and dragging to your inventory, but the game is also an fps. So you can swap between a menu mode and fps mode, and you have dozens of ability menus all available in real time as well. The game makes you work for figuring out what to do, but it's very enjoyable the whole way through. Especially on the enhanced version, there is no load times or level separation, so it's difficult to stop playing, as it's just so rewarding to keep exploring. One thing I do want to point out, the soundtrack is so strange, just odd almost non-musical sounds playing several times throughout. It's intriguing.

A remarkable precursor to what is now a beloved niche genre. System Shock has plenty of rough edges and it's certainly an ordeal to use the original controls, but the resulting challenge and variety is still fairly rewarding.

It definitely takes some time to get your bearings and understand how to navigate the world. Cyberspace in particular is miserable until you can get a grip on what the objectives are. Even then, it's very fortunate that the cyberspace sections are relatively brief.

But the general exploration, resource collection, enemy encounters, and gradual storytelling through audio logs makes for an atmospheric and unsettling experience (albeit falling a little shy of real horror tone). Audio logs are foundational towards the actual objectives that progress the story. Figuring out the correct sequence of locations to visit and actions to perform based on diegetic instructions makes the game unfold in a natural and believable way despite the haphazard path it takes around the station.

SHODAN is regarded as a true classic of video game antagonists, and while I think a huge part of that is attributed to the excellent and unsettling voice manipulation that characterizes her sound, I also love her unrepentant egomania. Her motivations rarely seem more complicated than "because I can and I want to", which imparts a sense of horror that would be lost if she had any degree of moral intention. Her gloating and monologuing could have easily become annoying if overused, but they were deployed exactly the right amount.

I've not played the remake, but I have watched a good chunk of it; while the modern remake brings some interesting ideas, elaborations, and design adjustments, I think it also loses some subtlety in its characterization of both SHODAN and Citadel Station. The graphical and narrative elisions of the original game stand up to scrutiny, in my opinion, and still provide something rich and interesting.

I even found the legacy control scheme to be productive, because it forced me to be more tactical and resourceful rather than relying on reflexes. That said, if you wanted to use the free-look support in the Enhanced Edition, I absolutely wouldn't blame you. It's a cool game that's worth seeing one way or another, so don't let that get in the way.

When I first played System Shock in 2011, I was introduced to the series as a whole; I’d never played one or two. It was overwhelming at first, but luckily I had my partner, who had already beaten it, so I had a human in my ear on the citadel to help push me in the right direction. The beginning of system shock was, like I said, overwhelming, as I had so much to wrap my head around. But once I got into the swing of things, it quickly absorbed my attention. The game has a level of interactivity and immersion that’s almost unrivaled.

The visuals and level design are staggering for 1994. They captured the feel of 2001, a space odyssey, so well.

I love the cyberspace sections; they may be dated now, but they have this indescribable 90s feel to them. But one thing that always caught my attention was how deliberate and immersive the game is. The game doesn’t treat you like an idiot, and you’re fully expected to use your brain. I love that the game throws all these tools and features at you and just tells you to do what you want with them. Towards the end, I became almost a god, almost unstoppable. I wish more games allowed you to just be yourself and think through problems.

SHODAN as a character is fantastic; the voice actress did a phenomenal job. I love the malicious and sometimes ethereal taunting that it does to you, jumping from a soothing female voice to a demonic sound. The cracking of its voice and the change in tempo really set the mood.

One thing that’s always struck me is the citadel. itself. It’s almost like you’re inside of SHODAN's mind; it’s twisted, full of hate, and incredibly violent. The citadel is SHODAN, and you’re in her domain. Playing is such an incredibly uncomfortable experience. I found the replay of this game to hit me much deeper than it ever did before. I have Stage 4 cancer, and I couldn’t help but associate SHODAN with my cancer, and while I was playing, it’s like I was trying to sever its connection to my body. Just the gameplay loop felt like I was acting as chemotherapy, and after beating it again, I felt this weird feeling.

This game is a favorite, and I think everyone should try it. Although I know the remake will have more of an allure for new fans, the charm of the classic is still worth it.

poucas coisas acertam aquele prazer mecânico de system shock. eu amo o controle máximo que você tem de seu corpo ciborgue, ligando e desligando suas melhorias cibernéticas para as diversas situações que você enfrenta durante o jogo. é inevitável que esse controle máximo venha em detrimento da maneira que o primeiro system shock é percebido pelas pessoas que não tem o costume de experimentar jogos onde o botão de recarregar a arma não é o "r" e o de agachar não é o "ctrl", e até eu tive que tomar um tempinho pra me reacostumar com os controles uns meses depois que terminei ele pela primeira vez. mas quando system shock grudou sua mágica em mim, eu me apaixonei de novo. realmente uma das minhas obras favoritas. recomendo também "terra nova strike force centauri", caso queira jogar algo parecido, mas com um foco maior no combate.

One of my top 10. I have yet to play the remake but this game is incredible. I was surprised at just how navigable a lot of the levels were. They don't turn into mazes all that often. SHODAN might be one of the greatest villians in a videogame. She's an absolute bastard with schemes on top of schemes. Every time you think you've beaten her she just pulls out some other plan. The gameplay is also very fun once you get used to it. The fact that the patches are stackable might be one of the funniest things in a videogame. At one point I used a speed patch, time slow patch and berserk patch at the same time and flew through the level half clipping through walls and destroying some of the games hardest to beat bots in a single swing of the legally distinct lightsaber.

This game is very much ahead of its time. The game just oozes creativity and nuance. The game provides so much for the player to do, and what how they can approach each thing they decide to do. One other thing that I really appreciated about this game is how little the game hand holds you throughout the entire story. You are there to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do to escape. You need to read logs, listen to audio logs, and figure out puzzles on your own. In the modern day, this kind of game design is hard to come by, and coming back to this game was such a breath of fresh air. What also is quite amazing in this game is the sound design. The voice actor of SHODAN is still an amazing presence in the game. But the soundtrack almost makes you feel like a kid again, the classic 90's synth just reels you in with how exciting it is. The only thing I really can't say that I like too much are the controls. Even in the Nightdive remaster, the controls are incredibly unintuitive and jarring. Especially for a modern day audience. In fact it was something that got in the way of a ton of different things for me. Combat under this control scheme felt incredibly cumbersome, and not very immersive. Luckily, the game still provides the variety to approach different situations, so you are able to reduce the level of trouble you might have with the controls. Great game if you're interested in experiencing an classic, and are willing to deal with the poorly aged controls, you've found a pretty interesting game.

I admit that this game was pretty cool for its time, and I usually hate it when people say games "age" but this one really isnt that fun to play. The bad controls, the grating music the repetitive levels the confusion of it all. Yeah I guess you can say I was "filtered" by it. I am not le epic patrician gamerino. I still thought it was worth playing as a a novelty though and it really rewards exploration and all that. Shodan is an amzing villain and the voice acting for her and the audio logs is surprisingly really well done. The moment to moment gameplay really sucks but the goods still outweigh the bad in this

SHODAN is the best villain ever put into a video game. That alone wouldn't sound like much in proving it's a great game, given it just implies a tight narrative but nothing about how it plays, yet this is actually a huge deal because I'm talking about her in a gameplay sense. Looking Glass' design philosophy was always to simulate the balance between a player making active choices, and the game master responding adequately in tabletop games. SHODAN is a living representation of Citadel Station, and a pure evil game master on top of that, as the bridge between the concept and execution of this "simulated game master" idea bringing it into more literal territory with a computer trying to kill you. Everything that goes after you in the game and every trap that befalls you is SHODAN. She sometimes unfairly sweeps the rug from under you, locking you in game over scenarios or opening up monster closets, but this combined with her voicework only adds to realize her in a way no other villain has ever achieved. Each step you take in Citadel Station is a fight against SHODAN herself as she's always finding ways to one-up you. Standard action-adventure game progression is flipped on its head as you don't know what to predict and must carefully observe clues, manage resources and take notes to get further while expecting the worst, stooping into straight up dungeon crawler territory more with each level. This tense crawling approach to a usually speedy genre is what separated System Shock at first from contemporaries, but you could really argue this is just an extremely abstract form of adding in more "realistic" mechanics; it adds a lot of believability ducking behind cover as you desperately fiddle with the user interface to reload or consider opting for the specific position on the screen you'll throw a grenade from, just imagine a few animations instead of a user interface being fiddled with and it suddenly clicks. System Shock juggled tons of concepts modern games still struggle with relatively effortlessly; from the precision in combat only VR games seem to have given a shot, to genuinely tactical and intimidating firefights while exploring an immersive environment. It may seem sloppy at first, but taken as a whole, it's extremely elegant.

The thing barring most people from enjoying this genuinely amazing game is that the user interface and controls are too clunky and dated... or are they? Really, I think it's just the visuals that date this game. We live in a post-Cruelty Squad post-Receiver world, it's not like these unorthodox approaches are out of place now, they're usually just prettied up... or slathered in shit in the case of Cruelty Squad. Either way, if those games can be enjoyed for what they are now, what's stopping someone from enjoying System Shock today too?