RETROSPECTIVE: 'System Shock 2'

Once again, the PC Gamer smugness strikes again. The kids these days rave about how Bioshock is a deep, absorbing narrative experience unlike any other. Which confuses me because System Shock 2 is the exact same game only deeper, more absorbing and in space. 

System Shock 2 is a FPS/RPG/Survival horror set in the year 2114. You play the unluckiest man in the world who’s joined a division of the UNN armed forces (specifically, either the Marines, Navy, or Magic Guild-I mean, OSA – depending on your choice) and after a three-year training period you’re stationed on the brand new Starship Von Braun, the first starship outfitted with a ‘faster than light’ engine. Cut to eight months later and you wake up in the med-bay with amnesia. All you know is that something has gone terribly wrong and 99% of the people you meet are either dead or trying to kill you. Just imagine Alien, but if Ripley awoke from hibernation after the xenomorph invaded the ship.

Well, that’s the basic plot. The actual plot is enough to fill a novel – mostly because it’s linked to System Shock 1. I’ve always found the plot to the first game hilarious considering that the backstory behind the game is enough to make a whole other game. You’re a hacker who decides to steal millions of dollars from a corporation. You’re caught, but the corporation is impressed by your work and so gives you an assignment: sneak on-board a space-station and hack a super-intelligent A.I to steal information. You sneak undercover, steal the info, and get sent to the med-bay to hibernate for a bit. THEN the game begins.

Yes, that was all just backstory. And System Shock 2 has even more backstory because it also has the plot of System Shock 1 and a 30 year gap between that game and this one. Then you have a tutorial, and between the tutorial and main game there’s a backstory you missed that you have to find out. This game is absolutely crammed with plot, yet it's seldom forced down your throat. It’s mostly told via audio-logs and dead bodies. You can ignore most of the narrative if you want, and just imagine the story is about a dude running around a spaceship trying to get the hell out (a-la Half Life). And you’ll still have a good time if you chose to do this. 

I should also explain; this game was made in 1999. Two things must you know about 1999:

1) It’s the turn of the century. Whilst we all laugh at Y2K, people genuinely panicked. Microchips had suddenly become a key part of civilisation, and the idea of them turning against us and being our downfall terrified everyone. Thus, the cyberpunk genre hit its peak. This was the year The Matrix hit, and the reason why it hit was because it tapped into our inherent fear of computers fusing with humanity.

2) With the advancement of computers came many wonderful tools that both furthered scientific development and saved millions of lives. But, more importantly: we got some awesome games. Quake, Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project and, of course, System Shock 2. Oh, and there were some games for the PS1 too. Should probably get round to playing them…

 

Deus Ex may have been the culmination of The Golden Age of PC Gaming – taking the best parts of 90’s gaming yet somehow being unlike anything else before or since – but System Shock 2 is perhaps more innovative in its approach. Half-Life was the first game to immerse players in a cutscene-lite environment, where the story is lying around just waiting to be your friend. Thief: The Dark Project was revolutionary in its use of shadows, sound-design, and voice-acting to create a methodical, immersive experience. But System Shock 2 did something revolutionary: it was, and still is, absolutely terrifying. 

Don’t let the quaint polygonal textures or the slow start deceive you. Once you’re on the Starship Von Braun, things get real – and they get real fast. The simple fact that you can’t pause whilst using your inventory means the pace never stops. You are constantly in danger, and even when the coast is clear, the sound-design tells otherwise. Each door makes a high-pitched squeal as it opens, and every enemy in this game is varied – with a distinct sound accompanying it that you’ll quickly learn to dread. Oh, and the enemies respawn…so the only time you’ll actually get a break is when you’re in the lift, which is why I’ve modded in upbeat elevator music to reward me every time I clear a deck. 

"EAT MAGIC-I mean, 'psychic powers'"

There are only a few scripted jump-scares. They are unpredictable, and they still get me to this day. The game never takes control away from you so it can shove unnecessary scares in your face like Outlast and all those other YouTube-bait horror games do. If you don’t mind having the game spoiled for you, go ahead and watch a speedrun (it’ll only take a few minutes) to see that it’s possible to avoid all the horror altogether. System Shock 2 is not afraid of you missing an audio-log that gives you vital exposition. It won’t cry; it’ll just leave you to run around aimlessly until a horrific mutated being eats you.

The main reason why this game is terrifying is because it’s hard. Ridiculously hard. All the ‘Easy’ setting does is give you more hit points and more XP. You’ll be able to take more damage and upgrade your abilities quicker – but you’ll still run out of ammo, you’ll still face horrific mutants and you’ll still die.

This wouldn’t happen today. Because it costs so much money to make games these days, the makers want you to see everything available to justify spending all this money. System Shock 2 has difficulty weaved into the very game code. You are given just the right amount of tools needed to survive – except they’re not thrust in your face, you have to go out and find them. And if you waste these tools, then you’ve lost them forever. Every bullet is an expense; every drop of mana used feels wasted. In the harder difficulties, finding a snack lying about is a godsend.

This is the only game where having a shotgun gives you almost no advantage.

The same goes for XP. You squander your XP updating something pointless then there not coming back. You’re stuck with those stats forever – which leads me to the most frustrating point about the game.

The biggest problem with System Shock 2 is that it’s not at all welcoming. I bought this game when it was re-released in 2013. I finished it last summer. It took me over an entire year on-and-off to get into this game.

My experience would always be thus: I'd arrive on earth after the ten-volume epic of a backstory had been dumped on my head. I would go through the tutorial the same way I go through a lecture on the works of Nietzsche – I get the basic gist, but I wouldn’t be able to do an exam about it. Then I’m in space going through the laborious process of choosing my characters stats. Unlike most RPGs where you choose all your stats in a menu before being booted out into the world – you are given a choice of three doors. Each door will give you different stats. Precisely what those stats do is a complete mystery. You do this four times, building a character that you don’t actually play as until you’ve sat through a cutscene and spent five minutes messing about on a spaceship only to get into your first fight and realise you’ve chosen everything wrong and must start all over again. 

The door chooses your destiny....

Some helpful advice for first-timers: Choose the marines, choose endurance, choose standard weapons, and choose maintenance. As soon as you can, get a pistol. Then find a shotgun. Then an assault rifle. Once you find the assault rifle and have the skill to use it, scrap your pistol. Keep upgrading your standard weapons, but keep an eye on your endurance, maintenance – oh, and make sure you at some point upgrade your hacking to level 3 before you reach deck 6. Do this and you should survive with only half your keyboard smashed.

But once I got to deck 4, I was hooked. Thought Bioshock’s twist was incredible? Instead of the twist coming just when you thought/hoped the game was wrapping up and the last few levels absolutely sucking – imagine that the twist happened in the first quarter of the game and things only got better…before eventually sucking.

Yeah, disappointing final levels and really lame endings are a staple of the ‘shock’ games; but here it’s literally a case of the developers running out of time and having to rush the final part. The last few levels get suspiciously smaller and more linear – plus it’s clear that there were several scripted events and gameplay concepts dropped due EA Games bringing the deadline forward by several months. Also, it’s because of EA being reluctant to sell the rights to this game that we don’t have System Shock 3 and we’ve had to wait for over ten years for the game to be re-released. I love how everything evil in the video games industry goes back to Electronic Arts.

I really don’t want to spoil the twist (although, you’ve probably already had it spoiled for you) but it involves the scariest antagonist in gaming history. It’s a perfectly voice-acted nightmare that, as part of the games outstanding sound design, is played right in your ear and provides the perfect backdrop to the horrors that await the Von Braun. For this reason alone this game deserves your attention.

You have to work to enjoy System Shock 2, but whilst the game starts of badly, once it’s gotten comfortable it suddenly lets loose and in no time you’ll be enjoying one of the best games ever made. Yes. I mean that. This eats the Bioshock games as a low-calorie snack.

If you can't tell, that's a robot doing the macarena. PLAY. THIS. GAME.