Per Plays a Game: System Shock

Do play System Shock 2, then take a stroll through THIEF 1 and 2 as well.

That's what I'm about to do, anyway. "Tribute to Looking Glass Studios" day :idea:
 
I started playing SS2 with my brother in co-op mode (he's played it before). However, it turned out not to be the most immersive experience. The fact that death doesn't really matter removed any sense of true danger, I didn't get a feel for where items and enemies were found, I missed "ghost" sequences and triggered samples, ended up reading logs out of order... I'll start a single player game instead at some later date.
 
Co-op? CO-OP?!

That's butchering the game, my dear scaly friend. It's intended as a lone soldier against the world type of experience. Play in the dark with headphones.

The first hybrid I encountered nearly gave me a heart attack.
 
Mikael Grizzly said:
The first hybrid I encountered nearly gave me a heart attack.
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Same here...In fact, I'm almost affraid to play that game. It's far more frightening than FEAR and the other sucky survival horror FPS...
 
Mikael Grizzly said:
Co-op? CO-OP?!

That's butchering the game, my dear scaly friend. It's intended as a lone soldier against the world type of experience. Play in the dark with headphones.

The first hybrid I encountered nearly gave me a heart attack.
Click to expand...

I've played SS2 alone and coop, and I enjoyed a lot the coop mode. I have the original game, and noproblem with videos or "psycho - ghosts". I love coop games.

Regards
 
I've been playing it for a bit now. I found it really hard at the beginning despite playing on Easy (not enough AP ammo for the turrets; can't use lean to fire at enemies without them being able to fire at you; must run around with the wrench to conserve ammo, then die when two shotgun hybrids appear and you're helpless; inventory is painfully small), but it's easier when you get some better stats and stuff (stat and skill cost seems to be where the difficulty level comes in). It's definitely much creepier than SS1 - the midwives send a shiver down my spine when you hear them stomping relentlessly and suddenly they turn a corner at right angles just ahead. I've jumped in my seat a few times, for instance when I was on the lookout for a respawned hybrid (despite playing with respawn "turned off"), and looking to the left, nothing, looking to the right, nothing, back to the left - hybrid running into my face screaming "Diiieeeee!" at the top of his hybrid lungs. The game has held up well!

PS. I've sometimes seen this game referred to as an "RPG". ("System Shock 2 will be a true RPG, with character classes, stats, and the whole shebang.") It's not, it's an FPS with character development and inventory management.

PPS. It was painful to find out that quicksave isn't really a save. You could have warned me, you bastards.

PPPS. I have music turned off, much more atmospheric that way.

PPPPS.
flowers.gif
SHODAN
heartbeat.gif


PPPPPS. Creepy picture.
 
The game definitely is more atmospheric without the music. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't bare any more dread...plus it's excellent. :lol:
 
Systems Shock 2 is indeed said to be excellent and terrifying.
I attempted to play it to recapture the magic that once was; from playing DOOM late at night back when that was the thing...
Ah, but unfortunately the only scary thing that happened was Kernel Panics and Core Dumps.
I've tried everything; anyone know a convincing way to get the goddamned thing to run under NT Kernel OSs? I upgraded my last surviving 98 Kernel machine (an IBM X20 running ME) a few months ago... for obvious reasons. ME installs tend to go fruity after a while, and this one was very old and very fruity indeed. It's not as bad as the public image would have you to believe but it's not as stable as it should have been.
 
I may be arguing semantics now, but I am far from considering System Shocks simple shooters. An FPP adventure game perhaps, but not an FPS.

FPS's are: Doom 1, 2, 3, Quake 1, 2, 3, 4, Half-Life 1, 2...

FPP adventures are System Shock 1, 2, Deus Ex 1, 2...

It may be just me, but calling System Shock 2 an FPS is unfair for the game and it's potential.
 
DirtyDreamDesigner said:
Read this or suffer the consequences, insect!
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I am a better person for having read that. Thank you.

On a tangential note, you can't go far on the web these days without running into some thread where Bungie fanboys go, "Oh, Durandal and Cortana could squash SHODAN with a flick of their virtual little fingers!" Hey, Bungie fanboys, it's not about processing power. A character can be written with arbitrary power. They can't be written with arbitrary strength of character.

SHODAN wins. WINS!
 
At the very end of SS2 there's this shaft with a "crude set of stairs" leading down to the final showdown. Reportedly you can get to the top of these to find some loot. Problem is, I can't figure out any way to climb even one of the "steps"; you can't jump that high, there's nothing to hold on to, and I haven't been able to find any alternative routes. What's the secret?
 
I've never been there myself. Try different mantling, or find the net guide to mantling.

Much lovings for Tommy Suarez and Rebecca Siddons :)
 
I was able to find this. Apparently it's really hard and not especially rewarding, so considering I couldn't even climb one step after two dozen attempts, I'll skip that one.
 
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