Okay so, I kind of cheated. This one is NOT on the List Of Unplayed Games like the GAW reviews are supposed to be. However I have been dying to play this game for years, and it's finally been released in a playable build on GOG.com, so I couldn't resist.
What were my expectations going in?
2007's Bioshock has long been one of my favorite games of all time. However, for all of the acclaim it earned, there was always a small cadre of vocal PC gamers saying "But it's just System Shock 2 underwater!" This always caught my attention. I mean, if I love Bioshock so much, surely its predecessor must be amazing as well, right? Sadly, until now the game was borderline unplayable on modern systems without modding the crap out of it, and even then it might not work. I tried on multiple systems, and could never get past the tutorial level without it crashing to desktop. So when GOG released the game, it had years of not only hype, but struggle to live up to.
That's a really difficult question for me to answer, frankly. As anyone who has read this site may have picked up, I don't do solid yes or no answers, or give quantitative numerical ratings. Reviewing a game from 1999 in 2013 defies that, even with graphical mods. I think the best way that I could sum it up is that this game is very dated, but would likely have been absolutely mind-blowing if I had played it in 1999. There is a lot of true greatness in System Shock 2, but it's greatness that has since been done better. I am going to go ahead and say that I loved it, but with caveats. A lot of them.
When people said that Bioshock owes a lot to System Shock 2? They're not exaggerating. The games have not only the same tone, but the same exact pacing, plot twists, and reveals, beat for beat. Both feature a voice guiding the player through the tight, darkly lit corridors of a place that was once great, but fell into ruin. They both feature combat split between upgradeable weapons and a bevy of supernatural abilities (the only difference being one is psychic, the other genetic). They both allow the player to run through the storyline, but tell the backstory through a series of collectible audiologs. They even both offer a wrench as the primary melee weapon, along with restoring health and ability points through hypos! One is cyberpunk in space, the other is steampunk at the bottom of the sea, but for better or for worse, System Shock 2 and Bioshock are almost the same game.
The plot of the game does not require you to play the first System Shock; it sums the whole thing up for you. Years ago, a rogue AI named SHODAN took over a space station by creating her own species of lifeforms. A hacker jettisoned SHODAN and her creatures into space, where they landed on planet Tau Ceti V. Forty years later, the Von Braun, an experimental FTL ship, sent a rescue party down to investigate. Now the crew of the Von Braun has been completely overtaken by the parasitic hivemind creatures calling themselves The Many. When the game begins, you wake up in a cryotube with amnesia and must explore the Von Braun and eventually help the insane SHODAN defeat her own creations.
This game has actually inspired another article that I'm currently percolating in my brain, about the parallels between horror films and horror games, and their ages. System Shock 2 was sold to me by a lot of people as "the single most terrifying game ever made". And if I'd played it back then? Fuck yes. This game would've been horrifying. But...the graphics have become so dated that it's laughable, and the engine is so clunky that the enemies inspire no fear at all. However, tonally and atmospherically? It's amazing. The audiologs really help to sell the backstory; one of the final ones genuinely made my skin crawl.
The corpses though. Oh. My. God. The corpses. They were going for something terrifying, with masks of wide-eyed terror on the people's faces when they died. Every corpse in the game (as long as it has a head) has its eyes open. It's kind of unsettling, but it's also utterly hilarious. They all look like really shocked ventriloquist dummies. I mean come on, look at this. Actually click on the picture, full-screen it and look at this picture; I dare you not to laugh.
Okay. So I'm sounding like I didn't like it. This is far from true. The horror didn't work for me, but a lot of the rest of the game really did. The game engine is slow and clunky, but this kind of added to the atmosphere. I really liked how customizable the game is. You can tailor your character how you wanted to play, by channeling your experience into hacking/skills, combat, or psychic abilities. These can be further enhanced with a surprisingly extensive selection of weapons, items and gear. I think the only gripe I had with that at all is that you actually have to have at least some points in hacking, or later in the game you will be unable to proceed.
One of the things that I liked most about the game is the Von Braun itself. Much like Rapture in Bioshock, the setting is almost a character unto itself. Through the course of the game, you explore almost every nook and cranny of the Von Braun, spanning six decks and multiple floors and areas of each deck. It's laid out like a real ship, and you get the distinct feeling that, before everything went to shit, this ship was the pride and joy of the fleet. I especially respected the inclusion of a Hydroponics deck, showing how a ship that big would feed its crew. The living quarters actually look like a comfortable place, with recreation, athletics, a mall, a garden, and social areas. While it's easy to get lost in some of the lower engineering decks and cargo holds, the ship as a whole is designed fairly logically, as though you were on a real spaceship.
The sound design on the game is a pretty mixed bag. The music is great, but it's badly cued. There's a lot of really well made electronic/techno music for action and combat sequences, but sometimes it will kick in when nothing is going on, or fail to kick in until after you've killed something. The worst is when the music starts in loudly, and drowns out the audiolog you're listening to or email chatter from SHODAN. Thankfully, you can go into your inventory and re-listen to all of them. The voice acting is incredibly hit or miss. SHODAN is incredibly menacing and creepy, haunting you and harassing you through the entire game as she forces you to work her will, but the various actors portraying the crew of the Von Braun range from stellar to sad. The best audiologs, however, are from a character named Prefontaine. His first-hand scientific observations of The Many are absolutely horrifying, and the voice actor sells the fear in his voice. Especially his final entry...something about that one was incredibly unsettling.
Controls are where the game suffers most, although a part of that is me being conditioned by current gaming trends, which have sort of congealed control schemes into a general setup. Throughout the entire game I found myself pressing one button when I should have pressed another. The game gives you a fairly good tutorial, but I still found myself frustrated frequently, almost working against the game to do what I wanted. Combat is completely from the hip, even with heavier weapons like assault rifles, which you would instinctively want to aim. But again, it's hard to hold that against this game, because that's the evolution of modern gaming; in 1999, guns never really had scopes and sights, apart from sniper rifles. So while it generally hampered my experience with the game, it's not really something I can hold against it.
Overall, I am incredibly happy that I played System Shock 2, and I actually do recommend it, very highly. It's a fantastic story, it's very atmospheric, and it's quite a bit of fun. Plus, it was great being able to see Bioshock's original roots. It's only real flaw is that you just have to take it with 14 years' worth of grains of salt. Think of it like watching an old science fiction movie from the 60s or 70s. Yes, it may appear laughably dated by today's standards, but if you can appreciate that it was cutting edge in its time, and appreciate it for what it was and not what it is now, then you should really enjoy it.
Play time: 10 hours
Finished: Yes
Recommended: Highly
Available For: PC
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