System Shock 2

You are a recently transferred crewmember aboard the starship Von Braun being assisted by the starship Rickenbacher. The Von Braun's mission is to be the first to achieve faster-than-light travel. All goes well until you reach the planet Tau Ceti 5, some 67 trillion light years from Earth, where something goes horribly wrong. You are never part of the expedition to Tau Ceti, but are awakened after the horrible events have occurred. You have now entered the captivating world of System Shock 2.

The pace of the game is set as soon as you awake on the Von Braun, as you are quickly ushered away from your quarters because of strange happenings. This sets the stage for a constant element of discovery throughout the game as you try to determine what exactly has happened and what is still happening. The story is unfolds mostly through crew logs that you will find scattered all over the Von Braun, the starship Rickenbacher, and other craft. The plot will also unfold through your guides, who play the most important role in the story. The main struggle is between SHODAN, the rampant AI from the original System Shock, and the recently discovered aliens of Tau Ceti 5 that have infected the AI known as Xerxes of the Starship Von Braun, which only minutes ago you were sleeping on. The final conflict comes down to just you and SHODAN. I spoiled it all you say? Not at all. That much of the story should be expected. It's what happens in between that is totally unexpected.

You start the game by going through some basic training that instructs you on the use of the inventory system of System Shock 2. After the basics, you get acquainted with the three character concentrations: Psionics, Weapons, and Hacking. All of the concentrations eventually overlap, as you are required to constantly evolve your focused ability, while branching out into the other two disciplines. After you are introduced to the basics of each character class you must decide what your focus will be. Afterwards you will go through a short period in which you decide what abilities to hone, and afterwards you are sent aboard the starship Von Braun to participate in the historical event described above.

Your enemies range drastically from near-humans to total freaks of reality. Initially your are set against crowbar-wielding human/alien hybrids out for your blood. You are soon introduced to Psionic Monkeys, Cyborg Midwives, Cyborg Assassins, Worms, Rumblers, Psi Reavers, and many more. Psionic monkeys are monkeys that have been genetically altered to a state where they have great telepathic abilities. This allows them to attack by throwing Cryokinetic or Pyrokinetic balls of force. Cyborg Midwives attend the children of the aliens. These multi-legged women carry lasers as they try to protect their charges. Cyborg Assassins are ninja-like robots that throw deadly crystal ninja stars and run away making them harder to target. Assassins can be found in both normal and transparent varieties. Worms are the female children of the aliens known by the crew as Annelids. These are mostly harmless unless found in large groups. Rumblers are behemoths of low intelligence that roam around looking for a target and then charge relentlessly towards the target until one or the other is dead. Spiders, both normal and transparent, inject a venomous toxin with their bite that if left unattended can kill you even after the spider is dead. Psi Reavers themselves are completely harmless and weak, but their great psionic abilities allow them to project deadly floating jellyfish-like aliens that shoot powerful balls of energy. Each type of alien can be eliminated in different ways. Mechanical animals tend to be disrupted easiest by electrical weapons, the EMP gun being my favorite, while humans, worms, spiders and the like are affected by psionic or projectile weapons, with the psionic ability Pyrokinesis being another favorite.

System Shock 2 features many different weapons depending on the discipline you choose. All disciplines can use weapons of both types, those being psionic weapons and regular hand held weapons. You are, however, limited by the fact that you should concentrate on your class of abilities. Psionics have many powers, though only three of them are actually of much use offensively. Those weapons are Projected Cryokinesis, Localized Pyrokinesis, and Projected Pyrokinesis. Cryokinesis shoots a ball of energy that drains heat out the enemy body, thus damaging them. Pyrokinesis uses fire as it's energy, with Localized Pyrokinesis shooting a sphere of fire around you and Projected Pyrokinesis shooting a ball of fire at a specified target. Other more defensive powers are invisibility, being able to make robots become docile, making alarms time-out faster, and even projecting a wall in front of you. The many hand-held weapons range from simple bullet weapons, to powerful energy weapons, to alien weapons. The typical pistol, shotgun, and machine gun make their required appearance, but even those lowly weapons are modifiable for greater effectiveness. Other weapons include the trusty EMP Rifle, Laser Pistol, Grenade Launcher, and alien weapons such as the Viral Proliferator, and the Worm Launcher. The alien weapons are really combinations of both human and Annelid technology. Most of these feature a multi setting that enables you to target either pure Annelids or hybrids. When on the hybrid setting, these weapons can damage you as well as the enemy making them not quite as well-liked.

Aside from weapons, you have other ways of protecting yourself and making yourself a better warrior. Those who are technically inclined can modify their weapons, hack into security systems to temporarily disable cameras, research body parts discovering more effective ways of killing, and use cybernetic implants. Each of these play crucial roles in bettering your chances for survival. You can avoid many security issues such as alarms and laser turrets by hacking into security systems. Researching different organs left behind by your dead victims reveals ways to increase damage. Modifying weapons can make them hold more ammo, reload more quickly, and even over-charge energy weapons making them shoot out more powerful bursts of energy. Cybernetic implants allow you limited use of modules that can have effects such as increasing your Psi rating, making you faster, or giving you more endurance. To better yourself in a more permanent way, you must constantly collect cyber modules that act as payment at different stations across the ship that allow you to improve your hacking skill, increase your inventory of Psi abilities, and make your stronger.

The graphics engine that System Shock 2 uses plays much of the extremely important role of representing the constant eerie environment of a massacred ship now overrun by crew/alien hybrids. In other words, the graphics are excellent. If my memory serves me right, System Shock 2's graphics are based on the Dark Engine that brought the also eerie Thief: The Dark Project to reality. The Dark engine does not let you down. All of the settings are rendered with excellent detail. Only a few graphical anomalies were noticed that detracted from the overall look. In some cases, such as with piles of worms, the textures almost look sprite-based such as those of Doom. Others such as walls, explosions, and even monkeys are done with great detail. Environmental effects like mist and radiation leakage are done very well. While the game is not on the same par as Quake 3, it is none-the-less up with the times and takes advantage of many 3D-accelerator effects.

The other half of the combination maintaining the oh-so-frightening environment is the sound. Music does not play a large part in System Shock 2, and for good reason. Sound is a crucial player in both atmosphere and combat. After a while, you will be able to tell what weapons you will need to use based on the sounds you hear. Cyborg enemies that are more susceptible to energy weapons have mechanical noises of some sort, while enemies more affected by projectile or pyrokinetic weapons will have more organic sounds like moans and hisses. The ship itself also makes noises that can make your hair stand on end. The creaking of contracting and expanding seams, or the terrifying silence contrasted only by exhaust fans in a ventilation duct play a large part of creating one of the most terrifying environments I can remember. Music is not used very often, but it does its job of setting a frantic tone. Most of the music is dance-based, used in areas with high concentrations of enemies. The sound's only downside is that some of the voice acting used for the crewman logs can be on the dry side. While the voices are good, they sometimes lack feeling. In logs where someone is supposed to be terrified or startled, they tend to only pull it off half-heartedly. This however does not detract from the general gameplay or setting.

The way in which all of these factors mesh together is quite enthralling. As the story unfolds, you are required to complete many different tasks that will rid you of the aliens of Tau Ceti 5 such as introducing an experimental toxin into the environmental systems, overriding systems to gain access, and even giving ship controls over to SHODAN. The tasks are more involved than simple instructions such as pull lever, open door, get key card. While there are plenty of doors to gain access to, things are just much more complex than that. As you complete each task, more of the story or situation at hand is revealed, and the aliens even try to counteract your attempts at gaining control. The last part is the most important. In a game such as Quake 2 or Half-Life, the enemies did little more than physically fight back. Very little was done on their part to truly out-maneuver you using strategy instead of force. One example of System Shock 2's enemy behavior is a section of the game in which you are trying to gain access to escape pods. Once you come within range, the aliens set up a force field which you must figure out a way to get past. The game is chock full of just such plot twists, though most are much more complex and involved. While force will get you far in System Shock 2, brains will take you all the way.

Currently there is no multi-player support in System Shock 2. I feel this is a devastating blow to the clout System Shock 2 could have. Looking Glass Studios is, however, working on a patch that would at least add a cooperative method of gameplay. I feel that System Shock 2 has a lot of potential in the multi-player world. Its co-op feature could be very powerful if the networking is pulled of correctly. I also think that System Shock 2 could hold its own in a deathmatch setting. The game has an excellent array of weapons that could make for some excellent firefights, and with security cameras and turrets, a capture- the-flag game could be an absolute nail-biter.

Bugs are something that I can unfortunately not report on accurately. This is true only because I had been experiencing difficulties with my computer prior to beginning System Shock 2 and my computer showed no mercy once I had started. There were only a few instances where the game seemed to be displaying different difficulties than that my reoccurring problems. There were 2 cases, which occurred very close to each other somewhere in the middle of the game, where the game completely exited with no errors of any kind. The only other unusual occurrence was a one-time incident where the game's sound engine seemed to crash out and replace many audio streams with random hisses and static noises. Restarting the computer fixed this problem, and it never happened again. So as far as I can fairly judge, there were only 3 instances where problems could have been attributed to bugs.

System Shock 2 has so much going on, so much to tell about, and so much to do that it's hard to do the game justice in print. Even as I beat the game, I was in shock as to how wonderfully Looking Glass Studios had done in making the game. The game has the most fear-invoking atmosphere I have seen in quite some time. I was constantly finding myself fearing for my character's life, and quite often finding myself startled by a creature sneaking up or a sound coming unexpectedly. The creators of the game must have had an affinity for the art of suspense because this game was a thriller all the way through. Top it all off with absolutely wonderful gameplay, be it puzzles or action, and you have the masterpiece that is System Shock 2. I feel that as far as first person shooters go, Half-Life has seen its day. System Shock 2 is what a sequel should be, and more

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