/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3714906
Yes, both. More than once.
The remake of 1 looks good so far.
2. 1 was revolutionary at the time, but it feels constraining now.

>>3714906
>>Have you actually beaten either of them?
Aye, though my first *shock was actually Bioshock.

>>Will the remake/3 be insults to the originals?
3 might be alright, the remake was bloated, casualized shite.

>>Do you prefer 1 or 2?
First is better in every way (map layouts, hacking, music, enemy designs, aesthetics, SHODAN's writing, etc.). Also didn't have stupid RPG mechanics or annoying weapons degradation. Only problem with SS is that it doesn't have mouselook by default, luckily there is a mod.

Beat both of them
Remake has potential to crash because of how they're gonna keep true to the original and modernize it which'll be a challenge cause modern and classic don't mix that well. 3 we don't know much about it.
I preferred 1. Was disappointed with how much shorter 2 was, how they did shodan, and the story I didn't like nearly as much. Though the world seemed more varied which I really liked as apposed to more and more corridors in the first. And I don't get the hate with the interface. Go full screen to take away the waves, stance is just there, then you have health and energy, augments you don't even need to really way attention to, inventory will be on main the entire game pretty much, and mfd (corner panels) are just weapon and map/targeting.

>>3714906
Yes I have beaten them

Preferred 2. much more polished and feels more immersive. The ability to roll different characters and play in different ways gives a lot more replay value too.
>play total marine specializing in assault rifle and gun maint
>play researcher with crystal shard and disposable pistols that never bother fixing. Spend the game searching for chemicals and using wormblood implants to get health
>play psi head. psi stuff. go invisible. make walls. blow fleshies up with pyrokinesis
>play stealth wrench hacker with grenade launchers

plenty of other options or hybrids too

>>3714906
I've beaten both.

The remake was ok.

I prefer the first game. I just thought it flowed much better than the second.

>>3714906
I played through SS1 when the Enhanced Edition launched and had a ton of fun with it. Just recently I replayed it with highest combat difficulty.
I still prefer SS2 over it though, I think the inventory/RPG management makes it more interesting overall. The enemies are more diverse as well.
Both are great games.

Also, SHODAN looked really damn cool and creepy in SS1. Shame they turned her/it into OPs pic.

I first tried SS2 in about 2003, when I was just finishing high school and had put together my first gaming PC (mainly for the upcoming Doom 3). However, I didn't get very far in Med/Sci, as I was put off by my character's powerlessness with the wrench, the weird point-and-click inventory system, the first-person stealth, the respawning hybrids, and the weapon degradation. It should be noted that I also tried Deus Ex for the first time around then, and similarly gave up on Liberty Island. I guess I was too much of a casual FPS babby accustomed to pure action games like Quake to appreciate the adventure/stealth/RPG elements.

Years later, in 2010, I picked up SS2 again and actually got into it, and ended up beating it. It was great. That same year, I also beat Half-Life 1 and 2 (plus the Episodes), Super Metroid, and EarthBound, all for the first time. A couple of years later I beat Deus Ex. They had all eluded my interest in the past, for one reason or another. Around that same time (perhaps a little earlier), I also gave SS1 a spin for the first time on DOSBox, but hated it even more than I first did SS2 because of the lack of mouselook, the primitive 3D graphics, the tiny default window view, and the MIDI soundtrack, which I found obnoxious compared to SS2's mix of sci-fi ambience and 90s drum'n'bass. I either wasn't aware of SSP at the time or just ignored it.

In 2014 I tried SS1 again after checking out Super Bunnyhop's review and actually got pretty good at the default control scheme, being able to adeptly crouch, lean, and look around via keyboard only. I only got about a third of the way through (right before entering the Flight Deck) before I lost interest.

(continued)

Finally, I recently got the Enhanced Edition and started playing it about two weeks ago. I'm now back at where I last was and enjoying every moment of it. I’m still blown away at how far ahead it was for its time compared to the likes of Doom. It’s been a while since I’ve touched SS2, but I think I’m enjoying this one a lot more. It’s really Metroid-like, and I don’t miss the RPG elements from 2 at all. Also, cyberspace is fucking cool.

As for the remake, I remain cautiously optimistic about it. I know that Nightdive is going to do the best it can by the fans, and graphically it looks really great, but my biggest concern with the pre-alpha is with the occasional string music, which gives off major BioShock vibes, and not in a good way. (I played through BioShock in 2009, before I realized just how much Ken Levine had blatantly recycled from SS2. It was my first complete “Shock” playthrough.)

Everything I’ve read about SS3 so far sounds fantastic, though. I’m really glad that Warren Spector is back at the helm, and he’s putting together a great team of veterans for it. The interview he gave back in August with early story and gameplay details was really exciting. It really feels like a labor of love.

I’ve known for a while about the legal uncertainty of the System Shock IP before Nightdive salvaged it. It’s just kind of amazing that we’re getting a full-blown sequel after all this time, and by some of the same people no less. EA could have just decided to buy the rights from Meadowbrook and given them to a competent but underwhelming in-house studio, like Eidos has done with Deus Ex and Thief. Instead, we have Paul Neurath and Warren Spector working again on their most groundbreaking, genre-defying game series over 20 years later. What a time to be alive.

>>3714906
I loved both of them, if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be SS1

I'm cautiously excited for 3 although Warren Spector's comments about how the game will explore SHODAN's character have left me a bit concerned since the story and characters were never that much of a focus in SS1 or 2.
SHODAN is a great villain in the same way that characters like Blofeld or Emperor Palpatine are great villains, she's got a striking design, she's well acted and her taunting messages are excellently written, but she's also a bit cheesy and one-dimensional; her entire character can be summed up as megalomaniac. While this makes her perfect for Die Hard in space and Aliens slightly more in space, I'm not sure looking at her character in detail is a good idea.
I'm afraid we'll end up with something like the Bioshock games which were pretentious as hell. Yes I do know that Ken Levine and Warren Spector are different people
On the other hand everything Spector and Otherside have said about the gameplay in Underworld Ascendant has me excited and if they manage to pull off UA, then I'd preorder SS3 in a heartbeat.

>>3714906
Beat the first one a few months ago with the mouse look mod (basically enhanced edition.). Its the only shock game in have played and I would say its one of my favorite games. Websites call it an RPG but it is an adventure game through and through. The story is delivered in an immersive way. The sound track is great especially the intro song. The ending is kind of meh, but the journey to it is fantastic. Without spoiling anything the last two floors are an adrenaline rush with the music giving a feeling of being a complete badass, but still vulnerable .

>>3714906

-Both. Beat the second as a Navy Seal but dumping most of my points on weaponry and research. Never touched psy abilities.
-We'll see. I didn't play neither when they were released, so i don't have muchof a word there.
-Both for different reasons. I love the atmosphere of 2 but also how claustrophobic can 1 make you feel with the controls and HUD.

I'm curious how they're going to approach the fact that SS1 just stops being spooky after a few floors in the remake
They're clearly going for a horror atmosphere in the demo

beaten both when they were new
im interested
i prefer 1, it tells a concise sci-fi story. a lot of 2 seemed like arbitrary game stuff (tetris inventory, level ups "magic powers). as cool as the shodan reveal was in 2, what was that room supposed to be.

Interested in seeing how the remake turns out because of the change to melee combat. A good part of System Shock's combat leaned heavily on the Laser Rapier.

>>3714906
yeah both multiple times and prefer 1 over 2, even with the rpg stuff giving 2 some replay value it just kind of falls apart in a lot of places and i don't really like the hand holdy nature of it either
judging from the teaser for the remake it looks like they are dumbing it way down but keeping the levels and style in tact iirc one of their kickstarter goals was to incorporate ss2 type rpg elements which would be weird
i've seen a lot of buthurt over how it's not exactly like the original but it doesn't matter it's not like it's gonna replace it or anything

>>3714906
Played and beat 2, never played 1.
The remake will suck for keeping outdated gameplay concepts, and 3 will disappoint by being streamlined and stripped down. Yes that is contradictory, but that's how gamers are.
I haven't tried 1 but it looks almost "too old" if that makes sense.

>>3723294
>I haven't tried 1 but it looks almost "too old" if that makes sense.

Only if you see all early (pre-Quake) FPS games the same way.

Sure it's low-res and pixelated with MIDI music, but System Shock had some mind-blowing technology for its time, lightyears ahead of the Doom and Build engines.

>>3723294
you should play it, it's really not as outdated as you seem to think it is

>>3721774
Yeah 1 at least gave a minorly realistic spacestation layout.

>mfw I realized the frog sounds in the Groves were coming from speakers hidden behind the shrubbery

You cheeky fuckers.

>>3723294
> outdated gameplay

aside from the controls, what about System Shock was outdated? Even the controls then could be explained away as an overly-elaborate substitution for mouselook. Spector and co. liked that so much that future games like Thief and Deus Ex still had that keyboard-intensive look bindings.

>>3714906
Never ever played the first one. Is it possible to play it with mouselook?

Second one was great. One of the few games that actually scared me.

beat them both of course. Neither are that great. The dark engine definitely was not fitting for a game like SS2.

>>3727086
>The dark engine definitely was not fitting for a game like SS2.
Care to explain?

>>3726667
>Spector and co. liked that so much that future games like Thief and Deus Ex still had that keyboard-intensive look bindings.
games up to half-life 2 had that. not an excuse.

>>3727095
garbage recoil model, shit first person shooter AI, incredibly easy to abuse circle strafing, how is any of this good and not obvious?

>>3722014
>Laser Rapier
Dont you mean crystal shard?

or.... wrench?

Only played the first game, with the mouselook mod.

Loved every second, level design is amazing.

>>3727052
The enhanced edition on GOG supports mouselook and some other stuff

>>3727120
it's just that they tried to make it more of an action game but it didn't work
>>3727170
the first game only has a pipe and the laser rapier for melee weapons
>>3727175
DO IT

>>3714906
Yes. Chronologically.

Remake looks promising. 3 has potential.

I prefer 2 though.