System Shock 2 thread

[Anonymous No.3777537]

Any fans of this masterpiece? For some reason this game feels special to me, even through I only played a bit of the demo when I was 10 (I am 23 now) and I played the full version in 2011 for the first time. Recently replayed it again with the System Shock Infinite mod (which adds a time travel element to the story and game). I don't use graphic mods, for some reason I feel the original low poly models make the annelid human hybrids look more inhuman and horrifying. The atmosphere, gameplay, visual style... I just love it. Anyone who feels similiar?

[Anonymous No.3777540]

masterpiece is really stretching it for a game that never hits any high moments outside of a scripted sequence or two and completely falls apart in the last third.

[Anonymous No.3777739]

>>3777537

Just got to Thief threads all the fans are there.

I agree its a masterpiece, I actually like much more than Deus Ex and I played them when they came out.

Everybody tried to copy it one way or another, but even the way the logs were made and written tells Looking Glass was a superior dev house.


Bioshock logs feel like contrived shit next to SS2.

[Anonymous No.3778225]

>>3777739
I played Deus Ex and couldn't get into it as I could get into System Shock 2. As for Bioshock, I actually enjoyed it, but I don't see it as a "spiritual succesor" of SS2, but as a completely different game. Half of System shock 2 for me is being stuck in a neon lit (yet creepy as fuck) spaceship many lightyears from Earth and the risk of a psycho AI literally reshaping the universe, creeping around corridors with your enemies literally begging you to kill you. Bioshock? A bunch of rich jerkasses fucked up their secret society at the bottom of the ocean, so what? Your enemies are literal junkies, there is no inventary system, no specialization (like in SS2 OSA vs Marine vs Navy), no real skill system etc. SS2 is said to be a FPS/RPG hybrid yet it is more of an RPG than Skyrim.

[Anonymous No.3778237]

>>3777537
I just got it for $5

[Anonymous No.3778275]

It's a great game, but I kinda enjoyed the first System Shock game more. My first time playing SS2 was coop mode with my two brothers, so that probably contributed why it didn't feel as good as the first game. Of course it's a fun game in coop, but the whole "alone and stranded in space" -feeling is completely missing.

[Anonymous No.3778316]

>>3778225
I haven't played much of Bioshock but the whole "spiritual successor" shit always bothered me. It must have been some heavy marketing shit towards hipsters.

[Anonymous No.3778352]

>>3778316
Because Ken Levine, they didn't have the rights to publish a game under the System Shock name so they made a new series. Obviously they're going to name drop System Shock to get interest, you'd be a moron not to.

Funnily enough I'd say that Dead Space is way more of a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 in terms of being almost beat for beat the same game, telekinesis and all

[Anonymous No.3778556]

yeah it's a great game, but personally I feel both Thief and Deus Ex slightly outshines it

[Anonymous No.3779817]

>>3778352
Dead Space is okay but gets way too much praise.

System Shock 2 is actually scary and uncomfortable at times compared to the boring ass necromorphs.

[Anonymous No.3779845]

>>3778225

If you like the tough survival horror gameplay of SS2, Underrail also takes a lot from it.

Its the best Crpgs of the recent renaissance but seldom spoken.

It also has psionics.

[Anonymous No.3780709]

>>3779845
Looks nice but isn't it more like Fallout?

Btw one thing I like about SS2 is that it does not spam darkness as a cheap shortcut to horror. I think it is technological limitations acting as an advantage here - until about 2003 it was impossible to make true darkness render on the 3D cards of the era, so the developers had to set the atmosphere in a different way without resorting to everything being dark like shit and jump scares.

Has anyone on here ever read Peter Watts? I think SS2 is pretty much the closest thing to a game based on a Peter Watts story. It does not line up with any of his books in particular, but it reminds me of Blindsight and The Things.

[Anonymous No.3780727]

>>3780709

As a cognitive scientist, I hate Blindsight with passion, it's full of infuriating bullshit. The undeserved praise it gets doesn't help.

The theme of "man vs. menacing AI" is not that common in science fiction, at least in the golden age stuff I mostly read, don't know about the last two decades. The only one I can think of is I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream and it's quite diffferent, obviously.

[Anonymous No.3780786]

>>3780727
It might not be scientifically accurate like it pretends to be, but it is more chilling than anything else I've read IMO.

[Anonymous No.3780791]

>>3780727
What I like about Shodan and AM in these 2 games is that they are terrifying because of just how humanlike their cruelty is. They are not logical machines, they either want to be seen as gods (Shodan) or they just genuinely HATE you and want to hurt you (AM).