/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.715939]

By pure chance I decided to look at GOG and discovered System Shock 2 was added. Went into my cart immediately and now it's downloading. Can't wait to play it. If I can take screenshots I might update with some of my early progress. For the record I'll have no fucking clue what I'm doing aside from what I can get from the manual.

[Anonymous No.715970]

>>715939

Read the manual while waiting for the download.
Don't bother with graphical updates.
Play Navy the first time around.
Have fun in the Cargo Bay

[Anonymous No.715981]

Conserve ammo, learn to use your wrench well, and try not to get an erection when Shodan talks all sexy to you concerning cybernetic implantation.

[Anonymous No.715983]

I wish I could play SS2 for the first time again. Cherish every moment OP.

[Anonymous No.715982]

totally overrated, you going to be dissapointed

[Anonymous No.716002]

The only real question I have is can I fuck myself over badly by picking whatever tours of duty for skills and bonuses I want? I always worry about early game skill choices like that. I don't want an optimum skill set or anything like that, just wondering if I can make whatever choices I want and be fine.

[Anonymous No.716006]

>>715970
Is that where the Service bots spawn?

[Anonymous No.716010]

>>716002

You can make good and bad choices, but you can't fuck yourself up completely as long as you go Navy.

I'd recommend getting points in Hack, beyond that it's up to preference.

[Anonymous No.716016]

>>716006

I'd rather not spoil it further for OP, but that is where every fucking thing spawns.

It's due to the constantly closing and opening doors and the way the game re-spawns enemies.

[Anonymous No.716018]

I'd rather not spoil it further for OP, but that is indeed where every fucking thing spawns.

It's due to the constantly closing and opening doors and the way the game re-spawns enemies.

[Anonymous No.716037]

>>716002
Assuming you're not completely retarded, and think about what is useful for your character etc. just for a minute, no, you can skill however you want. You'll get so many cyber modules, I didn't know what to do with them. On hard difficulty anyway, no idea about impossible.

[Anonymous No.716135]

>>716002

My first runthrough a few weeks ago, there was a bunch of times I ran into the 'you don't have this skill' problem and just waited it out. The games fairly flexible on normal, very little is required, and the wrench, pistol, and shotgun can tide you over for most of the game.

[Anonymous No.716146]

babies must sleep babies need rest

[Anonymous No.716160]

>>716018

christ you must have stayed there for a fucking hour to have gotten that many spawned hybrids.

also hydroponics is easily worse because it spawns cyborg fucking midwives. at least you can be immune to service bots with pyro shield. makes the chemical run on that level more obnoxious than it's worth.

[Anonymous No.716156]

Have fun with the Al Qaeda Suicide bots, OP

[Anonymous No.716185]

I never realised where the Theif Engine came from until I came face to face with Hybrids doing the EXACT same motions as the guards.

[Anonymous No.716184]

>>716018
Running attracts them, it's much easier when you walk instead.

[Anonymous No.716295]

>>715939
Enemies spawn: suicide androids (and other robots) go down with armor piercing (AP) ammo, hybrids (zombies) can easily be taken down with melee weapons (don't shoot them unless they gang-up on you), and shoot the monkeys with either psy or pistol.

Furthermore, don't upgrade the os or your stats with shit you might not use. Focus on pistol, armor (heaviest armor requires level 4 str I think), and hacking. Repair can be useful, but there are a shit load of those tools you can use to repair your guns.

With psy, only get projectile attacks (cryokenesis, pyrokenesis), psy pull, and cyber affinity. All other psy is useless.

[Anonymous No.716304]

-Go navy
-Invest in hacking
-Invest in strength (affects wrench damage - ammo can be scarce)
-Energy and exotic weapons are crap, invest in normal and at least 1 in heavy so you can use the grenade launcher

[Anonymous No.716327]

Yes, you'll need the grenade launcher by the time you get to Deck 4 to take down the cyborg ninjas (with EMP grenades). One of them ran off with a card key, so you'll have to do some hunting.

[Anonymous No.716334]

It is VERY important to use the right ammo for the job - so armour piercing against metallic enemies, AP against fleshy ones; EMP grenades against droids - etc.

[Anonymous No.716345]

>>716334

this-- it's pretty intuitive to figure out which bullets to use for the pistol and shotgun etc, but remember that ALL weapons have similar patterns and do more damage based on which ammo type you use. look them up in the manual and don't be afraid to waste a round or two to figure out which is the most effective for the area you're in

[Anonymous No.716367]

>Lesson number one:
Don't ever, ever, ever listen to /v/. You'll find some useful advice, but there's too many self-righteous autists who advise the stupidest shit. Until recently, /v/'s go-to for SS2 was a shitty torrent with pre-installed mods that weren't even up to date. Every single fucking thread, I had to advise people to download a proper .iso and install mods themselves.

>Lesson number two:
Repair is useless, invest in maintenance instead.

>Lesson number three:
You only need one point in research and even that is not necessary since there's a device that will do research for you halfway into the game.

>Lesson number four:
You want hacking. Invest in it.

>Lesson number five:
If you're remotely good at FPS games you want to play on Nightmare. It's a very easy game and on lower difficulties you won't really feel all that suspense the game is famous for.

Install the following:

ADAOB -- Obligatory. It is for SS2 kinda what Wesp's patch is for Bloodlines and what Drog's was for Arcanum.
TC's Weapon Replacements -- Obligatory. New textures for weapons, very well done.
Eldron's Psi Amp -- Obligatory. Retexture of the psi amp.
SHTUP -- Obligatory. Higher res textures throughout the whole game. Completely faithful to the originals, no artistic license on modder's part, just a straight resolution upgrade.
Rebirth 02 -- Model replacements of enemies and some props. Very much worth it, although not obligatory. Some people hate the new models, you might be one of them. I for one think they're all great except for the basic hybrid replacement.

You will find all of these here:

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php

You will need to install the mod manager.

All of this is 15 minutes of work, well worth it.

[Anonymous No.716374]

>>716367
>using mods on a first play-through
Disgusting.

[Anonymous No.716382]

>>716374

Stop being fucking autistic. If there's one thing I hate on 4chan it's unchecked "common sense" that while common, has zero to do with actual sense. There's absolutely no reason not to install these mods. It's like telling people not to run Half Life with AA and AF because machines weren't capable of it in 1998.

[Anonymous No.716394]

>>716382
Funny, I could fire the first two sentence back at you. There's is absolutely nothing wrong with the game the way it is. If you mod from the beginning you miss out on the developers intended experience. Modding some games like VtMB was necessary because of countless bugs, but there's no need with SS2.

[Anonymous No.716402]

>>716382

i can see how you'd strongly recommend the adaob but honestly saying that retexture mods are "obligatory" is kinda presumptuous, especially because you probably know that a lot of people here don't mind, or actually enjoy, playing games in their original graphical style.

[Anonymous No.716415]

>>716327

I usually chased the buggers down with the Laser Rapier.

[Anonymous No.716417]

>>716394
>>716382

This. I just played SS2 for the first time from Steam, and I don't think it needed to add anything much. Might be nice for other stuff, but nothing needed at all.

[Anonymous No.716419]

>>716394

A
U
T
I
S
T
I
C

>developers intended experience.

Developer's intended experience is 800x600 at best on a 15~17 inch CRT. Do you have that handy? No, you have a LCD that turns entire shades close to black into 0 0 0. So much for developer's intended experience. Oh and forget about AA and AF. Also, make sure you use a wheel mouse and default bindings.

Best of all? I'm pretty sure GoG version comes with the Dark Engine patch that came out last year which makes lightmaps look better. So much for the "intended experience".

Now, as would be painfully obvious if you actually read my post, all of these mods are 100% faithful to the original with the exception of Rebirth. Installing them robs exactly nothing from the original vision. As stated, do yourself a favor and stop spouting this "gamer common sense" bullshit. "Play it vanilla" is utter bullshit that idiots parrot without actually examining if it applies to the game in question.

[Anonymous No.716438]

>>716419
well, the 2.4 patch came from an anonymous source that was very likely one of the original devs now working for arkane. it's obvious that whoever programmed it was very, very intimate with the dark engine.

also, try to be civil ffs.

[Anonymous No.716454]

>>716419
You're suggesting installing mods where textures have been redrawn and models remodelled, it's not the same as using a effects on your graphics card to reduce pixelation in edges, which were high spec but possible on release. And if anyone is autistic it's you, going off on one over such a benign subject.

[Anonymous No.716472]

>>716419

>calls retexture mods "obligatory"
>throws shitfit when someone says mods aren't necessary, calls them autistic

what are we seeing here?

[Anonymous No.716502]

>>716438

And what if it wasn't? The question is -- "Is this good? Does it work within the framework of the original art style?" not "Did the Developers™ create this?".

>You're suggesting installing mods where textures have been redrawn

Still can't read? Look at the picture then.

>models remodelled

"Rebirth 02 -- Model replacements of enemies and some props. Very much worth it, although not obligatory."

"not obligatory"

"not obligatory"

Seems like you lot are a straight import from /v/.

[Anonymous No.716523]

>>716502
None of them are obligatory.

[Anonymous No.716526]

>>716523

You know, playing the game is not obligatory either.

[Anonymous No.716541]

>>716502
i was just trying to offer some insight, i have no investment in the "developer's intention" argument as far as my experience with the game goes. second two comments you quoted weren't me. i'm more concerned about you throwing a veritable tantrum over whether or not people like playing the game vanilla.

[Anonymous No.716564]

>>716541
Well then shut up, buttmunch

[Anonymous No.716565]

>>716541

I'm throwing a tantrum because I keep seeing all sorts of "true gamer gospel" get in the way of quality content.

In terms of visual impact, these texture replacements are pretty much equivalent to turning on anisotropic filtering. If you're turning it on, might as well install this as well. Majority of them are literally the exact same textures, only resampled. They were really simple and had clear bold lines so resampling was too easy not to do. Anyone in the System Shock community would recommend this for a first playthrough -- but no, 4chan somehow always knows better than people who were devoted to these games for years do.

[Anonymous No.716581]

>>716565
>Replaces textures with better looking ones
>The mod is called Shut Up

Hee.

[Anonymous No.716612]

>>716565

well, i agree with pretty much everything you said, but you do have to keep in mind that this is 4chan and not the system shock community. you seem like a pretty logically-minded dude, and you've indicated that you're most like a part of the ss2 community, so you can probably understand that going on 4chan and calling people autistic will not get you anywhere except in deeper shit. i like /vr/ a lot, but it didn't need your "autism" acrostic.

[Anonymous No.716630]

>>716565

yeah but you're making people mad with your "autistic" acrostic and insistence that the system shock community understands how to enjoy the game better than someone who has just bought it and is eager to play it. i played this game for the first time a decade ago, have completed it around a dozen times, and started playing it co-op with a friend of mine 2 nights ago. i'd like people to enjoy it any way they can.

also please don't do the gb2/v/ shit, we like this board a lot and that is embarrassing for you and us both.

[Anonymous No.716645]

>>716630
>If I keep posting then it means I'm right

[Anonymous No.716664]

>>716612

If I exaggerate, it's only because I see this kind of comments all the time. Another popular is "Play SS1 first". Thankfully I haven't seen it on 4chan a lot, but just enough to question whether some people have completely hollow skulls. Recommending SS1 to a newcomer in 2013 is just completely stupid. Most people really want "That game that inspired Bioshock that everyone's talking about" and then autists crawl out of the woodwork insisting that SS2 is a continuation of a deeply complex narrative that you couldn't possibly understand without play the first. It's not like it's literally spelled out in 60 seconds in the intro to SS2 or anything.

Here's another thing -- SS2 was a rushed game. The developers barely knew what they were doing and they admitted as much. The game is cobbled up around the Dark Engine kind of like Bloodlines was cobbled up around Source. Maybe it didn't suffer so much from the fact, but it's readily apparent it's rough around the edges. The developer's vision never really shone through in the first place. I'm not using this as an excuse to liberally shit all over the art style with any mod that strikes your fancy, just pointing out that developers are not infallible gods who necessarily had a completely crystallized vision of the end product. This is why I'd always recommend some heavy aesthetic mods for Deus Ex and New Vegas, because those games were half-boiled at best in terms of aesthetics. And of course, because there are quality mods that enhance the atmosphere instead of working to it's detriment.

Bottom line, I'm not talking HL2's Cinematic Mod here. SS2 has one of the best visual styles of the era and it does look pretty damn great vanilla today. This is why I'd only recommend mods that work in the context of that visual style. You tarnish that more by using a LCD screen than by using SHTUP. And nobody's gonna pick up a CRT just to play SS2.

[Anonymous No.716705]

>>715981

>Conserve ammo, learn to use your wrench well

implying I didn't discard the wrench ten minutes in

[Anonymous No.716718]

>>716705
I beat everything with the wrench, even robots. If it were possible to club the final boss to death with the wrench, I would have.

[Anonymous No.716739]

>>716645

these posts are mine, for full disclosure:
>>716160
>>716345
>>716402
>>716438
>>716541
>>716630

i'm not really claiming to be right about anything in particular, i just want threads about this cool video game to be interesting and informative instead of constant flame wars. lost cause, i know.

[Anonymous No.716767]

>>716664

the funny thing is that i think people who enjoy both bioshock and retro games would like ss1 more than ss2; it doesn't have the stat progression or build preference that ss2 does. i've played system shock 2 quite a bit and i consider deus ex the logical progression from it; bioshock ended up being a lot like system shock 1.

[Anonymous No.716858]

>Buy SS2 off gog
>Already know that Polito is SHODAN
>Get to the reveal moment
>I AM SHODAN.
>mfw

Enjoy it OP. I wish I could replay SS2 again for the first time.

[Anonymous No.716891]

Glory to the Many.

[Anonymous No.716907]

>>716705

>I discarded the wrench 10 minutes in

You done goofd, dude

You're fucked

[Anonymous No.716949]

>>716767

Yeah, playing SS2 the other week was like playing Deus Ex 0.8. It felt so similar.

[Anonymous No.716980]

>>716949
i miss warren spector

[Anonymous No.716986]

>>716891
This is XERXES. At 0:200 there will be a poetry reading by protocol unit T892/2. Please any authorized material that you wish to be read by T892/2.

[Anonymous No.716995]

Did anyone here request a Garrett and Goggles pic from a drawthread ages ago?
It's been finished and is here
>>36536282

[Anonymous No.716998]

This is XERXES. At 0:200 there will be a poetry reading by protocol unit T892/2. Please bring any authorized material that you wish to be read by T892/2.

[Anonymous No.717005]

Did anyone here request a Garrett and Goggles pic in a drawthread ages ago?
It's in the /vg/ drawthread, finished now.
>>36536282

[Anonymous No.717017]

>>716998

Rip the sacred flesh
Sodomize the holy asshole
Drink the red blood of the mother of earth
Masturbation on the dead body of christ
The king of Jews is dead
and so are the lies
Vomit on the host of Heaven
Masturbate on the throne of God
Break the seals of angels
Drink the sweet blood of Christ
Taste the flesh of the priest
Sodomize holy nuns
The king of Jews is a liar
The Heavens will burn
Dethrone the son of God
God is dead
Holyness is gone
Purity is gone
Prayers are burned
Covered in black shit
Rape the holy ghost
Unclean birth of Jesus Christ
Heaven will fall
Fuck the church
Fuck Christ
Fuck the Virgin
Fuck the gods of Heaven
Fuck the name of Jesus

[Anonymous No.717023]

>>716998
I love how alive the Von Braun felt, even despite being in the state it was. It FELT lived in, and Xerxes' constant chiming in made is as though he were just living it out like it was standard shit.

Xerxes was a fag.

[Anonymous No.717028]

>>717017
This is XERCES. That was protocol unit T892/2; please show your appreciation by hunting it down and destroying it.

[Anonymous No.717038]

>>716185
Thief came out first, broski

[Anonymous No.717085]

I just played this game last week and was disappointed. Still a good game, but I don't know where all the "perfect" comments come from.

I'm a big fan of Thief, Deus Ex, and I played vanilla. Maybe it's because I only played on Hard or stumbled into the best skills/weapons but the game was mostly busywork and not a lot of tension or even interesting exploration. Level design is really basic, lots of atmosphere but not much in the way of finding hidden passages or alternate routes.

The Body of the Many level was cool though, that part I felt like I was actually going on an exploratory adventure into a dangerous unfamiliar place.

[Anonymous No.717096]

>>716705
There are other wrenches that you can find in the game, if you didn't know.

[Anonymous No.717618]

tfw you realize that you killed diego and probably many other people on that other ship when you reversed the gravity

[Anonymous No.718657]

>>717618
That was more than implied, it's like you caught the poor bastard seconds after he medi-botted the infection out, right? It's practically regrown around his body.

[Anonymous No.718891]

>>715939
>GOG
So, under which rock were you when SS2 was abandonware and pretty much free for grabs?

[Anonymous No.718909]

>>716705

But the wrench is awesome.
It does more damage than the pistol with standard ammunition, the only disadvantage is you have to be in melee range to use it.
If you sneak up on, ambush, or surprise them, you can kill pretty much any mook without taking damage from the get-go.

Plus, it's good practice for when you get the Crystal Shard and run around shredding motherfuckers like a coked-up Kenshiro made entirely of razor-blades.

[Anonymous No.718923]

>>717085
nah the problem is that your IQ is too low to enjoy it

[Anonymous No.719592]

>>718891

At least he didn't buy it on steam like other consumder drones.