Irrational Games Reveals System Shock 2 Secrets

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Irrational Games Reveals System Shock 2 Secrets


The secrets continue to spill out of Irrational Games, this time in the form of five unknown facts about System Shock 2 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2], including how the game ended up with a completely different ending than it was meant to.

It's always fun to look back on something and imagine "what might have been," particularly when the subject matter is highly respected and influential, and in the milieu of videogames there are few that can match System Shock 2 in that regard. But what if one idea have given way to another, or technology had been slightly more advanced, or somebody had stopped for a moment to give the whole thing a sober second thought? As Irrational Creative Director Ken Levine revealed, everything could have changed.

"The original story had the player going to a spaceship to assassinate a character similar to Colonel Walter Kurtz from System Shock [http://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Now-Complete-Two-Disc-Collectors/dp/B000FSME1A/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280174224&sr=1-1]. "You can't have a System Shock game without Shodan, so I wanted to rewrite everything," Levine continued. "I was such a System Shock fanboy that it was a dream come true to create the sequel."

The game was created in a single room of about 900 square feet and while the team was inexperienced, in the long run that turned out to be an asset. "If we knew then what we know now, we probably would have just stopped in our tracks petrified, and not have been successful because we wouldn't have thought we could pull it off," Levine said.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the ending of the game had to be rewritten in order to accommodate a closing cinematic that wasn't anything like what Levine had intended. "Due to miscommunications or differing ideas, a different cinematic video was created from the one that I originally scripted," he explained. "We had to write to the assets we had at that point, and all we could do was edit it. We completely ran out of time and that cut scene wasn't the right ending for the game."

Catch up on all the System Shock 2 secrets, including the fate of a planned zero-G level and how Levine wanted to "f*ck with the audience," at Five Features Left on the BioShock Drawing Board [http://irrationalgames.com/insider/what-might-have-been/] while you're at it.)


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Apr 28, 2008
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I'm interested in seeing what this other ending was...

Onyx Oblivion said:
Any place I can get this without paying a ton of money?
I think its on Steam.

Don't hold me to that though.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Irridium said:
Onyx Oblivion said:
Irridium said:
I'm interested in seeing what this other ending was...

Onyx Oblivion said:
Any place I can get this without paying a ton of money?
I think its on Steam.

Don't hold me to that though.
nope
oh...

well then not sure what to tell you

sorry dude
It's okay. Honestly, Bioshock's be better to me because I don't have the nostalgia goggles on.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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RvLeshrac said:
I WANT SYSTEM SHOCK 3. No more of this Bioshock nonsense.
Serously. It would be so cool!

Also...some pretty neat secrets there...bring them to 3!!!
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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Apr 2, 2008
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Onyx Oblivion said:
Any place I can get this without paying a ton of money?
I got a copy off Amazon Marketplace not so long ago. You have to get a patch for the game online to run the cutscenes but otherwise it works fine on Windows XP / Vista. Can't tell you whether the same is true for Windows 7 though.

It's one hundred and ten percent worth getting hold of though. I could write a small essay about why Janice Polito is the best-characterised video-game character ever or why "The Many" are the greatest antagonists of any game I've played, and probably have at some point. But it all boils down to: play the game and make your own mind up.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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Onyx Oblivion said:
Irridium said:
Onyx Oblivion said:
Irridium said:
I'm interested in seeing what this other ending was...

Onyx Oblivion said:
Any place I can get this without paying a ton of money?
I think its on Steam.

Don't hold me to that though.
nope
oh...

well then not sure what to tell you

sorry dude
It's okay. Honestly, Bioshock's be better to me because I don't have the nostalgia goggles on.
I actually got the two games at pretty much the same time (I'd played the original "System Shock" when it first came out in the early nineties, though, and I still think it has a legitimate claim to be the best game ever made). I do think Bioshock is very, very good in many respects, but it's not close to being as good as either of the System Shock games.
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Onyx Oblivion said:
It's okay. Honestly, Bioshock's be better to me because I don't have the nostalgia goggles on.
That's a pretty good point. I really enjoyed Bioshock but my opinion of it suffered because I'd finished up a System Shock 2 replay just a few months before I played it, so it was still relatively fresh in my mind. And between the two, there's just no comparison.

That said, if you played and enjoyed Bioshock, you really owe it to yourself to dig up System Shock 2. eBay it, trade for it, whatever. Even as old as it is, it'll be one of the best games you've ever played. (You'd be well advised to make use of the various upgrade packages, however, like the System Shock 2 Rebirth and the texture upgrade package. Brilliant game, but even in its prime the Dark Engine was never great visually.)