Rumor: System Shock 2 Coming to GOG

[dakkster]

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

I found the original box in my attic the other week. What a masterpiece!

I remember when BioShock came and people talked about how you could play the game in different ways. Bullexcrement! SS2 had proper play style choices, BioShock didn't.

 

[cathou]

there's also an hint of that that appear on gog itself last year

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/sid_meiers_colonization

look the names of the cities in the screenshots

but of course none of those games have made it so far, so could be nothing

 

[Mrkillhappy]

I hope this rumor is true ever since I heard about this game I have wanted to play it.

 

[Skeleon]

Oh, please, please, please, I want to play this game again. It's been on the GOG community wishlist since... pretty much forever. I so hope this is true...
I love this game. The audiologs, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the scrounging for resources...
The graphics may suck (specifically for organic things; it's alright for mechanical things), but who cares?

 

[Callate]

Ah good. There are some of these. While SS2 is one of the greatest games ever made in my opinion, there are lots of reasons to dislike it.

I don't really want to be the one to bring this up, but you do realize that you're complaining that the game is challenging, complex, varied and substantial, right?

Or taxing, over-complicated, unfocused and padded...

Now, before I get pilloried- as I said, there are things to be said for the game, and if nothing else, I'm glad that some aspects of it went on to be used in other (*cough* better *cough*) games. The game as taken isn't a bad game at all, and it would be downright hypocritical of me to lambaste modern developers for not taking chances in their array of sequels and franchises and simultaneously criticize a game like SS2 for taking those chances.

But, frankly- some of the choices made in that game were really, really poor. My personal highlight being that making a player have to go back and forth through segments of the station multiple times to do grunt work while dealing with an infinite enemy respawn and a finite resource pool was punishing. Not in a "survival horror" way, not in a "I need to utilize my resources better" kind of way, not in a "The game is challenging me to re-examine how I'm approaching this" kind of way.

Not in any kind of fun way. Just in a "For @#%#'s sake, when does it end" kind of a way. I strongly feel that games shouldn't punish you for exploring, or make your successes trivial or tedious.

Some criticize Bioshock for the Vita Chambers and the possibly infinitely forgiving pool of lives they provided, but System Shock 2 showed why that was necessary: they charged players for every respawn- and every attempt to pick a lock, and every repair for the constantly degenerating weapons, etc. etc.- and close to the end of the game, it's clear that the developers didn't have a damn clue what kind of resources the player would have on hand.

So then they made them fight an enemy who it was suicide to take on without a projectile weapon.

...Yeah.

So, yes, it did some remarkable things for its time, and it was a stepping stone for a lot of great titles up the road. But quite frankly, in some ways I'm glad it didn't sell all that well in its time, because if it had, developers would be straight-up imitating it rather than refining its mechanics into games that are better than System Shock 2 itself really was.

 

[Metalrocks]

i hope this will be true as well. thats the only game i wasnt able to play. i had the game in my hands, i installed it but as soon i click on "new game". the game crashed all the time. dint even saw the intro, nothing
all i could do was to ask for my money back at the store.
this would be at least a chance to play it.

 

[EHKOS]

It will still be broken. And by broken I mean old and hard to aim. But I'm not invested in this. Not after the Hydroponics deck level. Dat nurse....

 

[octafish]

Does this mean I won't have to mantain my single core Win 98 machine anymore? That would be...wonderful.

Ahhhh no, I hear monkeys! No! No! The Monkeys! MONKEEEEEEEYS!

Kzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Little Ones need lots of meat to grow big and strong.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

Look at you gamer... A pathetic creature of hopes and dreams.

I really wish this isn't just a rumour. System Shock 2 on GOG?
Definite instabuy, even though I don't really have any money at the moment.

 

[Fasckira]

there's also an hint of that that appear on gog itself last year

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/sid_meiers_colonization

look the names of the cities in the screenshots

but of course none of those games have made it so far, so could be nothing

Thats either a very cleverly hidden easter egg or just due to the GOG employee using random game names for his country "Good Old Games". If its an egg, Im totally up for scanning all the screenshots on GOG to see what else might be coming...

 

[deathbeforedecaf]

i remember trying to play this game when i was about 12 and being really, really confused.I had zero context, had played no games of similar complexity before and was unable to comprehend what the hell was going on.It'd be interesting to try again as an adult.

 

[Thamian]

I am very interested in this. The one thing I have to say though is that I hope they've gotten their hands on the genesis mod (basically a texture and graphics upgrade as I recall) for it because the models and graphics for organics were blocky and horrible even when the game came out. When I finally played it through back in 2006 it hurt my eyes at times. Given what my eyes have gotten used to since however...

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I can't be all hipster and claim I liked this game before it was cool. I had never even heard of it until Bioshock became popular.

Nonetheless, I do want to play it now that I know if it.

 

[Andy Chalk]

So, yes, it did some remarkable things for its time, and it was a stepping stone for a lot of great titles up the road. But quite frankly, in some ways I'm glad it didn't sell all that well in its time, because if it had, developers would be straight-up imitating it rather than refining its mechanics into games that are better than System Shock 2 itself really was.

I will readily agree that things went downhill once you hit the Rickenbacker (trying to avoid spoilers here for those who haven't played it) and the ending was terrible. But I liked the harshness of the setting and having to really hoard your resources (although the gun damage model was admittedly a bit nuts) and as I recall, the respawn rate once you'd cleared an area was really quite light. I also think the Vita Chambers, for those who used them, totally did away with any sense of tension in BioShock. Death has no meaning if death has no consequences.

SS2 doesn't hold your hand. It may come as a shock to gamers used to distractedly blowing through six-hour campaigns in two nights, but I think it makes for a great experience.

 

[lumenadducere]

In high school I made a point of going back to play all of the old "classic" PC games that everyone raved about, just to see if they were really worth their constant praise (generally speaking, they were, although some of it's definitely rose-colored glasses). Thief 1+2, Planescape: Torment, Deus Ex, Half-Life, Grim Fandango, the Baldur's Gate series, The Longest Journey, Doom 1+2, Fallout 1+2, Monkey Island...they were all conquered, one by one, until I felt that I had finally captured the best of PC gaming's history. But one thing that never really found its way onto my hard drive was the System Shock series. I'm not entirely sure why, but it never seemed all that appealing and I'm kind of a coward when it comes to scary games, so I guess I figured it'd be worth a pass. I've continued to hear about it since, and a part of me has always regretted not finding the time to get into it.

Yet now it seems my chance has come. I have a GoG account with some solid games on it, and I would be glad to add the two System Shock games to it and finally sit down and play through them, fear-inducing experiences or not. GoG, please let it happen. Let me finish off the classic games list once and for all so that I may join the old folks in their constant whining about how things were better back in the olden days!

 

[Cette]

I'm extremely excited as long as they can get the bloody thing to function fully on most systems. Great game but goddamn does it have a tendency to freak out on any system more advanced than the one it shipped for and even if you get it running the cutscenes tend to not work.

Honestly it's on the short list of games I think could stand a full remake or at least a Baldur's Gate enhanced edition style go over.

 

[Wilco86]

Maybe when more people actually play it, we'll get to stop hearing about how great it is...?

(Sorry. I'm the heretic who thinks the game- while admittedly having some good points- is vastly over-rated as a whole.)

SS2 has more gameplay-related depth than games like BioShock - for example, you study creatures by examining their body parts rather than taking pictures of them. Also, multiple types of ammunition and weapon effects like EMP are done really well. If someone had given Looking Glass the game budget of today's "AAA-games" there's no knowing what those guys would have achieved.

 

[Callate]

snip

I think I'm going to have to respectfully agree to disagree.

I do agree that the Vita Chambers are an imperfect solution to a problem at best, but it's a problem games as a whole are still struggling with. The major difference between hitting "quick load" and the Vita Chamber respawn is that the enemies you've damaged remain so, meaning that it's possible to defeat even the most dangerous foes through simple attrition. (Arguably, the same tactic SS2 brings to bear against the player.)

 

[antidonkey]

Oh I so want this to be true. I lost my copy of SS2 years ago and a little bit of my died. A GoG or Steam release would revive that part of me and I'd gladly purchase it from one those two. I wonder if it'll come with the texture mod. Even when the game was brand new it sorta looked like ass. Regardless, this has me excited in several ways.