So, any newbies played System Shock 2 yet?

[dyre]

I've been planning on playing it for awhile, but haven't had a chance to. I'm sure the game's great and all that, but can anyone tell me how it compares to, say, Deus Ex (1), in terms of ease of play, getting used to controls, not screwing up your character build, getting used to how old it is, etc?

Because while Deus Ex was great, it was a bit tough to get into compared to other sort of old games (Baldur's Gate 2 and the old Fallout games, in comparison, were very easy to get into because they look quite nice and don't play that much differently from modern RPGs).

 

[teebeeohh]

Was thinking of getting it, but I herd the game has mayjor balance issues, like how you need to upgrade certain skills if you want to finish the game.

you really don't need to upgrade specific skills, sure you need research 1 and i think hacking 1 at certain point but even if you decide to not get those anyway there are implant that can give you the skill level required.


i love this game, it shares my #1 favorite game spot with the original deus ex(i like deus ex more but that's because i like to have interactions with NPCs that don't involve guns and the possibility of not killing any enemies blew my mind at the time)

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

Been revisiting quite a lot of childhood classic the past few years. I found a lot of old games don't age well for me. Got my copy off GOG, loved System Shock 2 back then, but it just feel so dated, so I uninstalled it after maybe 2 hours. Same thing for Deus Ex.

I think I'm just going to stop playing all the classic titles that I loved back then. So I won't ruined my childhood memories.

Here's a list of games that still holds up for me

* Grim Fandango
* Populous 3
* Theme Hospital
* Fallout 1 & 2

 

[daveman247]

I've been planning on playing it for awhile, but haven't had a chance to. I'm sure the game's great and all that, but can anyone tell me how it compares to, say, Deus Ex (1), in terms of ease of play, getting used to controls, not screwing up your character build, getting used to how old it is, etc?

Because while Deus Ex was great, it was a bit tough to get into compared to other sort of old games (Baldur's Gate 2 and the old Fallout games, in comparison, were very easy to get into because they look quite nice and don't play that much differently from modern RPGs).

I'd say the shooting and combat much more solid in this than in deus ex, but its still not ideal like in say... half life. System shock 2's controls/ inventory is very similar to deus ex though. Lacks the customizable toolbelt though. The only place it really trips up is there doesn't seen to be a fast way to change psi-powers.

Much like deus theres theres a few useless skills too (such as repair) so there is a chance you could end up wasting exp. My winning skills: Hacking, standard guns and maintenance as the main ones. And other stuff as secondary

The game still looks pretty good on the whole, just the character models look really dated. There is a crap-ton of mods you can easily install to make it look a bit better though.

One problem: Much like bioshock the game can start out VERY hard but after a point gets really easy once you upgrade some things.

 

[daveman247]

In reponce to the OP i played it for the first time a little while ago. Really fun and lived up to the hype in my eyes. Unlike most i regulary play old games so i can "switch" my expectations really easily

Currently playing through it a second time as a psi on hard. Was pretty difficult but once again gets way easier at about half way point.

Heres hoping biohock infinite gets the power-balance right.

 

[dyre]

I've been planning on playing it for awhile, but haven't had a chance to. I'm sure the game's great and all that, but can anyone tell me how it compares to, say, Deus Ex (1), in terms of ease of play, getting used to controls, not screwing up your character build, getting used to how old it is, etc?

Because while Deus Ex was great, it was a bit tough to get into compared to other sort of old games (Baldur's Gate 2 and the old Fallout games, in comparison, were very easy to get into because they look quite nice and don't play that much differently from modern RPGs).

I'd say the shooting and combat much more solid in this than in deus ex, but its still not ideal like in say... half life. System shock 2's controls/ inventory is very similar to deus ex though. Lacks the customizable toolbelt though. The only place it really trips up is there doesn't seen to be a fast way to change psi-powers.

Much like deus theres theres a few useless skills too (such as repair) so there is a chance you could end up wasting exp. My winning skills: Hacking, standard guns and maintenance as the main ones. And other stuff as secondary

The game still looks pretty good on the whole, just the character models look really dated. There is a crap-ton of mods you can easily install to make it look a bit better though.

One problem: Much like bioshock the game can start out VERY hard but after a point gets really easy once you upgrade some things.

So overall it's slightly easier to get into than Deus Ex? Cool, good to know. I'll go get it on GOG

 

[daveman247]

So overall it's slightly easier to get into than Deus Ex? Cool, good to know. I'll go get it on GOG

Basically, yeah This is a lot more combat focused - with the only choices being how to build you're character.


I managed to forgive the awkward combat in deus ex because it only made up a small part of the game for me.

 

[Talaris]

Played it for the first time a couple of years ago, and whilst I did think it was very good, Deus Ex is still the superior fps RPG in my opinion. One thing I never though System Shock 2 would be to scare the crap out of me. Dead Space, which clearly copied heavily from System Shock 2 never pulled the scares off as well, and what SE2 did perfectly was provide full 3D sound of weird noises and whispers that really ramped up the tension. Not to mention it was genuinely hard compared to many modern games.

I'll always remember the phrase "That's the TriOptimum way!" which without fail would make me drop everything and run like mad. Cos those suicidal robots really freaked me out, and were very dangerous.

 

[Murrdox]

So overall it's slightly easier to get into than Deus Ex? Cool, good to know. I'll go get it on GOG

Basically, yeah This is a lot more combat focused - with the only choices being how to build you're character.


I managed to forgive the awkward combat in deus ex because it only made up a small part of the game for me.

While System Shock 2 has one of the best horror stories of any FPS, it is mostly a story-based FPS and not really an RPG FPS like Deus Ex is.