Thoughts on the system shock dualogy?

[Dany_the_penguin]

Before I get into a proper playthrough of bioshock 1 (as in I lost my mouse and the only way I can play through it is "ultima underworld" style), I've been wondering what the general consensus is on system shocks 1 and 2 among those that have actually played them.

 

[sXeth]

First one was an ambitous trailblazer, in its time. However like most ambitous things from the early mid-90s massively jank to try and play nowadays.


Second one didn't even really have that excuse. It was horrible jank even put up against its direct contemporaries.

 

[Dalisclock]

System Shock 1 was amazing at the time, but god was it not user friendly. Now it's just not user friendly so be prepared to fight the UI the whole game.

System Shock 2 is a bit more user friendly but still Janky. It also has a really awful sense of weapons degradation that is even worse because early in the game you have very few weapons and very little ammo. While this helps you feel alone and scared, half of it is because you're afraid of breaking your gun by actually using it. It's extremely common for people to mod it to either be severely reduced or turned off entirely, that's how irritating it is.

Also, be prepared for a plot twist in 2 that you will probably see coming a mile away because it's been done so many times. Especially if you play it right after SS1 and assuming you're going in COMPLETELY blind and haven't been spoiled already.

 

[Chimpzy]

If you want to play System Shock, my advice would be to not actually play System Shock.

Play the 2017 Prey instead. It essentially is a System Shock game in all the ways that matter, that you might as well call it that and slap a 3 behind it. But it's a modern game with modern controls, UI and gameplay, so you don't have to deal with all that mid-90's pc game jank. All of the upsides, none of the downsides.

 

[Dany_the_penguin]

One other thing I think I dislike that gets lost in the fray of things is when the reputation of ss2 sorta spills over onto the first game despite the variably different mechanical qualities the two have to a point of just being different genres. System shock 1 despite its clunky UI is mechanically much simpler than the sequel to a point of being closer to a first-person resident evil style of game rather than an immersive sim. Not to say I dislike it but I would definitely take the sequel over the original any time.