Zero Punctuation: System Shock 2

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

- Dr Polito is probably the best character in videogames, ever. She has personality, purpose, a truly great character arc, and a heartbreaking end. (Bear in mind you never even MEET Dr Polito... all of this is done in audio logs.) Seriously, I could write pages and pages on why this character is so freakin' great and why she has such an emotional impact.

Sgt. Bronson has always been my favorite. Her final log still gets me.

Oh, I love Bronson. And absolutely agree about her final audio log.

But as awesome as Bronson is, she's not unique in the way that Polito is unique. I can't think of any other single-player game where you spend it "shadowing" another personality whose journey matches your own. You see what she saw, hear in audio logs what she felt... and for this reason, her end - and the reasons for it - pack that much more of an emotional "wallop". I think Polito is the ultimate "identifiable" character.

 

[The_State]

I just finished this game for the first time last night. Talk about uncanny coincidence. I'd played it a few times before but, as Yahtzee said, it's a tough game to beat. My final build was a tech specialist with plenty of points in modify, maintain, hack, and repair. I focused on energy weapons first and standard weapons second. No psi at all, as it doesn't take much to make the game easy. Even with it's shoddy third act and not-so-simple UI, it's still in the top five of my favorite games.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

For me, the game started being hilarious almost from the start. After the tutorials, you have to choose whether to join the Navy, the Space Marines, or the Psychonauts, and after that what assignments to spend your three years of training on. This is how you create your initial characer build. Except instead of doing it with point-and-click menus like a sensible game, it has you walk through three very small and completely desolate buildings into one of three corridors, at which point it fades out, plays a completely superfluous prerendered cutscene of a generic spacecraft taking off, and fades in on the next one. What the hell was the point of all that? It's like they were trying to do a Vault 101 thing ages before they had any of the necessary technology to actually pull off the immersion.

 

[Annihilist]

Again, I have to ask, has anyone else got ZP with the audio out of sync with the video lately? The new ones appear to be particularly notorious, because I rewatched some old ones and most are perfect. Anyone else got this?

 

[FallenMessiah88]

I remember this game. I remember the horrific cyber zombie monsters and all the horrific sounds they made.

 

[Envy Omicron]

I only started playing System Shock 2 a few days ago as the first part of what I hope will be a full playthrough of what I, and many others, like to call the "Shock Trilogy".

So far, I think I'm in LOVE! Yes, the game can cause some confusion when you're only just learning your way around the mechanics. Yes, the graphics are very outdated by today's standards (but if you're like me, graphics don't matter all that much to you anyways). Yes, this can be a very difficult game at times.

However, none of that is very bothersome to me, because this game has nearly everything that I appreciate in any game: lots of depth, a strong atmosphere, a well-presented narrative, I find it impossible for me to NOT love this game.

 

[Bonecrusher]

A better game than Infinite imo, I always see SS2 as Deus Ex but with horror replacing the stealth focus.

I agree. SS2 and Deus Ex have similar approach combining RPG with FPS.

I don't like Bioshock Infiinite's approach. Bioshock series, with each new game, becomes closer and closer to action FPS side, and neglecting storytelling RPG side more and more.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

HAHAHA, he LITEREALLY used an FTL starship! XD Well played, yatzee!

Also, this game is going on my steam wishlist. Hopefully my best buddy will get it for me as a belated birthday gift after I got him Spec ops by surprise.

 

[Darth_Payn]

AH, I love Yahtzee's retro reviews of the games of yore. This was back when it was STANDARD for games to have imagination and depth and still be mature, when true maturity in games was just starting out. Not even the Bioshocks have the kind of complexity that SS2 had.

And where the tits is Yahtzee's retro of Thief? I looked thru Zero Punctuation's whole archive front to back and STILL couldn't find it!

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Man, right as I get to working on SS2 for my "shock" retrospective, Yahtzee comes out of nowhere with something infinitely better and more entertaining. I guess that's why he gets to do it for a living. I definitely have more praise for it and feel it aged better than he thinks (keybinds notwithstanding), but I'm not as funny as him. Or at all.

 

[EIeK]

In Demon's Souls: 'Pause to look at the inventory? What dreck is this? My character is vulnerable. So terrible!'
In System Shock: 'Pause to look at the inventory? This is amazing. My character is vulnerable. So atmospheric.'

 

[homerthethief]

I just finished this game for the first time last night. Talk about uncanny coincidence. I'd played it a few times before but, as Yahtzee said, it's a tough game to beat. My final build was a tech specialist with plenty of points in modify, maintain, hack, and repair. I focused on energy weapons first and standard weapons second. No psi at all, as it doesn't take much to make the game easy. Even with it's shoddy third act and not-so-simple UI, it's still in the top five of my favorite games.

Recently I finished the game on hard difficulty (2nd hardest difficulty) with a similar build to your character and actually found the game to be overall easy (with the exception of one boss fight.)

I did go standard weapons first though, putting some points into energy, heavy and exotic later in the game to use the first tier weapons of each class to create a sort of Combat Engineer class. No psi powers at all.

Putting points into the modify weapons skill seemed to make the biggest difference as the extra damage weapons do will save you a ton of ammo.

With exception to the aged graphics and dumb AI, this game is pretty good and is definitely worth a play. The story is interesting and the upgrade system offers a lot of depth to craft a character that fits your play style. My character started off as a tech, but gradually became more combat oriented. Its also quite a long game too.

 

[OvBr]

And where the tits is Yahtzee's retro of Thief? I looked thru Zero Punctuation's whole archive front to back and STILL couldn't find it!

Here you go: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/544-Thief-The-Dark-Project [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/544-Thief-The-Dark-Project]

OT: Good episode as usual. I always enjoy ZP retro reviews, wish he would do more as they're more often about games I'm interested in than the recent releases are. Never played SS2 though, after this ep still on the fence about it. Probably wouldn't get it on Steam like Yahtzee since it comes with some extra stuff on GOG [http://www.gog.com/gamecard/system_shock_2] that Steam doesn't have IIRC.

 

[daxterx2005]

Leveling up bum scratching? Are you a newb?

 

[octafish]

Some times I feel like it was a good thing that I only started gaming in the mid 2000s and missed games like these otherwise I might not have stuck with this hobby.

just out of curiosity, how exactly would system shock 2 turn you off gaming?

Probably because just about everything after JA2, SS2, and PS:T has been a bit of a disappointment? That is how I feel, but I maintain some hope.

hm
i really don't get that logic, everything since my childhood has been a disappointment, as a kid afternoons after school would last forever and everything i did that was cool was SUPER DUPER AMAZING OVER THE TOP AWESOMESAUCE. Sure, my life was also enriched by a lot of things but those usually come with a nasty helping of new problems.

and what is PS:T? i really have no idea and you can't google that because all it gives you is pacific standard time. thanks ogoogle.

I didn't play these games as a child though. I was in my mid twenties. Sure I look at Sid Meier's Pirates! through eyes misted with nostalgia as the best game ever, SS2 stands up as the genuinely one of the deepest and most memorable gaming experiences in my life. Imagine the disappointment I felt when I played Bioshock.

 

[Erttheking]

Was poking around when I found this

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Systemshock2_ingame_final.jpg

Yeah, this doesn't look complicated in the slightest.

 

[Buccura]

I guess I can smugly say then how I did beat System Shock 2, and got treated to that AWFUL ending.

 

[GeorgGreat]

I'm the only person in existence who think's that first System Shock was superior to second, especialy considering the release date... should I go to see a doctor?

 

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

Nice review. One thing though: When System Shock 2 was released, its interface was considered pretty fantastic and people didn't get confused when a game used more than the standard FPS controls. I still think the interface works extremely well for the time it was designed in (just like the first System Shock has absolutely amazing interface designs for the time it was made in) and it still works fairly well after a few minutes of getting used to it.

As for the game itself, IMO System Shock 2 beats Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite by miles. Not only is the story in both Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite very derivative of System Shock 2, but from a gameplay perspective Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite just removed too much of the RPG elements that made System Shock 1 and 2 stand out. They're both just shooters. Bioshock Infinite at least has your choices in upgrades be persistent again and gets a bit of an RPG flavor back that way, but Bioshock 1 is really just a straight FPS. It's sad to see that the supposed "spiritual successor to System Shock 2" ended up being nothing but a normal FPS gameplay-wise.

Was poking around when I found this

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Systemshock2_ingame_final.jpg

Yeah, this doesn't look complicated in the slightest.

Ignore the inventory and you're left with not much more than what today's FPSs have on screen. Are people really that scared of an inventory?

 

[RevRaptor]

Love this game, still play it every now and then.
I use xpadder to play it with an xbox controller and never had any issues control wise. Well expect for that weird ini file key rebind glich, Yay for all the fun getting old games to work