Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11932 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's the future, of course, and you're stationed aboard the spaceship Von Braun, waiting for your first soldiering assignment. Luckily, the future resembles the best of science fiction from the last 10 years--something plucked from Blade Runner with pieces from The Fifth Element (only with an AI-enabled computer/self-proclaimed goddess running the show).

The universe is run by unbelievably huge corporations, and in one of the biggest (TriOptimum), a hacker is breaking the rules. The result is SHODAN, a supercomputer whose beautiful, eerie face glimmers from the box's cover. The engine used for Thief: The Dark Project, ensures that System Shock 2 hums along on systems with the basic requirements.

With a superior plot and engaging, Asian-inspired aesthetics, System Shock 2 is a visceral, visual treat of a first-person role-playing game. All the devices that in theory seem stale and stupid come to life in this game. It's as if you could go back to the 1970s and take a vision of what the future would look like--and make it believable and cool. All the whirrs and beeps and pulsing noises sound realistic. In addition, the designers have added in all the creepy elements we never wanted to have come true--such as the voice-overs that greet you when you're at the airport--only in this case, you are visiting the training sessions held by the United National Nominate.

Suffice it to say, the future of humankind is in your hands. With an excellent supporting cast and well-realised sci-fi visuals, System Shock 2 offers insight into an amazing new world order. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Manufacturer's Description
From deep space comes a terrifying first-person role-playing game from the award-winning creators of System Shock. Developed to appeal to both first-person shooter and role-playing enthusiasts, System Shock 2 capitalises on the groundbreaking System Shock game design combined with the stunning technology of the new 3-D Shock engine. Create your own persona through a unique 3-D character generation system, and specialise in a variety of the skills, whether that's using hi-tech weapons, computer hacking, or even using paranormal psionic powers. Then once again match wits with the rogue artificial intelligence Shodan as you race to uncover the mysteries of the derelict starship Von Braun. With tremendous gameplay depth and the most atmospheric environment ever seen in a sci-fi role-playing game, System Shock 2 raises the stakes for such games.

Customer Reviews

Not quite perfect
Playing throught the first third of System Shock 2 you are playing through perhaps the best game ever. You are alone exploring a spaceship on which all the inhabitants have been either killed or assimilated by an unknown force with perhaps the only other survivor guiding you through. As you progress, the story of the horrors you encounter are played out through the logs of the dead crew members and these are done superbly and create an atmosphere of fear and dread. The ships AI Xerxes also likes to taunt you in a cold, electronic voice, as does the chilling voice of the Many, the name of the enemy that has hijacked the ship.

You sweat your way through hell and back to meet with the survivor that is guiding you only to find that not all is at it seems and in fact, your misery is only just beginning.

Only from that point onwards the game begins to slope downhill. Don't get me wrong, it remains a fantastic game but it can't retain the original mastery. The design of the enemies, the second weakest part of the game, deteriorates further and the spiders from Thief make an unwelcome and unnecessary (what have they got to do with the Many?) appearance. The atmosphere remains chilling, but loses the edge it possessed through the stages where you were learning what happened, and it really does become extroardinarily difficult towards the end. I played through the game on hard until the very end of the Von Braun at which point I was simply being attacked from every side and had to lower he difficulty to survive.

The game is perhaps overlong and the section inside the biomass is an overfamiliar premise that disappoints compared to the rest of the level design.

So the game begins to run out of steam beyond the first third but so much steam is generated at that point that it never becomes close to being anything less than a terrific game at all times. The enemy design is a slight let down, the main enemies really nothing more than Zombies and of course, the spiders, but this problem isn't so bad and doesn't detract so much.

So if you can, buy this game, you will enjoy it and will most likely disagree with all the negative points I have mentioned thus far. But there can be no one who has played this game who could possibly feel anything but utter dejection that their reward for struggling through such an immense experience is to watch the appalling 'well we might want to make another one some day' end scene. MINUS 1 STAR.

An amazing sci-fi RPG. Scary too!
System Shock 2 is a fantastic game! It's a first-person perspective shoot-'em-up mainly set aboard an out-of-control space-ship cruising through space.

You wake up during an emergency but are unsure exactly what is going on. Eventually you find out that some of the ship's crew have somehow become murderous zombies and are setting about what's left of the crew. You begin the game with nothing but a wrench as a weapon, and must navigate dark corridors with exploding electrics, collapsing pipes and malfunctioning lights, to find out what is going on.

The game controls are very similar to the rest of the genre - look around, move, strafe, select weapon, shoot, interact with the environment (there's plenty of this). You also have your health bar, energy, and so on. However far from being a mindless blast-the-zombies game, it is very in-depth, very tense (VERY tense at times), and has an irresistable storyline that develops and twists as you play.

The RPG element also works very well with the sci-fi theme. As you gain experience you can upgrade your skills - obtain new weapons, items, ans so on.

The fear factor at times is pretty unnerving, especially at the beginning when you have nothing but a wrench as a weapon - and the zombies can run ever-so-slightly faster than you - chasing you down a coridoor moaning "run...RUN!!!". Throw into this a mysterious computer virus calling itself (or rather HERself) Shodan - and a security combuter (Xerxes) gone berzerk - the two can be heard battling for control of the ship or trying to eliminate the other over the intercom - while you're standing alone in a dark room or empty coridoor - terrifying. AND ON TOP OF THIS you have the mysterious biological mass calling itself "The Many" that's slowly wrapping itself around the ship. You have the zombies, the odd ghost (or flashback) of a crew-member in their last seconds of life, murder-crazed servant robots, virally-infected mammoth security robots, phrases like "RUN!" drawn in blood over walls...

Who do you trust - The Many, Shodan or Xerxes? Whichever way this game is filled with everything that will keep you playing bleary-eyed late into the next day when you should be sleeping. Worthy of 5.5 out of 5!!!!!

It's a Looking Glass Studios title...
...and that means, quite simply, a superb piece of software. The hallmarks that made the Thief series such groundbreaking games, are present in this title - atmosphere, clever use of audio, and a shadowy world that draws you in slowly but surely. A slightly different take here, though, as it combines a RPG stats based element, as in the Ultima games, with the FPS/Adventure trademark of Looking Glass.

What is remarkable though, is the sense of loneliness that accompanies you after playing for a while.

Utter, desperate loneliness.

And that, for a mere piece of software, is an amazing achievement.

5 stars is understating it, I'd say.