System Shock

Highly ambitious for it's time, System Shock is a futuristic cyberpunk first person shooter which led to the creation of the way more popular other "Shocks", and Deus Ex was also influenced by this. The main reason many gamers nowadays dismiss the original is because of the outdated controls.

Introducing log files, audio files and visual imagery in order to tell a story, unlike other FPS's of the early 90's, System Shock was immersive for it's time, with complex features such as large maze maps to navigate and explore, environmental puzzles such as connecting electric cables, item management and surprisingly, you progress like you would in Super Metroid.

Meaning that you needed not only access cards or keys to unlock doors, but other means as well such as through environmental objects. System Shock is also themed with horror elements, such as cyborgs being present, and Shodan, the well known villain, is also introduced.

Exploring through the complex levels is the main reason for enjoying this neglected FPS, and not the combat really. Having played through atleast 2 levels of System Shock, I can easily see how very important this project is for the entire shooter genre. Innovative and ahead of it's time, if you can't stand the outdated controls, try to implement the Mouse Mod, which is available now.

Rating: Undetermined

I completely missed out on this famous horror FPS game, and now I have tried it out considerably. But unfortunately, I ultimately disliked this. It's a very unpopular opinion, but I vastly prefer Half-Life(1998) or Deus Ex(2000) when speaking of FPS's of around the same era.

The main problem isn't even getting lost and backtracking a lot in order to progress through the complex decks and other maps, which is good. Less hand holding is a good sign of challenging games.

My main problem is that it all felt floaty and unresponsive. Hitting enemies in here felt like a chore, and even on easy mode was I getting my ass kicked usually because of the turrets or robotic enemies. It's cool that audio logs return, but I was annoyed that subtitles were unavailabe despite the text being at the top left. And I had quite a few problematic moments where I was unable to progress further because I did not know the security codes.

Although the interface is an improvement, it's still not really suitable inside a first person shooter where auto respawning and sudden enemies can mess you up good, especially if you ignore security. Perhaps the real reason I disliked System Shock 2 is because it felt outdated, and why's that? Because I did not play it in the late 90's or early 2000's.

The same cannot be said for Deus Ex, which I only started playing and beaten it in 2010. Also, since beating the BioShock Trilogy, the quality is of a lower caliber for me here, and I could not feel motivated to keep wandering around these area's in space, of which the horror was although honorable, not effective to me.

It's really sad that this is how I feel about one of the supposed all time classic FPS's, but so be it. I cannot like everything in life, and the same goes for video games. Don't take my opinion with agreement, try out System Shock 2 for yourself at first.

Many great ideas from the original are transferred over in improvement in the sequel, but the execution was not enough for me to be truly satisfied by it. I acknowledge it's reputation and influence, but I disregard the gameplay.

Rating: 7.0