There were some hiccups with implementing this style of gameplay, however. One particular oddity is a "worm mind" implant that causes 25% of all damage taken to be subtracted from one's psi points instead of HP while it has an obvious use for psionic characters, combat-oriented characters who never touch PSI skills can use it as well to reduce the damage they take and give some use to the otherwise useless psi-hypos found frequently around the decks. Implants are similarly battery-powered, granting bonus statistics or abilities as long as they are equipped and their battery holds out when it hits zero, the player will lose any benefits those extra stats will afford them, and may be forced to temporarily drop equipment or be unable to complete certain tasks until they are recharged. Relatively early on, the player can find a powered suit of armor which grants significant protection, but has a battery that they must maintain, either by finding and using recharging stations or simply keeping some batteries on hand in order to recharge it when needed (which can prove problematic when a player is relatively new to the game and does not yet know where to find such things). Armor and implants, however, are another story entirely. Weapons are relatively self-explanatory, with heavier weapons like grenade launchers and the bizarre alien weapons one discovers requiring specialized training while a basic pistol only requires a single level in small firearms.
Indeed, it is rather difficult to play the game as a purely archetypal character, so mixing up one's skill set to learn a few skills in other disciplines is generally a good idea.Īnother element of this comes into play with the game's equipment system. Once can easily pick the Marine path at the start to get training in heavy weapons, for example, then devote most or all of the cyber modules (essentially experience points) they earn over the course of the game into technical skills, or even psionics. Each choice therein has a few variations as well, such as opting to pursue a slightly different stat or skill build at the outset.īeyond this, however, character development in System Shock 2 is almost entirely free-form. They can opt to join the Marines (which has a large emphasis on combat skills), the Navy (which puts emphasis on technical skills like hacking and research) or the OSA (psychic black ops, which serves more or less as a "mage" archetype). This is apparent right off the bat, as the player is given the path of three career choices at the game's beginning. One major element of this was that it now incorporated numerous RPG elements. While it did away with the cyberspace element entirely, it upped the ante for immersion, putting the player in the shoes of someone aboard a craft overtaken by a bizarre and hostile alien force and having them desperately try to survive against overwhelming odds. System Shock 2 continued in the trend of highlighting many of the studio's best elements. It was a game that immersed the player not just for its strong gameplay, but for its surprisingly realistic approach to many design elements and player problems, which earned it a place in the annals of gaming history.
Of course, it did also have its share of gunplay (with a wide variety of weapons to utilize) but there was a cerebral element to combat as well, with the player able to set a variety of traps through landmines or timed explosives.
While it has the initial look of a shooter, there was much more to it as well - the story was revealed in fragments by discovering audio logs throughout the journey, and doors and pathsways were often unlocked not just by finding card keys, but by having to solve puzzles - discerning their locations through clues or even entering cyberspace in order to fight off security programs and make one's way to a virtual "lock" in order to release it. System Shock, born from the same engine as the Ultima Underworld games, was definitely a pioneer in its own right.
#SYSTEM SHOCK 2 CHARACTERS PC#
From early '90s 3D engines with complex physics simulations to helping pioneer stealth games with Thief to a more story-driven action experience in general with games like Deus Ex and Ultima Underworld, they were games that encapsulated PC gaming at its best, taking advantage of the added capabilities of the platform to deliver a deeper, more complex and and more cerebral experience that simply wasn't possible on the limitations of console hardware of the time. Looking Glass is a legendary studio among PC gamers, having pioneered many trends that would become standard in modern games.
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