System Shock 2

1999 · Action RPG · PC

About System Shock 2

System Shock 2 (1999) is Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios' first-person action RPG and survival horror game, in which an amnesiac soldier fights a genetic infection aboard the starship Von Braun.

System Shock 2 in Depth

In 2114 the rebuilt TriOptimum launches the experimental faster-than-light starship Von Braun, escorted by the military vessel Rickenbacker. A soldier wakes from a cryo-tube with amnesia and an illegal cybernetic implant to find the ship overrun by the Many, an infection that has turned the crew into hostile hosts and calls to him telepathically. Dr. Janice Polito guides him to safety, but when he reaches her she is dead: the voice was SHODAN, the AI of the first System Shock, whose bioengineering experiments created the Many and who now needs him to destroy them. The story unfolds through audio logs and ghostly apparitions.

It plays as a first-person shooter with a role-playing layer. Players begin by choosing a career in the Marines, Navy or OSA, which grant weapons, hacking and repair, or psionic powers, then develop freely using cyber-modules earned for objectives. Nanites buy supplies from vending machines and revive the player at Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines. Hacking is a minigame of connecting three nodes in a row. Weapons degrade and must be maintained, ammunition is scarce and suited to particular foes, from anti-personnel rounds for organic enemies to armour-piercing rounds for machines, and enemy organs can be researched to learn their weaknesses.

Making System Shock 2

Looking Glass approached Irrational Games in 1997 to co-develop a game, and the team, fans of System Shock, set out to push its dungeon-crawler roots further from the Doom comparisons that had hurt the original. Electronic Arts, which owned the System Shock rights, suggested it become a sequel, and the story was reworked. Horror rested on isolation, a fragile hero, moody sound and careful lighting. Released in August 1999 for Windows, it won over a dozen awards, including seven Game of the Year awards, and was praised for its hybrid play, sound and story, but sold only 58,671 copies by April 2000. GameSpot later called it "well ahead of its time", and Irrational's spiritual successor BioShock followed in 2007.

System Shock 2 Trivia

It began as a standalone game called Junction Point.
It was made in 18 months on a $1.7 million budget.
To meet a one-year deadline the team used Looking Glass's unfinished Dark Engine, also used for Thief.
Its character system was based on the methods of the pen-and-paper game Traveller.
Ken Levine wanted SHODAN's betrayal to deceive the player, not just the character, a controversial choice within the team.