History YMMV / SystemShock

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: If you play game today, you may struggle even to get to grips with them, let alone grasp why this series is so revered as anything other than "the spiritual predecessor to ''VideoGame/BioShock''". But even with the clunky controls and awkward mechanics, these games were ''revolutionary'' in the FPS genre in both 1994 ''and'' 1999; there was simply nothing else like them, combining high octane action, exploration of vast levels, RPG mechanics, a thrilling story that unfolded before your eyes and ''gut-wrenching horror'' that can still send a shiver down your spine to this day, topped off with one of the most memorable and iconic villains in gaming history.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Heaps. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV6EtVTPiZA Intro]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZHn_to0HDo Medical]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qBe3qo2uuA Security]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygwVZb_6vkk Cyberspace]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bL7I_eWryI MedSci 1]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtdQ5roMuEA Engineering]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5msRww6xKY Command]].

* CriticalResearchFailure: The monkey enemies you fight in the sequel, for some reason, make chimpanzee noises. Despite the fact these monkeys you fight are actually squirrel monkeys, which make rodent like squeeking sounds in real life.

* FanNickname: The unnamed protagonist of the second game is generally referred to as 'Goggles'.

* GeniusBonus: The "randomly" flickering squares in cyberspace in System Shock I? Actually running Conway's Game of Life.
* GoddamnedBats:
** The psychic monkeys eventually become nothing more than a minor irritation.
** Annelid swarms. You can't kill them, all you can do is run away and wait for them to die off. Annelid worms also count, being small and hard to hit with a wrench.
*** The Viral Proliferator and the Annelid Launcher are the only two weapons that can actually kill the Annelid swarm, but they degrade ridiculously fast after each shot, so you must carefully manage the use of both of these weapons. For the Viral Proliferator, set the weapon to Annelid mode, and simultaneously fire and hold down the fire button to hit the swarm. It takes about 2-4 held shots to kill a swarm. It isn't worth using the Launcher, however, as it takes about 8 shots to kill a swarm, wasting the use of an already fragile late-game weapon.
** [[ActionBomb Auto-bombs]]. Small, hard to hit, fast, silent.
** Turrets. What's most annoying about them is that they are almost ''always'' around a corner, so you're almost guaranteed to get blindsided by them before you can react.

* ItWasHisSled: A lot of what made ''System Shock 2'' such a shocking and swerving game became common gaming knowledge pretty quickly. Also, [[spoiler:the fact that SHODAN was on the cover and the icon for the game's .exe didn't help things]]. The trailer for the {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} version doesn't even bother to hide the plot twist, even showing [[spoiler:Dr. Polito's corpse and SHODAN revealing herself]].
* MainstreamObscurity: While everyone has heard of the games and made references to them, few even bothered to play them prior to 2013 because the franchise is PC-exclusive and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes physical copies have been out of circulation]]. However, now that both games are available for digital distribution, this may no longer be the case.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: If you play the first game today, you may struggle even to get to grips with them, let alone grasp why this series is so revered as anything other than "the spiritual predecessor to ''VideoGame/BioShock''". But even with the clunky controls and awkward mechanics, these games were ''revolutionary'' in the FPS genre in both 1994 ''and'' 1999; there was simply nothing else like them, combining high octane action, exploration of vast levels, RPG mechanics, a thrilling story that unfolded before your eyes and ''gut-wrenching horror'' that can still send a shiver down your spine to this day, topped off with one of the most memorable and iconic villains in gaming history.
* SequelDisplacement: Gamers are more familiar with the sequel than the original.
* SignatureScene: In ''System Shock 2'', TheReveal that [[spoiler:Janice Polito had already killed herself, and the walls coming down to reveal who had been guiding you the entire time: SHODAN]].
* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Marie Delacroix's death, even considering you find out about it afterhand and don't see it happen, considering you read a LOT more of her logs than anyone else's and thus get to know her a lot more (well, as much as you can know a person without actually meeting them).]]
* TechnologyMarchesOn: A minor example, but try shooting out any of the monitors in the first game. The sound of rushing air and the way they look when broken proves that every screen on Citadel Station is a CRT.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: SHODAN]] in the sequel. [[spoiler: She and her digital minions that accompany her during the final battle have one glaring WeaksauceWeakness in the form of EMP weaponry and ICE Picks, if you were smart enough to keep them with you throughout the whole game. Otherwise, she could possibly be ThatOneBoss.]]

* DemonicSpiders: The larger spiders in the second game - their smaller cousins are easy, but these guys are bad news. Fast? Yep. Bullet sponges, even after you research them? Yeah. Toxics you upon hit, condemning you to a slow death if you have no Hypos for that? You better believe it. And that's even disregarding that they might have back-up with them.
** '''Rumblers'''. They've got all the qualifications for Demonic Spiders. Very fast, tons of health, hits like a runaway train, and even exploiting their WeaksauceWeakness to [[KillItWithFire fire]] takes much longer than any other enemy to wear down. It gets even worse when you're in the Body of the Many and you can get blindsided by up to '''6''' of the bastards. The only true disadvantage that they have is their lack of ranged attacks, but even that is negated if you're not properly equipped to face one of them.
** The Psionic Reavers. While they don't appear until you're in the heart (or brain, considering that their "boss" is a gigantic mutated cerebrum) of the Body of the Many (you also get a preview of one in the form of [[spoiler: Mutated!Korenchkin]]), they more than make up for their rarity by firing psychokinetic balls of energy that take away a ''very'' large amount of your health even on the easiest difficulty setting. Made worse by the fact that killing them only grants a temporary reprieve from further attacking you and they'll quickly respawn several seconds later to make you more miserable; the only way to truly prevent them from respawning is by destroying their primary brain that powers them which is located somewhere nearby in order for them to truly be eliminated.
** Subverted by a lot of the more powerful enemies in the first game, as a surprisingly large amount of them are weak to the age old strategy of MoreDakka (or the [[GameBreaker Magpulse]] for that matter).
* EvenBetterSequel: The second game improves and expands on the first in just about every way. ''System Shock 2'' is also the game that made SHODAN one of the most memorable and frightening villains in gaming history.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The laser rapier, a weapon that many players will use as their primary melee one as soon as it becomes available, makes annoying droning noises whenever it's selected, even if it's not being swung.
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: "Research Complete". Yeah! Now the monsters die 25% faster!
** The sound of ''any'' successful technical operation, especially when that leering ICE node you took a chance on played along.
* NarmCharm: "Nah."
* ObviousJudas: [[spoiler: Shodan in the sequel. She doesn't even hide her that she is only helping you for her own villainous reasons.]]
* ParanoiaFuel: The monkeys, which chatter eerily at you before proceeding to pound you with psychic powers. The cameras, which are ''everywhere'', hard to spot, and will call down every enemy in the level to kill you if you set one off. But mainly, it's the fact that you hear all the enemies before you see them, so if you hear almost any noise you start looking around nervously. Oh, and the original has ''invisible mutants'', which don't make any noise until they attack, so you can be scared of the silence too.
** At one point on a given deck, you find audio logs including [[spoiler: a gruesome account of a woman being overwhelmed by spiders when her gun jams and a warning that a certain section of the deck ''crawls''.]] You expect to be up to your armpits in [[spoiler:{{Giant Spiders}}]] but you only find [[spoiler: a few of the small ones that die in one hit]].
** The sound of an Annelid egg whenever you enter a new area. You just ''know'' they're around somewhere and one wrong step can get you blindsided by Annelid swarms/worms.
* SacredCow: Try saying ''anything'' negative about the game. You will be lucky to walk away with your life. The notable exception would be...
* ScrappyMechanic: The weapon degradation system. So much so that some of the most popular mods are ones that just purge it entirely.
** It doesn't help that some weapons seem to degrade unnaturally fast and have an irritating habit of jamming ''at the worst possible time''.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: If you play the the games for the first time today, the first one in particular, you may struggle even to get to grips with them, let alone grasp why this series is so revered as anything other than "the spiritual predecessor to ''VideoGame/BioShock''". But even with the clunky controls and awkward mechanics, these games were ''revolutionary'' in the FPS genre in both 1994 ''and'' 1999; there was simply nothing else like them, combining high octane action, exploration of vast levels, RPG mechanics, a thrilling story that unfolded before your eyes and ''gut-wrenching horror'' that can still send a shiver down your spine to this day, topped off with one of the most memorable and iconic villains in gaming history.

* ThatOneLevel:
** For System Shock 1, deck 7 is a serous step up in challenge compared to the earlier levels. For starters, the resurrection booth isn't found until the end of the level, meaning that you'll be save-scumming the whole way through. It's a massive labyrinth of twisting halls and chambers that's incredibly easy to get lost in, not to mention the high volume of very powerful robotic enemies that can slice off massive chunks of your health if you're not careful. Hope you brought enough first aid kits...
** For System Shock 2, there's the Body of the Many, which doesn't have a resurrection booth and is filled up to the brim with the most dangerous annelid creatures (expect to get blindsided by Rumblers and Spiders a lot). In particular is the gauntlet at the end, which a serious test how how fast you can take out targets with at least seven dangerous enemies coming at you from all sides.
* UncannyValley: SHODAN's design looks to be a deliberate use of this.
* VindicatedByHistory:
** While ''System Shock 2'' received good reviews when it came out, it was still a commercial failure and many critics still failed to see how important it was to game industry. It wasn't until years later that gamers discovered it, its influence became known, and it's now considered to be one of the greatest games in history. In late 2013, it was released on Steam, even being ported to Mac, which introduced it to a whole new generation of fans.
** The first game came out in 1994, exactly one week before ''DOOM II'' was released. The idea of a first person shooter with a story and RPG elements was unheard of, long before 2000's ''[[VideoGame/DeusEx Deus Ex]]'' would popularize the genre.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Not long after the GravityScrew, you come across a chapel, and since the gravity currently thinks that you're supposed to walk on ceilings the crosses are now inverted, further enforcing the hellish landscape that the ships had become. EA executives were a little disturbed by it, and sent a message to the developers asking if they noticed it looked a little sacrilegious.

* EarWorm: That [[StockSoundEffect monkey chatter]]. [[NightmareFuel Brrrrrrr]].
** Quite literally in the case of the [[spoiler:annelid worms and eggs]]. This is the collective psychic resonance that [[spoiler:infected humans]] describe as [[spoiler:"The Many sings to us."]]

** Quite literally in the case of the [[spoiler:annelid worms and eggs]]. This is the collective psychic resonance that [[spoiler:infected humans]] describe as [[spoiler:"The Many sings to us.]]

* FoeYay: When SHODAN calls you "a pathetic creature of meat and bone" who's "panting and sweating as you run through [her] corridors", [[http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=1103 it takes on a whole new meaning]].

* MagnificentBastard: SHODAN, [[spoiler:particularly in the second game]].

* CriticalResearchFailure: The monkey enemies you fight in the sequel, for some reason, make chimpanzee noises. Despite the fact these monkeys you fight are actually squirrel monkeys, which make rodent like squeeking sound sin real life.

** The first game came out in ''1994''. That was during a time when ''DOOM II'' was released. The idea of a first person shooter with a story and RPG elements was unheard of, long before 2000's ''[[VideoGame/DeusEx Deus Ex]]'' would popularize the genre.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: If you play the the games for the first time today, the first one in particular, and you may struggle even to get to grips with them, let alone grasp why this series is so revered as anything other than "the spiritual predecessor to ''VideoGame/BioShock''". But even with the clunky controls and awkward mechanics, these games were ''revolutionary'' in the FPS genre in both 1994 ''and'' 1999; there was simply nothing else like them, combining high octane action, exploration of vast levels, RPG mechanics, a thrilling story that unfolded before your eyes and ''gut-wrenching horror'' that can still send a shiver down your spine to this day, topped off with one of the most memorable and iconic villains in gaming history.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: If you play the the games for the first time today, the first one in particular, and you may struggle even to get to grips with them, let alone grasp why this series is so revered as anything other than "the spiritual predecessor to ''VideoGame/BioShock''". But even with the clunky controls and awkward mechanics, these games were ''revolutionary'' in the FPS genre; there was simply nothing like them, combining high octane action, exploration of vast levels, RPG mechanics, a thrilling story that unfolded before your eyes and ''gut-wrenching horror'' that can still send a shiver down your spine to this day, topped off with one of the most memorable and iconic villains in gaming history.

* MostWonderfulSound: "Research Complete". Yeah! Now the monsters die 25% faster!

* SacredCow[=/=]DefensiveFans: Try saying ''anything'' negative about the game. You will be lucky to walk away with your life. The notable exception would be...

** SHODAN is [[Series/{{Portal}} not the only]] female evil AI to be the face of her franchise.

** '''Rumblers'''. They've got all the qualifications for Demonic Spiders. Very fast, tons of health, its like a runaway train and even exploiting their WeaksauceWeakness to [[KillItWithFire fire]] takes much longer than any other enemy to wear down. It gets even worse when you're in the Body of the Many and you can get blindsided by up to '''6''' of the bastards. The only true disadvantage that they have is their lack of ranged attacks, but even that is negated if you're not properly equipped to face one of them.
** The Psionic Reavers. While they don't appear until you're in the heart (or brain, considering that their "boss" is a gigantic mutated cerebrum) of the Body of the Many and that you get a preview of one of them in the form of [[spoiler: Mutated!Korenchkin]], they more than make up for their status by firing psychokinetic balls of energy that take away a ''very'' large amount of your health even on the easiest difficulty setting. Made worse by the fact that killing them only grants a temporary reprieve from further attacking you and they'll quickly respawn several seconds later to make you more miserable; the only way to truly prevent them from respawning is by destroying their primary brain that powers them which is located somewhere nearby in order for them to truly be eliminated.

** ''Bioshock'', in turn, has utterly eclipsed ''System Shock 2'' in the minds of most gamers.

*** The Viral Proliferator and the Annelid Launcher are the only two weapons that can actually kill the Annelid swarm, but they degrade ridiculously fast after each shot, so have careful management with both of these weapons. For the Viral Proliferator, set the weapon to Annelid mode, and simultaneously fire and hold down the fire button to hit the swarm. It takes about 2-4 held shots to kill a swarm. It isn't worth using the Launcher, however, as it takes about 8 shots to kill a swarm, wasting the use of an already fragile late-game weapon.

* GoddamnedBats: The psychic monkeys eventually become nothing more than a minor irritation.

*** What many people don't even realize is that the Viral Proliferator and the Annelid Launcher are the only two weapons that can actually kill the Annelid swarm. For the Viral Proliferator, set the weapon to Annelid mode, and simultaneously fire and hold down the fire button to hit the swarm. It takes about 2-4 held shots to kill a swarm. It isn't worth using the Launcher, however, as it takes about 8 shots to kill a swarm, and that both weapons degrade ridiculously fast after each shot.

** The first game came out in ''1994''. That was during a time when ''DOOM II'' was released. The idea of a first person shooter with a story and RPG elements was unheard of, long before 2000's [[VideoGame/DeusEx ''Deus Ex'']] would popularize the genre.

** The first game came out in ''1994''. That was during a time when ''DOOM II'' was released. The idea of a first person shooter with a story and RPG elements was unheard of, long before 2000's ''Deus Ex'' would popularize the genre.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Not long after the GravityScrew, you come across a chapel, and since the gravity currently thinks that you're supposed to walk on ceilings the crosses are now inverted, further enforcing the hellish landscape that the station has become. EA executives were a little disturbed by it, and sent a message to the developers asking if they noticed it looked a little sacrilegious.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Not long after the GravityScrew, you come across a chapel, and since the gravity currently thinks that you're supposed to walk on ceilings the crosses are now inverted, further enforcing the hellish landscape that the station has become.

** The first game came out in ''1994''. That was during a time when ''DOOM II'' was released. The idea of a first person shooter with a story and RPG elements was unheard of, long before 2000's ''Deus Es'' would popularize the genre.