System Shock 2 might be coming to gog.com,at last

I've got dibs on the first copy. Don't even try to cut in line.

Who gets the money from this? EA?

Well, according to the store page the current publisher is something called "Night Dive Studios."

edited 14th Feb '13 3:12:57 AM by Talby

And according to the page, the game is also in German (along with English, of course). Which is funny, because I didn't even know that there is a German version.

Yeah, I've done a little reading about them. They've been around since at least the middle of last year — so this has been coming for a while — but there's no data on their background. They must have done some kind of deal with EA though, to get the publishing rights.

I've emailed them, and I'll let you know what they say.

I wonder if this is at all related to those patches the game recieved last year.

edited 14th Feb '13 3:46:59 AM by Nicknacks

I'd be overjoyed by this release if it wasn't for something that is emerging after seeing the files and options.

In the Rock Paper Shotgun interview, the GOG and Night Dive guys declare the fixes to SS2 to be the "labour of love" of their "expert techninjas", and they did it because no fan fixes were good enough.

That is complete bullshit.

The game has the unofficial patch v2.4 (also called "Newdark") applied, and also some fixes from the SS2Tool. The former is easily recognizable in all the available options (widescreen, resolutions higher than 1024x768 and 48 audio channels weren't certainly supported by the "vanilla" game) and the cam_ext.cfg file. The sign of the latter is in the file structure - the "make the game mod-ready" option was used before packaging all.

Night Dive didn't even bother to put some configuration tool, or at least explanations, for some advanced features that are available only if you mess with the .cfg files - did you know that Newdark allows you to set the HUD in a different resolution than the 3D view, so that it won't become too tiny?

The only thing they really did was the installer. Yet, they claim the efforts of people who kept SS2 alive before them, as theirs. At least a courteous acknowledgement would have been good.

I don't think they could even GIVE a courteous acknowledgement because doing so might set off some really complicated legal troubles.

And isn't using the Newdark (allegedly based on leaked source code) in a commercial release a recipe for potential legal trouble already?

Unless Night Dive are in fact "Le Corbeau" (the nickname of someone who quietly posted Newdark in a French forum). They popped out from nowhere a few weeks after the patch - and just after the release, a GOG employee was around fan forums asking if someone knew who Le Corbeau was because they were interested in using the patch. So the patcher(s) contacted GOG, received the necessary backing and set up Night Dive as a front to better run the practices to finally bring SS2 to GOG.

A great achievement, mind you; but even if the case was as above, it wouldn't still excuse using other fan fixes not only without acknowledgement, but also declaring that "none of these were perfect" in an interview and telling it's their own work when it's not.

Why they did this while the author of a fix for Thief is given due credit? It really baffles me.

Hell if I know. Maybe someone in the forums will figure it out in the coming days. For now, I'm just gonna wait and see. I'm not buying the game just yet, for I'm kinda hurting on cash.

I must say, this news about the game finally being available like this makes me really happy. Since I went through the whole process on getting the disk and playing it using the patched and the like, I hope that this will allow even more people to experience this gem.

Seriously, System Shock 2 is one of my all time favorite games. I highly recommend that everyone plays it.

Holy shit this game is spooky.

Really not digging the inventory system. I understand why it doesn't pause gameplay but it's really ridiculous the hoops I must go through to simply swap weapons.

You can assign weapons to hotkeys in the controls menu.

I tried that, I couldn't really find a control map anywhere since I wanted to drop the left and right movement keys down one, but I mgiht not have been looking hard enough. It's still less then ideal though.

What's your ideal control scheme for switching weapons?

Just scroll down in the controls menu and it has entries for each of the weapons - wrench, pistol, shotgun, etc. which you can assign to any key, including the number keys so it works like in any FPS. You can also assign keys for next weapon/previous weapon.

Maybe a class system? The game automatically assigns your in inventory pistol to the 1 key, your assault weapon to 2, so on and so forth and simply leaves them empty if there's nothing that fits the slot. Also, a more streamlined way of switching ammo. Just eliminate that middle step and it'll be fine, but I've already died a few items fumbling with the inventory so it's leaving a bad impression.

Still scary as shit.

I believe there is a keybind to swap ammo types. Can't remember what it is off hand, though.

Regardless, the game really shows its age with some of the odd default keybinds, doesn't it?

Hey, this game isn't called one of the scariest games ever, rivaling Amnesia and Silent Hill 2 for nothing.

Putting aside the (interesting, I will warrant) controversy about how the game got its re-release, there is one overriding question. How does the game work on modern systems - are the fixes, no matter where they came from, doing their job and allowing the game to actually work on Windows XP and onwards?

The only problem I had with the old version is the set affinity bug that caused the game to freeze if you're running a multi-core CPU. The GOG version fixed that. Works fine for me on Windows 7.

Thanks for the reply. That's good to know.

I bought it from GOG just now. Is there anything I should know going into the game for the first time? I've played Bioshock.

• Enemies will keep appearing,so its best to keep moving
• Weapons will break after much use(apart from the wrench,which makes it the best weapon)
• Preserve your ammo.

Is there a way to re-map the controls? I'd like to change the crouch (S) and walk-backwards (X) keys to the more standard Ctrl and S if possible.

And are there buttons for strafing?

You should choose Navy for your first play-through. It's better to play a combat/tech character than a pure combat one.

Also, Hack is a pretty vital skill. You shouldn't start out without a point in it.

And yes, you can remap controls (it's kind of necessary, when you are used to WASD controls) and strafing is possible (why shouldn't it?).

OK, I went for a Navy character with tech skills, although I didn't start out with any points in Hack for some reason (maybe I went through the wrong tour-of-duty door at the start).

I didn't actually think to look in the menu to remap the controls until a few hours in.

I've just reached the engineering deck where the elevator can be reactivated, and that radiation hazard is really annoying.

How does the deck numbering work? I know there are 7 decks, but are all the medical/engineering areas before you activate the elevator all part of the first deck?

Thoughts so far:

• It's really creepy. The respawning enemies definitely help, since you never know whether one's coming around the corner. Hacking and searching rooms is particularly tense, since you have to keep an eye on the door in case something comes in.
• Graphics are surprisingly good, apart from the character models. In the case of the Hybrids, it just makes them more scary.
• Psychic monkeys!?
• Gameplay is quite hard, since there are very few health sources and enemies can quickly overwhelm you, not to mention the scarcity of ammo.
• Weapon degradation= teh sux
• Good level design. I like all of the backtracking and locked doors.

edited 10th Apr '13 1:16:26 PM by JimmyTMalice