Reviews VideoGame / System Shock 2

Shocking. Definitely Shocking.

Have you played Bio Shock? or Prey (2017)? Any game that has you, the player, stumbling around a derelict location that was once a state-of-the-art monument to the hubris of man? Picking up audio logs strategically placed in roughly chronological order of the disaster? Congratulations, for you have also unknowingly played System Shock 2.

But it's not Atlas Shrugged this time, but rather a cosmic horror, although not going quite the same distance as say Event Horizon did. It's the maiden voyage of the Von Braun, the first faster-than-light ship. For as much as the in-game commercial hypes things up, it's very clear from the crew audio logs that the ship was nowhere near ready. Corners cut, corporate meddling, the ship was doomed from the start even if it hadn't found something it shouldn't. Taking a leaf out the classic Alien setup, the Von Braun is hailed by a signal from Tau Ceti V, the two rival captains desperate to be the first one out the door. You, the player, emerge long after these events from your cryo tube, piecing this story together bit by bit, audio log by audio log.

What does set SS 2 apart from more modern takes is the RPG aspect, the voice in your ear paying you in Cybernetic Modules (aka upgrade points) for your character's skills, and to the games credit there are a few to choose from. From Strength and Agility, to traditional weapons to alien tech, this is the sort of game where no skill in a weapon class means you're stuck clubbing psychic monkeys with your wrench. I also appreciate the world building at the start the game, spending your military career in one of three branches (Marines, Navy, or OSA), with some fun flavour text as to how you earned your starting skills. Some are superfluous, not knowing what you just wasted your hard earned modules on until it's too late. Skills like Repair made redundant by free in-game items, implants that buff certain skills like research or agility, making investing in certain skills a waste.

Special mention goes to (some) of the voice acting. Looking Glass regulars Terri Brosius and Stephen Russell putting in their usual top class performances. The shambling hybrids screaming apologies as they attempt to bludgeon you, the cyborg midwives nightmarish squeals, like the Thief games SS 2 is a treat in the audio department, that is if you can excuse the occasional phoned in audio logs from some hapless Looking Glass employee.

The last levels are definitely a let down, there are amazing highs in the early-mid game, but SS 2 loses that momentum once you're backtracking to different floors to that one key card door you couldn't open. Wading around the colon of an amorphous hive mind engulfing the ship sounds a lot cooler than actually playing it. Is it worth playing? Absolutely! Grab some headphones and install a few basic mods for convenience.