So, any newbies played System Shock 2 yet?

[bartholen_v1legacy]

System Shock 2 has been available on GOG for exactly a month now http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122093-GOG-Uploads-System-Shock-2. Have any newcomers played this game yet? What do you think of it? I managed to track down a physical copy of the game a couple of years ago, and I think the game is fantastic. I've played it through 4 times now, and every time it's been enjoyable as hell. What are your thoughts?

 

[Llil]

I've been wanting to try it for a long time, so I bought it immediately when it became available on GOG.

I thought that for the most part it actually lived up to all the praise. I wasn't really expecting it to, because some other older games I've recently played for the first time didn't. Deus Ex for example was good, but not as good as everyone says. System Shock 2 was that good.

Of course, you need to be able to get over the fact that it's an older game, and not everyone has that setting in their brain.

 

[hazabaza1]

I've been meaning to ever since I heard about it on GoG but whenever I look at gameplay it looks so clunky and bad I just click off and think "maybe later".

Aslo the psychic monkeys look really fucking dumb.

 

[Murrdox]

Oh you

Aslo the psychic monkeys look really fucking dumb.

Even if you think the monkeys are "dumb", there are MANY other enemies in the game and they're all scary as crap. Even the mutants that you fight who die by droves to your wrench are creepy as hell.

Gameplay isn't really clunky once you get used to it. You mostly just need to adjust to pushing buttons in the environment and inventory management, neither of which are very difficult.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Oh you

Aslo the psychic monkeys look really fucking dumb.

Even if you think the monkeys are "dumb", there are MANY other enemies in the game and they're all scary as crap. Even the mutants that you fight who die by droves to your wrench are creepy as hell.

Gameplay isn't really clunky once you get used to it. You mostly just need to adjust to pushing buttons in the environment and inventory management, neither of which are very difficult.

Having an "interact" and a "movement" mode is clunky, no matter which way you look at it. Having to press tab, select the key card from my inventory, move the keycard to the card reader and left click, then click tab again just to get through a locked door is pretty much the definition of clunky. Especially when the game could just have made a check to see if the keycard was in my inventory.

I think System Shock 2 was pretty good but some of the game mechanics are pretty dated and it really shines through. Also, suicide bomber robots are dumb.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I played a little of it about 4 years ago, and it was pretty good. I'm waiting for it to hopefully come to Steam before buying it (partly for the convenience but mostly because I don't have time to play it now anyway).

 

[ikoian]

Was thinking of getting it, but I herd the game has mayjor balance issues, like how you need to upgrade certain skills if you want to finish the game.

 

[Bradeck]

Oh you

Aslo the psychic monkeys look really fucking dumb.

Even if you think the monkeys are "dumb", there are MANY other enemies in the game and they're all scary as crap. Even the mutants that you fight who die by droves to your wrench are creepy as hell.

Gameplay isn't really clunky once you get used to it. You mostly just need to adjust to pushing buttons in the environment and inventory management, neither of which are very difficult.

Having an "interact" and a "movement" mode is clunky, no matter which way you look at it. Having to press tab, select the key card from my inventory, move the keycard to the card reader and left click, then click tab again just to get through a locked door is pretty much the definition of clunky. Especially when the game could just have made a check to see if the keycard was in my inventory.

I think System Shock 2 was pretty good but some of the game mechanics are pretty dated and it really shines through. Also, suicide bomber robots are dumb.

Ahem. These gentlemen would like a word with you....
http://www.bl2wiki.com/EXP_Loader

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Waiting for it to go on sale.

My computer runs things about as well as a high level graphing calculator, so I don't buy PC games unless they're under 10 bucks. No, $9.99 doesn't count.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I keep going to but I want to play the first one.

 

[Norrdicus]

Having an "interact" and a "movement" mode is clunky, no matter which way you look at it. Having to press tab, select the key card from my inventory, move the keycard to the card reader and left click, then click tab again just to get through a locked door is pretty much the definition of clunky. Especially when the game could just have made a check to see if the keycard was in my inventory.

Err... that's not how it works in System Shock 2, unless the modifications they made to the game actually affected gameplay

I have not needed to physically take out a key card and use it even once

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Having an "interact" and a "movement" mode is clunky, no matter which way you look at it. Having to press tab, select the key card from my inventory, move the keycard to the card reader and left click, then click tab again just to get through a locked door is pretty much the definition of clunky. Especially when the game could just have made a check to see if the keycard was in my inventory.

I think System Shock 2 was pretty good but some of the game mechanics are pretty dated and it really shines through. Also, suicide bomber robots are dumb.

Did we play the same game? I don't remember having to manually enter key cards ever happening in the game. In one level you have to manually put containers in certain spots, and it takes about 1,5 seconds to just open the tab and then place the container. Which are then removed from your inventory and don't have to use them again. And this you only had to do only something like 4-6 times. The key cards aren't even placed in your inventory. Get your facts straight.

Also, the inventory system in SS2 is hella smooth IMO. It takes place in real time, merely expands the HUD instead of taking you to a separate screen and maintains your view of the world. And it displays all the needed information with a single button press instead of being split across multiple sublayers. It takes some getting used to, but is a hell of a lot smoother and faster than, say, Skyrim's inventory management.

Was thinking of getting it, but I herd the game has mayjor balance issues, like how you need to upgrade certain skills if you want to finish the game.

It depends on which playstyle you choose. Not upgrading certain skills like Hacking can make the game a hell of a lot harder, and some combat skill upgrading will inevitably be necessary. It also has a couple of practically useless skills like Repair, but aside from that, it's very open ended and IMO satisfying.

 

[Uratoh]

I'm waiting for some idiot to play it and somehow think it ripped off Bioshock. I'm probably not going to get this amusement, but if it happened it would be hillarious.

 

[Frankster]

Will play it soon, i intend to do a coop run with a friend and i hear coop has some issues that need to be sorted out still.

I know the game is meant to be lot less scary in 2 player, but dont worry, im a big wuss especially when it comes to these sci fi scenarios of you being trapped on a doom vessel with plenty of creepy stuff going on (see dead space).

 

[Drake666]

I finally played it and finished it for the first time one month ago. It was an amazing experience, but I really didn't like the last part. Not the "matrix" part, but the exploration of the Many. I don't why... perhaps it was too much dark and there wasn't really any real exploration or secret as in the ship.

The thing I think the game lacks the most is boss fights. There's only two of them and they're amazing! They should have made us fight the Marine guy in the shuttle (as a cyborg/mutant ?) and, I don't know, fight a Mech inside the Cargo.

Even if the game was kinda easy, I really liked it. The visual, the sound and music were perfect. I loved the "twist" in the middle even if I've never played the first game. It shows that the creator put a lot of effort to make it accessible story-wise.

I just regret to not have use any psy power

 

[Weatherking]

Having an "interact" and a "movement" mode is clunky, no matter which way you look at it. Having to press tab, select the key card from my inventory, move the keycard to the card reader and left click, then click tab again just to get through a locked door is pretty much the definition of clunky. Especially when the game could just have made a check to see if the keycard was in my inventory.

I think System Shock 2 was pretty good but some of the game mechanics are pretty dated and it really shines through. Also, suicide bomber robots are dumb.

Did we play the same game? I don't remember having to manually enter key cards ever happening in the game. In one level you have to manually put containers in certain spots, and it takes about 1,5 seconds to just open the tab and then place the container. Which are then removed from your inventory and don't have to use them again. And this you only had to do only something like 4-6 times. The key cards aren't even placed in your inventory. Get your facts straight.

Also, the inventory system in SS2 is hella smooth IMO. It takes place in real time, merely expands the HUD instead of taking you to a separate screen and maintains your view of the world. And it displays all the needed information with a single button press instead of being split across multiple sublayers. It takes some getting used to, but is a hell of a lot smoother and faster than, say, Skyrim's inventory management.

In some spots you need to take a charged powercell from the inventory and place it in a thingamajig to open doors, maybe that's what he's thinking of.
Anyway I love having to do that kind of stuff in games, makes the world feel more real and tactile in my opinion, the penumbra series and amnesia comes to mind as games that do that well.

 

[Stryc9]

No, I can't buy games on GOG, my bank card won't let me do overseas transactions and that makes me a sad panda.

 

[Mullac]

Yep, I bought it on GoG when it came out and have thoroughly enjoyed it, one of my favourite games.

 

[Luca72]

Played it for the first time ever, and it's easily in my top 5 games. Maybe the single best atmosphere I've ever experienced in a game, and one of the most exciting stories I've seen (actually has an interesting exploration of corporate greed, alien hive minds, and artificial intelligence - all trope-worthy topics that are actually handled in a novel way).

I'm now investigating System Shock 1 through totally legal means. My PC master race sense is tingling - even when FP games were clunkier and less intuitive, they seemed to be full of greater possibilities.