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System Shock 2

System Shock 2

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the Best game ever
Review: This game is awesome ! It runs on a souped up version of the engine the Thief used... Great Graphics, Playability and Audio round up a winner.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: If you loved Half-Life, this is a must buy. I am not a big FPshooter fan but SS2 (like Half-life) combines a great story with an incredibly immersive atomsphere. If you have yet to play Quake and its clones do not bother buying them, start with this one. Not for the those wary of the macabre.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Than Words Can Express...
Review: Where to begin? This game is just pure AWESOME. The story-line may seem kind of like the plot of many others. You know, that "aliens have taken over the base" or "zombies resident evil style" and so on. Sure, it may seem that way, but the further and further you get in this game, the more the plots twists and turns. Halfway through the game, I felt as if I was actually the character, I knew so much.

No other FPS I know is like this, with so much story, not even the famous Half-Life. That is why I call it a "FPRPG" or First Person Role Playing Game, because that is what is resembles. You see the game through the eyes of a Soldier, placed upon the first faster-than-lightspeed ship named the Von Braun, in the history of the human race. There is action, tactics, and an AWESOME, deepening plot like no other game I have ever played. At the end, you'll be awed and strucken, for the largest, oddest, most unpredictable plot change ever, in the history of any game.

So I won't waste your time anymore. Order this game NOW!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Behold! The cybernetic messiah of spooky doom!
Review: I'd consider myself a pretty jaded horror buff. I've played the scariest games and watched the scariest movies, and the only emotions approaching fear that have been roused from me have been an itchy trigger finger and a penchant for over-eating popcorn respectively. System Shock 2, however, is a completely different story.

Speaking of stories, System Shock 2 has one (strange, no?). While not groundbreakingly original, the story does its little cyberpunk horror thing flawlessly, with many little turns and nuances fleshed out mainly through the use of nicely-acted audio logs. Considering there are very few characters in the game who aren't bloodied corpses (walking or no), this is a welcome addition.

Story aside, the game's defecatory powers rest primarily with the gameplay itself. YOU'RE NEVER SAFE! Old areas are repopulated with monsters, and you're constantly bombarded from every direction by stalking horrors. This game is stressful - it had me wiggling my mouse around manically in a vain attempt to see both forwards and backwards at once. The RPG elements helped to keep things interesting and add to gameplay variety, as well.

The game's graphics, by today's standards, are terrible - and they were far from state-of-the-art when it came out. But really, this is a moot point to the phenomenal quality of the game. For those with a poly-fetish, however, a mod has been released to make many of the monsters look more... well... monstrous.

Sound is top-notch. I don't remember the game having surround sound capabilities (I could be mistaken - I'm too poor to have it myself, y'see), but it was an experience nonetheless. The spasmodic, electronic gurgling and screeching of the cyborg midwives, accompanied by a distorted moan of "I'll tear out your spine!" haunts me to this day.

System Shock 2 only gets 4 stars from me, however, due to two things. Firstly, the multiplayer is frustratingly prone to crashes. Secondly, I found the ending short, anticlimactic, and utterly cheesy compared to the rest of the game. Nevertheless, after years of shelf-life, System Shock 2 still remains to me the best horror game, one of the best PC games, and quite simply the scariest piece of entertainment ever to have existed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic worth revisiting Countless times? Oh yes.
Review: To classify System Shock 2 as a FPS (First-Person Shooter) would not do it the justice it deserves. Likewise, it would be inappropriate to refer to this game an RPG (Role Playing Game,) for it does not operate like traditional RPGs. What then, is System Shock 2? It is a result of a beautiful marriage of these two genres and happens to be one of the most involved and unique games of it's kind. While it carries a quasi-experience system, weapons and items that degrade with use and an impressive storyline that casts you as an unnamed member of the military and one of the few survivors aboard the alien-hijacked, experimental starship Von Braun, it's FPS elements still have a very large effect on gameplay. The most notable and obvious of these elements is the perspective through which the game is played -First person, much as the name suggests. Other such elements include a wide variety of weapons, all with significantly different uses, specifically defined bosses surrounded by lesser enemies and ammunition that must be defeated to pass onto the next level as well as intricate puzzles that could never be worked into a side-scroller, 3rd person, or overhead perspective game.
Research is the key to success in System Shock 2, failing to realize this makes the earlier stretches of the game rough and the later bits extremely difficult, if not impossible to get through. Utilizing chemicals found in specifically marked rooms throughout the ship, your "Cybernetic Rig" as your guide, Doctor Janice Polito refers to it, researches tools, alien organs, and even the occasional vial of anti-annelid toxin to provide you with enhanced damage on specific creatures, new medical miracles, or even new ways to destroy the minions and growths of the cancerous biomass that is slowly consuming your ship.
Most of the System Shock 2's story is told VIA scattered crew logs and voice E-mails from Polito, though apparitions, which the good doctor refers to as "defects in the R-grade [military grade] Cyber implants" occasionally cross your path, replaying events that are often horrific in nature. These add to the overall feeling of suspense in this very dark and at times, gothic game, especially when, upon emerging from a dark elevator into a seemingly uninhabited area of the Von Braun, you are confronted by an apparition which promptly blows his own brains out, then fades away. If this doesn't at least slightly unnerve you the first time around, I recommend that you check your pulse. In even rarer circumstances, you are contacted by the force which is now in near-full control of the ship, a massive communal mass of entities manifested in a steadily expanding boil of neural tissues that refers to itself as "The Many."
Consisting of two separate starships connected by a massive airlock passage, there is plenty of room to explore on System Shock 2. The Von Braun itself consists of six expansive decks and the bridge (which is more of a subset of deck six,) while the Rickenbacker, a military transport resting on the back of the Von Braun, consists of two or three undefined decks and two more separate subsets. Consisting of the body of "The Many" and an unknown area somewhere between the two ships where the final showdown with the intensely vindictive A.I. known as Shodan, (reappearing from the original System Shock) occurs, these subsets are totally separate from the rest of either ship and no crossing-back into other areas can occur once you've traveled this far into the game.
In all, System Shock 2 is an excellent title; it is one of the few that has successfully combined the elements of an RPG with a FPS, while also carrying a considerable amount of substance and mild horror in the storyline.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Probably one of the best games ever made
Review: Title says it all really. This was a total immersion experience combining RPG elements, FPS, creepy environment and effects, engaging sci fi story line, puzzles, horror, mystery, long game play. Outstanding.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More Than Words Can Express...
Review: Where to begin? This game is just pure AWESOME. The story-line may seem kind of like the plot of many others. You know, that "aliens have taken over the base" or "zombies resident evil style" and so on. Sure, it may seem that way, but the further and further you get in this game, the more the plots twists and turns. Halfway through the game, I felt as if I was actually the character, I knew so much.

No other FPS I know is like this, with so much story, not even the famous Half-Life. That is why I call it a "FPRPG" or First Person Role Playing Game, because that is what is resembles. You see the game through the eyes of a Soldier, placed upon the first faster-than-lightspeed ship named the Von Braun, in the history of the human race. There is action, tactics, and an AWESOME, deepening plot like no other game I have ever played. At the end, you'll be awed and strucken, for the largest, oddest, most unpredictable plot change ever, in the history of any game.

So I won't waste your time anymore. Order this game NOW!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A shock to the system
Review: When I played the first one, the story was extremely exciting. Same with this one. Yeah sure, a four star rating for a review made in the year 2003, but that wont stop this game from getting a low rating because of bad graphics compared to games nowadays, I'm comparing it to when it came out. The default controls are hard to get use to, but luckly, theres a option to Customize your Controls. The Graphics are superb, and the fun factor will leave you playing hours on end.

Now, they have a patch (download sepereately) where you can play Co-op with three other friends! The co-op mode is smooth and it works out quite well. You will not be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great game
Review: This was one of the best first person type games I've played. The plot, although derivative of so many in the genre, was interesting and creepy. The skill advancement system was one of the first to allow you to develop your character in a first person game with the skills YOU wanted to use most including those in technical, hacking, and repair fields. The sound effects were quite good and added immensely to the environment. This was the first game I played that regularly startled me when I'd hear a noise from somewhere off to the side of or behind me, or open a door to be immediately face to face with an enemy. The game does suck you into its world. As much as I truly enjoyed the story, the gameplay, the graphics (good for its time), and the sound, about two-thirds of the way through I kept thinking I was near the end only to find the game would continue on. It got a bit tedious, which I find common with most first perons shooters I've played. With the difficulty towards the latter part of the game, I finally looked up some cheats on the web to make it through the final segments. A little shorter would have been better in my opinion, but this game set a new standard for me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Realistic, innovative, challenging, and FUN Game!
Review: When I played this game, my hands were actually sweating from the SUSPENSE! The story is quite entertaining with some predictable AND surprising twists in the plot. This game allows you to play as a Marine (weapons), O.S.I.(psionics/mind power), or Navy (cybernetics/computers). Each branch has its corresponding (strengths) but having superior computer skills make the game somewhat easier to proceed through the challenging levels. There are LOTS of high tech weaponry and gadgets throughout the eerie decks of the von Braun including a "red lights" district in the crew's recreational area. It was more fun for me to solve the levels myself rather than resorting to online walkthroughs. If you enjoyed Half-Life and Thief, then you'll have a great time with System Shock 2!


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