I have been going through the reviews on System Shock 2 and down-voting positive reviews and looking for negative reviews to up-vote. I got somewhere around page 45 and all the sudden it's saying I've already voted on all the reviews in the list - either it's repeating reviews to make it seem more popular than it is, or it doesn't like how I'm voting and is voting for me. I finally found a negative review around page 50 and I couldn't up-vote it because it said I already voted on it. That's not the case. I want to up-vote that negative review. Why is GOG doing this?

I also tried to leave a negative review for SS2 and it doesn't look like it went through. It's still asking me if I want to leave a review for it - that part should be replaced with a link to my existing review shouldn't it? Are bad reviews of SS2 being censored?

Given this experience I also have to ask - are all those positive reviews real, or are they fake? Because after playing the game I can honestly say it's objectively terrible and I'm glad I didn't pay a dime for it. I think it's possibly the worst FPS I've ever played, and I've been playing FPS since Wolfenstein 3D.

If that's the case, I'm really going to be disgusted with GOG. If a game is bad, players should be able to say it's bad.

Either give a proper context or dont bother!

O___________o!

Well, it is Sunday in Europe now... and technically it is night time here, so yeah. Sunday night nutter post!

If you think System Shock 2 is terrible, you are a horrible person and you should feel bad.

What do you mean give a proper context? I described the issue as best I could. There is something seriously screwed up with the reviews of SS2. It's not posting my review and it won't let me vote on some of the other reviews.

Maybe if you gave a context of why you think its such a bad game you have to actually spam the downvotes?!

- and maybe post your review HERE - so we have the context... Yarp?!

- THAT is context - don't leave home or post online without it.

There is no proper context in which System Shock 2 could be described as "terrible" so where are you going with this...?

Why? How can you even say it's good?

You get directions from an NPC over radio but there is no volume option in the audio options menu for voices. All the voices in the game are muffled and hard to hear, and for some reason there's also no option for subtitles. Combine that with the labyrinthine maps and you have no idea where to go or what to do because you can't hear the directions being given to you. So you're completely lost all the time.

Then you have limited ammo and guns that wear out as you use them - combined with infinitely spawning monsters. This puts in a losing war of attrition that inevitably depletes your ammo or breaks your stuff, and you die.

The UI is just awful. The inventory interface is just clunky and switching from interactive mode to FPS mode is a pain. The game comes pre-loaded with awful FPS controls - who has ever used WASD to move, but has S and D set to turn instead of strafe? When you have a mouse for using with mouse look? The last games I remember doing that were Wolfenstein 3D and Doom 1 & 2. Because those were some of the first FPS ever made and they didn't know any better. There's no excuse for an FPS made in 1999 to be doing this.

I see people comparing this to Deus Ex and I don't know why. The only thing they have in common is they are FPS with cyborg implants. That's it. All they have in common is a genre. Everything else from the UI to the game mechanics are worlds apart. I love Deus Ex, but I would never compare it to this pile of crap.

I don't understand how someone could like a game that is this objectively terrible. It's awful and no one should play it, ever.

I truly believe that GOG has better things to do than care about positive or negative reviews for a specific game.

Concerning your not seeing your review yet:
- It takes time for reviews to appear on the system, sometimes hours, sometimes days, but they all appear eventually, both negative and positive ones. Wait until Monday at least.

As for the system preventing you from up-or-down voting:
- It might be a bug. GOG has a fair share of them.
- Or it might be that GOG limits the number of votes a user may apply to a single game in order to prevent misuse by bots. I don't expect many humans bother to try to up-or-down 380 reviews.

Anyhow, I wouldn't attribute any of it to malice. Honestly.

As for your opinion on SS2. I believe that perceived game quality is mostly a matter of personal taste, and I do believe that there are very many who have found the game to their taste.

Hope this helps to allay some of your fears.

I don't know what you're trying to get at here. I have been gaming a long time and have fun with lots of old games from the 80's and 90's. SS2 is just a bad game, the fact that it's old shouldn't factor in to a review. Either it's fun to play or it's not, and SS2 it most definitely not.

Doom 2 or Duke Nukem 3D would be more fun than this. Thief: The Dark Project? That's pure gold compared to this.

It seems we have differing opinions of the game. Let's agree to disagree. I didn't start this thread to post my review - I started this thread to question why the reviews seem to be manipulated. Why can't I vote on the reviews I want? Why isn't my review getting posted? The content of my review is my opinion and shouldn't be a factor unless the reviews are being censored by GOG. Thanks. I guess I will wait.

I didnt say anything about the game.
I replied to your review to clarify things.

Also, you appear to have just contradicted yourself (highlighted in bold in the quote).

For the record though, I've had my own (negative) reviews of games not published before on here and it also pissed me off. However, downrepping all the positive reviews, just makes you a numpty!

Unless you were actually judging based on review content, that seems sort of nutty and obsessive. Why take the time to go through all the reviews and downvote if the review has 4 or 5 stars?

I'm quite sure the positive reviews are real, most based on nostalgia rather than an objective view (as objective as you can be with this medium). And GOG's site is in bad need of some fresh, good code (afaik, based on the occasional forum post), so it's probably a bug. Another bug.

You. Are. Crazy.

I loved System Shock 2. Almost more than cheese. Almost.

I think the game is great. Pretty much everything you complain about (limited ammo, vast non-linear level design) I find to be a feature of the game and not a problem. And by the sound of it, the person "manipulating the rating" seems to be YOU, through compulsively up and down voting every review. And let me guess, you rating the game a 1 too...