Before I decide to buy this game, I need to know something really critical. When Steam (the primary gaming software I use daily) eventually carries this game, will they have a different version or will ANYTHING about the game be tweaked, updated, or changed in any way shape or form, or will it be an exact carbon copy? The reason I ask is a lot of my friends will probably get the Steam version of it, and the multi-player connectability of this game is already twitchy enough without adding that into the mix. Seriously, it can be really hard to get the old version of this game to connect to a friend, even with Hamachi.

What I'm really hoping for, is that steam will let you connect to someone in the game through their network, which is one of the biggest reasons why I use steam in the first place. I love that feature. If they do that, I'm totally waiting for the Steam version. (Why don't you guys have that.... seriously, do it! Even if its browser based.)

Yeah, GOG most definitely should do that, but they're utterly unable to even make their website and downloader working properly, soo... Yeah. On the other hand, I don't think anybody is going to fix SS2 multiplayer anytime soon (it was pretty broken ever since the release), and any substantial changes to the .exe would probably break modding support - what you are getting from GOG is more or less vanilla SS2 patched up to the newest version.

if you are hoping for updated multiplayer/network functionality then the answer is NO, unless night dive has been pulling our leg all time long and the Raven is actually their employee.

as that is highly unlikely, there is almost a 100% chance that you will get an exact copy of the GOG version - that means NewDark 2.40 (the current version is 2.42), no mods. that also means that everything in the sticky post should also apply to the steam version (do note that you will probably have to move the game out of the steam system to make it moddable).

Eh... okay. I think I might wait a while to buy this game anyway. Money is really tight right now. :( Thanks for the info. Shame no one ever found a way to at least make some kind of improvement or mod for the multiplayer, no matter how small.

Why would you buy games from that filthy DRM infested company named Valve?
Steam, their client, is one huge DRM by itself. You can't play any games if you're offline.
There's an off-line mode but that has been bugged to hell for ages.

Nah, since GOG's getting more and more modern games and tends to keep them free from DRM,
I'll rather stick with them.

Sorry Gabe, oh wait! I'm not sorry!

this is a user choice - if he prefers the DRMed, and usually more expensive steam version for some reason, then by all means, he should get it.

His loss then. If only he could understand the will of the Many... to buy the game from GOG

"You can't play any games if you're offline."

This is not true actually, most games can be played in 'offline' mode. Unless the companies themselves who made the games require you to log onto their servers... Ubisoft comes to mind...

You're right of course. I'm sorry

As I've said elsewhere, I suggest to buy at gog.com because their version already is compatible with the SS2Tool, which allows you to get the latest updates and use mods from systemshock.org.
If Steam makes any changes at all, they will have to do with the Steam platform, not the game itself. Such changes (and the way Steam generally works) are likely to screw up compatibility with SS2Tool.
So basically there's nothing to win by buying this game from Steam. The only reason I could see is if you prefer the Steam environment and don't care for mods/updates, ie you only ever want to play the basic game.