OMG I just completed my first playthrough!! (the following is just my complete experience, you can share too!)

I've been a huge fan of both Bioshock games, they're my favorite this gen. Last year I played through the first System Shock (the portable version of course) and to my surprise, I had a blast! So I managed to get ... a "copy" of System Shock 2 and started playing and got my ass kicked! It was a little bit harder than I anticipated and just never finished it.

With Bioshock Infinite coming soon, I thought giving System Shock a second try. While I was going through my second playthrough of System Shock 1, I ordered the Prima guide from ebay of SS2 (at 15$!!! yeah!!) And soon after, GOG annonced the release of SS2. Perfect timing!!

I started the game on easy. I have to say, I thought it was a little hard at the start, but once you get to the 3rd floor, I got the hang of it. At the end I was uber powerful, but hey! Now I know. I thought it the cyber points were complicated, with so many stats to check out, but soon enough you know where you're supposed to go.

I handed up with a marine using mostly hand to hand and the pistol (and the rifle at the end). No psi. I didn't know what I could use it for.

I'm shocked it ended on a somewhat "to be continued" Oh well.

I had a blast. It's great to see where Bioshock got all its inspiration. But I have to say, after playing SS2, I'm more incline to play Dead Space! That game took a LOT of inspirations too! Maybe I'll give Dead Space 2 and 3 a try this year.

The big rumor is that Dead Space started as System Shock 3, I'm not too far into the first game but I can really see many similarities between them.

Stuck on a spaceship gone to hell? Check
ugly abominations that used to be human? Check
A character with a "Rig" that serves as health/inventory/map/etc? Check

I swear if the game had a melee wrench it'd be basically confirmed as true.

Seriously? Any link?

It would make a lot of sense actually. For me DS is much closer to the spirit of SS2 than the "oficial" spiritual successor Bioshock. At least in the sense that I was scared shitless on my first playthroughs of both SS2 and DS :) I mean, literally shitless.

Bioshock is not scary and it's much more a FPS than a survival game.

Well, nobody at Redwood or EA has ever stated that Dead Space was originally a new System Shock game, or that it was the code name.

You can find a summary of where the rumors started (2006) here:
Google "The Lost History of System Shock"

Just finished it now for the second time - I played on Impossible; I am very surprised how easy impossible turned out to be, including the final boss...

Also, the ending is so horrible; it makes me laugh, and not in a good way. Anyway, I've got Dead Space 3 lined up to play now :P Then Bioshock Infinite's coming up in about a month. Hooray.

I beg your pardon! It most definitely isn't over! :D

Your next task if you choose to accept, is to play the wonderfully made fan missions by Christine. Starting with Ponterbee Station.


It isn't canon, nor recognised as official but it tries to sort of tie up the ending a wee bit.

I also suggest Darkloader as your FM loader.

I just finished it for the first time myself, and well, it was indeed nice. I found the respawning enemies annoying at first, until I realized I was kept on edge all the time because of them. Which is what it's supposed to happen on a survival horror. Really well done.

That said, and I never thought I would ever make this point, the game could use some bosses. Or at least a jump scare or two. I say this because while the whole exploration of the ship is absolutely brilliant, I loved being able to backtrack as much as I wanted or leave spare weapons on the 3rd floor right in front of the elevator, it gets dull when the story forces you to. Get back to engines and then back to command deck and then back to wherever it is. The respawning enemies keep you on edge somewhat, but on the late game I could take them on no problem so backtracking was more of a chore. If I knew an enemy could jump on me through a wall, like the tyrant on RE2, it would have added to the tension I think.

I personally used a navy guy focusing on laser and exotic weapons, namely the crystal sword thing. With the overhead hit upgrade and strength maxed out, most things die in 1 hit. It was certainly fun. I find it peculiar that the game is merciless in that if you don't loot this particular corpse on the small room below the garden, you won't be able to advance at all. It gets frustrating at times, I even resorted to a guide at one point. And yet, it's spiritual sequel Bioshock frustrated me for just the opposite: having an arrow always marking the way and making me feel treated like an idiot. Can I ever be happy?

There's an option in menu to turn off the arrow in Bioshock. Just saying.

I thought it was cool that you were back in the Citadel in the chapter "Where am I?" at th end. It just made me wish there was a remake of the first System Shock (which is already great with the mouselook mod).

I should check the settings menu more often.

Yeah, Dead Space while not quite on level of complexity of SS2 does share some elements. Unfortunately first person view isn't among them. But yeah, that's why i also liked Dead Space a lot. Especially the first one. Ishimura reminded me a lot of Von Braun even though it was a much darker and nasty ship compared to Von Braun. But hey, Ishimura was a mining ship, Von Braun was basically a civilian space ship.

I wish you could play Dead Space in first person as well. I hate 3rd person games apart from those where you control a sexy girl like Tomb Raider... mostly because 3rd person view gives the feeling of observer and it's just not the same as being that person in the game, looking through the eyes in 1st person. And when monsters attack, they attack you, not the person you are looking in the back. The basics of horror games, but consoles ruined even that. Thats why i still think 1st person view is still better hands down.

I've played Max Payne with a first person mod and it felt even better. Mirror's Edge was sort of Tomb Raider in 1st person and at that point i also wanted all Tomb Raider games to offer a 1st person mode. It just makes the immersion so much higher regardless of how good the game is even in 3rd person. And also a reason why SS2 is still one of the best games ever. The immersion factor. It feels like you are actually there, all the manipulation with the world, objects, weapons and items, believable environment that doesn't feel artificial and illogical. I know its just a game but when devs put so much work and attention to details in a game, that also shows in the game feel itself. And SS2 does that like a champ. Champ, not chimp. Chimps only want to burn you down with psionic attacks :P