But I'm certain there are Shock 2 fans currently boiling blood out of their eyeballs in rage at the paragraphs above. I think a game released today that was so muddled, so jumblingly complicated, would be criticised for it. But I became aware that the process of fathoming as I go along is not one I miss. I fathomed pretty much all of it as I needed to. Because all those elements are further complicated by the need to charge some of them up via occasional charge points, others require the use of injections, food, boosters, software, and many other never-explained bits and pieces.ĭespite appearances, I'm not an idiot.
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Even reading how to flipping play the game is dangerous. Most bizarrely, the instructions for most of these elements, and more importantly how they relate to the world around you, are found in Information points mounted to the walls in the baddie-infested corridors. Then there are the recordings of dialogue from Polito, crew members whose recordings you've found, and hints about what you're supposed to be doing, next to a button that says "MFD", and another tab that collates the key access you've so far gained. You've got a Tetris inventory, a minimalist character sheet, an awkward area for selecting psionic abilities, another section containing details about health and Psi levels, along with a Research button, the map, and two slots for items about which I have yet no idea. "Polito" sort of talks you through your array of on-screen furniture.
And neither is being particularly helpful in terms of how you're meant to not be dead all the time on a labyrinthine ship filled with shotgun-wielding zombie alien mutant hybrid things, and telekenitic monkeys. Janice Polito, is giving you some sort of narrative guidance, while the ship's on-board computer Xercies is telling you off for paying attention to her. SPACESHIP.Ī detached voice, supposedly but obviously not Dr. Oh, and you've been fitted with all sorts of cybernetic enhancements, which I don't remember agreeing to. The training doesn't actually teach you anything, but rather sends your character away for a year of unseen brutal education that changes a stat once you're finally in control. This done, you're then asked to pick two further particular fields of training, without any context to make that choice, and sort of hope they fall in your favour. What I should have picked was the Navy, because it turns out they're the ones who focus on hacking, which is always my preferred route through a game. I picked the OSA, because I'd heard they were the most interesting, and they started you off with psi powers - supernatural abilities from your braintubes. After a few perfunctory tutorials that entirely fail to teach you anything important about the game you're about to face, you're asked to choose between the Navy, the Marines, or the OSA. And you're given huge choices to make without any context. The game begins with you - a nondescript soldier - training for accompanying the first FTL ship, the Von Braun, on its maiden voyage. This is about the mechanics, and how they've split my mind down the middle, both recognising what I've been missing, and how I have to admit to appreciating some levels of simplification. So I'm not writing about the story here - I've not played enough of it yet to do that. For instance, it's been a while since I thought, "I really should have read the manual". But at the same time it echoes dying features of the 90s, some missed, some well abandoned. It's a fascinating piece, a fusty grandfather of the few FPSs still using their imaginations, a knowing father of games that defined my twenties like Deus Ex. it's not easy, is it?įor me, System Shock 2 has become more of a beacon for what games no longer are, than what it perhaps is in its own right. But with my first gap in my schedule since August 1999, I've been having a go at the freshly re-released version on Steam. Adam never realised you were supposed to apologise to ducks. For instance, Jim has never hopped, too scared to take such a risk with gravity.
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