THE FUTURE AS PICTURED BY THE NINTIES

The original System Shock  could be said to be overshadowed by its more popular and graphically intense sequel, but doesn’t mean its subpar, quite the opposite, as there obviously never would have been a sequel if the first System Shock wasn’t up to snuff.

Placing you in the shoes of “The Hacker” after you remove the ethical restraints on an artificial intelligence in return for a military neural interface in a shady back room deal so you don’t go to jail for hacking into the database of a major corporation. Obviously this bites you right in the ass, good job there, smart guy. Awakening after six months of recuperating in a healing coma, you’re stuck on Citadel Station with SHODAN and everything has gone to hell, and that’s where the game begins.

The enemies the games throws at you range from robots, to mutants, to cyborgs, and mutant cyborgs. All of the enemies in the game come from those types but there is some significant variation between them, in stats, gameplay, and art assets. System Shock also has a oddly in-depth difficulty system, allowing you to choose how difficult you want the combat, the puzzles, the cyberspace segments, and even the plot, each with its own setting, allowing you to crank the puzzles and cyberspace sections to the highest difficulty while keeping combat easy. Or you could keep everything else at a normal level but put the plot on the hardest setting, which adds a time limit to the game.

Some people might find the games dated graphics to be a turn off, I say that’s a stupid way to think. For its time, back in 1994, System Shock was praised by critics and was considered to be a significant innovation. The game’s pros far outweigh the dated graphics on a nearly twenty year old game, and if you‘re into FPSs, cyberpunk action, or enjoyed Bioshock or Deus Ex and want to see what those games draw inspiration from, this is definitely worth your time.

System Shock can be downloaded from
http://www.systemshock.org/index.php/topic,211.0.html
or
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/24684/System+Shock.html
or a plethora of other places.