Like everyone else said, she says that line in the opening cutscene. and she's on the front of gog.com's website because that was the original boxart picture used for the game. Besides, the line in the title came from what she said in the first game.
Attn: PLAY THE FIRST ONE TOO. It's not on GoG yet but please try. It has the coolest opening cutscene of all time.
Watch it: http://youtu.be/5ITiEm6W5EM
Both Ultima Underworld games are on Gog. Play them, too. They are the sperm and the egg of System Shock, Bioshock, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Thief.../
It's not a spoiler, it's just pointless to detail the character in anyway. I feel the game does a decent enough job of explaining it that it doesn't need to be something people know before buying the game.
It's not a spoiler, it's just pointless to detail the character in anyway. The game does a decent job at explaining itself, there doesn't need to be a section on a character like they're a selling point.
Dear OP, thank you very much for this paragraph. It summarizes everything I've ever loved about PC games, and also what has been lost in the transition to modern AAA games. I was starting to wonder why I once was so interested in games, but your writing makes it all crystal clear.
PC games are predominantly cerebral, console games are predominantly visceral (the actual definition of the word). That's the main difference I see, and sometimes I'm in the mood for one or the other.
Cerebral console games do exist, mostly in the role-playing genre, but they are in the minority, especially today.
Coolant Tubes is my favorite song. I've heard it goes by other names, though?
This piece by Josh Randall is pretty cool. He did some of the game's music. He and Eric Brosius both went on to work at Harmonix, y'know, the Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Dance Central wizards.
I really dislike that SHODAN is in the OT for a game that a lot of people haven't played. It's pointless to know anything about the game going in other than "It's good."
Everything I did, I think, explains who she is in System Shock 1. I think the game loses just a tinge of its excellence if you don't come into System Shock 2 knowing precisely who SHODAN is. That way, you're always on edge, knowing what she had done last time. This is like Moriarty's return.
SHODAN is System Shock. Going into System Shock 2 without knowing who SHODAN is renders it kind of pointless.
What I'd give for a villain half as good as SHODAN in Bioshock Infinite.
Also, I figured seeing her face plastered everywhere was a good reason to say something about her.
Attn: PLAY THE FIRST ONE TOO. It's not on GoG yet but please try. It has the coolest opening cutscene of all time.
Watch it: http://youtu.be/5ITiEm6W5EM
Nothing will ever equal this opening cinematic, for me. I got the game around the time it launched on CD-ROM, for my 14th birthday, and watching that the first time gave me chills. The first System Shock was truly uncharted territory.
Nothing will ever equal this opening cinematic, for me. I got the game around the time it launched on CD-ROM, for my 14th birthday, and watching that the first time gave me chills. The first System Shock was truly uncharted territory.
PC gaming tends to focus more on virtual reality, while console gaming tends to focus more on abstracting things as simply as possible. There's a heavy dose of simulation elements present in a lot of older PC gaming--even the abstraction is ultimately about abstracting simulation mechanics.
They're both fundamentally viable forms of play, but I personally prefer simulation elements in my games.
If I'm playing a classic console game that's "hard," it's usually a matter of skill that is developed through practice and understanding of a game's mechanics. If I play a classic PC game that's "hard," it's often because I need to think differently. "How would I solve this if it was a real situation?" is the question that has saved my ass quite a bit.
Not much truth in this post. Sure, games with "simulation elements" are probably more common on the PC, but saying that PC gaming tends to focus on "virtual reality" is just total bullshit. The Quakes and Starcrafts say hello etc.
Anyway, I will probably pick up SS2. Haven't played it since around when it came out.
Please note that when I say shut the music off I'm not suggesting that the music is bad, it isn't. On it's own it's actually quite good, it just doesn't fit this game *at all*.
I'm totally with you on this. Everyone raves about SS2's soundtrack, and while it is pretty good, it's poorly executed within the game and tends to destroy the overall feel and atmosphere.
Enjoying all the mods and whatnot. I played this for a bit a few years back because my brother swears by it, as does everyone else it seems.
I'm enjoying it so far but I must admit, I absolutely hate the combat and hacking in Ken Levine games. Main reason I never finished BioShock. I'm gonna persevere with this one though.
Edit-
As some others have stated. Yes, the music is godawful. I had to turn it off after 10 minutes. Reminds me of that awful KMFDM band from Mortal Kombat fame. I enjoy it much better with the sound effects because it really does play like a survival horror, at least so far it does.
One interesting tidbit about that menacing taunt from SHODAN, is that I heard it way back in the first System Shock. It was not actually within the actual gameplay, but was used in DOS as the clip to test your sound card configuration.
I'm totally with you on this. Everyone raves about SS2's soundtrack, and while it is pretty good, it's poorly executed within the game and tends to destroy the overall feel and atmosphere.
I wouldn't say the music is necessarily poorly executed. Some of the tracks are more ambient than others and definitely add to the atmosphere. Just my opinion, though.
SS2 came out during my PC "lost weekend" between around about 1997 and 2005, so I started playing it for the first time today to see what the fuss was about.
About 1.5 hours in so far. Enjoying the scarce resources and that feeling like every battle with a Hybrid is one I might not walk away from! I've gotta agree that the music sits weird for me - I'm roaming these creepy deserted corridors with corpses lying everywhere, and there's thumping electro music that never goes away. Not sure if I'll keep it on, long term.
I'm playing at 1920x1200, so my HUD is painfully small. Fixing that is priority #1 before playing any more.
The revival stations, on their own, are as weirdly pointless as they are in Bioshock since the state of the world doesn't roll back at all. Triggering autosaves each time you're near them (in addition to the map change autosaves) might do it, though you can't really tell until you play it that way or simulate it with quicksaves.
Does the game ever autosave outside of map transitions? I forget. If so, maybe it just involves some messing around in DromEd.
start with 1 if you can. It is tough to find and tougher to get running on a modern OS (dosbox works but it needs a pretty beefy pc to be smooth). You might also want to google the mouselook/key config mod
Yeah, what the hell? Does it blast like this through the whole game? Completely ruins the atmosphere. I left it on for 15 minutes or so thinking it would go away but it didn't so I just turned it off.
Seuss what have you done ?
How am I to remember that the Shodan avatar is the same quality gaffer that I always like to read ? Think about that next time will ya ? (wasn't it a Warren Ellis comic book before ? now I'm even more lost :-S)
On topic, I really should sit down and play SS1 & 2 some day, the re-release on Gog was tempting this week. But I'm one of those poor ocd/passionate fools that want to play too much things...
Alright, just played through the game for the first time and while it was very good mechanically (Deus Ex is my favourite game, this came pretty close and there's a clear lineage between the games) I felt the horror/atmosphere and story were a bit over-hyped, unfortunately. This might in large part be due to knowing what the franchise was about (
Shodan
) and thus I saw the big reveal coming from miles away. Still, the scene itself was pretty damn cool, without spoiling too much.
The end of the game, as with many others of its ilk (Dishonored comes to mind), felt way less open and complex than what preceded it, which was a bit of a let-down since the concepts had so much potential, especially the final level. I guess they ran out of budget/time at that point.
I also felt the game was slightly too easy? Granted, I did play on Normal. The only really challenging part was the
Body of the Many
since I was running really low on the appropriate ammo types. The last fight in there had me scrambling and just kiting the enemies along while killing the boss. Took a while to realize how to escape afterwards.
All in all, I wish I played this game 100% blind without having any clue about the series, and I also wish that I had played through the first game before this.
The Shodan reveal would have had a significantly stronger impact if the player had no friggin' idea she would re-appear in the sequel and just assume she was dead after the first game, imo.
Hey, guys, now that the OP's been up for ~18 hours, is there anything you feel I'm missing in the OP that I need to include? I'm trying to answer everyone's questions.
Once I beat Thief and Thief 2, I'll probably be setting up an RTTP/LTTP that's a lot like this OT, if people are cool with that. Want to learn as best I can from this one.
Seuss what have you done ?
How am I to remember that the Shodan avatar is the same quality gaffer that I always like to read ? Think about that next time will ya ? (wasn't it a Warren Ellis comic book before ? now I'm even more lost :-S)
On topic, I really should sit down and play SS1 & 2 some day, the re-release on Gog was tempting this week. But I'm one of those poor ocd/passionate fools that want to play too much things...
Nope! Just read the SHODAN bit in the OP. It explains who she is from the original game. Computer without morality, kinda like Moriarty, got beat by a hacker years before, tries to create life in order to be a goddess.
I'm working from the disc version here but that's still relevant in this thread. Is there something special I have to do to enable higher widescreen resolutions? I installed SSTool 4.9, which as far as I can tell includes the NewDark 2.4 patch, but in the menu resolutions only go up to 1600x900. I want 1900x1200.
Good gracious, met my first enemy and the music kicked in. I hadn't panicked like that in years: "ohgodohgod what do I do what is going on where are they coming from COME AT ME YOU BASTARDS".
But then the music kept going full on even when nobody was nearby. Yeah, I'm gonna turn it down a bit.
Oh, and I'm hearing voices. Heard someone calling for help just before the first enemy encounter. Am scared.
Hey, guys, now that the OP's been up for ~18 hours, is there anything you feel I'm missing in the OP that I need to include? I'm trying to answer everyone's questions.
Suggested build\specialization for first timers? That would be great.
I went navy with +1 on Hack, +2 Endurance and something else. Have no idea what to expect later on.
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On a side note, the first System Shock is currently being LPed at the SAwful's forum by Hampooj (images with commentary). Not gonna post a link since I don't know what's the policy on them but It's pretty cool, give it a try.
To people asking if you need to play the first game you don't have to at all to understand the game. If you guys want a fun play through, try and use only alien weapons and be crazy researcher, it makes it very hard. Also 1 tip try and beat Xerxes at tic tac toe.
On impossible difficulty, of course, since I've played the game at least once a year since 1998 so I kind of know where everything is. In the first part of med-sci I suddenly realised that I can skip roughly the first two thirds of the Von Braun because I know all of the door codes from memory.
I feel like some kind of System Shock 2 playing savant, which feels weirdly appropriate for the character you play in the game.
I'm working from the disc version here but that's still relevant in this thread. Is there something special I have to do to enable higher widescreen resolutions? I installed SSTool 4.9, which as far as I can tell includes the NewDark 2.4 patch, but in the menu resolutions only go up to 1600x900. I want 1900x1200.
