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System Shock 2 |OT| A Perfect, Immortal Machine

Easy_D

never left the stone age
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.../

I'd like to add http://www.gog.com/gamecard/arx_fatalis to that list as well. Like System Shock 2 it has a fairly creepy vibe to it when you're out and exploring, lots of creepy ambient sounds like wind howling, screams in the distance.

(It's also very much a spiritual successor to the Underworld titles)
 
Fuck. Pro-tip: remap your quickload and quicksave keys. I forgot that this game actually lets you save after you've died, so if you miss the load button you can accidentally save over your game and have to start again. I'm pretty sure it only autosaves when you go through a bulkhead for the first time too, so with all the backtracking it's easy to lose a LOT of progress.
 

Bumhead

Banned
Started playing this tonight, my first experience with the game. I'm currently around 2 hours in,
on my way to Deck 4 via engineering, just reached an irradiated area of corridors
.

Thoroughly enjoying it. The building blocks for BioShock are obvious, although I also entirely understand those who played System Shock 2 and complained about BioShock feeling scaled back. System Shock 2 already feels quite a bit deeper in terms of character development and progression.

Running the game with the SHTUP texture pack and the amended UI. I'm also currently playing with the music on. I like the music itself, but can't work out yet whether it's adding to the game or feels out of place. I might try and play a few sections of the game without it and see if my experience changes.

Feeling a little unsure as to how to approach my build, though. I've mostly been concentrating on tech so far, with the occasional stat. I've entirely ignored Psi and Weapons up to this point.
 

justjim89

Member
Just got to Hydroponics. Wow. This is truly stellar. Great atmosphere, great sound, and very solid looking for a 1999 game. The entire experience is so rooted in survival horror, which is great. There's never enough ammo. Your weapons are never in good enough conotdition. You never quite have enough health. But every time I narrowly squeak by to the next objective it's a rush. I can't even describe how great it felt to finally level up enough to repair and actually use the shotgun and surplus of shotgun ammo. I'm playing marine, and mainly leaning towards weapons and maintenance.

My one frustration is even when added to Steam, I can't use the Steam tool to take in game screenshots. Any way to get this to work?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
SS2tool v5.0 is out and now fully compatible with the gog release, cleaning up the few unnecessary files and folders it previously left, etc. I re-patched and it seems fully compatible with v4.8 that I had used. The saves work, there are no apparent issues and the installed mods weren't affected. I only had to edit the cam_ext.cfg all over again to re-enable windowed mode, bloom lighting, scaled and transparent hud, etc. It also comes with various controls presets now. The multiplayer mode is also left enabled by default, I believe previous versions disabled it by default (because it's buggy).
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I read the OP, and the suggestion is to play without the texture mods. But some of the screenshots over in the other thread show some nice changes. I'm conflicted.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
I read the OP, and the suggestion is to play without the texture mods. But some of the screenshots over in the other thread show some nice changes. I'm conflicted.

There are 2 mods, one that updates the textures and one that updates the enemies. The texture update mod looks great, the enemy update mod completely destroys the games art.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
There are 2 mods, one that updates the textures and one that updates the enemies. The texture update mod looks great, the enemy update mod completely destroys the games art.
3. One for object textures, one for world textures (the latter afaik does less, for now, but isn't bad to have), one for enemies.

The Tacticool weapons are probably worth it too but would be nice if someone did the rest weapons.

And Vurt's space textures for sure.

Optionally the dynamic sky mod. You only see it for like 3 seconds but why not.

Aaah, just check here and decide for yourself. If in doubt avoid.

The enemies mod, rebirth, has questionable choices despite having somewhat higher quality than vanilla (but still not exactly great, animations and death poses can look even worse with it, and there are some inconsistencies here and there). Like the infamous midwives turned porn-stars. You might as well play without it for your first play-through and try it for another.
 

aravuus

Member
I'd play the game this instant if it had subtitles. Not being a native speaker I'd probably understand most of it, but not all. Which isn't enough.
 
I'd play the game this instant if it had subtitles. Not being a native speaker I'd probably understand most of it, but not all. Which isn't enough.

Everything is in your PDA, if you don't understand something first time look under logs and emails to play it back or read it.
 

Eusis

Member
What, really? I was told otherwise. Gotta check it out then, thanks
You have an opening movie that isn't too important and can be rewatched, and you have enemy sounds which will play over and over. I imagine most of the important stuff will be displayed with subtitles.
 

Yanksfan

Member
I am away from my PC for a few weeks, but I am purchasing this now. I can't wait to play it. I have always heard this is the peak of gaming and having it on GOG, I am confident now I can enjoy it without having to do crazy tweaks to get it to run on current hardware.

Now if they would only release Grim Fandango (which I still own in a sealed jewelcase).
 

Persona7

Banned
I read the OP, and the suggestion is to play without the texture mods. But some of the screenshots over in the other thread show some nice changes. I'm conflicted.

Cvg18dF.jpg


vs.

2Q43XSy.jpg
 
Thanks for the OT shout out :).

Another thing that, someone else mentioned here already, but you can do it with all your older games:

Force supersampling or downscale, or both through your driver control panel.

I'm about to jump back in with some headphones, saturday night be damned.
 

DocSeuss

Member
Just got to Hydroponics. Wow. This is truly stellar. Great atmosphere, great sound, and very solid looking for a 1999 game. The entire experience is so rooted in survival horror, which is great. There's never enough ammo. Your weapons are never in good enough conotdition. You never quite have enough health. But every time I narrowly squeak by to the next objective it's a rush. I can't even describe how great it felt to finally level up enough to repair and actually use the shotgun and surplus of shotgun ammo. I'm playing marine, and mainly leaning towards weapons and maintenance.

My one frustration is even when added to Steam, I can't use the Steam tool to take in game screenshots. Any way to get this to work?

Steam overlay isn't working properly yet. Not sure if/when there will be a fix for this.

What difficulty mode are you playing on? Playing Marine's definitely keeping you from looting everything you want, of course. Good on you for maintenance, that's an important path to choose.

SS2tool v5.0 is out and now fully compatible with the gog release, cleaning up the few unnecessary files and folders it previously left, etc. I re-patched and it seems fully compatible with v4.8 that I had used. The saves work, there are no apparent issues and the installed mods weren't affected. I only had to edit the cam_ext.cfg all over again to re-enable windowed mode, bloom lighting, scaled and transparent hud, etc. It also comes with various controls presets now. The multiplayer mode is also left enabled by default, I believe previous versions disabled it by default (because it's buggy).

Thanks! I'll probably stick this post in the OP, if you don't mind.

I read the OP, and the suggestion is to play without the texture mods. But some of the screenshots over in the other thread show some nice changes. I'm conflicted.

You should use texture mods, but you should avoid the model upgrades.

I still want to play System Shock 1 first, but my backlog is huge. Maybe I'll buy SS2 from GOG next sale.

Nothing on your backlog is as important as System Shock 2. Literally the only game I can think of that would give me pause for thought is STALKER, at present.

Thanks for the OT shout out :).

Another thing that, someone else mentioned here already, but you can do it with all your older games:

Force supersampling or downscale, or both through your driver control panel.

I'm about to jump back in with some headphones, saturday night be damned.

NP. I think I might stick this in the OP as well, if you don't mind.

Yes, but it pretty much kills the atmosphere. Your first playthrough should be solo. Recommended for a second playthrough, though!

Can't agree with this more. I'm trying to, but I'm already agreeing at 100%.
 

Sober

Member
Game music I usually turn down, but for this I just turned it completely off. Kinda spooky but I think I've gotten used to the hum of the Von Braun's engines by now after all these hours.
 

Endesu

Member
Not to continue to beat a dead horse but those who are new to the title, give the music a chance. Not all of the soundtrack is thumping techno like MedSci 1. At least get to MedSci 2 before you turn it off completely.
 

Zocano

Member
Been playing the game for hours tonight. I got to Deck 3 and I died not too immediately to some turrets and I realized I hadn't saved since I started today. Yaaaaah time to take a break. It set me back to basically the start of Deck 2. Ah well. Now I get to blitz through that deck as if I am a god.

But really, with coolant tubes playing for the majority of Deck 2, after I had finally made some progress, I already felt like a god even after meeting my first midwife . Too bad it was all ruined by me refusing to save and reload on "deaths" and just let the cloning machines do all the work.
 

Bagu

Member
I normally like spiders.
Outside of a rubber spider toy from my childhood, they have always fascinated me. The people calling for tactical strikes when they see pics of spiders make me chuckle.

I feel compelled to install that arachnophobia mod.
 
Not to continue to beat a dead horse but those who are new to the title, give the music a chance. Not all of the soundtrack is thumping techno like MedSci 1. At least get to MedSci 2 before you turn it off completely.

The 'thumping techno' was definitely my biggest problem with the music - it just seemed out of place. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for the time being (mainly because I like to keep to the 'original vision' as much as possible), but I really do hope the music matches the mood more in future areas.
 

sueil

Member
A little planning seems to have gone a long way on my psi character. Am at about the halfway point of the game and sitting on nearly 70 psi hypos. I am gaining new ones faster than I can use them up. Damn it feels good to be a psycho.
 

Polk

Member
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
TTLG or someone made great System Shock Portable version with integrated dosbox and mods.
Works like a charm.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
how is the GoG release of System Shock 2? is it good? I'm thinking of getting it vs buying the old disc.
It works better than the CD out of the box and can be patched up with all the fan stuff to be as good as any other version.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Thanks! I'll probably stick this post in the OP, if you don't mind.
No need to quote me, just put some stuff under useful links or something.

Like.

SS2 tool - patching utility that ensures you have the latest and most compatible version of System Shock 2.

SS2 mods - list of some major mods and tweaks which improve or alter various aspects of the game.

In the case of the latter you could copy paste the actual list and link to each mod thread instead.

Or whatever.
 

Sethos

Banned
How does Evolve work? "No results found. Try a different query." when searching for SS2

It's like Hamachi and all those programs, virtual LAN connections with lobbies, game tracking etc. https://www.evolvehq.com/welcome The interface is super sleek and everything just works. Hamachi started doing all sorts of weird limitations, bandwidth throttling and whatnot.

So if there's no Lobby you could just create one, have people join it and everybody can see LAN games created in that lobby or make 'private connections' like Hamachi with friends.
 

NZNova

Member
I wish I could forget this game and experience it for the first time again. It's so great to see people getting in and liking it.
 
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