E120: System Shock 2

System Shock 2 is considered by many to be the finest immersive sim ever made. Released in 1999 in a coventure by Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games, it sought to combine the classic 3D dungeon crawling of the original with pen and paper inspired RPG systems. While resource management and exploration were still a key part of the experience, you were now restricted in what you could initially do by those RPG stats - and it was only towards the end game that your character would feel truly strong. Perhaps most obvious were the changes from the more abstract environments to something that felt real - this was a real place that had a disaster befall it, not just a series of rooms and corridors stapled together.

But are those things that were so revolutionary back in 1999 actually that impressive today? Nowadays we have semi-spiritual successors like Bioshock which mimicked environmental storytelling. We have Prey and Deus Ex with far more expansive RPG systems. Has System Shock 2 stood the test of time, or does it even offer something unique, when compared to the games of the present?

On this episode we discuss:

Storytelling

How does System Shock 2 tell its story to the player? Do its many audio logs combine into a complete and understandable narrative, or is it just a lot of standing still and being bored while a voice actor spouts nonsense at you?

Level Design

Does System Shock 2’s systems complement its level design, or get in its way? Does the non-linearity of the levels represent the apex of the game, or are they just confusing messes?

RPG Systems

How well designed are the RPG aspects of System Shock 2? Do they allow the player the creative expression to make a unique character that tackles problems in their own way? How well do they work over the full runtime of the game?

We answer these questions and many more on the 120th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

System Shock 2 OST: Eric Brosius, Ramin Djawadi

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RSD Mods for System Shock 2

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Is System Shock 2 still the best and brightest immersive sim, or has it been eclipsed by new games? Should we finally play Deus Ex? What other games in the genre are we yet to play and need to? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

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