System Shock 2 • Analysis. — Transcript

Few games have been as well preserved as System Shock 2. It launched way ahead of its time, and because of its cerebral approach to gamifying cyberpunk horror, it built a wall around itself that made it all too difficult for the mainstream to break into it.

to break into it hi I'm ice aesthetics and in this video we'll try to break down that wall we'll be exploring System Shock 2 in depth and we'll be picking up where my System Shock 1 retro analysis left off for the

Hi, I'm Ice Aesthetics, and in this video, we'll try to break down that wall. We'll be exploring System Shock 2 in depth, and we'll be picking up where my System Shock 1 retro analysis left off.

playing these games before watching because a hands-on experience will be almost necessary to participate in this expedition aside from that there's also the case of these being interesting games in their own right which are best appreciated on their own terms first

For the coming months, this channel will focus on cataloguing the design of the entire Shock series, which means that this video will include spoilers for System Shock 1 and 2, and Bioshock 1, 2, and Infinite, as well as any affiliated DLC. I recommend playing these games before watching because a hands-on experience will be almost necessary to participate in this expedition. Aside from that, there's also the case of these being interesting games in their own right, which are best appreciated on their own terms first.

in achieving its stated goals and finally we'll take a look at what it has to teach about game design with this introduction out of the way let's get started the shock series started in 1994 with a horribly boxed release of System

Previous entries into this series are linked below in case you want to see what we'll be building on in this video. For the next 48 minutes, we'll take a look at this game's place in history. We'll explore its successes and failings in achieving its stated goals, and finally, we'll take a look at what it has to teach about game design.

fury of the Citadel sentient AI showdown then they awoke some time later from a healing coma where they'd start to fight for survival against Joanne and her biological experiments the player would throughout the game find out what it transpired and by

With this introduction out of the way, let's get started. The Shock series started in 1994 with a horribly boxed release of System Shock 1. This game was created by the legendary development studio Looking Glass as an effort to further explore what they had created with Ultima Underworld but to do so in a science fiction setting.

looking glass spinner studio with the idea of Co developing a game everyone involved in this project was a big fan of System Shock 1 and agreed to work on something similar similar not because they were afraid of reusing the license

Long story short, the player played a hand in unleashing the fury of the Citadel sentient AI, Shodan. Then they awoke some time later from a healing coma, where they'd start to fight for survival against Shodan and her biological experiments. The player would, throughout the game, find out what transpired and by adopting cyberspace, Citadel station, and weaponry as their own tool, eventually find, engage, and defeat the biological experiments, the former Citadel vice-president, and Shodan herself.

commander a story inspired by the novella heart of darkness to avoid any unfair comparison with doom which was something the original System Shock had to deal with Junction point was supposed to place a bigger emphasis on role-playing and story but before

System Shock 2 started development in 1997. Looking Glass Studios approached the Rational Games, a Looking Glass spin-off studio, with the idea of co-developing a game. Everyone involved in this project was a big fan of System Shock 1 and agreed to work on something similar. Similar not because they were afraid of reusing the license, but because the license had belonged to Origin, which had in the intervening years been acquired by EA.

sequel to system shot and then allotted the team a year to complete the game which resulted in some hiccups this timeframe was not significant so it was decided to reuse the dark engine which lookingglass I developed for thief the

What the team came up with instead was Junction Point, a game wherein the player was tasked with assassinating an insane starship commander, a story inspired by the novella Heart of Darkness. To avoid any unfair comparison with Doom, which was something the original System Shock had to deal with, Junction Point was supposed to place a bigger emphasis on role-playing and story. But before development could begin full force, a publisher was needed.

everything was draped in negativity the attitudes of the developers was a positive one which meant that they could leverage their own fortunes in their favor to some degree while the dark engine was unreliable the cooperation meant that it was possible to talk to

This had the two studios pitching the concept around the industry until they landed with EA. Full circle, right? EA, much to the developers' delight, suggested that the game be a sequel to System Shock and then allotted the team a year to complete the game, which resulted in some hiccups. This timeframe was not significant, so it was decided to reuse the Dark Engine, which Looking Glass had developed for Thief: The Dark Project.

broken by the industry like every project that ever amounted to greatness System Shock 2 had problems but those problems were tackled so that in the end the game kept made with only a six-month delay the way the problems were tackled

This engine was unfinished and sometimes unreliable. Add to this the internal conflicts between studios, two inconsistent job assignments, and the reliance on inexperienced team members, and it wasn't exactly the smoothest development of a video game. But not everything was draped in negativity.

make the project stay on course the game launched two amazing critical acclaim and lack luster sales it wouldn't be until Bioshock that a schock title would be a hit and it has to do with competition and how well both

The attitudes of the developers were a positive one, which meant that they could leverage their own fortunes in their favor to some degree. While the Dark Engine was unreliable, the cooperation meant that it was possible to talk to its creators and get help when needed. The inconsistent job assignment meant that pretty much everyone had to get involved in the game, which wound up adding a lot to it. The inexperienced team members were enthusiastic and committed because they hadn't yet been broken by the industry.

underestimated the game itself System Shock one is nothing like doom and System Shock 2 was nothing like half-life all four are great games in their own right but not compatible not even by a long shot and it's disingenuous to try to hide behind one

Like every project that ever amounted to greatness, System Shock 2 had problems, but those problems were tackled so that in the end, the game was made with only a six-month delay. The way the problems were tackled was by following the Irrational Games development model: one, designed, attack rather than build, act to handle the design; two, everyone participates in game design and theory, make decisions, and hit deadlines.

are made to point out how the system shot games played with the ruleflows games popularized by adding an enormous amount of depth to them the four year in-between of System Shock 1 and 2 were some of the most turbulent years this

This wasn't always possible, but this philosophy no doubt helped make the project stay on course. The game launched to amazing critical acclaim and lackluster sales. It wouldn't be until Bioshock that a Shock title would be a hit, and it has to do with competition and how well both journalists and consumers were able to read the language of games.

faithful follow-up System Shock 2 story takes place 42 years after the events of Citadel station during his time in Citadel the hacker had ejected a Grove containing some of Sheldon's biological experiments in order to prevent them reaching earth

System Shock 1 was labeled a Doom competitor, and System Shock 2 was labeled a Half-Life competitor. Bioshock was just Bioshock. It wasn't made to compete against an arbitrary standard, which grossly underestimated the game itself. System Shock 1 is nothing like Doom, and System Shock 2 was nothing like Half-Life. All four are great games in their own right but not compatible, not even by a long shot, and it's disingenuous to try to hide behind one to explain the other.

rights to the license was something the team embraced with open arms because it gave them access to the storytelling tools like using the environment and audio logs it also meant that emphasis could be placed on emergent gameplay which is something lookingglass helped

That being said, let's do just this. It's been noted by many that the original System Shock was the smart man's Doom, so I think it's fair to say that System Shock 2 is the smart man's Half-Life. These comparisons are made to point out how the System Shock games played with the rule flows games popularized by adding an enormous amount of depth to them.

good use of and reintroduce an admirable quality from the developers is their confidence in their vision they weren't timid about changing things up when they needed to of note is how this game streamlines all movement while still enabling a lot more depth to inventory

The four years in between System Shock 1 and 2 were some of the most turbulent years this medium has ever had. 3D polygons had massively changed the landscape, and the criteria for a first-person shooter changed drastically in this rather short timeframe. It's interesting to me that System Shock 2 can be so different from System Shock 1 while still remaining a faithful follow-up.

to accomplish the different goals for this game facilitated the changes its playstyle would go through that and I doubt EA would have allowed an unplayable game to release to a market that was still high from doom and half-life the changes in the world of

System Shock 2's story takes place 42 years after the events of Citadel Station. During his time in Citadel, the hacker had ejected a Grove containing some of Shodan's biological experiments in order to prevent them reaching Earth. System Shock 2 deals with the aftermath of the rediscovery of that Grove.

acquired by an Anatoly Kerensky who rebuilt it to be more powerful than the UN n the inciting incident which the developers chose to a frame the events of the game was try up demands creation of a faster-than-light starship the von

Even though this game wasn't originally supposed to be a System Shock sequel, that didn't tunnel mission the team during development. As I mentioned earlier, everyone was a big fan, so the rights to the license was something the team embraced with open arms because it gave them access to storytelling tools like using the environment and audio logs.

journey they received a distress call from the planet Tau Ceti v the cloth containing showdowns biological experiments in the first game happened to land here the story from this point on placed like a mixture of Ridley Scott's alien and John Carpenter's The

It also meant that emphasis could be placed on emergent gameplay, which is something Looking Glass helped pioneer. And finally, it gave the team access to the world of System Shock. That meant Shodan, TriOptimum, and the biological experiment enemies in the doomed space suit. These are all things the developers needed to find a way to make good use of and reintroduce.

original formula for now however the only significant changes are in the accessibility of the players available mechanics untouched is the previous gains prioritization of environmental engagements over on Rails storyteller having just done over the human drama behind the game let's reorient ourselves

An admirable quality from the developers is their confidence in their vision. They weren't timid about changing things up when they needed to. Of note is how this game streamlines all movement while still enabling a lot more depth to inventory and the combat.

somewhat reminiscent of the cyberpunk aesthetics established by Ridley Scott's 1982 movie Blade Runner they are walking to a UN n recruitment facility which will act as the game's opening tutorial in here the player is directed to go to

In System Shock 1, the hacker famously played like an early 90s flight simulator airplane mat with tank controls confined to the tightness of a space station. And while that certainly worked to achieve what that game set out to accomplish, the different goals for this game facilitated the changes its playstyle would go through.

they're optional content after completing the tutorial the player is supposed to create their character this is stunned within their UN and service they choose a branch of the UN n to join which will give them an advantage in a

That, and I doubt EA would have allowed an unplayable game to release to a market that was still high from Doom and Half-Life. The changes in the world of System Shock are mostly reactionary to the events of the first game. The UN w...

their character this system gives the player some power over their build and it offers a total of 81 starting play styles the text blocks after each year of service expand a bit on the world and give the player some reference material

if they choose to take their role-playing to the next level this character customization system was inspired by the one from the 1977 role-playing game traveler and what's immediately apparent from this opening is that System Shock 2 will be placing

more of an emphasis on role-playing than his predecessor did after completing three years of service the players accepted to join the maintenance of the von braun which is where the game really system shock world is great because it

lends itself very naturally to a gaming experience it's not one of those suspend your disbelief to enjoy what's happening scenarios the world was clearly something that developers placed a lot of emphasis on getting right and we know this because they loved the license and

because of the lengths they went to to set it up in the beginning in the first five minutes the player knows the backstory of the franchise they know about the citadel ordeal the U n n trioptimum and a faster-than-light

spaceship much of this is delivered in a sort of propaganda video Woodson force the player of how people in this world might be getting their news then there's a very unintuitive character creation the player doesn't really know any of

what they're choosing in their first go ahead because it's presented to them assuming they're familiar with the game world beforehand then after stumbling their way through this the player awakens on the von Braun and is contacted by a dr. Janice Pulido

who gets them up to speed on what's been happening during the players cryo sleep they are next introduced to the many and the game without safety wheels upon entering the von Braun the player is quickly introduced to the player game

relationship in this game the player kneels to the terms of the game or fails something system shock to does just as well as his predecessor is the environmental storytelling but a big difference between the two games is the

visual quality and the environmental design the improved visual quality allows for more nuanced than varied environmental storytelling to occur but the change in the environmental design is a bit more sophisticated the first game was drenched in claustrophobia and

solitude the areas were not designed to make for good combat and believe me they don't where a more conventional game would have killing the players in cover to hide the System Shock one made players improvise that resulted in firefights being fought

across hallways with both parties routinely peeking from whatever cupboard they had to lay some fire on the opposition for the most part this utility of the areas has been left unchanged firefights still feel very uncomfortable and the player fights the

environmental design as much as they fight the animals but the rules that govern the design of the environments seem to have been somewhat altered the Krantz spaces are now a bit more open and whereas the previous game felt like

alien System Shock 2 feels more in line with Star Trek the von Braun has a shopping mall a pool and a basketball court not exactly what you might expect to find aboard a starship this change is strangely not detrimental and the reason

why not has to do with a von braun's character in System Shock 1 the citadel housed several floors but they were very same you had a reactor met deck and sleeping quarters they all sort of the length together

System Shock 2 von braun is more immediately identifiable and in addition to that the environmental design shakeups provide a lot of good for the game's combat there are more noticeable enemy groups than in the previous game and how

the player makes use of the environments to deal with each one demands that they have a firm grasp of the various ways the environments can be rent robots and turrets the men completely different approaches than a robot in a cyborg

Midwife to the unique environments help players formulate strategies where they might want to learn a specific enemy to an open ground but might want to learn another enemy to a more confined space plus they're just that much easier to

look at it thankfully for everyone system shocks game world is surprisingly adaptable and it's one which isn't hard to buy into in this game there's a recycler item the player can buy which gives them nanites the in-game currency

from picking up and recycling garbage this is not something the player ever questions there's also a gun that fires were worms the player must pick up with beakers they find stone about again never questioned because it feels natural then there's a video game

console which the player can lug around from the point they find it and up until they reached the end inclusions such as these are far from conventional and they had a lot of depth and character to the game world whenever I've played through

the game I've had a goal to make each playthrough unique and I've never been shy for options the three are typical builds in the beginning are really distracting the surface because there's a lot of diverging paths which occur

organically and then there's a lot of extra builds which the player acquires as they play and by how they play self-imposed limitations can make for some of the most interesting role-playing experiences and System Shock 2 is an excellent place to try

that out in spite of relishing its role as a System Shock sequel system shock 2 is still very much a self-contained game there are nuts ease and expositions given in relation to the events of the previous game but they're primarily

present because they build up the world they make it seem lived in like one in which events have happened events not dissimilar to the current events which makes it easier to believe the sights on screen if horrors like these can occur

then is easier to buy into them happening for the second time stories like the one in this game could be referred to as Badal narratives because outside forces cannot intervene that means that everything that comes to play must be on site already and must

therefore people leave about in this setting the world of system shock is a smartphone from a design angle because it pulpy cyberpunk enough that juice boxes and plants are believable but it's still 90s retro futurism enough that hacking is a viable character build the

von braun Rickenbacker setup is great because it gives the developers ample room to explore isolation desperation and the horrors this setting can contain from being awoken and instructed to reach Polito the player will come to accept a very different much more

desperate playstyle than what they might have been sold by the tutorial when the player reaches Polito they witness one of the best switcheroos in game design history Pulido is dead and the entity that had been contacting them up until this point

was actually showdown showed and survived the Citadel ordeal because a part of her was also ejected to Tau Ceti 5 but since he was in forced hibernation she couldn't stop her creatures from mutating to the monsters hive mind that

now threatens the von braun show does hatred of mankind is vehemently extended to the many for turning against her and to destroy them she forms with the player an uncomfortable alliance this plot twist was in service of Ken

Levine's biggest cult when designing this game in an interview with I've linked below he stated that if he had to point out a single Kohli had when making the game it was too corrupt the players relationship with the game he went on to say that

games tend to be trustworthy were good is good and bad is bad what you see is what you get that even when betrayals do occur they aren't directed at the player the goal was to violate this inherent and illogical trust in order to make the

player feel that they and not is the character but that they had been led on and deceived apparently this decision of his was controversial amongst the other developers but he held his ground and the game is all the better for it

he then went on to talk about how his approach to other issues mainly the weapon breakage might have been someone misguided and missed the mark but worry not Ken I've got your back the weapon breakage is a smart implementation that justifies

its own inclusion while it's not realistic that they break after what feel like a mere ten shots have been fired and while it isn't realistic that they are often restricted behind upgrade walls you know it doesn't take a genius

to know how to operate a gun this mechanic justifies its inclusion because it adds an element of unreliability to the game and it forces the player to get out of their comfort zone the recent players hoard for different weapons is

because they know they can't rely on any one of them so they must compensate to insure themselves this reduces the freedom of their inventory and with the addition of carrying up to five types of ammunition for each one the weapon

breakage helps enforce the game's focus on resource management which also helps get the players scrounging which is the key to the Sharks series gameplay room which is our next subject as the player progresses they'll naturally uncover more of the story because of the

tried-and-true shock series Game Cleveland resources are scarce so the player must scavenge and scrounge this results in players finding audio logs just give them story those stories enrich the world and ingrain it in the mind of the play the

player therefore builds a bond with the world which is reinforced by the combat the combat makes the player mechanically dependent on their game world so they get more invested in it and that combat also requires resources so the player

needs to scrounge around and on it goes System Shock one is often credited as the first game to use audio locks and while I can't confirm or deny that it's certainly one of the best early examples of the advantages they can provide and

this series has benefited from presenting narrative in this way what the shocked Series Excel sad is presenting the outsider in the fallen society the last sane man this is a story set of well suited for video games which have for the longest time by how

they play had to constrain themselves to stories about shooting and walking and a simple inclusion of non intrusive audio logs is a smart way of realizing this setup another element of the game that built up the gameplay loop is how the

Gold's are all very area oriented the player needs to get key cards to doors that lead to areas which house AI control boards which the player needs to search around for and destroy to give shodhan the ability to give them access

to another area where they need to do something else these objectives demanded the player backtracks and that they have a sense of the overall environment but this set up was problematic and developments if the player was going to

be re-entering areas that meant the difficulty of each individual area could not be adjusted in isolation from the rest of the game this was solved largely with enemy placement where easier enemies appear in earlier areas and more abundance than elsewhere and it was also

solved to some degree by the game falling back on the natural gameplay since the player is not really able to grind for resources or upgrades there always someone on the backfoot he see enemies or now the final touch in

overcoming this potential issue was to have the goals gradually moved further and further away from opening areas was made it harder for the player to get back to them and eventually in the end made it impossible to do so the early

portion of this game is very Metroidvania like its predecessor but the inclusion of highly dedicated RPG mechanics forced this game to fold on that setup around the halfway mark in almost every way System Shock 2 is a deeper and richer game assistantship 1

and that's largely because of those RPG elements and dark enter which was originally created to support an atmospheric stealth game and even though stealth is not quite a viable play style that dark engine still informs much of this game like in thief enemies patrol

areas and have varying stages of player awareness and also like in thief the player must work around lighting and sound to get the upper hand in combat engagements the dark engine helped this game acquire some very naturally occurring tension cycles like enemy

engagements running makes noise with naturally disincentivizes sneaking up to an enemy to get the drop on him and accidentally making the wrong assumption on the noise made when walking on a specific floor material creates a fight-or-flight response because the player will now either have

to bull rust the enemy or run and hide naturally occurring events such as this one are very immersive and the developers took some extra steps to generate this kind of immersion I've always felt that slow movement makes any game world more immersive and

I'm sure most of you watching would agree the extra steps taking were not so much to suggest stealth play but rather to generate slow and immersive play the following inclusions forced the player to take in the world one was the cameras which made the

players stop to peek around corners another was the chemical storerooms and the entire research skill and a third could be the game's emphasis on lootable items which have already covered to some extent before leaving the subject of the

dark engine I'll be lobbying a criticism and it's off how customizable the game can be there's a case to be made that the player can seriously overpower themselves by a simple tweak in the gamma configuration and the button

layout I'm not an anti consumer lobbyists and knowing that this game was produced by EA I guess I shouldn't say this but strictly for the sake of analyzing game design there's a lot of merit in knowing when to give the player

control and when not to the classic argument is that more accessibility is better because it enables people to tweak their experience to their liking without excluding anyone else and while I think that logic does ultimately trump mine I still think everyone can recall a time

when they chose to autosave and rush rather than play as intended and risk their progress something I failed to mention in my video on the first that these games are essentially point-and-click adventure games set in the first person the inventory screen is

overlaid on top of the regular play screen and leaves the player exposed there's very rarely moments of complete safety in this game because enemies can respawn and the world seems to brief without the players involvement this makes it so the player needs to stay

focused somewhat dedicated and alert because a lot can go wrong very quickly and because this game can be played on autopilot without reading the world exploring the backstory and getting to the nitty-gritty of engagement the player will not make it very far the

game is blunt in that way and several others like how it lacks adaptive difficulty today if a player would be doing poorly in a game of this type then that game might generate extra resources for them to find but in this game if you

fall behind you either catch up quickly or get stuck underpowered in an increasingly doomed spaceship and there's a lot of charm to that bluntness something else that's charming is the complexity although this game is a lot more accessible than the first one it's

still more complex than almost everything else looking at five minutes of game players enough to see that this game couldn't realistically be made today because it can't be fitted to a conventional controller and because not only does it seem to violently hate the

very concept of hand-holding it sometimes feels like the game wants the player to fail the great example of this is seen in the revival mechanic the player can find these quantum bio reconstruction machines which they can activate to create a respawn sight

should they die in an area those revivals cost nanites and it is possible to go bankrupt from poor play and have to start all over again now realistically that's likely not going to happen because most players have the

sense to save their progress at short intervals which is another problem in the vein of my gamma configuration rant I'll still acknowledge that the customizability argument Trump's mind but I can't not bring this stuff up early in this

segment I was talking about weapon break-ins and how guns being able to jam at any moment added an element of unreliability to them but this also adds an element of uncertainty to the game and what I want to get into now is that

uncertainty is great for horror [Music] between realizing that Pulido is dead and reaching the flesh nightmare inhabiting the Rickenbacher the player will be subjected to some of the most versatile and impressive horror this medium has to offer I noted in my system

shock one video that showdown is an omnipresent enemy which makes her very natural to the interactive medium this game has two of these enemies and that makes this dynamic that much more powerful shodhan is an unreliable ally with the player knows better than to

trust the many is a grotesque hive mind whose particular type of alliance would be detrimental to anything resembling individuality this game successfully explores themes like isolation science-fiction on artificial intelligence body or claustrophobia desperation survival and identity I've noted how comparisons to doom are unfair

but that's in relation to the game Doom this game has an atmosphere of duel the distance from Earth is established early on to be 67 trillion miles the isolation is striking and the player knows full well that there is no cavalry coming the

alliance with showdown is a result of this in desperate times people make desperate allies but isolation is not the only thing that developers focused on for them horror was a key focus of this game and they split it up into

three separate brackets first was isolation which is why the player has little to no physical contact with other sentient beings in this game second was vulnerability which meant a player needed to be inhabiting a fragile character and last was the atmospheric

stuff moody sound effects and the deliberate placement of lighting and that last thing is something that largely but not exclusively a tribute to Ken Levine something he's always been good at and has always been getting better at is atmosphere the ambient

noise in this game goes a long way in solidifying the horror aesthetics because it makes up most of the play time like the best horror games System Shock 2 knew to spread combat out to give the player the ability to breathe

and for the tension cycle to work its magic there are stretches of playtime where the player has nothing to observe except the occasional rumble of machinery or the distant mumbles of the many if the horror in the first game was

I don't know if I'll make it through this environment and also I can for the life of me make sense of this environment then the horror in this game is fast play with high stakes in dark environments with dark subtext suffice

it to say System Shock 2 is brand of horror is not in-your-face it's lingering and it's something that Fester's in the mind listening to audio logs describe the situation as everything collapsed brings the player a glimpse of a narrative they can't change

and the sporadic placement of these audio logs gets the player to fill in the gaps which brings their mind into the game games like this one get their dread not only from the blood and the disgusting enemy design but also from

the fact that at every moment the player feels the sting of a thousand eyes on them an uncomfortable feeling that even in deafening solitude something is watching them just waiting to exact its will something eerie which stays behind

the curtain and something amazing is how this game naturally adapts that feeling to every available built every built handicaps the player in one way or another and exposes them to an aspect of Horowitz might be lost on another build

the hacker is inherently exposed and desperate sneaking around corners and forced to get makeshift allies and turrets and environmental hazards such as elevators that can crush enemies enemies splash damage and explosive barrels the great struggle for this build is an adjusting their viability in

combat the circumvent running out of nanites which they need for hacking which also makes refine being harder for them the soldier is restricted by the inventory limitations although they'll probably never run out of nanites they'll constantly have to readjust

their play style and their inventory to adjust for their perceived threats in any given area a laser rifle could be a lifesaver but it could also be detrimental for how much inventory it takes up to maximize their utility in combat these soldiers

must constantly expose themselves to dangers in order to get a read on what they need to adjust in their build the psionic is restricted by the scenario lofts AI powers they have acquired to upgrade levels the player must spend

cyber modules to upgrade new Sai powers that player must spend these very same cyber modules this build keeps the player permanently handicapped in some areas because they'll be busy trying to make up for the shortcomings this build saddles and width and the inventory

becomes a hoarders paradise where every boost and implant gets its spot every spin-off playstyle finds a natural hardship to be oppressed by this is one of the greatest success stories in this game and it's made even better by its

uniqueness this is something only a video game could do but because most don't System Shock 2 essentially has a built-in adaptive horror structure unique in the entire video game edu system shock 2 holds itself to a higher standard than the industry stable

horror game there's no guarantees of a smooth ride and the focus here isn't on the visuals there's a realization brought to the phrase in space no one can hear you scream the unknown is everywhere surrounding and screaming at

the player and acquiring new weapons and skills does not defeat this horror as we've just learned it feeds it because of the liabilities inherent with the restrict menteur the inventory and skill set up there's a great article with a

link below which summarized the horror on display perfectly System Shock 2 projects real psychological terror through the tragic grotesquerie of the formerly human enemies the urgency and grim portent of crew members audio logs and the unparalleled sound design that

brought the Menace and foreboding of the von Braun to horrible life upon reaching the Rickenbacker this game goes full-body horror show Dan's plan to destroy the menaced wordid upon the realisation that it has engulfed the entirety of the Rickenbacker walking

through the disgusting flesh covered hallways destroying nerve clusters and platforming on gigantic teeth is a very unique video game experience not soon to be forgotten and it serves to undermine and under power the authority and drive of the player how could it not

they've been swallowed in this area the player slowly makes their way to the managed core in order to destroy it the map is of no use and the audio logs in this area really highlight that the fear of a icon wrong might be unfounded

compared to the horror of biology gone wrong the story central theme might be this very conflict of flesh and steel and it's perfectly embodied by the many and showdown the player assumes the role of a cybernetically infused soldier they

exist in the middle of the two paradigms every upgrade they get brings them closer to showdown and further from the many I'd attribute the alliance of the player had showdown to her being an abstract and non tan gentle creature as

opposed to the many which is manifested as a physical threat it's easier to trust something you can't put a face on and since that something also provides periodic cyber modules the player actually agrees to show dan's alliance this works because of something this

series will explore further in Bioshock 1 and BioShock Infinite which is that the player generally accepts whatever truth is presented to them and naturally makes up for any inconsistencies if the player had given it a thought shonan's attitude really gives her true

intentions away she treats the player like garbage and has no quarrels about throwing them into the fire the player ultimately defeats the many which is when they're given their last glimpse of how much more related they are to it

than to show that the Menace final message is for the player not to trust show them I have a feeling and some data to back up my suspicion that the ending were showed and betrays the player was supposed to take place over a longer

period of time showed an intended all along to use the faster-than-light engines on the von Braun to modify all of reality to her specifications the Menace warning occurs just 15 to 30 seconds before showed and reveals this to the player and it feels like there's

a section of the game missing here in 2007's portal there was a moment when the player broke away from GLaDOS and went into the underbelly of aperture labs I have a feeling something similar was supposed to happen here the player

would have continued to destroy the von Braun but there'd be a revelation that this von Braun was a fake constructed by shodhan to distract the player while she was busy remaking reality the player might then have had to break out from this area and

infiltrate shonan's memories where they'd eventually reached the point where the hacker from the first game removed her ethical restraints and fighter there since that would be her point of origin and thus her core there are no design documents I've seen nor do

I have any insider knowledge that suggests this specific theory of mine but it's a logical middle step from what we have and what the rest of the game plays like what we know about the original ending is that there was more

complexity to it and what happened was the developers were like [Music] but seriously this ending came about to the time restraints the player revisits the opening of System Shock 1 and makes their way to show then where they hack

terminals to remove her shields and then kill her the shark series is great at narrative that a curse moment-to-moment and the rare times when play is interrupted is usually to deliver the player to the game world or in order to subvert the

player's expectations and play on the pre established rules of the medium this includes the opening cinematics the meeting with Andrew Ryan and the Polydorus that seem and unsure the original ending would have been more in line with what this game excelled that

up until this point something more than a boss find in a cutscene overseeing Sheldon's return was a task assigned to Ken Levine his goal for her inclusion was to betray the players trust this game is one which actively violates the

player relationship in my boss battles that shock video I'm mentioning that the shark series doesn't focus on conflict like most conventional games do and while I've since changed my mind about a lot of things I said in that video I

firmly stand by that point although they're very sloppy by Nature the years have given these games a sort of gravitas conflict in these games is often a physical manifestation of the central themes of the game whether it be

objectivism in the extremes or an expression of a parent's love for their child as seen in Bioshock 1 and Bioshock 2 the players role in this game is to be the in-between between the flesh and the digital their character is the last sane

man this is the typical shocked protagonist and it's a very good video game protagonist I suppose that the players journey in this game could effectively be called the death man walking because no matter how you'd coax it there

not getting out alive no one will come and save them and nothing can prepare them for what horrors lie waiting for them something interesting about this game's story is its use of unreliable narrators ken Levine is supposed to be a

big fan of these and they crop up in his games fairly often between shodhan and the many the player really needs to distance themselves to get the full picture they'll need to pay attention to the gaps in knowledge and try to make

sense of them without being blindsided by either predominate narrator what Looking Glass and irrational managed to make here is a protagonist who's literally a perfect avatar for a story of this kind there is immense player choice but it's all for naught the game

will naturally wrap its talons around them and make out of them a subject to horrors they might not realize until their third playthrough System Shock 2 works because it follows and builds on the rules established by its predecessor just about everything

was gone over with a fine-tooth comb and reinterpreted for the chains time but that's not the whole story because System Shock 2 really can't be contained as a child of its time because it was so amazingly different from everything else

when it launched it was arguably the smartest game of all time into this day it remains a strong competitor for that title System Shock 2 proves unequivocally that there's value to deep systems framed within an internally consistent game and that's probably the

best lesson to take away from it thanks for watching I hope you've enjoyed watching this video as much as I enjoyed making it the foot inside was cotton without permission from he won Lee Travis Whitsett Scion mainframe gaming

and several others I'm sure we'll all be cool guys about me using it and I hope this video has given you something to think about System Shock 2 is one of the best games of all time and if you watched this

video without playing the game I assure you you've not gotten half of the experience yet in the video description I've left links to other videos I've made on the shock series and since you're scrolling down there anyways might as well like and subscribe right

if there's anything you'd like to contest in this video or if there's something you think I missed be sure to comment as I'm usually a very active reply err and because I'd like to see what you might have to teach me in

the next video we'll be leaving behind the cyberpunk aesthetic and getting in the bathysphere to the neo no our objective is masterpiece that is 2007 Bioshock I'll give updates on the production of that video on Twitter and I hope you'll

come to the channel again when it's ready I maestro statics thanks again for watching [Music] [Music] you