How exactly is this game scary?

[Arnold Braunschweiger]

I guess I'll start by stating that I'm not interested in discussing the game's difficulty or general mechanics. These are a-ok in my book and I could always see how this game influenced all the action-RPG hybrids that came after it and for that, it should be forever praised.

However, I'm puzzled as to how people can attach phrases like "atmospheric", "immersive" or "terryfing" to their reveiws of System Shock 2, because even when I tried to play it over 10 years ago these kind of statements seemed rather far fetched. I'm not really put off by the graphics. Silent Hill is old as f*ck and this game can still knock your socks off, even to this day. SS2 on the other hand puts those socks back on my feet, one at a time for each of the following complaints:

1 - enemies
Okay, what do we have here. Some weirdly animated dudes moaning and spouting gibbersih while comically flailing at me with lead pipes. Monkeys shooting lasers out of their foreheads. Jesus Christ, monkeys? Really? I guess arachnids were the only type of enemy I felt was pretty creepy, but then again, all spiders are.

2 - sound design
Aside from few good lines of dialogue - one of which all fans should be familiar with since it's quoted up the ass by all of them - most of the sound design fails to create a compelling atmosphere, plain and simple. At risk of sounding like a broken record - the sound and music of Silent Hill are what made that game really scary - go and listen to it's soundtrack and if your ears won't bleed after ten minutes then you can listen to it long enough to see what a horror game should sound like. In here we have the previously mentioned monsters making cliched groans, some sci-fi noises and music that feels out of place. One of the first areas of the game has this breakbeat song playing in the background and I'd sooner expect to hear it in Unreal Tournament rather than "atmospheric horror game". Come on, can you honestly listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bL7I_eWryI
and think to yourself "hmm, this music is unnerving"? Probably not, because I'm feeling more like busting a move when I hear it.

No sir, I did not feel it. The atmosphere, I mean. Now, don't get me wrong, I still like SS2. It's just that I never understood what's so scary about it that apparently everyone but me gets.

[Ceejay]

It also came out in 1999, so it was old when you played it(you mention around ten years ago), in 1999 it was considered rather scary by the standards then. Playing in the dark with headphones, and not being used to those graphics which seem fantastic in 1999, it did come across quite scary. Having a pc I never played silent hill, so your comments may be accurate, but as it was never out for the pc, then it would not have affected people who did not play it and who played this, perhaps I would have found it less scary had I played silent hill first.

While I agree some of the music was not unerving, it was not supposed to scare you all the way through, it would kind of build you up for when it was scary, the fact that you were isolated, weapons broke, things jumping out at you, crew logs, moans, screaming, dead bodies, blood, lighting, shodan taunting etc all added to it, but again you have to remember back then it all seemed fresh and new, so it made it all the more real and terrifying.

This link give more of an indication of some of the ingame music (for instance) the none dancy stuff is around the 11:00 mark, some of the music is obvioulsy more unerving than others, espcially when your walking down dark corridors not knowing whats round the corner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvrdtlyUXPg

Its also the sound effects more than the music also. They add alot. You also had more than just monkies, you had "the many", cyborg assasins, rumblers, Psi reavers, bots etc.

Different things affect different people though, I remember watching house with some friends (the horror film not the tv series) they were rather scared, I burst out laughing at how bad it was.

Different people can immerse themselves into different games, I was very immersed in this game, I indeed found it rather intense and atmospheric. Like I know friends who find the resident evil games scary, I never did. It just did not suck me in. Same with dead space, some people found it really scary, While I did at the start, after I got armed up a bit, it was just a shooter for me. Same with doom 3 etc where some people found them scary all the way through.

Not sure why you are not getting sucked into it or find it atmosphereic, but then not everyone likes the same things, its just life.

[spiritman]

System Shock 2 graphics were never "fantastic", they were considered dated even back when game was released...

[Creepy Toast]

Originally posted by Nifft:

System Shock 2 graphics were never "fantastic", they were considered dated even back when game was released...

ikr? back in 1999 i was all like "wow these graphics suck compared to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCJJYMsgSsk