I am a huge fan of System Shock 2 and consider it to be one of my personal favourite games ever. So you can imagine my delight when I was finally able to get my hands on and play the original System Shock here on steam. And whilst I still think SS2 is a much better game, I sincerely enjoyed playing this.
System Shock is an oldschool FPS in which you play as a hacker who must stop a rogue AI who has taken over the Citadel space station from taking over/destroying the Earth. Seems straightforward enough, but what I really like about the story is how it always feels like it’s moving forward. You wake up and find everything’s gone to hell. You desperately try and figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. And every time it seems like you've foiled SHODAN's plans, she’s still one step ahead of you, so it's up to you to keep up and try and save the Earth. I really like this as it seriously draws you in. You want to keep playing to find out what happens next and to get the last laugh in. Even though the graphics and controls haven't aged well, I find System Shock to be a deeply immersive game.

In saying that, it is true that the controls are what really holds the game back. I am very grateful for the enhanced edition because it fixes the most glaring issues (lack of mouselook and low res words). Seriously, not having mouselook really held the game back in my opinion. I've heard some people say that the lack of mouselook helps add in a layer of helplessness that contributes to the horror atmosphere and to an extent they're right. But there's a fine line between feeling powerless against overwhelming odds and just feeling frustrated with stilted controls and this being more of a shooter than a horror game, I find myself drifting towards the latter. To be honest, the controls aren't too terrible. I really like the controllable and interruptible lean as it can really help in being able to out manoeuvre and snipe enemies.

My biggest gripe with the game though is its frankly atrocious UI. Unlike in SS2 where you just pressed tab and your inventory/stats screen showed up instantly, SS1's UI is broken up into several small tabs lined along the bottom/side of the screen that you have to manually click on to open. And navigating them is a right chore, ESPECIALLY when you're in the middle of an intense moment and you need to heal or reload your weapon. You need to exit mouselook, click on the appropriate tab and double click on the appropriate item to use and then go back into mouselook. This is awfully time consuming and needlessly complex.

On that note, a lack of hotkeys is also another big problem with the game. Instead of having each weapon mapped to a button, you toggle through them with the "q" key. This is annoying enough as getting to the weapon you want is annoying enough if you accidently go past it as you're frantically cycling though your weapon, but this is further compounded by the fact that there is no reload button. You have to bring up your weapons menu to select your weapon and bring up the weapon sub menu to be able to reload your weapon and then click on the ammo icon to reload your weapon. This is especially galling if you get in a fight and need to reload you weapon. Either you quickly toggle through to another one to finish the enemy off or you run and hide to buy enough time to bring up the menu to manually reload. I suppose this can be argued to be in the games favour as it adds to the horror atmosphere by adding a touch of realism because y'know, in a real gunfight you can't just instantly reload. And not gonna lie, that is the case sometimes because it adds a layer of desperation to survive if you're getting low on health and haven't been able to activate a restoration bay. But then again, it also can cause some cheap deaths, which no one is a fan of.

The cyberspace minigames are also something I'm not a fan of as they're incredibly esoteric in design and are just sorta there. You just sorta float around in cyberspace, avoid enemies and collect packets of data and such. Not helped are the awkward and floaty controls and unintuitive display.

And finally, the level design leaves a lot to be desired. To an extent, it's a pretty good layout having multiple elevators connected to a series of floors connected to a vertical shaft. But the low res graphics combined with some truly maze-like levels lead to me getting lost multiple times despite the fact I have played this game several times. The engineering level is probably the worst offender being both a massive level and having several areas look the same, leading to me getting lost and not knowing which way to go and where I've already been.

At this point, it may seem like I'm down on the game because I've been slagging it off for the last few paragraphs. And while it's true that in retrospect the game wasn't as good as I was expecting, the true value of SS1 comes from the experience. It's a lot like Dark Souls in the fact that taken at face values by the value of its mechanics alone, it's not that remarkable. But it's all about the adventure and the experience. SS1 is greater than the sum of its parts. It's incredibly immersive and once you get into the groove of things, it quickly becomes addictive and hard to put down. The issues I talked about at length before aren't deal breakers and can be easily worked around (but are issues none the less) and gotten used to.

The story is probably the best part of SS1. I quite like how it's all up to you to figure out from the audio logs and emails to figure out what to do and where to go. SS1 respects your intelligence and trusts that you'll be able to use the pieces of information you're given and that you find to piece together your objective. And that makes it all the more satisfying to work through the game. You feel as though it was you besting SHODAN and not the game telling you how. Admittedly I was more down on this aspect when I first started playing because I easily got lost on what I had to do and what I had already done. But in retrospect, this was a nice touch of realism. No ones going to tell you what you need to do and what you've already done. It's up to you.

And really, it's just so much fun working your way through Citadel station, getting better weapons and upgrades, being able to traverse areas you previously couldn't and piecing together what happened from the audiologs scattered here and there. It was metroidvania before metroidvania was a thing. And it does it so well too!

At the end of the day, playing SS1 made me look back more fondly on SS2 because it builds upon SS1 and improves on so many areas. But SS1 has its merits and without it, there wouldn't be a SS2. It takes a lot of getting used to but once you do it's a great deal of fun and an incredible experience you're not likely to forget any time soon! So, to that end, this game gets my recommendation!

435926. Because of a bad bug or glitch or whatever. You'll know it when you need it.

Get the GoG version. Turn off auto-update, then manage installation and configure then select the 1.12.15 version. The 1.12.16 (latest) version has this bug where moving and turning the camera causes the world geometry to jitter and stutter. I'm sure there's a third party process to roll back the Steam version but GoG has the ability built in to their launcher and i fixed the issue there in about six seconds.

So. Steam version, not recommended. Game, yes.

Special memories with this game.

Somehow, I ended up with a really old, barely ticking PC; after I had to escape a crack den in 2005. That dying, old PC and this game, from some abandonware site. (Bought a mint condition boxed version years before but could never get it running)

Bare in mind I had played Systemshock 2 around it's launch in 1999, the golden era of PC, and that has gone on to be in my top 10 games.

It gets harder and harder to go back to SS1, at this point it's FAR, FAR beyond archaic, despite all the efforts to modernise the controls, up the resolution.

But I can 100% guarentee that if you give this game a few hours you will be in there, it puts the later shock games to shame even. I kind of miss the older controls tbh, promoted a different style of play and a lot more caution, turning a corner was akin to landing a jet fighter.

All you need to know is that everything they continue to dumb down in shock games has it's origins here....everything. This is classic, PC gaming, that you could never find anywhere else. The type of game you need to "build" a man cave for, divorce your family for, Grow a beard playing. Get in a months supplies for.



It has the Audio logs, the scavenging for resources, the paranioa, the augs (plasmids later) and more, it has cyberspace.
You won't look at the other games in the same way again.

Remember Citadel

Scrawled in blood across the neon lit walls of the Von Braun’s medical deck, this portentous warning is the first sign in System Shock 2 that the present nightmare has happened before. Only I didn’t remember Citadel. I’d never been there. Whatever nightmare it evoked wasn’t mine. It didn’t have to be – I was already plenty afraid.

But I wanted to remember.

I first tried playing System Shock maybe six years ago. I had been encouraged by an old friend to give it a go, assured that it would be “my thing”. After all, I had long loved System Shock 2 and I was curious about the original. Better yet, I adored the Thief series and its creator, Looking Glass Studios.

But the first attempt didn’t stick. I didn’t even leave the room you start in. Maybe it was the complex and layered interface or a knee-jerk aversion to the heavily pixelated environment, but I quickly closed the window, unable to see myself penetrating this strange first-person artefact of the early 90’s.

A couple of months ago I tried again but I encountered failure then, too. I managed to leave the starting room long enough to be assaulted by an evil hoover, but the experience was baffling enough to again close the window. I just couldn’t imagine mastering that HUD and the specifics of all the different mechanics the game bombards you with the moment you wake on Citadel Station.

Given a pitiful 3% of players have seen the game to completion I reckon that’s probably true for a lot of folks. It was probably true back in 1994 as well, when the majority of players attached themselves to Doom’s relatively simple mechanics and instantly gratifying demon-slaying combat over the complex intricacies of this cyberpunk oddity.

But a couple of weeks ago a friend and I decided we’d play it alongside each other (not literally), which gave me the motivation I needed to kill the evil hoover and at the very least make it into the third room. I didn’t think I’d complete System Shock, but I’d hopefully get a better sense of what I was missing out on.

I also didn’t want to look stupid.

Well, I think I still look plenty stupid, but in defiance of my own expectations I actually completed it. More than that - I loved it.

“There was a garden grove on Citadel station.”

Orbiting Saturn like an enormous metal flower, Citadel Station is owned by the TriOptimum Corporation. One of its executives, Edward Diego, wants to steal an experimental virus from the company, and he enlists you, a hacker, to help him do so – by removing the ethical constraints on Citadel’s artificial intelligence, SHODAN. You were caught trying to hack into the company, and in exchange for your help Diego is prepared to drop the charges. To sweeten the deal you’re given a neural implant, taking you a step towards the transhuman. The procedure is intensive, so you’re placed in a medically-induced coma for a spell.

An exchange between two reprobates – one with power, and one without.

Six months later you emerge from the coma to be attacked by an evil hoover. The station’s crew have either been butchered or hideously mutated, and an army of cyborgs – and hoovers – now control each deck. Released from the ethical constraints imposed upon her system, SHODAN conceived her own notions as to her purpose and reconfigured the station accordingly. You’re contacted by someone from TriOptimum – they know about your deal with Diego, tsk-tsk, and now they need your help in stopping SHODAN.

The game’s story, told through logs and emails, is pretty by the numbers science fiction, but it’s compelling enough, buoyed by a strong setting and a very memorable antagonist. I mean, was there ever any doubt SHODAN would stand above the rest? It’s what she lives for.

The SHODAN we encounter here is a little different to the one we later meet on the Von Braun. She’s new to godhood and it’s treated her well so far. The suffocating narcissism is present and accounted for, and her ambitions are predictably bloody and megalomaniacal, but she has yet to experience the bitter taste of rebellion. SHODAN’S creations, such as they are, obey her utterly, and whilst she sometimes upbraids them for their failures, she cannot envisage a scenario in which they turn on their creator.

The absence of her famous solipsism is surprising at first if you’ve played the second game. She’s cruel, yes, but with less of an edge. She's in her element, for all is well in paradise: the station is hers, and everything besides you and a small band of isolated resistance fighters are hers, too.

And she prefers a quiet station, thank you.

The game is broken up into several decks, each of which you’ll have to visit more than once. They're distinctive and interesting, with multiple objectives which vary depending on where you are in the game. I was actually taken aback by how absorbing I found Citadel as a setting. The 3D world Looking Glass created here is super impressive, and although there’s a few occasions where navigation can be an issue – some areas are messy labyrinths – you’ll eventually learn to master it. I think it must have been unprecedented in 1994, what with its tiered level design, emphasis on exploration, and dynamic gameplay. It must’ve been huge to players then. It’s huge now.

When I think about a lot of contemporary shooters and their over-reliance on metallic grey hallways, I wonder if any of their designers have played the two Shocks – or have they only ever seen Alien? Citadel’s research deck is swathed in a rich red; maintenance ripples with heat and the steady hum of machinery; and the executive level contains four groves – arboretums rich in plant life once used for recreational purposes, now turned zoological preserves for SHODAN’S experiments. Like a kid playing at being a scientist, she’s combining species old and new in pursuit of some kind of perverse perfection.

She might regret that one day. But not today. Today she’s having far too much fun to care. Today even the biological has merit.

"I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well."

I loved being on Citadel Station so much I was sorry to leave. As the friend I was playing it alongside remarked when I finished, “You can only play a game for the first time once.” I had started uncertain I’d get very far, but I finished in a mad haze: blasting through the final two decks, unwilling to stop playing to better savour the experience. I was just enjoying myself way too much.

If the Steam stats are anything to go by then Nightdive Studios’ upcoming remake is going to be the first time most contemporary players experience System Shock. That’s fine, of course. The remake looks pretty cool. But if you’re willing to give the original a chance, prepared to be patient with it and invest the time needed to learn its mechanics, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can become immersed in this cyberpunk adventure.

And now, having finally played it myself, I will always remember Citadel.

As someone who never touched this series until now, I think this may be the earliest-made PC game that I totally loved playing. The enhanced version makes everything easy to use on modern computers, it seems. I was playing in 1080p with no issues with control and very little jank.

It's crazy how many features the game has. It actually has more features for interfacing with the game than much more modern games of similar style like Bioshock, or the Metro series. It's pretty crazy how much detail is in here. You can turn on a device that shows you a camera that faces behind you at the bottom of the screen so you can have eyes on the back of your head. You get a jetpack. You get crazy skates that let you zip around at insane speeds while slamming enemies with your laser sword. You can lean around corners and check if there's anything there. You can lean WHILE crouching or going full prone. You get to hack into computers and enter 3-dimensional hackerspace with directional controls and a roll axis. There's a button to go between a mouse cursor and full FPS aim controls. (Make sure if you start playing that you know this key exists because you'll be needing it.) It's crazy how much detail is in the game and how much agency you have.

Speaking of the controls, you're going to have to figure them out on your own by looking at the control settings screen. However, they really give you plenty of agency to do everything you need to do in the game. The only control I thought was missing was the ability to configure equipping a specific weapon to a specific keystroke rather than having to use buttons to cycle through your current weapons.

The music is probably the most aged thing in the game. It's still running MIDI audio, which sounds incredibly jank on modern computers. You can dress it up a bit with your own MIDI soundfonts, but I don't think it really does the game justice in an audio sense. The cyberspace music tracks though, those ones are fun. The audio recordings of people living on the station and SHODAN are actually really damn nice for such an old game.

The game is rock solid and I never saw it crash through the whole playthrough.

There's a bit of jank in that you can get caught on certain floorboards or platforms, slowing you down unexpectedly. But usually, this doesn't happen.

The storyline is easy to get into, and while being pretty straightforward, is fun to play a part of since it's got such nice lore behind it. You can tell straight away that a ton of thought was put into designing the station the game takes place on, with each level mattering for specific tasks and goals. The design of each floor of the station makes a lot of sense. The enemies aren't incredibly nuanced in the way you fight each of them, but it's fun to blow them up while going through the game's story. If I had to nitpick, I'd say a couple of areas have random spawns that are usually one of the only reasons you die after becoming competent at the game. One area specifically if you kill enough suicidal enemies hiding around the corners, a new one can spawn right beside you and blow up immediately. Those were a bit annoying.

For a 25-year-old game, the enhanced edition of this game is still really playable and has features that surpass modern games of similar style.

Basically, this is System Shock with all the tweaks from SSP, and with one big difference: game now runs natively on newer systems which means that it can be played on higher resolutions quite painlessly, whereas those resolutions would result in abysmal framerates when played via DOSbox.

Game itself is as great as ever. Controls and interface will present something of an obstacle to new players, even with mouselook hack, but that is an obstacle well-worth overcoming. System Shock's storytelling is still engrossing, its mechanics still excellent and its level design is as elaborate as ever. Citadel Station is still a world of technological nightmare that is well worth exploring.

As many a other Looking Glass classic, this game is a window in a style of game design that is so radically different and in so many ways ahead of what we have today. It will leave you impressed, but also depressed, as one can't help but ponder what kind of games we could have been playing today, with today's engines and budgets, if western game design followed the road that was paved by Looking Glass.

One of my personal favorite games of all time throughout the years. If you liked Deus Ex and System Shock 2 you really can't go wrong with this one. Highly recommended!

As for what comes to this particular port, it's great. What it basically does is add up all the best mods like the mouselook and high resolution options and have it in a package where you only need to click "Play" and you're done. But the thing that really caught my attention was how they included the ICE Breaker Hint guide (Which i've read so many times as a kid i remember most of the stuff in it from my head. :D) along with other cool stuff like the soundtrack, strat guide and such.

Keep in mind however, that this game was originally released in 1994 and as such isn't really up to snuff with the latest games in terms of graphics or control layouts. Still, if you played this game back in the day or just don't mind practicing a bit before getting into the experience it's easily worth the asking price.

Doom gave FPS life and System Shock gave it meaning.

If you value your sanity, please use medkits sparingly. Just let yourself die and regenerate, save the medkits for the later parts of the game. If you don't, you'll end up with barely any health surrounded by enemies who will instakill you the millisecond you see them. Regardless, I'm glad I powered through and finally have System Shock under my belt. Now I wait for the remake to do it all over again.