Confused by what System Shock is.

[SamuelHydeous]

This game is an amalgamation of features that I'm left wondering what kind of game System Shock is. Some people call it a "dungeon crawler", some people just call it an "immersive sim", I've heard people calling this game an RPG, while I view it as a survival horror FPS. What is it lmao

[ZylonBane]

Its genre is "first-person action-adventure".

It is not an RPG. Anyone who calls it an RPG doesn't understand what an RPG is.

It is not an immersive sim, though it lays much of the conceptual groundwork for later games that would be immersive sims. The remake is arguably even less of an immersive sim than the original, since it leans into being a neon pixelated retro shooter for some reason.

[Stargoat]

it's a point and click adventure game

[fracture.]

It's a My Little Pony reimagining.

[svindel]

First person metroidvania with trash collection mechanics :)

[Seamus]

Originally posted by ZylonBane:

It is not an immersive sim,

Warren Spector disagrees with you, and his word means more than yours by leagues.

[cuss]

It's just a shooter with some melee thrown in. I guess it borders on survival, but barely.

[Osprey]

From Wikipedia: "Immersive sims by definition allow for multiple approaches, and typically incorporate elements of multiple genres, including role-playing games, stealth, first-person shooters, platform games and survival horror. Although they typically have smaller worlds than open world games, they also generally allow for open-ended gameplay, allowing the player to progress in any order and pursue side missions alongside any main story missions. Immersive sims are generally compared to games developed by Looking Glass Studios. The first such game generally considered an immersive sim is Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, and other early examples include Thief and Thief 2, System Shock and System Shock 2, as well as the first Deus Ex."

The fact that it's an FPS to some, a survival horror to others and an RPG or even stealth game to still others just supports the notion that it's an immersive sim, which tend to incorporate elements of each of those genres. I imagine that that's partly why the term exists, because games like this don't fit neatly into any of those other categories.

[Gecko-[GER]]

The original game, created by the legendary Looking Glass Studio, was one of the first hybrid games that combined different genres. Therefore the 4 different settings that change the game in one direction or another. What kind of game it is depends on which setting you choose and how you play it. The game wasn't exactly a success at the time because nothing like it had existed before.

[falkin42]

It's a great game. What more do you need?

[SquidGrow on ETH]

The ship speaks to each of us in different ways. Shodan chooses how to reveal her glory to each one individually https://imgur.com/LIj7VaS

[WhispersOfTheWind]

Survival horror shooter.

I'd categorize it as a "dungeon crawler" but this is more a reflection of the original game which I've barely played but like a little bit until the enhanced edition for 1 came out which I've played and I believe I have finished.

I'd call it that because it is indeed an unusual game. It had I think for at the time kind of most advanced mechanics which includes basically a lot of aspects of the game, from the weapons and the monster enemy types up to the levels so the level design and atmosphere was really something I think this game coined which would be something akin to sort of cyber-horror but also the story itself is very I think unique for the gaming landscape of at the time and basically almost up to today.

The whole accumulation of factors made this game very unique and cherished I think in eyes of the many (see what I did there?) who perceive it as a cult classic game and a lot of us simply love it because it sprouted forth a few memorable things amongst which one is Shodan, the antagonist but I really love the whole game from its sort of mili sim movement system to the UI and everything between the inception point to the ending, it's something to amaze at I think because next to the gaming factors which many of them are really I think super unique and memorable it also has some sort of message about the future where it sounds a bit like a futuristic "folktale" and to some degree carries an ominous warning for the future about technology and humanities kind of worst aspects.

This is most evident in System Shock 2 that is in essence a tale of greed that came forth from people who kind of messed up safety of the crew of the starship (and in effect the safety of Earth indirectly but consequently) by acting in a very egocentric nature for instance because of the hoarding of the eggs onto the ships (both the UNN Rickenbacker and the Von Braun) where in essence the story of the first System Shock was about corporate power and yearning for more of such power, which also made things go very array which as consequene thereof we got the story of System Shock 2 from.

So in many ways I always found games from basically Blue Sky Productions, the studio that later became Looking Glass Stuidos almost if not flat-out the pinnacle of gaming, what they put in their games, how they made them... what those games meant and how they were so great that many of other games for me faded by comparison. Like.

I couldn't, even if I had wished for to, get into Origin Systems games namely Ultima Underworld (prececessor of The Elder Scrolls which later became very famous with the Morrowind iteration) because those games were kind of too old for me and the game from Blue Sky Productions, System Shock 1 fell also into this category alas, even though I had tried and I did get into System Shock 1, which I did kind of play and had gotten relatively far into it, the feel of it was just too archaic for me to really and truly enjoy and coupled with the 16-bit sound were foremost elements that kind of prevented me from really and trully becoming immersed in the game although I did like the graphics to some extent because at points System Shock 1 looked or resembled quite some GIger-esque level design or at least aesthetically, there were a few reasons that kept me playing the original especially because I wanted to experience and explore or "live out" the storyline.

Later when System Shock enhanced edition came out, which really did have kind of similar graphics or the whole game was kind of similar to the original it did enable me to be more immersed into the game and ultimately finish it, which is a whole experience because you don't just play that game casually. It's very maze-like and objectives are really tricky to figure out and you'd even have to take notes in order not to forget what it was you were supposed to do, and next to the occasional Earth destruction via the Tachyon Laser by pressing that damned button...

Oh.

No but so like.

System Shock is many things, many things you want it to be too. It is foremost something we call today as an "immersive sim" but really it is much more than just that, it's more than a game I think because it has so much content that is equally mechanical in nature; content you can interact with but also game has many mental and I'd say metaphysical aspects to it because of the inclusion of AI in the game which in the game acts like a sort of "misunderstood" antagonist that perceives itself as a sort of God or Demigod which is deeply flawed but powerful non the less..

To be honest. Not many games give me what System Shock did or does and it is also I think somewhat reflected in those other series of games by the name of Thief: the Dark Project and Metal Age and to some extent Deadly Shadows but that one's weird because it released at this crossroads where also Deus Ex came to be at the time but both of those, Deadly Shadows and Deus Ex felt more like console games which of course compared to some other, older games, how they used to be, games like System Shock and Thief are really kind of more dumbed down I feel post System Shock 2 and Thief 2 and feel "chaeper" because they either lack content that is physcal or mechanical in nature or content that is mental, content that makes you experience and think and go through emotions like the Thief games did because of its lore and world and equally that of System Shock. So these are also emotional games that work on many levels.

I think people perceive System Shock as being complicated from its original 1st part and you can see that this game also has been dumbed down in some regards but one thing that remained is how influential those games like 1 and 2 were in a time when it seemed that a lot was thown into games but not a lot stuck and System Shock games are kind of a testament of immersion and carry with a type of formula for success. One'd only have to look at something like Bioshock and the success of those games and or other games that have elements of System Shock in them.

So in essence: System Shock can be perceived as many things on many levels but at its core it's a sort of technological survival-horror akin to the Terminator movies at least the first two.

[laggerific]

It's a doom clone :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elfIGidBpMI

Ah, I miss Interactive Entertainment...

[Noble Six]

Why does it matter?

[SepticSchizo]

it doesnt matter

[HotCoffeeDude]

It's a slog. This is a pretty polished update of a slog, but's it still a slog. It's what games used to play like before technology improved enough to allow developers to add the things that made games fun, so I guess as a museum piece it's pretty impressive. What the original developers were trying to do in SS they accomplished much better in System Shock 2, which I can still recommend, and it's pretty sloggy too.

None of this is the fault of the developers that made the remake! They did a great job of making this one pretty, which I assume was their honest goal. I think they even improved some of the absolutely insufferable decisions of the first one, because even though I think they wanted a 1:1 remake some of it was so unforgivably bad even they couldn't tolerate it.

It's a testament to what we would put up with as kids because it's all we had. But I had forgotten how much of a slog it was. I won't argue that it laid the groundwork for much better games.