[HN Gopher] System Shock
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System Shock
Author : doppp
Score : 66 points
Date : 2021-03-19 17:45 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.filfre.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.filfre.net)
| hertzrat wrote:
| > DOOM was not an influence on System Shock. We were trying
| something more difficult and nuanced, [although] we still had a
| lot of respect for the simplicity and focus of [the id] games
|
| I haven't played system shock, but the classic doom still holds
| up as one of my favourite games of all time. I played a ton of it
| in 2020 using gzdoom: the level design and pacing is still almost
| unmatched all these years later.
| nine_k wrote:
| Doom had levels that were built for first-person-shooting
| gameplay and the general feel. Otherwise they are almost random
| in their architecture. That was a great move.
|
| System Shock unfolds on a space station which has a consistent
| architecture, each level has a plot-defined purpose, a layout
| consistent with the purpose, and dovetails with levels above
| and below it. That was a great move, of a different nature.
|
| System Shock should not be lined up with Doom, but rather with
| Deus Ex and maybe Half-Life.
| loopz wrote:
| You can find it and play System Shock and its sequel Skynet
| using Dosbox. It was a clear breakthrough at the time, as was
| UUW2.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| Wikipedia says Skynet was a sequel to The Terminator: Future
| Shock.
| beached_whale wrote:
| System Shock 2 was the first game to scare me.
| pkorzeniewski wrote:
| I've played SS2 for the first time last year and there were
| parts that scared the shit out of me, I had to take breaks just
| to cool off - ambience in this game is absolutely amazing!
| Nowadays I rarely pick up new games let alone finish them, but
| SS2 hooked me so hard that for several days it was the only
| thing I could think about, something that hasn't happend to me
| in a long, long time.
| dsego wrote:
| I did the same a few years ago, played SS2 and then continued
| with the three Bioshock games. The first two Bioshock games
| have a truly amazing atmosphere as well. The third didn't
| really do it for me.
| ttt0 wrote:
| Great soundtrack.
| shoo wrote:
| A game with a truly fantastic atmosphere & great audio.
|
| May have been the first and best game to use audio logs to
| develop the plot & build the world. e.g.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf92cXs6fvg
|
| Some other mechanics that helped the atmosphere and kept you on
| edge were that you could never permanently clear an area of
| monsters. Some new critters would respawn and prowl through
| decks you had cleared. You could usually hear them well before
| you saw them. Resources were also scarce, so wasting ammunition
| on enemies or subjecting your ranged weapons to unnecessary
| wear and tear was often a worse choice than avoiding them, or
| trying to sneak up behind them to bash them to death. The game
| was built atop the dark engine (Thief) so it had a surprisingly
| good model of enemy line of sight, sneaking was often viable to
| close distance or evade.
|
| To progress up the research tree required particular elements
| as inputs to complete research assignments, and the game would
| use this to send you on fetch quests to gather a jar full of
| rare elements from a chemical storage locker deep in a deck of
| the ship you'd hoped to never visit again.
|
| Late 90s australian game journalism - "after playing system
| shock 2, somehow the world will never look quite the same
| again":
| https://archive.org/details/PCPowerplay-042-1999-11/page/n12...
|
| (after all these years, when i self-checkout groceries at the
| supermarket, in my head i hear the words "thank you for
| choosing valuerep")
| pseudalopex wrote:
| System Shock had audio logs too. But System Shock 2 used them
| really well.
| uncledave wrote:
| Same here. This still scares me today
| https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEo
| Koliakis wrote:
| I _still_ can 't play SS1/SS2. It's nuts what's possible even
| with limited graphics.
| throwanem wrote:
| It was the first game I played that made full use of surround
| sound. Talk about scary...
| unixhero wrote:
| Never finished it. Too scary! :)
| coding123 wrote:
| I remember System Shock. Definitely had no way to play it on my
| 386, but I remember going to my friend's house who had a 486 that
| it played somewhat decent on. The world of "true" 3D games before
| Voodoo 3dfx cards were released... Wing Commander Games, Ultima
| Underworld (1 and 2). Games that you could look up and down and
| not have the world skew like crazy. Fun times.
| loopz wrote:
| Even easier to dl today and play with dosbox.
| sillysaurusx wrote:
| Goddamn, I loved System Shock. But if you try to play it in
| modern times, it's just impossible. Someone, please make a mod
| where it uses standard WASD + mouse controls.
|
| Very few games set the imagination on fire the way System Shock
| did. I'm still not sure why. It was almost a standard-ish horror
| game.
|
| It was a combination of story, mechanics, and art, I think. The
| old-style graphics really added to the immersion (though you
| can't say this without seeming suspect).
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| There's already a mod for that and a GOG release with the fixes
| included
| Ralfp wrote:
| What you are asking for is called "System Shock Enhanced
| Edition" and you can grab it on GoG. Runs on modern systems
| too.
| vaer-k wrote:
| There is a reboot project here
| https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock...
|
| There is a playable prealpha
| loopz wrote:
| You can invert mouse-y and configure keys in-game.
| john_moscow wrote:
| In case anyone else is nostalgic about System Shock 2, I can
| highly recommend checking out Prey [0]. It's a much more recent
| game designed by a different studio, but it's very much inspired
| by the old Looking Glass Studios' games and managed to re-create
| the atmosphere and gameplay of System Shock 2 very well.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_(2017_video_game)
| nine_k wrote:
| Do they have Shodan? Without her, it's entirety different.
|
| Shodan is the best sci-fi villain of all time. (See also the
| inverted gravity scene closer to the end of System Shock II.)
| throwanem wrote:
| They don't, and it is. Prey is a good game, with some really
| neat techniques I've never seen anywhere else. I enjoyed it
| and I think it's worth playing. But there's nothing remotely
| resembling SHODAN, and in that way it's very much not the
| same. Closer to Bioshock, really.
| simlevesque wrote:
| By the way, Prey was the subject of a next generation revamp by
| Microsoft, they used a new technology allowing them to boost
| FPS from 30 to 60 without any programmer input with no clock
| errors.
|
| It is like magic.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShSivSvHQWI
| shin_lao wrote:
| Prey is a great spiritual successor to System Shock 2, but
| let's not forget Bioshock!
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Right! I always thought the title of Bioshock was a direct
| reference to the System Shock series.
| moron4hire wrote:
| It literally is
| pseudalopex wrote:
| They wanted to make System Shock 3 but couldn't get the
| rights.
| barrkel wrote:
| Many of the same people listed also worked on Thief and Thief 2,
| still my favourite games of the genre - and probably favourite PC
| games period.
|
| The Thief story is much more structured, less driven by dropped
| notes - and there are no interactive conversations - but the
| cutscenes are fairly well done, the sound design amazing - the
| Brosius's work - and the character you play is very well drawn, a
| cynical reluctant antihero.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| The original, CD-ROM enhanced version of System Shock can be
| picked up at GOG[1]. First CD-ROM game I got, for my birthday,
| and wow did it blow me away. The atmosphere the game managed to
| create was just amazing.
|
| It was the first 3D POV game that I recall with effectively true
| 3D. Doom had "fake" 3D, you couldn't have two floors on top of
| each other, but in System Shock you could. It also had different
| stances and fairly realistic head movement (leaning would tilt
| the view too).
|
| There's a remake underway, from some of the original devs, also
| over at GOG[2].
|
| [1]: https://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_enhanced_edition
|
| [2]: https://www.gog.com/game/system_shock
| kingaillas wrote:
| I was going to say the first 3D POV game with real 3D was
| Decent
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(1995_video_game)) but
| according to wikipedia System Shock came out about 6 months
| earlier. I probably got System Shock afterwards and thus
| thought it released later.
|
| Both are great, had some huge fun playing both. Especially
| Decent after hours at work. I own both on GoG and should crank
| them up again.
| incomplete wrote:
| man, the early/mid 90s was such a revolutionary time for video
| games, and being in college and having a 486dx-33 gaming rig that
| i worked my ass off to procure most definitely contributed to my
| dropping out and never finishing my degree(s). :)
|
| system shock was such a great game. suspenseful, intricate,
| engrossing and just plain scary to immerse yourself into fully.
|
| in a few years span, we had this, doom, warcraft, xwing/tie
| fighter, wing commander 3, command and conquer, civilization 1
| and 2, myst, alone in the dark (now THAT was a fucking scary
| game), descent, and so many more that sucked my time away. it was
| amazing to be present in the golden age of PC gaming, where the
| confluence of cheap x86 hardware, improving gfx tech, directx and
| peripheral support all came together so quickly.
|
| i recall fondly the 10base-2 network in my college house, and
| having friends bring over their computers for LAN parties.
| descent and warcraft were the best when played to the sounds of
| your enemies yelling in anguish from downstairs in the living
| room.
|
| :)
| ljm wrote:
| I think you see it most in 'eurojank' games these days but I
| really love the ambition of older games that include really
| unusual or deep gameplay mechanics that you'd never see in a
| typical AAA title.
|
| Games like Gothic, Elex, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Two Worlds,
| Eye: Divine Cybermancy, basically most Deck13 titles...
|
| The late 90s and early 2000s were such a great time for PC
| games like that.
| nine_k wrote:
| AAA titles now have Hollywood budgets, and thus Hollywood's
| restrictions: no risky moves, play safe, be family-friendly,
| return the investment and produce a franchise to sell sequels
| and swag.
|
| It leaves rather little room for art or innovation. This is
| why I mostly stopped paying attention to such games, and
| watch for what smaller, bolder studios produce on 5-10% of an
| AAA budget.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| > family-friendly
|
| The most successful AAA title of all time is GTAV. Fun for
| the whole family ^_^
|
| https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/gta-5-now-profitable-
| ent...
| Paul_S wrote:
| It is played by kids, teens and adults, so yes. Family
| friendly.
| selfhoster11 wrote:
| What are the 'eurojank' games you mentioned? Can you give
| some examples?
| frabert wrote:
| > Games like Gothic, Elex
|
| I really think that Piranha Bytes are the most interesting
| game studio with regards to RPGs right now. I think they have
| the best blend of weird mechanics + plot driven gameplay out
| there, despite their relatively limited resources.
| OneLeggedCat wrote:
| My memory is that System Shock had a poor frame rate even on my
| p60. A 486dx-33 must have been brutal.
| nine_k wrote:
| It was quite nice on a 486DX4-80. At 320x200, though, even if
| it natively supported even 800x600.
| shadowofneptune wrote:
| You can find recordings online of two of the devs livestreaming
| the game. They got asked by a fan, 'what were some features you
| loved but ultimately had to cut out?' Response was along the
| lines of 'I mean, look around, do you think we cut anything out?'
|
| They definitely seemed to think of that as a failing on their
| part, but it's IMO a big part of why the game is still engaging
| nowadays.
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(page generated 2021-03-19 23:00 UTC)