Now Playing: System Shock

System Shock 2 is one of, if not my favourite game of all time. But I never played the original, not until many years after the release of SS2. Unfortunately, there were numerous compatibility issues with the version I had which prevented me from progressing beyond the first level. So when this ‘enhanced’ edition of System Shock was released, I just had to pick it up. This was the first time I’ve played System Shock to completion. It’s also, I must admit, probably going to be the last.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. System Shock is a decent game. But everything System Shock does, System Shock 2 does better. Far better. My primary issues with System Shock are its level design and mission structure. I’ve seen SS1 praised for its complexity of level design, but I’d argue that convoluted is a more apt description.

The level design in SS2 is fantastic. Every deck has a logic to its layout with regards to the overall structure of the ship. Every location and corridor has a consistency to design and an obvious purpose. As you traverse the ship, it feels like a real place. Sadly, I can’t say the same about SS1. 

 

Every level of SS1 feels more like a maze. Aside from the odd section, the majority of each deck doesn’t serve any purpose, or adhere to an overall cohesive structure. There’s a lot of corridors/service ducts which lead nowhere or simply loop back on themselves. There’s a lot of empty rooms and pointless ramps or raised blocks/pillars. There’s gravity elevators in strange positions, and rooms with bizarre platform puzzles.

 

As a result, none of it feels like a real place, where people once lived or worked. There’s no logic to its layout, and no consistency in terms of design between decks. With all the looping corridors, ramps and gravity elevators it honestly feels more like a Quake or Unreal multiplayer map.

To make matters worse, there’s also little in the way of obvious landmarks to get your bearings as you attempt to navigate this needlessly convoluted maze. It’s not challenging as such – more tedious. And this leads us directly into my second major issue – mission structure.

In SS2, your objectives are always very clear. Not just in terms of where you must go and what you must do, but also why. SS1, however, is vague in every respect. On each level you’ll be searching for audio logs. These provide clues as to what you should be doing to progress. This is why it’s very important to fully explore every deck – if you miss a log or two, you may also miss a key piece of information.

But even once you have all the logs and a rough notion of where you should be going and what you’re supposed to do, the game doesn’t give a very good sense of why. I was very thorough in terms of collecting the logs and exploring every deck, but even so, there were a lot of times when I just didn’t get why I was supposed to be doing something or how it would enable me to progress. I didn’t understand the logic behind certain actions, and I frequently found myself backtracking through levels trying to figure out what I’d missed.

 

The game doesn’t do a very good job of putting a clear set of objectives before the player. A lot of the time, you’ll only have a vague notion of exactly what you’re supposed to be doing or why. You’ll be stumbling your way through objectives, without ever quite being sure that what you’re doing is right. It’s something that improves as the game progresses, but it’s still rather frustrating, and it significantly weakens the narrative aspects of the game.

Exploration is hampered somewhat by the UI and controls. Even with the addition of mouselook and key mapping, SS1 is a fiddly game to play. It’s not too bad once you become familiar with the hotkeys for switching between various tabs of the interface, but compared to SS2, you feel like you’re struggling more against the UI and controls than anything the game can throw at you.

The enemies of SS1 don’t put up much of a fight. Weapons and ammo are fairly plentiful, (for reference, I played on the Normal difficulty) and the only times I really ran into trouble was on the occasions when the game spawned a large number of enemies practically right on top of me – which felt more cheap than challenging.

Graphically, SS1 still looks okay. Some areas hold up better than others. Although the game lacks a consistency to design, it still has some striking environments to explore. In terms of sound, the music seemed to kick in and out at odd moments, which I think might be a bug. Combat would occasionally be completely silent, although admittedly, that was preferable at times as the looping tracks grew rather repetitive.

 

Like SS2, the best thing about SS1 is SHODAN and your interactions with this devious AI. Unfortunately, this interaction is limited to odd messages sprinkled throughout the game. Combat is basic as is enemy AI. There’s little to differentiate the enemies or how to tackle them. The weapon selection is decent, but there’s a lack of variety in terms of how they handle.

As I’ve already said, everything SS1 does, SS2 does far better. In terms of story, environments, missions, enemies, weapons and controls, SS1 is rather basic compared to its sequel. Whereas SS2 still holds up solidly today in terms of its mechanics…SS1 – not so much.

Upon release, I can see why so many aspects of SS1 would have been considered impressive. But SS2 took those aspects and refined and improved them so much that it’s hard to recommend SS1 over its sequel. I still had some fun playing it through, and there are some genuinely well designed sections, but it’s not a game I can honestly say I feel any great desire to ever play again.

6/10