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System Shock (view source)

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In the first game, a character known for the most part only as "[[AFGNCAAP|The Hacker]]" is caught breaking into the mainframe of [[Mega Corp|your typical cyberpunk megacorporation]], and is offered a chance at freedom and a prime-grade neural interface in return for performing nonstandard modifications to the Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network (or SHODAN), the AI on the corporation's space station. After coming out of the six-month coma needed to heal from his surgery, the Hacker finds that SHODAN has gone absolutely insane after having her ethical controls removed, and has transformed the entire crew into cyborgs and mutated monsters devoted entirely to her. The Hacker stops SHODAN from destroying the earth and wipes her completely from the database.
 
The sequel, made in collaboration with Irrational Games, founded by former LGS employees, is set 42 years later; due to the events of the first game, anti-[[Mega Corp]] outrage resulted in formation of Unified National Nominate, the quasi-socialist world government. After UNN (albeit under TriOptimum grant) scientist Marie Delacroix discovers the secret of faster than light travel, UNN and TriOptimum mount a joint mission to Tau Ceti <ref> Which may or may not have been a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Bungie]]'s ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' which was also set in Tau Ceti and was contemporary to release of the original ''System Shock''.</ref> The game involves the maiden voyage of the ''Von Braun'', the first ship with [[FTL Travel]] equipped, accompanied by the UNN ''Rickenbacker''. The game begins with the awakening of the player character, a cybernetically-enhanced soldier, from cryosleep to receive a small amount of exposition from a voice identified as a surviving member of the ''Von Braun'''s crew, and then immediately has to escape his sick room that has been exposed to space, beginning his long adventure in avoiding his own death.
 
The original, floppy disc-based version of ''System Shock'' played fast-and-loose with SHODAN's gender. Several times the evil computer was described as a "he", and the character art was ambiguous. From the CD version onwards SHODAN was explicitly female, voiced with cool command by Terri Brosius. A combination of superior scripting and excellent voice acting transformed SHODAN from a stock villain into a memorably sexy computer dominatrix from hell; she is by far the most memorable character in the series, and is considered one of the best video game villains in general.
 
Both ''System Shock'' and ''System Shock 2'' received critical acclaim, but neither was a commercial success due to release dates that pitted the games against strong competition: ''System Shock'' was released in the wake of ''[[Doom]]'' and was sort-of competing with ''Marathon'', and ''System Shock 2'' went up against the equally groundbreaking ''[[Half-Life]]''. Still, the games have endured, and even spawned a [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual sequel]] in ''[[Bio ShockBioshock]]''. A third game was briefly rumored with a 2006 trademark renewal and claims by PC Gamer UK, then disappeared. It is unlikely that Irrational, as a part of 2K Games, can even work on another title in the series so long as Electronic Arts continues to hold the trademarks, so it is sadly likely that this is all we're [[Too Good to Last|going to get.]]
 
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* [[Machine Worship]]: What SHODAN expects you to do. Cyborg Edward Diego and other cyborgs are doing this.
* [[Badass Boast]]: SHODAN likes these.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: The Hacker, the protagonist of the first game, is an [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|expert hacker]] who is also abnormally skilled with a wide variety of weapons and explosives.
** It helps that he has a military grade neural interface installed in his brain, that probably conveys some skill with weaponry. The sequel makes the skill-boosting effects of the neural implant explicit, [[Gameplay and Story Integration|being the means by which the player gains skills via cybernetics]]. The item descriptions though indicate that such skill improvements are only temporary (lasting a few weeks) unless practiced extensively, particularly in high-stress situations such as the player might find themselves in.
* [[Badass Normal]]: Dr. Marie Delacroix in the second game. She follows a similar path to the protagonist (but always just ahead), while managing to both survive and accomplish some important things without the benefit of his cybernetics or psychic powers (or even military training it appears).
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Janice Polito. {{spoiler|The one that's actually SHODAN}}
* [[Dead Person Impersonation]]: {{spoiler|SHODAN impersonating Dr.Polito.}}
* [[Death Byby Cameo]]: Most of the characters were voiced by the production staff, so it happens all the time, just off-screen.
* [[Death Is a Slap Onon The Wrist]]: both games feature resurrection stations on ''most'' levels which bring the player back to life, though they need to be found and activated. Before that, they find your body and give it new life...
** In the sequel, it also costs nanites (10 on Normal, which is twice the cost of healing at a surgical table). Not so bad, except that unless you have high Hack ranks, it tends to cost a ''lot'' for gear. As in 100 nanites for a measly dozen bullets.
*** Actually, once you're in the Body of the Many, there's no regeneration. If you die, you have to reload. In addition, if you don't find the regenerator on the level of the ship you're on, you die and have to reload. If you don't have enough nanites... you get the point.
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* [[Deus Est Machina]]: Guess who?
* [[Diegetic Interface]]: As part of the cyber implants you recieve at the beginning of the game.
* [[Die Hard Onon an X]]: Die Hard on a space station in the original. In the sequal, Die Hard on ''two'' space ships {{spoiler|and a ship-sized [[Body Horror]], the Body of the Many.}}
* [[Digital Avatar]]
* [[Dilating Door]]: The aptly named Iris doors.
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* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|The ''real'' Dr. Janice Polito, when she realized that she released SHODAN.}}
** Don't forget the poor sod {{spoiler|on the cargo-level command deck, right after the elevator.}}
* [[Dying Asas Yourself]]: One of the reasons [[Better to Die Than Be Killed|to die instead of getting killed]].
* [[Easter Egg]]: the mini-basketball game in the sequel.
* [[Electronic Speech Impediment]]: SHODAN, sounding like a broken soundcard.
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* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Hacker and Soldier. In the backstory of SS 2, William Diego's rank is Rear Admiral, but everybody calls him Captain because that was his rank during the battle of Boston Harbor.
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys|Everythings Worse With Psychic Mutant Monkeys]]
** Correction: Everythings Worse With Psychic Mutant Monkeys '''''Who Are Sick Of Vivisections And Out For Revenge'''''.
*** And Shoot Ice Beams and Fireballs at You.
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* [[Highly-Conspicuous Uniform]]: The crew uniforms, basically modified short-sleeved [[Star Trek]] uniforms. The Military (The player Soldier and others) averts this.
* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]: Cyborg Assassins in the sequel, especially those three dressed in red. The original mostly averts this by placing them in hard to see nooks, like above the doorway you just passed. They also shoot their ranged projectiles (shuriken) completely silently, denying you even that small advantage. Even worse, the first place you encounter them in the game is a series of corridors on the way to activate the first regeneration chamber. You ''will'' die in there.
* [[Hijacked Byby Ganon]]: {{spoiler|The second game.}}
* [[Hitbox Dissonance]]: Monkeys can only be hit consistently with the wrench (the weapon you will be using most of the time, as ammo is limited for most of the game) from above is right on top of them (monkeys have [[Psychic Powers]] and are the first and most plentiful foe with a ranged attack). An upgrade for the player character's cybernetic OS allows him to execute overhand attacks with melee weapons (a shout-out to the game's predecessor, ''Thief'', which uses the same engine), although this only helps a little and requires not taking other, much more useful, upgrades.
* [[Hive Mind]]: The Many.
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* [[Instant Sedation]]: Averted with the tranquilizer darts in the original, you need to shoot several darts to paralyze the target, doesn't lasts to long and wakes them up if you hit them.
** A certain Psi skill in the sequel does much the same to robots.
** The stun gun from the first game is entirely non-lethal, doing [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. However, it only works on entirely organic enemies (cyborgs aren't affected and forget about robots), the stun doesn't last forever, and it consumes a disproportionate amount of battery power considering it doesn't ''kill'' things. Best dropped and forgotten.
* [[Interface Screw]]: {{spoiler|The final confrontation with SHODAN in cyberspace in the first game. You try to face her to fire, but you have to fight the controls to keep from twisting away. And then she starts replacing your vision with her glowing visage, pixel-by-pixel.}}
** The [[Status Buff]] patches in the original gave this as a side effect, like Genius patches inverted the controls and the steroid patch inverted the colors.
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* [[Interface Spoiler]]: The interface in the original has ten slots for items/software.
* [[Invisibility]]: One of the PSI-disciplines. And those slimes on deck 3 in the original. And the Spiders in the sequel...
* [[In the End You Are Onon Your Own]]: In a sense, in both games near the end the protagonists lose contact with [[Mission Control]]. {{spoiler|In the sequel, SHODAN even says that "You are on your own".}}
{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Rebecca Lansing''': 2-4601, it's important that you don't forget...<cut off>}}<br />
{{spoiler|'''SHODAN''': You h- You have entered my domain... R-Rebecca and Morris cannot help you now- NO ONE CAN}}. }}
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* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: Both games are absent from any digital distribution method and almost impossible to find legally, and the only "legal" copies are second hand.
** Getting an original, mint copy is one matter. Making it to work on 5th generation PCs is another matter...
* [[Kill It Withwith Ice]]: Cryokinesis.
* [[Killed Mid-Sentence]]: Malick. He was working on an audio-log before Bronson's men gunned him down. {{spoiler|Also Prefontaine.}}
* [[Kill Sat]]: Citadel Station's mining laser is modified by SHODAN to function like one.
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* [[La Résistance]]: The humans who survived the initial slaughter in both games.
* [[Last Stand]]: Both games has a lot of places where this occurred, like the last stand of Bronson and her men in the sequel.
* [[Late to Thethe Party]]: in both games, you wake up after all hell has broken loose. This was because Looking Glass realized that the technology just wasn't ready to have realistic reactions and conversations with pesky ''living'' people.
** Conversations were possible in the spiritual ancestor [[Ultima Underworld]], though.
** The main problem is the Dark Engine itself (used for Thief 1 & 2 as well as [[SS 2]]). While it is technically capable enough, speaking from experience the editor is user-surly to the novice and a total mindscrew to comprehend. Coding in a believable friendly NPC would be an absolute ''nightmare''.
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* [[Logic Bomb]]: Disposable Logic Probes in the original, used to bypass hacking puzzle minigames.
** PSI users can get a power that does something similar in the sequel, though not as effectively.
* [[Look Onon My Works Ye Mighty and Despair]]: Prefontaine, the scientist captured by The Many, studied the biomass and remarked how in short 40 years of evolution The Many conquered the starship, humanity's mightiest creation. Also, the whole second game can be somewhat viewed like this.
* [[Lost in Transmission]]: Some of the logs.
* [[Made of Explodium]]: Everything remotely mechanical, apparently.
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{{quote| '''SHODAN''': ''You move like an insect. You think like an insect. You are an insect.''}}
* [[Playing the Player]]: ''System Shock 2'' is one of the most infamous examples of this.
* [[Playing Withwith Fire]]: Localized and Projected Pyrokinesis.
* [[Plug N Play Technology]]: Lampshaded in the manual for the first game, to the point that the developers nicknamed The Hacker as "Plug N Play Man".
* [[Point Build System]]: By using cybermodules in the sequel.
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* [[Power Crutch]]: The Psi-Amp in the sequel, allowing you to use PSI-Disciplines.
* [[Power Source]]: The energy meter in the original, which was used as ammo for energy weapons and to power-up your accessories. In the sequel power-based equipment has their own batteries. Both games have recharge stations.
* [[Powers Asas Programs]]: Cybermodules and O/S upgrades in the sequel.
* [[Praetorian Guard]]: The Elite Mutants in the original, featured on the cover and can be only found on the Bridge Level.
* [[Press X to Die]]: Pull the lever with the words "Laser Control" above it and get a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
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* [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]: You can rig the reactors of both Citadel Station and the ''Von Braun'' to self-destruct, although the latter was just a ruse.
* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: What The Many wants to do with their {{spoiler|"Machine Mother".}}
* [[Send in Thethe Search Team]]
* [[Sentry Gun]]: Turrets, and they can be hacked to shoot at the enemies.
* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Since the door password are never randomized, knowing them beforehand will let you skip most of the Med/Sci deck. Blocking the door for the room with the first energy recharger also qualifies.
* [[Serious Business]]: The backstory of [[SS 2]] says that two megacorps employed mercenaries to destroy each other's bottling facilities.
* [[Set a Mook Toto Kill Aa Mook]]: Using the PSI-powers you can turn enemies against each other.
* [[Shiny-Looking Spaceships]]: Von Braun tries to be like one, but fails.
* [[Shout-Out]]: The mini-basketball game is a reference to the one in the training level of [[Thief]]. [[Creepy Monotone|Calm-voiced]] Xerxes in the sequel is a series X-[[Two2001: ThousandA OneSpace Odyssey|9000]]SC AI, and the above mentioned arc number is a nod to ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]''
** The Hacker is also "officially" known as Employee [[Les Misérables|2-4601]]
** He also wears a shirt in the intro with a [[Watchmen|large yellow smiley face stained red]]
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* [[A Space Marine Is You]]: especially in the sequel, in which the player character actually joins the military in the beginning of the game.
* [[The Spartan Way]]: The Io training facility where the Marines, the Navy guys (to the annoyance of the Marines) and OSA operatives (to the ignorance of former two) train for the year to build their endurance. It has a 16% fatality rate.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To the [[Ultima Underworld]] series. System Shock itself has its own successors in form of [[Bio ShockBioshock]] and [[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dead Space]].
** Also, [[Portal (Video Gameseries)|GLaDOS]] is often considered to be a spiritual successor to SHODAN.
* [[Spoiler Opening]]: {{spoiler|SHODAN's involvement was supposed to be the game's ultra major plot twist, but the fact that she shows up on the box cover completely gives that away.}}
** Despite that, [[The Reveal]] came very sudden and completely unexpected for most players. {{spoiler|Yes, you know SHODAN will be around. No, you never suspect her to be Polito.}}
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* [[The Voiceless]]: The protagonists. {{spoiler|Except for when Goggles said, "Nah." to SHODAN's [[We Can Rule Together|proposal to join her in world domination]] before shooting her. And the Hacker has written a [[Rouge Angles of Satin|dairy]] we can read later just before undertaking a neural surgery.}}
* [[Voice of the Legion]]: SHODAN and The Many.
* [[Voice Withwith an Internet Connection]]: Dr. Polito {{spoiler|who is SHODAN}}.
* [[Universal Ammunition]]: The energy weapons in the original used power from the shared energy bar, also used by other items (which were really draining with their upgrades). The sequel thankfully gave them their own batteries. The sequel also had ammunition that can be used by two guns: Bullets and its variations (The Pistol and Assault Rifle), Prisms (The Statis Field Generator and the Fusion Cannon), Portable Batteries {The Energy Pistol and EMP Rifle} and the Worms (The Viral proliferator and the Annelid (Worm) Launcher).
* [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]]: The broken shotguns, if you're lucky (though you should still loot them for the one shotgun round they always hold, and you ''can'' fix them if you're ''really'' desperate). Also, the Exotic weapons which you must research first.
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