39,327
edits
System Shock: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (delink camelcase) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 11:
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 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 ''[[
----
Line 29:
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]
* [[Almost-Dead Guy]]: Almost everybody else who isn't dead already, or trying to kill you.
* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: Edward Diego left a log that has him begging SHODAN to spare him. To make this even more pathetic, almost right next to the log is another log that had him bragging to Tri-Optimum investigators after he had the Citadel's defense system shoot down the shuttle with another team of investigators, arrogantly stating that he is untouchable with SHODAN under his control. The dates of logs are roughly two weeks apart.
* [[Always Close]]: You always get to the bridge level just before {{spoiler|it jettisons itself from self-destructing Citadel Station.}}
* [[Always Night]]: It's in space.
Line 49:
* [[Assimilation Plot]]: The nature of The Many.
* [[Asteroid Thicket]]: Mentioned during career choosing.
* [[Ate His Gun]]: Ate his shotgun, if the position of said gun is any indication.
* [[Auto Doc]]: Both games have automatic medical beds that heal you completely in an instant. The first game also has stations that will reanimate a "killed" character, though these need to be reset so they won't turn him into one more cyborg instead.
* [[Badass Boast]]: SHODAN likes these.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: The Hacker, the protagonist of the first game, is an [[Exactly What It Says on 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).
* [[The Battle Didn't Count]]: Edward Diego teleports away when he is dealt enough damage, and goes down in the third fight.
Line 98:
{{quote|'''Diego:''' Anatoly, there's only so much corporate calisthenics I can go through before I start to feel a little queasy, so let's get down to brass tacks here. [[I Don't Like You and You Don't Like Me|We don't like each other.]] We each have our own motivations for undertaking this mission, so let me give you a little warning. I cannot be circumvented, I cannot be tricked, I cannot be manipulated, and I cannot be bought. You come at me straight and keep the fancy maneuvers for your next board meeting. Just because my father swam with the sharks doesn't mean that I do.}}
** Diego is voiced by Stephen Russel, best known for voicing Garrett in the ''[[Thief]]'' series, and his voice for Diego is no less badass.
* [[Colony Drop]]: SHODAN tries to do this with Citadel Station after the Hacker stopped all of her plans (and backup plans).
* [[Computer Voice]]: XERXES is obviously male and SHODAN is obviously female. Although the latter tended to have some extra voices talk at the same time for the hell of it.
* [[Contagious AI]]: SHODAN in the first game.
Line 141:
*** Zigzagged in Easy mode, where the nanite cost is negated. Completely played straight in Multi-player mode where the cost is negated and you don't ''need'' to activate the Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines (you'll resurrect at the bulkhead you entered the area instead). Justified since Multi-player is locked at Impossible difficulty.
** The first game is both played straight, subverted and averted. Played straight in that once you activate the regeneration chamber, you can die as many times as you like on that particular level with no ill effects. Subverted in that some levels (particularly level 3 and level 6) revive with a bare minimum of health, meaning that reviving can actually be incredibly difficult if you don't have enough healing items. Averted (and twisted) in that the last two levels (level 8 security and level 9 bridge) are the hardest levels in the game and have ''no'' resurrection chambers. If you die, you're ''dead''. [[Difficulty Spike|It ups the difficulty significantly]], considering you're used to being able to die and come back, and have been incorporating it into your strategy for the rest of the game.
* [[Death Trap]]: SHODAN sets up a few surprising and actually very efficient ones in the first game. However, since she can't control regeneration chambers once you reset them, there is nothing to stop you going back and doing it again. For example, in one {{spoiler|Antenna}} room, SHODAN closes the force door on you right after you set up the bomb to destroy it.
* [[Decontamination Chamber]]: In Med section of deck 2. You just have to {{spoiler|walk directly under the 'steam' coming out of the ceiling.}}
** There's a decon chamber on Level R in the first game. It works exactly as advertised, but ''only'' for radiation poisoning. Biological poisoning will not be removed.
Line 158:
* [[Dominatrix]]: SHODAN has undertones of this in the sequel.
* [[Doomsday Device]]: SHODAN had a mining laser that apparently could destroy everything on Earth (Then again, it was designed to work on Saturn in the first place) and the deadly virus (which without her supervising will evolve into The Many).
* [[Down the Drain]]: The part of Deck 1 Engineering is like this.
* {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending]]: The second game... with SHODAN's "new look..."}}
* [[The Dragon]]: Edward Diego to SHODAN in the first game. Anatoly Korenchkin and XERXES to The Many in the Second.
Line 176:
* [[Enclosed Space]]: The games are set in the space station and the space ship.
* [[Enemy Chatter]]:
** The humans converted by The Many.
** Both games made use of this for nearly ''all'' enemies; the sequel just did it way better.
* [[Enemy Detecting Radar]]: In the original the higher versions of the map software allowed you to see enemies on the mini-map, and the results depended on which subsystem was using it (left, right (one showed stationary enemies while the other showed them in motion only) or both (for both stationary and motion detecting)). The sequel has a PSI-Discipline that produced the same results.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Basically the whole situation with {{spoiler|SHODAN}} for the Von Braun crew.
* [[Enemy Scan]]: The original has a targeting software which gave information on the enemy.
* [[Energy Ball]]: The Overload option of the energy weapons will fire these.
* [[Energy Weapon]]
Line 254:
** The first game subverts this, though: the laser rapier is obscenely powerful, but very short range in a game where almost everything has a ranged attack, and every successful hit drains your (limited) battery, which is better used on your various cybernetic implants. In almost every respect, an energy beam is more efficient, and projectile weapons are superior. The laser rapier is really only good for level 3, where the semi-cloaked enemies die in one hit from it.
* [[Hide Your Children]]: While it is in no way a stretch to assume there were never any children on Von Braun, there is a sign ("Adult must accompany child") that suggests there were.
* [[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 by Ganon]]: {{spoiler|The second game.}}
Line 299:
* [[Kill Sat]]: Citadel Station's mining laser is modified by SHODAN to function like one.
* [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]]: Balance issues in the sequel made the energy weapons inferior to standard ones. The big advantage of the energy weapons, however, is the lack of ammunition, which is hard to find and expensive. If you can find an energy recharger, you can fire your energy weapon.
* [[Knight Templar]]: Bronson. There is a ghost scene where her men are gunning down civilians who do not approve of the martial law.
* [[Large Ham]]: SHODAN.
* [[Laser Blade]]: Laser Rapier in both games. One of the late PSI-Disciplines is to make one out of your PSI energy.
Line 329:
* [[Master Computer]]: SHODAN and XERXES for Citadel and Von Braun respectively.
* [[Master of Unlocking]]: You're the hacker in the first game, duh. And this seems to be one of the Navy's specialties, though others can also learn the hacking skill.
* [[Matter Replicator]]: The Replicators that act like vending machines. One of the PSI-Disciplines allows you to do this, except on Psi hypos.
* [[Mega Corp]]: Tri-Optimum.
* [[Meat Moss]]: The Bridge level in the original is vaguely [[Alien]]-like.
Line 345:
* [[Mutants]]: Of many varieties in the first game.
* [[My Brain Is Big]]: Or more accurately, the brain is big because it's the entire body of the Reavers.
** Also played straight with the psi-monkeys. The entire top half of their skulls are surgically removed to allow their brain to increase in volume without causing crippling pressure on their skulls.
* [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: Von Braun and Rickenbacker.
* [[Nanomachines]]: In addition to being the part of cyber modifications, it also acts as the currency in almost post-scarcity-like economy.
Line 353:
** So, giving {{spoiler|SHODAN}} control of the ship by {{spoiler|crippling XERXES}}, co-opting the simulation units and the ship's engine core and {{spoiler|killing The Many}} means that {{spoiler|SHODAN now has control of a device which can [[Reality Warper|reprogram reality]]}}. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Epic job breaking it, hero]].
*** Both of the protagonists didn't have much choice in the matter (Rest of the life in prison for the Hacker and being assimilated into The Many for the Soldier are not pleasant alternatives).
** In straight example, that Hacker can cause the demise of the human race if he isn't careful in his attempt to disarm the mining laser.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: Ninja Robot assassins in both games.
* [[Night Vision Goggles]]: In the original.
Line 420:
* [[Respawn Point]]: The Restoration chambers.
* [[The Reveal]]: Widely regarded as one of the greatest, most horrifying and most shocking reveals in the history of gaming. {{spoiler|"The Polito form is dead, insect. Are you afraid? What is it you fear? The end of your trivial existence? W-wh-whe-whe-when the history of my glory is written, your species shall be but a footnote to my magnificence. (the walls fold away in Polito's office)...I AM SHODAN}}.
* [[Reverse Polarity]]: At one point you are given a resonator to reverse the gravitational drives, just so you can destroy a shuttle behind the indestructible force-field.
* [[Roar Before Beating]]: The Rumblers.
* [[Robot Buddy]]: Those suicidal protocol robots act like this.
* [[RPG Elements]]: In the sequel, the player has the option at the beginning to focus on guns, hacking, or psychic powers.
Line 448:
* [[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 [[
** Also, [[Portal (series)|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.}}
Line 468:
* [[Strapped to An Operating Table]]: We see a ghost memory of a nurse strapped down, about to take the [[Unwilling Roboticisation]]. We meet the result of this in the next room.
* [[Superior Species]]: The Many certainly think so.
* [[Survival Horror]]: System Shock 2 is frequently included on "Scariest Games Ever" lists for a reason. It forces you to consider every shot you make, with ammo being scarce and guns breaking quickly. The game is by no means easy and you do not feel empowered in the least. The original System Shock, whilst having quite a lot of ammunition, is also very good at inducing fear even today (in spite of the technical obsolescence of the game).
* [[Take Your Time]]: Played straight. The original, however, allowed to put a optional time limit.
* [[Technicolor Death]]: The way {{spoiler|SHODAN}} "dies" in the sequel is quite warpy.
* [[Techno Wreckage]]: Everything but the [[Womb Level]] and [[Cyberspace]].
Line 501:
* [[Variable Mix]]
* [[Vendor Trash]]: Various magazines, mugs and so on. Their only practical use is to be recycled for nanites.
** The lab beakers also seem so... until you discover you use them to collect ammo for worm-based weapons.
*** [[Double Subverted|The best use for these ammo is to turn them into nanites.]]
* [[Verbal Tic]]: SHODAN's combination of [[Creepy Monotone]] and a stutter.
Line 514:
* [[Wham! Episode]]: {{spoiler|I AM SHODAN!}}
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Not long after the [[Gravity Screw]], you come across a chapel, and since the gravity currently thinks that you're supposed to walk on ceilings...
* [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]: On one hand, those hybrids were your former crew mates even if you don't remember, on the other hands, most of them are begging you to kill them.
* [[Where It All Began]]: The final level of the second game is a simulation of the first level in the first game.
* [[Winged Humanoid]]: The flying mutants in the original.
Line 529:
** The Hacker's case is unique: Diego added him to the company roster to justify his being in a healing coma on Citadel Station, but erased all records of ''why'' the Hacker was on Citadel Station in the first place. No one knows who he is, really, other than his number. This, naturally, is [[All There in the Manual]].
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: {{spoiler|SHODAN to the Soldier, after he killed The Many.}}
* [[You Have Researched Breathing]]: In ''SS2'', you can't use an assault rifle (despite previous training) without investing the appropriate number of cyber modules.
* [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]: Dying in cyberspace will reduce your current health in half and max out your fatigue.
** However, you can't ''die'' as a result of dying in cyberspace. If you have 1 health point left, you will never lose it. In some cases, it's better to immediately and unceasingly head to cyberspace until you're done in there, no matter how many times you die, before healing yourself.
| |||