The Making of System Shock 2

The British gaming magazine Edge, which has teamed up with the website Next Generation, offers up a piece looking back at the creation of System Shock 2 . The cult classic storytelling horror-themed FPS has survived as a popular and often-referenced game despite the eight years between now and its release. The piece covers the reasons behind that popularity, as well as the 'horror' of an inexperienced team taking on a dauntingly high-profile task: "The original System Shock was one of the games that made Levine want to move into the videogame industry in the first place. What made it so special? 'The feeling of being in a real place,' he raves. 'The feeling of a mystery, of unraveling it - not in an adventure game way, but in the context of an action game. You arrive and... what happened? That's a really good storytelling mechanism.' Austin Grossman and Doug Church's original idea from Shock was something Irrational expanded in its sequel. 'In Shock 1 you were a specific guy, you had a backstory,' Levine notes. 'With Shock 2, I started you out with the classic 'wake up with amnesia'.'"

Comments

Re:Bioshock and System Shock

[Nasarius]

Absolutely...spiritual successor my ass.

For those who want to play through SS2 again, check out SHTUP and Rebirth.

Re:I played SS2 once..

[Silverlancer]

You can shoot the camera. It takes one shot with your pistol. ;)

Re:Bioshock and System Shock

[Sj0]

You missed a major point. In the game, you're the illegitimate child of the person who created the vita-chambers, thus one of a small handful of people who gain effective immortality through them. This, along with your brainwashing, makes you a literally unstoppable killing machine.

Would you kindly play through the game again and pay more attention to the plot?