5 ms·

System Shock 2 was the first game to scare me.

by beached_whale 6y ago

uncledave 6y ago
Same here. This still scares me today https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEo https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEo
- Koliakis 6y ago
  I still can't play SS1/SS2. It's nuts what's possible even with limited graphics.
  - 1000101 6y ago
    I've revisited SS2 several times (couldn't play it due to REALLY ENORMOUS stress level) and I was able to finish it some 10 years later. What an atmosphere. What a story. What an absolute gem...
unixhero 6y ago
Never finished it. Too scary! :)
- EvanAnderson 6y ago
  I finished it, but I still think about the haunting sounds of the "Cyborg Assassin" characters sometimes. Their tendency to ambush made them particularly terrifying. Neato! I've got the GoG version installed on a PC on my network here. I just discovered that the ".CRF" files that contain the game resources are all ZIP files. Now I'm awash in System Shock 2 sounds.
ttt0 6y ago
Great soundtrack.
throwanem 6y ago
It was the first game I played that made full use of surround sound. Talk about scary...
pkorzeniewski 6y ago
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 6y ago
  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.
shoo 6y ago
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 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/n129/mode/1up 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 6y ago
  System Shock had audio logs too. But System Shock 2 used them really well.
  - PicassoCTs 6y ago
    There is something airy walking down these corridors, listening to the stories of your predecessors, wondering whether you would end up as such a audio-log. All these lifes.. a audiobook on its own - and they should have turned it into one. Warning. Spoilers ahead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIqqQEFOO3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIqqQEFOO3s
- cbm-vic-20 6y ago
  The audio and the SHODAN voice work were done by people who were pretty well known in the Boston/Cambridge music scene.
trashface 6y ago
Join Us!!!
tuzemec 6y ago
There's still that sound in my head that the monkeys make when I'm in the dark... :|

System Shock 2 was the first game to scare me.

uncledave 6y ago

Same here. This still scares me today https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEo https://youtu.be/5iZMD_eCpEo

Koliakis 6y ago
I still can't play SS1/SS2. It's nuts what's possible even with limited graphics.
- 1000101 6y ago
  I've revisited SS2 several times (couldn't play it due to REALLY ENORMOUS stress level) and I was able to finish it some 10 years later. What an atmosphere. What a story. What an absolute gem...

unixhero 6y ago

Never finished it. Too scary! :)

EvanAnderson 6y ago
I finished it, but I still think about the haunting sounds of the "Cyborg Assassin" characters sometimes. Their tendency to ambush made them particularly terrifying. Neato! I've got the GoG version installed on a PC on my network here. I just discovered that the ".CRF" files that contain the game resources are all ZIP files. Now I'm awash in System Shock 2 sounds.

ttt0 6y ago

Great soundtrack.

throwanem 6y ago

It was the first game I played that made full use of surround sound. Talk about scary...

pkorzeniewski 6y ago

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 6y ago
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.

shoo 6y ago

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 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/n129/mode/1up 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 6y ago
System Shock had audio logs too. But System Shock 2 used them really well.
- PicassoCTs 6y ago
  There is something airy walking down these corridors, listening to the stories of your predecessors, wondering whether you would end up as such a audio-log. All these lifes.. a audiobook on its own - and they should have turned it into one. Warning. Spoilers ahead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIqqQEFOO3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIqqQEFOO3s
cbm-vic-20 6y ago
The audio and the SHODAN voice work were done by people who were pretty well known in the Boston/Cambridge music scene.

trashface 6y ago

Join Us!!!

tuzemec 6y ago

There's still that sound in my head that the monkeys make when I'm in the dark... :|