System Shock 2

"The game Half-Life took notes on"

A long time ago, in etc. etc., a game called System Shock was released for the PC. It was pretty good for 1994, but it took them 5 years to spawn a sequel. And now that its out, we reap the benefits. Not just because its a great game, but Half-Life was pretty similar to its formula. So think about buying this wonderful game if you have any Half-Life edition. If you don't have a heart, well, you miss on this one.

-- Graphics 9 / 10 --
I played this on a crappy GPU and a 300 MHz laptop, and it played like a beaut with minimal flicker. No slowdown at all. The graphics were very indepth. However, it is a bit difficult to pick up items with the methods taught in the ingame tutorials. It was all good though.

-- Sound 9 / 10 --
Running even on software, you can't go too wrong. And if you have a very good sound card, you can even use effects like EAX, which morphs the sound so that it sounds like you're playing in a studio, a hall, etc.

-- Gameplay 10 / 10 --
The meat and potatos of any game, this ranked so high its not nice. A RPG/FPS combo, this game is extremely well made. I enjoy both RPGs and FPSs, so you'd imagine how it ranked. If you liked Half-Life, give it a try.

But I'm not done yet! You get statistics for all sorts of things, including strength, speeed, and the like. You have techniques, like hacking. That's a really cool minigame, where you have to connect three lights on the inside of a device such as a keypad. You have psychic abilites. Every badguy has a health monitor. Its just really really really really really really really really cool.

-- Control 7 / 10 --
The default control is a bit iffy, but luckily you can customize it. And don't try to play it with a trackpad on a laptop, or if you do, set the sensitivity WAAAAY down. Very important.

-- Story 10 / 10 --
This game's story definately puts the 'person' in 'first person shooter'. Its very interactive.

-- OVERALL (NON Average) 9.44/10 --
What an amazing game, and while not that popular, definately gave Half-Life a formula to stick to. I reccommend this game to anyone who likes FPSs or RPGs.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/01, Updated 07/19/01