Introduction
Released in August 1999, as a successor to System Shock and a spiritual predecesor to Bioshock, SS2 is a game played in first person combining survival horror and rpg elements to make for a very solid scary game. It's a game considered by many, way ahead of its time and a strong influence in games that released afterwards.
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| Choose your destiny! Just kidding, it's a way to configure your character abilities |
Gameplay
So for a first person game released in 1999, you're probably expecting some very clunky mechanics specific for the time. Well no, as I said above, this game was a strong influence on more modern games and you'll find the way the game acts is quite modern. you play exclusively from first person, you use left click to shoot/hit and right click to interact( traditionally many games use today F or E instead), you press tab to access your inventory (which features a very practical drag&drop system), statistics and read/listen to logs, initiate item research or item modification. Super user friendly, at least for 1999. Another element that caught my attention was that u can lean, which wasn't that common at the time and most AAA first person games don't have it now. pressing Q or E (default) lets you lean to the left or the right.
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| now that's a hard password |
Ok, I mentioned a few concepts above. Well sometimes you find either on foes or around items that can be researched and combined with chemicals you find around the ship will help you research them and usually nets you bonus damage against the various enemies. Plenty of the ranged weapons can be modified to two higher levels usually providing increased damage,increased capacity, faster reload, kickback,etc. You can hack different doors, computers or containers or even vending machines for a discount.
The story focuses on surviving on an infested ship with the plot becoming more interesting as you progress.
Graphics
Well it looks decent and clear but it is as low poly as they come, still it was looking good for it's time but it can still be enjoyed nowadays. I usually have a problem adapting to older 3d games due to getting used with newer graphics but it took me around 5 minutes to forget about that in the game and feel immersed.
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| ye good ole' inventory |
Sound
Well it sounds well for the age, but the effects are in plenty of cases very generic and you might even recognize them from other games. But it does have a good environmental sound implementation, going overall quite well with the game atmosphere. And while you can also hear the enemies, they can also "hear" you. don't expect to go to a room, kill the foes there and then move onward. If enemies are nearby and they hear you they join the show.
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| Ugly bastard this Hybrid |
Compatibility
Well as long as you own the GoG or Steam version the game is pretty much plug and play. In some cases you might experience a crash trying to change resolution in which case you got to go to the game folder, open cam_ext.cfg and add "//" before "use_d3d_display", enter the game, set desired resolution then open the file again and delete the "//" you added. As for resolution support, well at least up to 3840x2160 it works just fine.
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| random mini game(minesweeper) |
Wrap-up
Overall it's a good game, with a good story, enough exploration, meh towards decent combat and can get scary at times. And doesn't require to play the first one to understand the story. Should you buy it? Of course, it's one of those games that you must play at least once in your gaming life.
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| Bang Bang, you're dead! |
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