![]() The game sold well enough to enable Looking Glass to continue operating, but it didn’t see the kind of mainstream success that games like DOOM did. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate into sales. Other issues include some levels feeling overly maze-like, a lot of backtracking potential and disorienting “cyberspace” segments.Įven so, System Shock received a positive reception at the time, with media outlets awarding it high scores and glowing praise. This is how you get something like DOOM that feels totally modern and effortless and at the same time get System Shock, which was (and kind of still is) often compared to navigating a desktop OS rather than playing a game. This was still the early ’90s, so the standards for things like first-person controls and UI had not yet been fully established. When it launched, its control interface was clunky to say the least. System Shock does have its weaknesses of course. In other words, System Shock is a “have it your way” kind of game that mostly succeeds in staying lively. SHODAN’s regular taunting and interjections keep things flowing too. All the while they’re learning about this place, the company that built it and the people that inhabited it. As they search and pick their way forward, they have opportunities to experiment with their loadouts, try new strategies, achieve little victories against SHODAN…and get punked by it just as often. Players are given a simple objective and are then left to figure out where to go and how to accomplish it. SHODAN is the station after all and it’s out to get you adaptability is the only effective weapon against it.Ītmosphere, characters (particularly SHODAN), decent enough music and the above-mentioned gameplay constitute System Shock’s strengths. Players always have a wealth of options before them ranging from multiple paths and approaches, to weapons and tools, to cybernetic augmentations and even overall strategies. Each area is large, sometimes labyrinthian and freely explorable. Gameplay in System Shock revolves around exploring the Citadel Station and working tirelessly to stop S.H.O.D.A.N., the station’s AI that the player themselves helped to unshackle in the opening moments. multiple, vastly different approaches for puzzle/problem-solving and even audio logs can all trace their origins to System Shock in some way. Large, interconnected maps, heavy emphasis on environmental storytelling. Many features of what would come to be called “emergent gameplay” would be pioneered here by developer Looking Glass Studios. Released in 1994, System Shock is one of the first examples of a true immersive sim game. While its sequel, System Shock 2, is the more-celebrated game, System Shock could be considered a landmark game in its own right. If something does indeed pop-out, perhaps we could put it to use and make treasure hunting on the likes of Steam that much easier. So how about we set it against Returnal, another game that may or may not make it to cult-status in the coming years, and see what they share. One such game, System Shock, actually has a remake coming out at the end of the month. Why those games, though? Is their rediscovery a matter of mere chance or are they always the crème of the forgotten crop?īoth of these seem unlikely, so perhaps there are certain qualities that cult classics in-the-making all share. There are those that, for one reason or another, however, eventually make comebacks as cult classics. They just get buried under the ongoing deluge of releases and wind up largely forgotten by the wider gaming populace. Unfortunate though it is, there are many good games out there that just never get the kind of attention they deserve.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |