The beneficiary of a retrospective viewpoint.

Gameplay

Shock-like, shock-bright

• — Most of the narrative is told through audio or text logs beyond the environment itself.
• — They both feature Stimpacks and Psi hypos ( EVE hypos).
• — Both games feature Vita-chambers or “Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines”. These are where your body will be reconstructed upon death. They act as a sort of 'live' checkpoint. Though they cost nanites to use.
• — You'll see ghosts — this time not from gene sampling and cross contamination of ADAM but rather — “Your R-grade cyber rig has an experimental perception enhancement that can theoretically detect residual psychic emanations.“ — Wiki: Source
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2596344070
• — You can hack security cameras that will send enemies after you that need to be shut down at certain stations.
• — Research can be performed to increase damage to specific enemies as well as unlock new weapons. Though, the methodology is different.
• — Hackable kiosks are throughout.
• — The first weapon you pick up in both games is a wrench.
The hacking is remotely similar in that, while it is a different system, it's you trying to line up three points in a row instead of connecting two points with tubes, both however feature a number of things to get in the way. They also both have ways around the hacking like auto-hack devices.

Other miscellaneous info and anecdotes.

The Gist

Verdict

Pushing the boundaries of RPG, shooter and immersive sim.

With freedom, comes great consequence.

Survival and progression throughout Van Braun.

Difficulty and reward.

Final words.

Some tips to enjoy the game better.

• Use melee whenever possible, it saves a lot of ammo early on.
• Hacking is important, make sure it's never neglected.
• I would recommend mainly using standard weapons for the first playthrough and maybe speccing 1 or 2 points into others.
• Pressing N leaves a marker on the map so you should use them to note locked doors and etc. to return to.
• Try to save your modules for when you need them instead of upgrading things without considering your build.

• The atmosphere. System Shock 2 was universally acclaimed for the sense of horror and dread that the level design of the Von Braun evoked. You constantly get the feeling that you're vulnerable, and no place ever feels safe aboard the numerous decks of the cursed spaceship.
• The number of ways in which you can play. Despite coming out in 1999, System Shock 2 has an incredibly sophisticated system for its skill trees. You have to specialise between the choice of weaponry (standard/energy/heavy/exotic), the attributes for shaping your character (strength/endurance/agility/cyber affinity/psionics), tech abilities (hacking/repair/modification/maintenance/research), and a number of psionic abilities. It's a testament to the skill tree system that you can have completely different builds that change up the entire gameplay. I've played the game twice, once as a Navy Hacker with emphasis on gunplay, and the other as an OSA Agent fully focusing on psionic powers and melee attacks with the wrench.
• The survival horror. System Shock 2, despite not strictly being a survival horror, manages to convey the same to the player by raising the intensity of the gameplay and perpetually keeping the player on their toes. Resources are incredibly scarce, every single bullet counts, and a single mistake could often be the last mistake you'll make. The game never lulls you into a sense of comfort, and always maintains the panic by giving you access to just enough resources and ammo that you're able to fulfil your objectives and make it to the next stage, if you play conservatively and carefully. The atmosphere is able to convey this foreboding sense of loneliness and tension by placing you in blood-spattered surroundings with dead bodies of crew members around you, evoking imagery of the horror that took place. Moreover, the game does not hold your hand at any stage, and you'll often have to figure out the objectives by yourself while you fend for your life and precious resources.
• The story (or rather, the story behind the story). System Shock 2 is probably one of the earliest examples of storytelling through audiologs. There is no exposition dump upon you once the game begins, and this is how it continues to be till the game ends. You're never fed the story through a cutscene or through an exposition-laden dialogue. Instead, you find audio logs of long-dead crew members scattered throughout the ship decks, listening to which helps you piece together the story of the horrors aboard the Von Braun bit-by-bit. BioShock made it popular but remember, System Shock 2 had it first, and did it incredibly well at that.
• Fun. This is obviously subjective, but I had a lot of fun playing System Shock 2. The mix between resource management, freedom of exploration, a decent variety of usable weaponry and the numerous types of enemies that can be encountered was a really good one. You can explore each deck of the ship at any time at your discretion, most weapons are usable and effective provided you invest in the correct skills, and there's a good variety of enemies, all of which have different attributes, strengths and weaknesses that you can discover through audio logs or research. All in all, it was an incredibly satisfactory experience to play through the game.
• The techno (rave/energetic?) soundtrack. People usually encourage first time players to disable the soundtrack for maintaining the creepiness of the atmosphere, but I disagree. The soundtrack mechanism is designed in a way where the energetic parts play at moments and in areas where you can run and gun and generally take more risks in combat. The music otherwise stops or becomes sombre when you leave such areas. This is a pretty cool system and it worked exceedingly well, in my opinion (the tracks themselves are pretty enjoyable to listen to outside the game).

• The last two levels of the game are really tedious to finish, and the pace is quite different from the rest of the game. It's not bad or unplayable by any means, but it definitely feels a bit off when compared to the rest of the game, which is fantastic.
• A piece of chewed-up cardboard is more durable than the guns you find in this game, and the rate at which they degrade is ridiculous. I've seen players recommend changing config files to reduce the degradation level, which may be worth a look if the degradation mechanics interfere with your enjoyment of the game. I personally played the game as-is to retain the sense of difficulty as envisaged by the developers, but I'd wholly recommend looking into this if you find the repair/maintenance mechanics tedious, because the rate at which weapons degrade is incredibly aggravating.

Retro Review

Yet another classic from Looking Glass Studios it's System Shock 2 which helped put sci-fi horror on the map.

• Cult Classic, influencing a lot of FPS's to come.
• Great story and medium length campaign.
• Multiple ways to approach situations, branching skills and equipment upgrades.
• Real-time inventory menu, what's this pause menu stuff, pfft.
• Positional based sound, and some great voice work.
• Had an update in 2017 that brought in modern era screen resolutions and Co-op.
• This GUIDE should help getting rid of those crusty textures, and point the way to mods.
• In need of a HD reboot, they are doing System Shock in Unity, and System Shock 3 is being made as well, both look and sound sweet.