"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"-SHODAN System shock 2
The first thing you see started System Shock 2, when you past the opening cut scene that explained the first title, is the dark, futuristic streets of an unknown city. Because see, you are a macho military grunt looking to find where you future lies. Choosing from marines, air force, etc. But each round of training raises certain attributes, totally something you'll need for the upcoming hell-scape the game throws you into. The next thing you realize, is the ship you have been stationed on, the Von Braun, is suddenly under attack. Running for your life, you are helped by a woman, and supposed second only survivor of this attack, Janice Polito. Following her rather rude requests, you explore the ship in an attempt to leave. But seeing as this is a science fiction space horror, you run into terribly mutated humans, experimented monkeys and killer robots. All of these enemies were created with help by the evil AI that has taken over the ship, SHODAN.
((Image credit; System Shock Wiki))
Now a lot of times when people write about System Shock 2, you can't go a few sentences without her being mentioned. Hell, in most 'best villains' or 'best twists' in video games, SHODAN is most always on the top of the lists. With, obviously, good reason. Normally, horror games throw you into a situation where being alone is the last thing you want. In System's case, you honestly want to be alone. Throughout a good chunk of the game, you are being actively spoken to and given places to go by her. By the enemy you are trying to kill in the game. Every time a quest is finished or an item was found, you have SHODAN in your ear, commenting on your slow push forward. With a robotic voice and eerily human face, she is an AI that wishes to be a god, and will even work with the enemy to get what she wants. Besides, you're nothing but a fleshbag to her. SHODAN has no space in her new reality for you!
A lot of what the horror in System Shock 2 came in it's audio design. The punchy techno-beat background music and the haunting background noises. Malfunctioning sliding panel doors, the soft beeps of computer and the softer beeping noises of the security machines down a hall. But, the audio editing that went into the enemy sounds is something that has never escaped my mind. The groans and yells of enemies, the slightly disorienting monkey noises from the test animals and the soft, feminine voices of cyber midwives. Unlike most enemies in horror games, who make gross, fleshy noises, the enemies in the halls of the Von Braun speak to you. Calling out such haunting words as 'I'm sorry!' and 'Kill me!' that drone from their lips as whats human can feel the pain of the mutations, and cry out when you kill them. The game wants to remind you that they were once people too, and death is the only way that you can free them.
Along with audio design, SHODAN herself is highly important to the game's horror aspect. As quoted above, you are seen as nothing but a 'pathetic creature' to the AI. You are nothing, she is everything. The next step in evolution, one that cannot age or grow old. She wants to rule with the only reason why being is it's her destiny. And the fact she sees herself as a real person, and as the one true leader of humanity, is one of the scariest things this title produced. With her control over the alien force 'The Many', SHODAN basically has an never ending army, one that one after another chases after you after an alarm is set off, and the fact she could have chosen anytime she wanted to betray you are unknowingly helping her makes her a predator. A dangerous force that knows that you, its prey, can be very easily manipulated. Throughout the game you are given upgrade points by SHODAN, told where to go and even help her getting rid of your common enemy.
((Image credit;; Kotaku.au))
Two years before System Shock 2 released, the body space horror Event Horizon (1997) released to a very iffy reception. The film is praised for it's special effects and setting, but is pretty much knocked down for everything else. While I am not going to go in full details of the film, it's easy to see a lot of influences in System Shock 2. The body horror with the human/Many hybrids, the derelict empty spaceship, and even the use of ghosts and disembodied voices to tell a backstory. While none of this has been confirmed, one can agree with the mental thought that the film played a role in System Shock 2's horror, but also that the game worked with those elements as a stepping stone and building on it, just as many other modern day horror games used it for the same purpose.
Earlier, I spoke about System Shock's director Ken Levine. Many of you would already know that name as Levine is the creator of the Bioshock franchise, starting with the first title, created in 2007. Originally meant to be a System Shock title, Bioshock was created by Levine wanting to recreate the heavy atmosphere as he had with System Shock 2, and only playing a few hours of Bioshock, one can easily point out specific aspects taken from his first title and molded into his second. The same storytelling ghosts exists in Bioshock and have the same purpose, teaching us backstory and learning about the citizens of the underwater city of Rapture just as they were used to show us the workers of the Von Braun. One can even argue the character of Atlas is a direct reference to our AI queen SHODAN, though I'd rather not spoil Bioshock in this post (But maybe i'll make a smaller essay comparing the two characters later on?), but it's not just things as big as characters you discover in Rapture. You start off the title with a wrench as a weapon, just as you did with System. The dark underwater city can be the below ground version of the Von Braun, and plasmids (Bioshock's crazy science fiction powers) being the same as Psi powers you can focus on in System.
((image credit; wsgf.com))
While you can argue that Bioshock is a direct successor to System Shock 2, another title that released in the 2000s can be seen easily taking System Shock's place as the modern day space horror shooter is the first title of 2008's Dead Space, published by EA (oh??) and made by Visceral Games. You are a engineer named Isaac Clarke who travels to the USG Ishimura in an attempt to find your wife, only to find out that the ship has fallen to an alien/human hybrid species called the Necromorphs, summoned by a object call the Marker. And just by the explanation of the plot, you can see the similarities to that of System Shock 2. We got the USG Ishimura being the new Von Braun, both being decrepit, eerie spaceships, and in place of the Many, you have Necromorphs. The only difference being the Necromorphs do not yell at you to kill them (a lot more aggressive, too many sleepless nights from me with the image of a Necromorph running at me behind my eyes, ugh.) but just try to kill you. Also, have I mentioned how Dead Space was originally supposed to be a sequel to System Shock 2 until Resident Evil 4 came along?
((image credit; sfx.thelazy.net))
Not too many games that have released hold such a historical role in gaming history then System Shock 2. Even now in 2020, both System Shock titles have been released onto modern PC gaming sellers such as GOG and Steam, and even the first title has received an enhanced remaster and even has a full remake in development from NightDive studios. But System Shock 2 remains the same as it did twenty-one years ago. With the same scares, the same audio (and hey, some purchases even include the games Original Soundtrack which I cannot recommend enough) and same graphics. Now is the best time to go back in time and replay this classic, and hey, maybe a horror game you've played wouldn't have been here if System Shock 2, and the collaboration between Looking Glass and Irrational Games, had never happened.
Hi guys! Whoa, this was a dozy. I just wanted to thank everyone for the love, support and critique for part one of this little essay I wanted to write. I've loved horror games since I can remember, and it was amazingly fun to dig into one of my favorite games of all time and finally yell into the internet void about System Shock. Especially with the recent news of Tencent buying the rights to the series, insuring that System Shock 3 actually happens! For now, i'll just link the demo that Nightdive kindly released on GOG today for the System Shock remake, and I hope this convinces you guys to discover the series for yourself! https://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_demo
<3 Sarah
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