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Incline System Shock 1 Thread

Deuce Traveler

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I haven't seen a System Shock 1 thread on here, which surprised me considering how much System Shock 2 is loved. So I thought I'd start one and share my impressions as I beat the game yesterday.

I thought there were going to be more RPG elements than there were, even though System Shock 1 (published in 1994) is not considered an RPG in itself. The reason I thought this going in was because some of the technology from Ultima Underworld 1 (1992) and Ultima Underworld 2 (1993) were used here, and System Shock 2 is considered an RPG by the community.

I almost quit the game a few hours into play, not because it is not a good game, but because I quickly came to realize that it was mostly an action shooter, coming out a year after the famous corridor shooter Doom (1993). I just wasn't in the mood for a shooter. I wanted to play an RPG, so I came very near to quitting this game and moving on to System Shock 2.

Still, I made myself stick with it once I learned the interface better. First, even though it came out a year after Doom, this is definitely not a Doom clone. Hell, it's hard to recognize its roots in Ultima Underworld. You have the options to duck down and lean left or right. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is quite important. In Doom, you use speed and straffing to your advantage in order to take out goons. In Ultima Underworld you can go toe to toe and hack at the enemy. In System Shock, most of the enemies after the first humanoid mutants are quite deadly and alert, and you have to lean past the edges of walls or duck down before shooting in order to create a smaller target while you pick your opponents off one by one. Trying to rush headlong into danger will quickly get you cut down.

You have a lot of tools at your disposal, though. There are a ton of weapons, most of which have multiple types of ammunition. Different weapons are more or less effective against certain enemy types. You also have augments that can power your attacks and make you a more effective fighter. One slows time, effectively creating Bullet Time before Max Payne and before special effects that would have shown bullets in slow motion.

The game also provides multiple solutions to levels. I sucked at Cyberspace, and so did not interface into this portion of the game too often, instead electing to explore each level room by room in order to find weapons and access cards. Had I stuck with cyberspace, however, I could have opened some locked areas sooner, or received more information on the game's backstory.

There is also an enemy AI called SHODAN that you have to face. This AI becomes the one 'person' that you have the most contact with and its personality is the most developed of all the NPCs. The AI shifts from threats to backhanded compliments ("Nice Jump") to raging proclamations depending on your actions. Since you really don't have deeper conversations with other NPCs, the dialogue with SHODAN adds to the feeling of loneliness and ever present danger in game. But that is also a source of criticism. SHODAN should come across as more alien to the player since the AI is not human and has a logic of its own. Instead SHODAN seems petty, sadistic, and vindictive; traits I would attach more to an over-the-top villain than an AI.

Another criticism is that I felt the graphics were poor even for its time. The creatures in Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, and Doom all seemed better animated than the opponents in System Shock 1, and those games preceded this. And although I generally thought the level design was quite good, there are also some stupidly frustrating parts in game, such as a maze filled with little bombers on wheels. No matter how many of those things I killed, more would pop back into the game. I wouldn't have minded that if they all came into the game at a logical location, such as a handful of chutes, but the game would teleport some in at times in front of me or behind me, as if from some transporter beam. There are actually transporters in the game, but only a handful since they are considered experimental technology, and are also supposed to be set to fixed locations with receiver pads, not set to random ground tiles wherever the player happens to be. :M

Those quibbles aside, I am glad I decided to stick with the game. It has a steep learning curve, but it was well worth taking the time to learn the controls. I would very much recommend the game. Now off to System Shock 2. Think I'll make a Navy tech...

:incline:
 

Fowyr

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SS1 is one of my favourite games and Shodan probably one of the best adversaries ever. Instead of passive waiting for you in the Dark CaveBridge of Doom, she actively tries to prevent you from advancing. Not only with a summoned enemies like in every other game, but by adjusting to your actions as well. She's not pulling Great Weapons Of Human Destruction from the ass, she uses things what station already have.
 
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Somehow I found this really, really easy. I played on the hardest difficulties minus the time limit yet I just ran around shooting things. Didn't use hardly any consumables and surprisingly little ammunition-based weapons until the final 2 levels. At first I assumed this was because I used the mouselook mod, but then I'm hearing people in the present day saying the combat is still hard. So I dunno. Maybe it was some Dosbox weirdness.

I thought the game looked really good. Maybe the sprites are a bit below the top but the environments were really nice.

Respawns never really bothered me except for the engineering level (whatever it was called in SS1), where I got stuck for a while and every damn time 3 or 4 enemies spawned near that elevator.

One thing I liked about SHODAN was that you saw a bit of her pre-god delusional self.

Skates were really fun. A shame that most of the rest of the implants were rather unimpressive. Wow a compass when I have a full minimap already on at all times. Two types of methods to see in the dark. The Biometer that tells me my health and fatigue (which I already know and don't care too much about, respectively). Sensaround at least might be handy with a slower paced game that isn't using mouselook, but enemies hardly ever sneak up on you rather than the opposite.
 

Darth Roxor

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I disagree about the deadliness factor. I played it (first and last time) some 3 or 4 years ago, I think, but I clearly remember that once you get a couple of guns and master the interface, you can just spray everything with lead and not give a damn (except when cortex reavers appear, those assholes are really bad for business :( ). Also disagree on SHODAN being a 'petty villain' - imo she acts just as she should for an AI with godhood aspirations going rogue, laughing at the pathetic attempts of one insect trying to bust her deck of machinations (that she has stacked to hell and back and keeps taking new rabbits out of the hat after every supposed 'victory').

Also, I played it only once, and I don't think I'll return to it soon, while I've played through SS2 three times, I believe. But I think System Shock 1 is the better of the two, despite being very different as well. If only because it's just as great, but far more coherent.
 

mindx2

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Definitely a high point in gaming for me along with Ultima Underworld. Regardless of the pixilated look, I still remember jumping in my seat when a mutant had quietly come up behind me and it let out it's creepy "roar" sound as the screen flashed red from the hit. Loved the feeling of isolation as I wondered through the station. I also loved that it wasn't a "finish this level then go onto the next" style game and that different level "puzzles" were connected to other levels of the station. I prefer the CD version as it's one game where I believe that the voice acting additions truly enhanced the game and made SHODAN and the fate of the crew that much more terrifying. A true gem in gaming history that often gets overlooked because of it's highly regarded sequel. I actually found this game before I played Doom and thus found Doom not nearly the Nirvana of gaming as many were proclaiming it at the time (though fun for it's own reasons).
 

Shaewaroz

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A really interesting game. Definitely has a steep learning curve: the levels are complex labyrints that make you lose all sense of direction and the UI was probably designer by the devil himself. I've never finished the game but the first few levels were very exciting.
 

Daemongar

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Overall, i really liked SS1 and remember arguing about it being an RPG with some folks (which I won't get into now.) It had a lot of stuff that may be cliche' now, but at the time was pretty innovative. And I assume everyone playing it is playing the CD version released 3 months after the floppy version:
* That email, log, narrative as a way of providing back-story and advancing the plot with recorded audio. Now items like this are common, but it was awesome at the time. The only games I remember using it after I played it were SS2 and Doom 3. When i started finding them in Doom 3, I started yelling at my computer (well, it was amongst the reasons I was yelling during that game.) Now, more games use that convention.
* Hardware mods to advance the player and increase their strength. This was way ahead of Deus Ex and was pretty original as a means of leveling up without gaining xps and such.
* The graphics were very impressive for when the game was released, allowing for 640x480. Like Lands of Lore 3, this game suffered from the same character sprites not getting better with improved resolution. That is, it appears the enemy/npc sprites were made for one resolution, while background and environment were made to be scaled. I don't know what this is called, but it appeared that way. So graphics were a mixed bag.
* Cyberspace: I loved this - it allowed for true 3D movement and really stepped completely outside of the game itself. It took a while to get used to, but by the end of the game, I was really looking forward to these parts.
* Shodan being with you for the whole game. The security cameras, here constant berating of the player, her little traps and her sexy/crazy voice.
* The player wasn't some paladin or hero out to make a buck, nor was he exceptional at anything other than hacking/computers.

Eh, to borrow someone elses' words, like it or not SS1 really created the story driven action game genre. It's small parts add up to a larger game and a great story, but it may be hard to see being 20 years old and all.
 

octavius

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This is uncanny, but I was just about to make a System Shock thread myself, since it's next on my play list (I couldn't into Master of Magic; playing the Age of Wonders games first spoiled it for me).

I missed SS1 the first time, but 5 or so years later I bought the EA PC Classics version. After much cursing, praying and weeping I finally got it to work, after making a boot disk for it and playing around with autoexec.bat, EMM386 (?), mouse drivers and stuff. I can't remember if I played before or after games like Half-Life, Unreal and Thief, but it was definitely the most intense gaming experience as an "adult" (Chaos Strikes Back being the most intense on as a "kid"). I don't remember much of it now, except the difficulty really increased on the Maintenance Floor (third floor, I think) with the invisible mutants that could only be killed with a Laser Rapier, and the moment when I found the Escape Pods and thought I was finally going to escape, but SHODAN was ahead of me yet again.

Re-reading the manual I disocovered that I had written down my winning stats. I probably played on Normal difficulty and got these scores:
Time: 20:54:10
Kills: 730
Reg or Res?: 15
Diff Index: 26
Score: 4079916

No idea how good that score is, though.

Deuce Traveler, what was your scores?
And judging from your complaint about the graphics I assume you didn't play the Portable version with higher resolutions?
 

Deuce Traveler

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Average Manatee, I found the game easy once I started peering around corners and shooting at the enemy behind cover. The enemy would often fire back and not hit me as I took an enemy out gradually with my magnum, saving my bigger weapons for the final stages. Because I hoarded my best items for the end stages, I had a lot of inventory left over in the end. If I ever play again I'll be more liberal with using my bigger guns.

Darth Roxor, I found I had to adjust my tactics to the game. I treated it at first as a corridor shooter, which it is not. In Doom, I can rush into the room with a double-barreled shotgun and kill a mutated marine before the computer reacts. In System Shock 1, if I rush into the room with the same intention and the enemy is facing me, I do not gain the same delayed reaction. The enemy shoots me right away. On the other hand, I can take a pot shot at the enemy in System Shock, hide behind a wall, switch to my laser rapier, and just wait for him to walk towards me and whack him twice before he can get around to shoot. The difficulty was more in learning the strengths and vulnerabilities of the enemy in this game world.

AngryEddy, you can also get it on some abandonware sites and it can be played through DOSBox.

Daemongar, I have to admit that some of SHODAN's traps she lays are also pretty clever. I like the "Nice Jump" one and her trapping me in a certain explosive situation towards the end the most. Clever girl. :obviously:

octavius, I'm not sure since I didn't write them down and my save before the end scene was before facing off against SHODAN. I wanted to give it a few goes at her to see what she got, but I finally made it after using up some medkits to restore my health. I don't really feel like spending the 30+ minutes right now going back to do it again just for the score, but I think I had over 600 kills, about 3/4s of your score, and a lot more hours of play. This is because I like to have my characters look down corridors and observe before ever making a move in games like this. My current Thief game is taking forever because of this habit. Oh, and Master of Magic was fun, but I agree with you that it isn't so wonderful I would go back to it. I played a wizard with all white/holy magic and had a difficult time at first, but eventually you get to the point where you own more than half the world and begin stomping the opposition through vast resources alone.

Today I got stuck on my Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday game, so I took a break from it to load up System Shock 2. I just got it from GOG during their summer sale. The character creation at the beginning reminded me of the Traveller tabletop roleplaying game. So awesome! I'm playing a Navy guy with a technical background in cyberspace and research.

:love:
 
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AngryEddy, you can also get it on some abandonware sites and it can be played through DOSBox.



:love:

Thanks, what is the command to actually mount the files? I haven't used a manual DOSbox in ages, and last time when I was trying to mount Syndicate: American Revolt, I couldn't get it to work.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
I usually make my DOSBox folder called C:\DOSBox on my actual drive. When I downloaded System Shock 1 from Abandonia and unzipped it, the folder it was in was SShock, and the executable file was SShock.exe. I put the SShock folder into the dosbox folder, making it a subfolder at this location:

C:\DOSBox\SShock

When I ran DOSBox and received the Z:\ prompt, my commands looked like this:

mount c c:\dosbox
c:
cd sshock
sshock

In English:

This mounts the virtual c drive to my real dosbox folder=> mount c c:\dosbox
This changes my directory from Z:\ to C:\ => c:
This changes my directory to my system shock folder => cd sshock
This runs the executable sshock.exe => sshock

I grew up with DOS. ;)

Abandonia link: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/24684/System Shock.html
 
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I first played SS1 about 2 years ago, and it was one of the first games in a long time where I just lost track of time playing it. I think I started sometime in the early afternoon, and before I knew it it was 4 in the morning. I think I like it more than SS2, mainly because SS1 executes so perfectly. Yes, the UI is confusing at first, and the enemy sprites don't look great, but where it really counts, in the gameplay, the atmosphere, and the immersiveness, the game was amazing. Of course, I don't mean immersion in the same way shitty AAA developers use it, because in SS1 it's not at all about the graphics. It's in how the game truly makes you feel alone, like it's just you versus Shodan, that in some ways you can even forget you're playing a game. As has been alluded to by several posters already, Shodan was more than just a video game villian, she was a true adversary. While in, for example, Doom, you would go into a room, the lights would shut off and you would get ambushed, you get the feeling like "oh that was a neat trap the devs set for me." In SS1, whenever Shodan talked to you or laid a trap and proved she was ahead of you it didn't come across like it was just good design by the devs, but it was Shodan herself being clever. I remember cursing Shodan while playing when I got killed by a trap, not even thinking about the devs of the game at all.

The audio logs were also such a great move. By the time I played SS1, I had already played other games where it was used (SS2 obviously), but it's hard not to appreciate its first use. And it was used so well, explaining the story in a far superior way to cutscenes or exposition by an omniscient narrator, while also serving the purpose of the immersion, reminding the player that he is truly alone, for all of the logs were really the epitaphs of Citadel Station's crew.

And the music. Oh god the music:
 

octavius

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octavius, I'm not sure since I didn't write them down and my save before the end scene was before facing off against SHODAN.

You don't screenshot your victory screens? Personally I screenshot all the highlights of a game (and video "boss fights" in tactical game), and it often makes it easier to find relevant info when discussing specific games. I often wish I had written down my scores from games I played years ago, so it was a pleasant surprise when I noticed I had actually written down my SS1 scores.

Today I got stuck on my Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday game, so I took a break from it to load up System Shock 2. I just got it from GOG during their summer sale. The character creation at the beginning reminded me of the Traveller tabletop roleplaying game. So awesome! I'm playing a Navy guy with a technical background in cyberspace and research.

Yeah, the character generation in SS2 is great, but for some reason (too much respawning and way too fragile weapons, I guess) the game just didn't grab me, and it's one of the few FPSes I've played that I did not finish. I'll have to rectify that once I reach 1999.
 

skacky

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I love SS1. If there's something I was sad to see go in SS2, it's the awesome music and the cyberspace. While the music is top-notch in SS2, it doesn't quite match the level of LoPiccolo's score in SS1, and the cyberspace is a matter of taste, but I just prefer it over the very simple hacking game in the sequel. It is very disorientating and pretty damn hard the first time, but it just feels much more cyberpunk than the hacking game.

The track used in the security level is probably one of my favorite background musics of all time. :smug:
 

Deuce Traveler

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octavius, I'm not sure since I didn't write them down and my save before the end scene was before facing off against SHODAN.

You don't screenshot your victory screens?

I did in Might and Magic, but I neglected to do so in this game. This morning I had some time to kill and figured 'what the heck' and went back and finished it one more time in order to see the end screen.

Time: 18:30:01
Kills: 742
Regeneration: 102... I was kinda farting around... looks like doing so effects the end score. :oops:
Difficulty Index: 16
Score: 1127472
 

octavius

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This morning I had some time to kill and figured 'what the heck' and went back and finished it one more time in order to see the end screen.

Time: 18:30:01
Kills: 742
Regeneration: 102... I was kinda farting around... looks like doing so effects the end score. :oops:
Difficulty Index: 16
Score: 1127472

I wonder if it's possible to beat the game on highest difficulty without meta-gaming, considering the time limit is only 7 hours?
 
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This morning I had some time to kill and figured 'what the heck' and went back and finished it one more time in order to see the end screen.

Time: 18:30:01
Kills: 742
Regeneration: 102... I was kinda farting around... looks like doing so effects the end score. :oops:
Difficulty Index: 16
Score: 1127472

I wonder if it's possible to beat the game on highest difficulty without meta-gaming, considering the time limit is only 7 hours?

My first playthrough was only 10 hours IIRC, and that was with quite a bit of backtracking and aimless wandering. I'm sure if you vaguely knew the plot steps you could finish in about that much time without sequence breaking.
 

octavius

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/quote]

I wonder if it's possible to beat the game on highest difficulty without meta-gaming, considering the time limit is only 7 hours?

My first playthrough was only 10 hours IIRC, and that was with quite a bit of backtracking and aimless wandering. I'm sure if you vaguely knew the plot steps you could finish in about that much time without sequence breaking.

Hmm...it's tempting...
 

sea

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I haven't beaten the first System Shock but I've put several hours into it on and off over the years - mostly just because I guess I miss the extended RPG systems in System Shock 2 and the more modern controls/presentation is a bit easier for me to swallow. That said System Shock is really quite an innovative game and did some extremely impressive stuff for its time - yet somehow didn't become a trend-setter, so it remains quite original within several years of its release. I'm not going to lie, there are way better shooters out there from the same time period, but System Shock feels like more than the sum of its parts and has a great atmosphere that's definitely unique.
 

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