Incline System Shock 1 Thread

[AstroZombie]

I love how many difficulty options SS1 has, I wish more games did that.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

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

I had a go at SS1 once with maximum difficulty, I managed to disable the last antenna on Level 7 with just seconds left on the clock. Some metagaming involved, like remembering passwords and such.

I'd say it's doable, but you'd have to adopt a speedrun mentality to pull it off.

Watching the time run out after having just blown up the last antenna gave me still a sense of satisfaction. I knew that SHODAN's options were now limited to just slowboating the entire station back to Earth, which is plenty of time for Earth to come up with a plan.

 

[octavius]

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

I had a go at SS1 once with maximum difficulty, I managed to disable the last antenna on Level 7 with just seconds left on the clock. Some metagaming involved, like remembering passwords and such.

I think I'll play on normal Game difficulty, then, as I'm no fan of speedruns.
But I'll play on the hardest difficulty for the three other settings.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I've played the game like that a couple of times, at least. Great fun. Cyberspace will be VERY annoying, though.

 

[octavius]

Damn, I hate those invisible mutants! What are good weapons against them before finding that Laser Sword?

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Damn, I hate those invisible mutants! What are good weapons against them before finding that Laser Sword?

I had some trouble with them as I relied on weapons that used up energy at first, but there are too many of the invisible mutants and they constantly respawn. So, I stuck to ballistic weapons while saving energy for vision augmentation to detect them from afar. Then I would lean around a corner, duck, and pop them off with some rounds from the magnum or one of the rifles before they could close and while their return fire struck my cover instead of me. Later, automatic weapons chewed them up fast. These were the creatures I had the hardest time with, and you meet them mid game.

 

[octavius]

Damn, I hate those invisible mutants! What are good weapons against them before finding that Laser Sword?

I had some trouble with them as I relied on weapons that used up energy at first, but there are too many of the invisible mutants and they constantly respawn. So, I stuck to ballistic weapons while saving energy for vision augmentation to detect them from afar. Then I would lean around a corner, duck, and pop them off with some rounds from the magnum or one of the rifles before they could close and while their return fire struck my cover instead of me. Later, automatic weapons chewed them up fast. These were the creatures I had the hardest time with, and you meet them mid game.

Yeah, I remember them being the ones I had most problems with first time I played. But now I've found the Laser Rapier and combined with the Berserk Patch they go down easily. I didn't remember where the Rapier was (I thought it was in the Maintenance Office), but I got lucky and found it quite soon without having to fight too many of the invisble mutants.
The respawning is somewhat annoying, though. The Hoppers seem to be breeding like rabbits on the Reactor level. But the respawning seems to be worse if you stay to long on one level. The Lvl 1 healing suite was crawling with mutants, but now when I return for healing I never see them again. Also, reaching certain points in the game seem to respawn enemies too.

Even more annoying than the respawning is trying to move in cyberspace. I thought I had figured it out in the first level cyberspace, using mouse movement (outside Cyberspace I use mouselook and keys for movement), but now it's like mouse sensitivity has been cranked up to 1000 and I keep going in circles.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A Laser Rapier can be found easily on Level 3, you have to enter a room in the southern part of the central hub and crawl up a ladder.

As for the Inviso-mutants, there are no weapons that do extra damage to it, and it is not resistant to any weapons. Its strength lies in its many Hit Points, it ranks 4th on the list of monsters with most HP in the game. As for ranged weapons, try the Flechette.

 

[octavius]

A Laser Rapier can be found easily on Level 3, you have to enter a room in the southern part of the central hub and crawl up a ladder.

Problem is that if you try to avoid the mutie in the hallway outside the door to that room, it will take a long time to find the Rapier, since I don't think there's any in-game clues to to its whereabouts.

As for the Inviso-mutants, there are no weapons that do extra damage to it, and it is not resistant to any weapons. Its strength lies in its many Hit Points, it ranks 4th on the list of monsters with most HP in the game.

So that's why they are so so hard to kill. I thought they had resistance to most weapons.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The thing is, the other 3 critters above the Inviso-Mutant that have more hit points also have resistances, armour and vulnerabilities. Careful planning can make those encounters easier. With that taken into account, only Edward Diego has more hit points than Inviso-Mutants.

As for the Laser Rapier, it does a HUGE chunk of damage with each hit. It kills every mutant in one swing except the Inviso-Mutant (and even then it has a high chance of scoring a critical hit) and only the toughest robots and cyborgs will need several swings. This opens up the possibility for a melee playthrough, especially when combined with the Rollerskates.

 

[octavius]

Fuck, is it dawn already...this game sure got addictive after a slow start.

 

[octavius]

I seem to have hit a bit of a Catch 22. In order to enter the Maintenance Office on lvl 3 I need to reduce Shodan's security by disabling security cameras and CPU nodes. But the only areas left to explore on the level are behind the Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma Maintenance doors which are all locked because "no maintenance required". I would think the controls for the doors are in the Maintenance Office.
Or am I missing something obvious?

BTW, respawns in certain areas are rage inducing. I went down a short trip to the Reactor level and when I returned to the elevator 8 Hoppers had spawned there. When I had finally beat them two more appeared behind me.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

You will have to trigger an event that will require maintenance.

And that respawn point on the Reactor level? Just you wait, at one point it won't be Hoppers waiting for you...

 

[octavius]

Ah...now I know what I missed: the button that removes the force field around the Isotope. I thought I had searched the room thoroughly and that the force field had to be removed from elsewhere (cyberspace) or by other means. I've probably wasted hours by missing that button...
Oh well, I guess the destruction of laser now requires some maintenance.

 

[Average Manatee]

I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE REACTOR LEVEL BRO WATCH OUT SHITS REAL DOWN THERE.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Ah...now I know what I missed: the button that removes the force field around the Isotope. I thought I had searched the room thoroughly and that the force field had to be removed from elsewhere (cyberspace) or by other means. I've probably wasted hours by missing that button...

For a laugh, try firing the laser without raising the shield. (SAVE FIRST!)

 

[octavius]

Ah...now I know what I missed: the button that removes the force field around the Isotope. I thought I had searched the room thoroughly and that the force field had to be removed from elsewhere (cyberspace) or by other means. I've probably wasted hours by missing that button...

For a laugh, try firing the laser without raising the shield. (SAVE FIRST!)

Been there, done that.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Terrific, now for a "Doug the Eagle" moment.

Spoiler

If I'm not mistaken, you can get far up as Level 5 (6?) without firing the laser. Do so. Go into the southwestern section where you find the Cortex Reaver and kill him. Search the area, picking up logs and ammo and ruffle through the mortal remains of Parovski's last stand. Be absolutely certain that the only living thing in the area is you. Once you're done there, go back and fire the laser.

Soon afterwards you should begin receiving e-mails from Parovski, urging you to come help him fend off the Cortex Reaver... which has already done its job... and you've summarily dispatched. In short, you're receiving e-mail messages from a corpse. For completeness's sake, go back to the "Greys" area and verify that everyone are, indeed, very very dead.

(I did this myself in a playthrough back in the 90s when the game was new. I don't remember whether it was the floppy or CD-ROM version, or whether this is still possible. But I did do this, and I had a good laugh afterwards.

 

[octavius]

Hmm...I did in fact explore all of lvl 5 (including Miss Parovski's smoking hot body) before firing the laser, but what you describe was not what happened. I recevied one or two emails (when I entered "Grey", I think) and found the CR waiting among the corpses.
I guess this continuity bug was patched.

 

[octavius]

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.

Mein Gott, those little Jihad vacum cleaners were annoying! I don't think they teleport, but just spawn at a phenomenal rate, a rate which may be linked to your CPU speed, as I can't remember this part (or the Maintenance level with it's invisible mutants) being so rage inducing the first time I played this game. When finally clearing the way to the access panel at the end of the maze I used a combo of Reflex and Mind patches + a Logic Probe. It's bloody nerve wrecking messing with that illogical (?) puzzle when at any time one of those little bastards may spawn right in front of you.

 

[octavius]

I'm getting old...I spent more than 27 hours to complete System Shock this time:

Still, my score is better than the first time, so that's something.
I'm impressed by Average Manatee who only needed 10 hours.

I regret picking the hardest difficulty in 3 of 4 categories, though. With all the respawning combat became a chore, and cyber space too frustrating. I didn't stand a chance of completing the cyberspace on lvl 8 with the short time limit.
My kill count is higher than the first time, which further strengthens my belief that respawn rate is correlated to CPU speed. Or maye it's related to difficulty (I hope so)?

All in all replaying System Shock was not quite as fun as replaying Ultima Underworld, despite superior graphics and UI. I used to compare SS to UU, but now I think SS reminds me more of Deus Ex.
Also, I could swear there was an area were your whole body experience significant shrinkage and you explored some red circuit boards in SS. Maybe that was Deus Ex instead? Or maybe I just dreamt it. EDIT: No, it was USS Darkstar for Half-Life.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Also, I could swear there was an area were your whole body experience significant shrinkage and you explored some red circuit boards in SS. Maybe that was Deus Ex instead? Or maybe I just dreamt it.

Could you possibly be confusing it with Tron 2.0?

It sounds familiar to me, but I can't place it either. Then again, I've played so many first-person perspective games that I'm shorting out sometimes trying to remember things. Not so long ago I was trying to remember which Thief 2 Fan Mission it was that I had played that took place in a Japanese setting, only to later realize that I was remembering the Oriental level from Serious Sam 2!

 

[octavius]

Also, I could swear there was an area were your whole body experience significant shrinkage and you explored some red circuit boards in SS. Maybe that was Deus Ex instead? Or maybe I just dreamt it.

Could you possibly be confusing it with Tron 2.0?

No, I haven't played that one. Besides I'm fairly sure it was older, from around 1998.

It sounds familiar to me, but I can't place it either. Then again, I've played so many first-person perspective games that I'm shorting out sometimes trying to remember things. Not so long ago I was trying to remember which Thief 2 Fan Mission it was that I had played that took place in a Japanese setting, only to later realize that I was remembering the Oriental level from Serious Sam 2!

Heh, that sounds familiar.

 

[Frosal]

Here's my score. My first run from a couple of months ago. Probably should have done it without the time limit first considering the rush, but the whole game was very enjoyable and I couldn't put it down wondering if I'd make it or not. I usually dislike time limits. The only deck I didn't explore thoroughly was the Flight deck. I finished the other decks 100% or close to, collecting most of the items and weapons.