Eh, I never really understood that hatred for cyberspace either. 'Twas like a Descent clone with TRON-like aesthetics. It looked cool, it was pretty fun to play, and that particular take on hacking went really well with SS1's cyberpunk vibe.
Interface & controls look clunky and overwhelming at start, combined with amount of stuff you can pick up and interact with, but they are surprisingly easy to get used to... I played the game YEARS after SS2, and it took me a few tries until it finally "clicked" with me.
Public perception changes, games get reappraised and their forgotten features rediscovered. The 90s was a decade when many people wanted to do the big thing of the time, story. U7: The Serpent Isle, Underworld 2 and Thief 2 are all more story-heavy than the first games in their series, with a stronger human interest component. Now, several years later, we see things differently, and there are more people who like things such as exploration or weirdness or complex [immersive] simulation. We rediscover the appeal of the rougher, slightly more abstract games, and so on.
The differences are actually minimal, and as someone who had made missions for both games, I wish I didn't listen to the people who told me I had to go Thief 2 because it was so much better. It was common wisdom that was not particularly wise. T2 was slightly (very slightly) more stable, had very slightly less strict limits, and allowed for multiple colour palettes instead of 256 colours (which was a relic of TDP's software mode), but it was not some great leap or anything. Just how the community developed.
This is another thing I wanted to mention... I never expected that plot twist, and I doubt that I would even if I played first System Shock before that. Could it be that if someone dislikes twist in SS 2, it has more to do with how Levine later became gaming's own Shaylaman but unlike him he was still praised by media for the (recycled) twist in Bioshock and (silly and overwritten) twist in Infinite?
With mouselook SS1 UI becomes better and more versatile than SS2. It allows you to fluently switch between standard FPS controls and original SS1 cursor for tricky shots and 'nade throwing.
Muh atmosphere, though.System Shock 2 does the horror better and perhaps the atmosphere as well (although the two differ in atmosphere "type" pretty heavily). The addition of stats is cool too. But System Shock 1 is just overall a better game when it comes to gameplay. The shootan is better, the guns are cooler and there are roller skates. Harder, too. I also love how juggling all the implants, abilities and shit like rear-view cameras makes you feel like a legit cyborg, probably the only game that ever managed to do it, too.
I also absolutely loved the original (non-mouselook) control scheme of SS1. It reinforces the cyborg feel so very well. In fact, the interface in general is an extremely impressive work from a technical and ergonomic viewpoint even today. There's a shitton of features there, shitton of different movement types, etc, but the way it's all set up across the keyboard and screen is really logical and convenient. At first it looks overwhelming as fuck but, to me, it was very easy to get used to it fast. Everyone who disagrees is a faggot and needs to L2P
Not to mention, SS1 doesn't fall apart completely at the end.
