System Shock is a great game, mostly because of it's first-person shooter qualities mixed with an excellent story. The first System Shock put you in the role of a world-renowned hacker, feared in the corporate world. During one hack, an executive of the TriOptium group called Diego makes you his guinea pig and implants a rare cybernetic jack (Something which lets you connect yourself to a computer so you can hack it ala Shadowrun or The Matrix) in you. You end up in a coma for six months. Upon waking up, you are in the middle of a huge disaster, with mutants, robots and all sorts of evil going around. The lead corporate research facility, Citadel, is now home to SHODAN, the most powerful Artificial Intelligence ever. She wants you dead. Plus, she wants to destroy the earth. Of course, the good guys win, and SHODAN, for lack of a better description, has been formatted like a crappy PC.

Fast foward to 1999 with System Shock 2, 40 years later (in game-time). After the Citadel incident, TriOptimum became a reclusive company. Spending all their power on new technology, they developed a way to travel faster than the speed of light. But of course, TriOptimum needs a lab rat, so with the help of the UNN, they develop a titanic (no pun intended) ship called the Von Braun. The ship was escorted by a UNN destroyer ship just to make sure nothing comes by to blow it to smithereens. Out of the blue, the Von Braun receives a distress signal from a planet. After going to investigate, everything that can go bad, does. That's where you come in. Much like the first one, after waking up from a cryogenic sleep, you are faced with the walking undead, evil robots, and all sorts of strange occurrences. Not to mention the ship's AI is acting very strange. You receive a call from a scientist on the bridge of the ship, and so begins your journey to meet what is possibly the only survivor. Seems like SHAODAN has returned for another run.

The story is just amazing. It engrosses you until the last second. Just when you think you know what's going to happen, something else will. Kudos to Looking Glass for making such an excellent and amazing story. The intro outlined above is just the beginning, just about everywhere you turn, another part of the story is revealed, either via E-mails, Logs or even ghosts! The atmosphere is just amazing. Much like horror games, you need to keep your lights off and a great speaker setup to get the best effect. Just make sure the chair you are in is soft, you will be getting very jumpy as you play. You don't know what will pop up and when. Great Atmosphere + Great Story = WOW.

The graphics engine is based on the Thief engine from Looking Glass. It performs very well via software and 3D accelerated mode, although without a fast accelerator, you may notice a slight framerate drop in large open areas from time to time, but it's barely a hindrance since this game is claustrophobic for the most part. Nothing really screams out that much, the colors are very dark and ominous, mostly dark versions of many colors. The basic player models look very weird, Shogo-ish lanky characters.

There are TONS of levels in System Shock 2, it will take even the most skilled player on easy more than 8 hours to go through all of the game. Easy isn't that easy, so think how Normal and Hard are. Levels are basically ship-like for the first 80%, with the last 20% being...well play the game to find out! The last 20%, although great, does falter at times based on it's sheer simplicity. I found the first half of the game more of a challenge than the latter half.

The control is great, although the movement is not fast-paced like normal first-person shooters, and this is a good thing. Although the menu system looks VERY crowded and clunky, all it takes is hitting TAB to open and close it. Once you use it, you find it is VERY easy to navigate. The item storage is exactly like Diablo; certain items and weapons take up a certain amount of slots, so space is a factor.

There are not too many enemies in the game; a few more could have been added based on the sheer size of the game. The basic categories are:
Robot -which has giant Mechwarrior-esque robots, a C3PO guard robot, and security cameras, which I will get to later.
Mutant -has your everyday basic mutant human and monkeys.
Cyborg -basically half mutant/half robot.
Annelid -Eggs, worms, and wasp swarms.-
Turret -Need I say more?-
Arachnid -Again, need I say more? - Spiders for those who don't know.

There are a few weapons, all that fit into Bullet, Shotgun and Hand-To-Hand categories; but on a ship like this, you shouldn't expect an arsenal of physical weapons, the enemies want weapons too! Types range from Heavy - like a Fusion Cannon, to Exotic - like a Annelid Launcher (yes, you use some enemies!), and Energy - a brand new Laser Rapier for when enemies get too close for comfort. But the ammo is far from plentiful, so conservation is a must.

Items include basic Hypos, which heal your Psi, Health, Status, or a temp boost in skills. Implants (No not silicone) will let you vastly improve a certain skill as long as one is equipped, such as endurance or agility. They are based on power, so you need to know the locations of power recharge stations.

Psi powers are used via a Psi Amp, a weapon which attaches to you via a hypodermic needle. Using it lets you select a category of many psychological powers, like The Force. You can pull weapons to you, create a light blade, barriers, healing, radar, explosions...you name it, it's most likely in here. The variety of both physical and psychological weapons create an amazing variety of weapons.

Other skills you can learn include Hacking - for "improving" vending machines to lower prices, open locked doors/boxes, or even hack the security system! Yes, security cameras and turrets can call a horde of enemies if they spot you, so it's best to turn off all security and destroy them all. This becomes a helpful, but not 100% necessary part in the game. Repairing lets you fix items, while Modifying lets you improve weapons.

When you start the game, you are in basic training. You get to choose what skills you want to start off learning (while watching a little robot Macarena), plus what type of group you want to join, whether it is the Navy, Army or OSA. You can improve your skills at upgrade stations when you acquire Cybernetic Modules. They are VERY hard to come by, so you must, at first, concentrate on certain skills to survive. You cannot learn both normal weapons and Psi Powers well at the same time when you start. This gives some great variety each time you play the game; one time you can be a repairman skilled at heavy weapons, another an amazing hacker using Psi powers.

There is also even MULTIPLAYER via a patch! You can play a co-op game with a friend, and both of you go through the game together. Be warned, there is not two of everything, so you must share. Imagine the possibilities though; what one is lacking, the other can make up for, creating a balanced game based on helping each other.