2020-01-01_PC_Gamer_(US_Edition

I

can’t remember how
far I got through
System Shock the first
time around. It was
1995, a few months
after it came out, and I was
attempting to play it on my family’s
486/33 PC. But it was a full 3D
game, with lighting and all kinds of
amazing stuff going on, and it was
far too much for our entry-level PC.

I had to give up, but oh my, I wanted
to love it. This adventure through the
decks of a cyborg-riddled space
station was a spiritual follow-up to
Ultima Underworld II, which had
stunned me the summer before. Like
Ultima Underworld, System Shock is
also in first-person and lets you jump
and look up and down, and it features
a huge, non-linear space to explore.
But it exchanged Underworld’s

caverns and labyrinths for the

Citadel, the Guardian for an AI called

SHODAN, and fantasy spells for guns

and cyborg abilities. I remember

seeing it as a heady blend of Doom

and Ultima. Perhaps I could finally...

talk to the monsters?

HUDS UP!

Returning to System Shock today, by

way of Night Dive Studios’ excellent

Enhanced Edition, I’ve been realizing

just how far ahead Looking Glass was

back in the mid-1990s. Well before

the immersive sim was recognized as

a subgenre, System Shock was

showing how to create a world in

which you feel completely enveloped,

where everything fits in the fiction.

And it still feels special. The feeling

of mousing over something in the

environment and dragging it into my

inventory is still really powerful. It

feels like I’m reaching into the world;

it’s surprising how few games use

this simple idea to establish a direct

connection between player, the

screen and the environment.

But my favorite thing has to be

System Shock’s HUD, which takes up

the lower third of your view and

consists of three multifunctional

displays. In the center is the

inventory, which has various tabs,

and on either side are screens which

let you choose what they display. I

have the weapon display on the left,

which also gives you specific controls

for things like loading different

ammo types and displaying overheat

levels. On the right is my automap.

But I could put a little game of Ping

or Road in one of them, browse my

emails, or check the Citadel’s status.

Then, superimposed in the main

view, I can set up a rear-view video

feed, so I’ll see if I’m being attacked

by assailants from behind (I never

SYSTEM SHOCK

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASED

1994

PUBLISHER Origin

Systems/NDS

DEVELOPER Looking Glass/

Night Dive Studios

LINK

nightdivestudios.com

Back to Citadel to see the origins of the emergent sim. By Alex Wiltshire

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING (^) I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO (^) I REINSTALL (^) I WHY I LOVE I MUS T P L A Y
The Enhanced Edition runs in the Source Engine for better
compatibility. The remake is a complete rebuild.