20 Great Moments in PC Gaming
FEATURE
The Shodan reveal in
System Shock 2
ByJodyMacgregor
We knew that Shodan, the villainous AI from
the original System Shock, would return in
System Shock 2. She was even on the box
cover. What we didn’t know is how.
AfterSystem Shock 2’s branching character creation
fast-forwards you through several years of education and
a militarycareer, you wake up on the Von Braun, the first
spaceshipcapable of FTL travel, to find everything’s gone
wrong.Doctor Polito, one of the few survivors, guides you
throughthe chaos. But when you finally get to her office
tomeether in person Polito is dead, and clearly has been
fora longtime. Then the door shuts behind you, and the
wallsdissolve. Shodan, who has been impersonating
Politoallthis while, takes control of your surroundings
andforcesyou to be the audience for her show.
SystemShock 2 was one of the early immersive sims, a
genrethat’s all about putting the player in control. They’re
sparingintheir use of disruptive narrative techniques like
cutscenes.That’s why it’s so jarring to be trapped in a
roomwhile Shodan monologues at you, the heavily
processedvoice of Terri Brosius bouncing up and down
theoctaves, with more vocal tics competing for your
attentionthan a Nicki Minaj verse. It’s threatening,
surreal,and unforgettable.4
Attributingany‘first’toWorldofWarcraft
is aninvitationforeveryonetostartgoing
‘Well,ACTUALLY...’inreferenceto
somethinglikeMeridian 59 orEverQuest.
Butthere’sreallynothingquitelikeyourfirstflight
overtheworldofAzeroth.MMOsofthetimewere
stillpredominantlyzone-basedratherthanpresenting
a fullworldtoexplorewithoutloadingscreens.There
were exceptions. Dark Age of Camelot’s horse-riding
through the wilderness stood out particularly well. But
World of Warcraft took it so much further.
We’d come to tire of travel eventually, of course, and
fill the gaps first with Bejewelled plug-ins and then by
Blizzard essentially cutting it out altogether. But that
first flight across the world was spellbinding.
It was a chance to soar majestically, and show off
Blizzard’s artistry and complete disregard for geology,
with the high-point almost certainly being racing
through the sewers of Undercity and out into the real
world. All those adventures, waiting to be had. All the
loot to be gathered. All the friends to be made.
Crossing the sea for the first time evoked a similar
feeling. But nothing quite beats seeing Azeroth by air
that first time, and looking forward to a time when
maybe, just maybe, you’d be able to fly your fantastical
beast of burden yourself.Crossing World of Warcraft
by air
By Richard Cobbett
5 The Dark Carnival level in
Blood ByRichardCobbett
Blood was always the
odd-cousin of the Build
engine games, in that
everyone agreed it was
good(unlike, say, TekWar and
PowerSlave), but rarely did it get
much of a look-in next to Shadow
Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D. A
shame, because while it was a
deliberately ugly game, it did some
cool things, especially in terms of
your destructive power. Not many
games start off by letting you chuck
entire sticks of dynamite around,
quoting old horror movies as you go.
As with many shooters of the era
though, the best levels were in the
shareware version. And top of them
all was Dark Carnival.It wasn’t just a shooting gallery,
but a whole collection of fun little
distractions like kicking heads into
targets, tightrope walking across a
snake pit, and even access to a bonus
level set in an evil haunted house.
Encountering it was a balloon-
popping journey into charnel house
whimsy that, like Duke Nukem 3D,
really helped sell what we could look
forward to in the next generation of
shooters. The one after the crap early
3D ones, of course.
Best of all, you could kill mimes.
So many mimes. In many horrible
ways. While the rest is obviously
pretty simple by modern standards,
some pleasures just don’t get old.
Unlike every mime act ever. Burn!6