asteroidsmike on 12/7/2007 at 15:20
I just finished playing System Shock 2 for the first time, and it is now my favorite game of all time. My favorite games up to this point were Deus X, Half_Life and Far Cry. I have had the SS2 CD for years, but never had the time to play it. Recently I decided to play, but could not get it too run on Win XP. I wasted days trying to reload Win 98, crashed my computer, etc., etc, etc. Then I found this fantastic forum and followed the instructions on playing SS2 on WinXP and voila!, I was playing. I also installed the SHTUP modification recommended in this forum.
Although the graphics are obviously dated, since the game is many years old, it is not graphics that make a great game. I enjoy first-person games since I like feeling immersed in the game, to the point where I forget that I'm sitting in a chair typing a keyboard and clicking a mouse. SS2 did that for me more than any other game I've played. I have started and not completed many first person shooters that had great graphics but no good story, no character development, no plot, no meaning. With SS2, I felt like I was on the ship, I felt like I knew the characters whose PDAs I was reading, and at different points in the game felt excited, scared, anxious, relieved, worried, etc., the list goes on. The soundtrack is phenomenal, both the music and the audio files from the PDAs and Xerxes and Shodan. The actors who portrayed these characters did a top-notch job, as good as any excellent Hollywood movie.
I feel bad that the creators of this game did not get the recognition and accolades that they deserved, but forums like this one tend to praise, support and prolong the lives of these truly classic games, while the mediocre ones drift into obscurity. I feel that SS2 was worth way more than the few measly bucks I paid for it. Also, the crucial info that I got from this forum is worth quite a bit so I am donating to the site as much as I can.
Shevers on 12/7/2007 at 16:31
Welcome aboard :thumb:
Have you considered trying out SS1? It's a lot harder for an FPS player to get into, particularly with it's controls, but it's worth a try - once I gave it a proper go I ended up preferring it to SS2. And as with SS2, the community's wound up providing us with a good way to get it running easily on a modern PC.
Err, now I sound like an ad for SS1. Glad we converted you to SS2 anyway ;)
Bjossi on 12/7/2007 at 16:43
I prefer SS2 over SS1 myself, though I loved both to death. And the controls aren't that hard to get used to, you just need to put some effort into it. ;)
Shevers on 12/7/2007 at 17:58
The games he listed as his favourites were all FPS's, I figured it made sense to warn him that the game I was recommending had a significantly different control scheme :p
heywood on 13/7/2007 at 22:49
Quote Posted by Shevers
The games he listed as his favourites were all FPS's, I figured it made sense to warn him that the game I was recommending had a significantly different control scheme :p
Not a bad idea to warn him. I tried 3 times to play SS1 and never got further than a couple levels before giving up because I was tired of spending all my game time manipulating controls just to look around. Scouting out a new area just seemed to take too much time and effort.
Martin Karne on 16/7/2007 at 22:20
Welcome, welcome step into my tra...cough cough parlor.
