System Shock: Enhanced Edition (PC, 2015)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5/8# Control-7/6** Challenge-7.5/6.5* Story-7.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5/7*/8.5** Fun-7/7.5*/6** Originality-7
Overall Score-7.5
*Easy?
**Cyberspace, Normal
#Music mod
+
Early Action Adventure/Survival Horror/FPS hybrid gameplay
Storytelling via audio and text logs (additional lore and gameplay hints)
Can examine most objects in the game as well as each inventory item
Optional tooltip/"on-line help" pop ups for interactive objects
Well realized cyberpunk horror theme (hacker protagonist, AI villain, electro/industrial music, cyberspace segments (these play kind of like Descent and have their own set of items like a drill for breaking certain walls/fake id and decoy - disguises that trick some enemies/a speed booster), resource management - can't carry all weapons at once and the item inventories are also somewhat limited/energy and ammo/drugs)
Memorable villain (the "female" AI Shodan, it occasionally communicates with the player and sends enemy reinforcements over the course of the game)
Some scripted events (enemy ambushes and at one point a blocked exit by Shodan - sometimes new enemies also appear when revisiting a place you've been to previously which makes backtracking more interesting, radio communications from survivors and later on from Earth, pretty good cutscenes (several smaller ones via video email during the game, a bit dated graphically and they weren't updated for this version)
Control config added (including mouse sensitivity)
Adds free look/mouselook (toggled w/ E)
FMV portraits replaced by artwork (but it's not animated - booh!)
Detailed difficulty options (four categories: puzzles, combat, etc.; on hard there's also a 7h time limit), audio levels config (music/sfx/voice)
Some interesting gear/hardware (sensor/rearview mirror, jump jets/temporary flight, target identifier (scanner - also lets you know if you're doing optimal damage when upgraded), energy-fueled projectile shield (4 levels of upgrades which can be found and switched between on the fly (right click the icon) - 20-75% damage reduction (levels 2-4 also absorb a set number of damage points)))
Can lean around corners (z/c)
Two levels of crouching (partially and completely/lie down)
Auto-mapper (mini-map in the hud (has a full screen hotkey but no semi-transparent overlay option), can zoom in/out, placeable map markers with typed messages - backspace to delete, can toggle cameras, when upgraded it can show enemies within scanning radius of your sensors which can also be upgraded)
Pretty large arsenal of weapons (22 in total)
Some decent humour (elevator music clip, some of Shodan's comments)
Hotkeys for sub menus (pgup/down for the main bottom ones, f1 keys and number keys for the rest) and double clicking+dragging (middle mouse) and for using/selecting patches
Restoration bays (reconfigured cyborg conversion stations) - these respawn you after death with all equipment intact when activated and progress up to that point is kept (most HP is restored but no energy, have to be on the same floor as one or it doesn't work). New enemies can also spawn from using these
Upgradeable movement speed via skates (gear toggle)
Compass (Ultima Underworld?)
Can climb the edge of some platforms
Temporary ability boosting drugs/dermal patches with side effects (reflexes enhancer - makes everything around you move slower (kinda similar to what Max Payne did years later) but has a short opposite effect afterwards, berserk - melee strength with trippy colors side effect, intelligence/genius (wire and circuit puzzles become easier but your sideways movement is reversed), detox - cures poison+radiation+side effects of other patches, sight enhancer/night vision (worsens for a bit after use))
Can redistribute the strength/intensity to energy usage ratio for beam weapons using a slider
The distance between where you press the right mouse button and where you release it determines the height and distance of your grenade throws
Persistent items meaning they stay where you put them (one point of no return late in the game but you are warned about it; Thunderstruck (BBC Micro) or Underwurlde?)
Pretty interesting premise (you're a hacker who got caught but is offered a deal by one of the higher ups of the company whose systems you were hacking into instead of going to jail (remove the restraints of an AI on a space station in exchange for new hacking equipment - a "military grade cyber interface"), while you're in cryosleep getting the equipment installed for a few months the AI takes over the station and you now have to stop it)
Higher res and widescreen added
Some bug fixes (not sure what)
Alternate ammo types
Some hidden doors and elevators (most are shown if you activate tooltips)
Can view other parts of a level via certain screens on walls (you can't zoom out though so it's often hard to tell what you're looking at)
A few teleporters (all but one of these lead to isolated areas rather than being used for fast travel though)
Can sometimes look into a room through bars/grating via a narrow path connected to it to scout ahead
Can shoot mines and grenades to trigger them and you can also chain explode either by placing them in a line and shooting one
One alternate bad ending (a short cutscene shows in the gui if you activate the laser on lvl 2)
Basic physics - can throw items into boxes and have them move a bit as well as push items away without damaging them (including mines) with the riot gun
Some decent puzzles (piecing together a passcode with partially garbled audio logs you've found and the switch/gravity pad puzzles on lvl 4, bridge switches on lvl 5, use a severed head for the retina scanner on lvl 3)
Slopes and jumping (Ultima Underworld)
Can solve puzzles on level 2 to stop hopper robot production on that floor
One sequence break (can skip extending the bridge on lvl 8/security by performing a tricky jump - you'll miss the plasma rifle (not really needed) and some dialogue though, there's also a minor alternate path on lvl 8 (can use jump jets instead of flicking a certain switch to get up))
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (a few ability/tool-gated segments (jump jets, enviro-suit (beta grove), some dark areas, skates? - might be needed on hard) and some soft gating with tough enemies, sometimes what you do in one level affects something in another and you'll sometimes have to come back to a point of interest later on)
No control/interface tutorial
Save anywhere (8 nameable slots, these don't show your current location nor your status)
Very steep difficulty curve and you die quickly from attacks even early on
Stamina/fatigue mechanic (can't run nor climb if it's at 100%) - you get tired pretty quickly but also regain it pretty quickly and the skates also help
Collectathon/killathon element (need to lower the security level (Shodan's control of a floor) by destroying all cameras and CPUs in each level - unlocks elevators and various doors; most of these as well as some cyberspace segments are optional but yield very useful equipment)
Time limit in cyberspace (can be adjusted via the difficulty options when starting a new game)
Enemy shots tend to hit instantly
Some dark areas (need to use a head-mounted lantern or infrared night sight or sight patch)
Energy charge stations have varying efficiency (recharge time and amount of energy stored)
Some enemy respawning (not sure exactly how it works but in some areas it's a lot worse than others (the basement engineering room and with the hoppers on the reactor level, a couple of segments with kamikaze robots)
A few HP restoration points (surgery beds - only 3 operational ones)
Gear won't deteriorate or break here
Can't blow up bars/grating
Can find seven different mini-game items (lets you play basic mini-games in the small gui window (most of them based on early arcade games) - doesn't yield any rewards useful for beating the actual game though)
Can generally pick items up or open doors from a couple of meters away (sometimes further with items, can't do it through doors or bars though)
The riot gun is only useful for the above purpose
EMP grenades don't hurt the player
Some enemies make no sound when moving nearby (can be frustrating when facing kamikaze robots)
Don't need the skates to make the ramp jump on lvl 4
Regular batteries don't stack in the inventory (energy equivalent of healing patches)
Items can be blown up (consumables only?)
Some randomized loot
The laser rapier is OP
No stealth aspect to the camera system
Time limit on the final boss (which is also a clunky cyberspace fight)
Some gore
One untimed escape segment (after blowing up the reactor - you're expected to go to the escape pods on lvl 5 after triggering its destruction (you'll briefly face Diego along with some tougher enemies here) but you can skip this floor and go to lvl 8 instead which triggers the next communication from Earth and opens it up)
Nothing but mutant enemies behind the force field on level 2 (opens later, no loot)
-
No option to pick the Mac version soundtrack (better overall instrumentation)
Still pretty clunky interface/controls in some ways (no hotkey for using a first aid kit (full heal)?, no hotkey for readying a grenade (have to double click one in the inventory) and it's easy to mess up and hurt yourself when throwing them, can't run backwards, cyberspace (can't strafe - makes combat here kinda lame, your hit box is a bit larger than it seems, automatically go faster in tunnels, the see-through wireframe walls make navigation pretty confusing, lacking impact from shooting enemies here), can't turn around while in P&C mode, the voice acting isn't quite accurate to the text in the audio logs so reading and listening gets confusing (ctrl+period to mute of all things) - there's a mod that fixes this though, small/busy text for the audio logs and the window is kinda small, click an icon to reload your gun... - can at least change this in the config, can't switch between sub menus while the game is paused, leaning is toggled rather than active while holding the button down and has to be deactivated with a separate "center" button (it's also kinda slow), can't simply place mines (have to throw them and they slide a bit after landing), slow scrolling on the map screen, sometimes sloppy hit detection when shooting enemies above or below you, can't edit a text marker (have to remove and retype it) and erasing text for save files is slow as you have to keep tapping backspace, can't aim straight upwards, sometimes uneven movement speed when on force field platforms and bridges)
Sometimes hard to make out interactive objects on walls - a lot of non-interactive objects are equally eye-catching
Some trial & error (the computer node numbers are only hinted at vaguely once on level 4 - need to write down the number that appears after destroying them in each room for a passcode lock later on, the enviro-suit requires a bit of energy to work, enemy appearing next to the teleporter on lvl 6, you'll only need one interface demodulator item, some energy recharge stations hurt you a bit when used, hidden deactivation switch for the robot conversion/restoration bay on lvl 2, have to touch a tile to make it show up on the auto-map which makes it look like there might be a path everywhere and makes it harder to spot cameras (many per level - the maps that come with the enhanced edition actually show their locations though and not all of them have them), wire puzzles - can skip these using a logic probe item if you can find one but there's a chance they won't succeed (the maps pdf that comes with enhanced ed shows the solution to these though and EE also comes with a guide for the harder circuit puzzles), grenades hit further than it looks like, have to close the door behind you after respawning at a bay/station in later levels or you might end up in an endless death loop from enemies spawning right next to you, some useless (and common) items (Beverage Container, Wrapper, Flasks and Beakers, Worker Helmet, Severed Head, Skull, Fire Extinguisher) - no recycler item here, some ambushes)
Uneven voice acting (a lot of people sound kind of bored despite the situation they're in, pretty much none of it is on par with Shodan) Various odd color choices plus heavily pixelated enemies and objects
Sometimes inconsistent AI (sometimes you can just stand and shoot an enemy from far away without a reaction while sometimes they'll start shooting you as soon as you're in sight, can trap various enemies near corners and be able to shoot them without them shooting you)
Can't fully see a drawn weapon even with the gui removed
Pointless view angle display in the gui
Some floors/levels are overly maze-like (1, 2, 7)
Sometimes hard to tell how close or in which direction an enemy is by its sounds
Some music tracks are annoying
Sometimes uneven difficulty (spikes: no restoration bay/conversion chamber on level 8 and the "outdoors" area has several fliers that are hard to spot before they shoot you, the radioactive tall room on the reactor level, you'll sometimes explore parts or most of a level before finding either the restoration bay or the item you were supposed to find early on such as the lantern on lvl 3, some later cyberspace segments; dips: Shodan and her cyberspace segment aren't particularly hard, the mutated cyborgs tend to hit walls with their shots (magpulse), lvl 5 mini-boss (second time it appears is also easy because of how big it is and the fact that you can hide behind a corner), certain enemies in levels 5-6, )
Some tedious parts (relay code search on lvl 3 - can find an audio log in the node room that tells you which one is the correct one but you'd still have to know which maintenance sector it was in)
No encounter or death speech from Shodan and no death animation
Healing items are used instantly in cyberspace (can't carry them with you for later use here)
Bugs:
-Some music tracks aren't played fully (Security) and some reset when moving between rooms (Cyberspace)
-Can't properly alt-tab out of the game (stays active behind your internet browser for example and in front of the lowbar in Windows)
-Sometimes after loading a game, guns will auto-fire when moving the cursor into the GUI (shoot to fix)
Notes:
-Music mod: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=10927.msg130259#msg130259
-Original game is from 1994
-SHODAN=Sentient Hyper-Optimised Data Access Network
-CD-Rom version differences (also from 1994): https://www.ttlg.com/ss1/faq/#7.9
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-7.5/7*/8.5** Fun-7/7.5*/6** Originality-7
Overall Score-7.5
*Easy?
**Cyberspace, Normal
#Music mod
+
Early Action Adventure/Survival Horror/FPS hybrid gameplay
Storytelling via audio and text logs (additional lore and gameplay hints)
Can examine most objects in the game as well as each inventory item
Optional tooltip/"on-line help" pop ups for interactive objects
Well realized cyberpunk horror theme (hacker protagonist, AI villain, electro/industrial music, cyberspace segments (these play kind of like Descent and have their own set of items like a drill for breaking certain walls/fake id and decoy - disguises that trick some enemies/a speed booster), resource management - can't carry all weapons at once and the item inventories are also somewhat limited/energy and ammo/drugs)
Memorable villain (the "female" AI Shodan, it occasionally communicates with the player and sends enemy reinforcements over the course of the game)
Some scripted events (enemy ambushes and at one point a blocked exit by Shodan - sometimes new enemies also appear when revisiting a place you've been to previously which makes backtracking more interesting, radio communications from survivors and later on from Earth, pretty good cutscenes (several smaller ones via video email during the game, a bit dated graphically and they weren't updated for this version)
Control config added (including mouse sensitivity)
Adds free look/mouselook (toggled w/ E)
FMV portraits replaced by artwork (but it's not animated - booh!)
Detailed difficulty options (four categories: puzzles, combat, etc.; on hard there's also a 7h time limit), audio levels config (music/sfx/voice)
Some interesting gear/hardware (sensor/rearview mirror, jump jets/temporary flight, target identifier (scanner - also lets you know if you're doing optimal damage when upgraded), energy-fueled projectile shield (4 levels of upgrades which can be found and switched between on the fly (right click the icon) - 20-75% damage reduction (levels 2-4 also absorb a set number of damage points)))
Can lean around corners (z/c)
Two levels of crouching (partially and completely/lie down)
Auto-mapper (mini-map in the hud (has a full screen hotkey but no semi-transparent overlay option), can zoom in/out, placeable map markers with typed messages - backspace to delete, can toggle cameras, when upgraded it can show enemies within scanning radius of your sensors which can also be upgraded)
Pretty large arsenal of weapons (22 in total)
Some decent humour (elevator music clip, some of Shodan's comments)
Hotkeys for sub menus (pgup/down for the main bottom ones, f1 keys and number keys for the rest) and double clicking+dragging (middle mouse) and for using/selecting patches
Restoration bays (reconfigured cyborg conversion stations) - these respawn you after death with all equipment intact when activated and progress up to that point is kept (most HP is restored but no energy, have to be on the same floor as one or it doesn't work). New enemies can also spawn from using these
Upgradeable movement speed via skates (gear toggle)
Compass (Ultima Underworld?)
Can climb the edge of some platforms
Temporary ability boosting drugs/dermal patches with side effects (reflexes enhancer - makes everything around you move slower (kinda similar to what Max Payne did years later) but has a short opposite effect afterwards, berserk - melee strength with trippy colors side effect, intelligence/genius (wire and circuit puzzles become easier but your sideways movement is reversed), detox - cures poison+radiation+side effects of other patches, sight enhancer/night vision (worsens for a bit after use))
Can redistribute the strength/intensity to energy usage ratio for beam weapons using a slider
The distance between where you press the right mouse button and where you release it determines the height and distance of your grenade throws
Persistent items meaning they stay where you put them (one point of no return late in the game but you are warned about it; Thunderstruck (BBC Micro) or Underwurlde?)
Pretty interesting premise (you're a hacker who got caught but is offered a deal by one of the higher ups of the company whose systems you were hacking into instead of going to jail (remove the restraints of an AI on a space station in exchange for new hacking equipment - a "military grade cyber interface"), while you're in cryosleep getting the equipment installed for a few months the AI takes over the station and you now have to stop it)
Higher res and widescreen added
Some bug fixes (not sure what)
Alternate ammo types
Some hidden doors and elevators (most are shown if you activate tooltips)
Can view other parts of a level via certain screens on walls (you can't zoom out though so it's often hard to tell what you're looking at)
A few teleporters (all but one of these lead to isolated areas rather than being used for fast travel though)
Can sometimes look into a room through bars/grating via a narrow path connected to it to scout ahead
Can shoot mines and grenades to trigger them and you can also chain explode either by placing them in a line and shooting one
One alternate bad ending (a short cutscene shows in the gui if you activate the laser on lvl 2)
Basic physics - can throw items into boxes and have them move a bit as well as push items away without damaging them (including mines) with the riot gun
Some decent puzzles (piecing together a passcode with partially garbled audio logs you've found and the switch/gravity pad puzzles on lvl 4, bridge switches on lvl 5, use a severed head for the retina scanner on lvl 3)
Slopes and jumping (Ultima Underworld)
Can solve puzzles on level 2 to stop hopper robot production on that floor
One sequence break (can skip extending the bridge on lvl 8/security by performing a tricky jump - you'll miss the plasma rifle (not really needed) and some dialogue though, there's also a minor alternate path on lvl 8 (can use jump jets instead of flicking a certain switch to get up))
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (a few ability/tool-gated segments (jump jets, enviro-suit (beta grove), some dark areas, skates? - might be needed on hard) and some soft gating with tough enemies, sometimes what you do in one level affects something in another and you'll sometimes have to come back to a point of interest later on)
No control/interface tutorial
Save anywhere (8 nameable slots, these don't show your current location nor your status)
Very steep difficulty curve and you die quickly from attacks even early on
Stamina/fatigue mechanic (can't run nor climb if it's at 100%) - you get tired pretty quickly but also regain it pretty quickly and the skates also help
Collectathon/killathon element (need to lower the security level (Shodan's control of a floor) by destroying all cameras and CPUs in each level - unlocks elevators and various doors; most of these as well as some cyberspace segments are optional but yield very useful equipment)
Time limit in cyberspace (can be adjusted via the difficulty options when starting a new game)
Enemy shots tend to hit instantly
Some dark areas (need to use a head-mounted lantern or infrared night sight or sight patch)
Energy charge stations have varying efficiency (recharge time and amount of energy stored)
Some enemy respawning (not sure exactly how it works but in some areas it's a lot worse than others (the basement engineering room and with the hoppers on the reactor level, a couple of segments with kamikaze robots)
A few HP restoration points (surgery beds - only 3 operational ones)
Gear won't deteriorate or break here
Can't blow up bars/grating
Can find seven different mini-game items (lets you play basic mini-games in the small gui window (most of them based on early arcade games) - doesn't yield any rewards useful for beating the actual game though)
Can generally pick items up or open doors from a couple of meters away (sometimes further with items, can't do it through doors or bars though)
The riot gun is only useful for the above purpose
EMP grenades don't hurt the player
Some enemies make no sound when moving nearby (can be frustrating when facing kamikaze robots)
Don't need the skates to make the ramp jump on lvl 4
Regular batteries don't stack in the inventory (energy equivalent of healing patches)
Items can be blown up (consumables only?)
Some randomized loot
The laser rapier is OP
No stealth aspect to the camera system
Time limit on the final boss (which is also a clunky cyberspace fight)
Some gore
One untimed escape segment (after blowing up the reactor - you're expected to go to the escape pods on lvl 5 after triggering its destruction (you'll briefly face Diego along with some tougher enemies here) but you can skip this floor and go to lvl 8 instead which triggers the next communication from Earth and opens it up)
Nothing but mutant enemies behind the force field on level 2 (opens later, no loot)
-
No option to pick the Mac version soundtrack (better overall instrumentation)
Still pretty clunky interface/controls in some ways (no hotkey for using a first aid kit (full heal)?, no hotkey for readying a grenade (have to double click one in the inventory) and it's easy to mess up and hurt yourself when throwing them, can't run backwards, cyberspace (can't strafe - makes combat here kinda lame, your hit box is a bit larger than it seems, automatically go faster in tunnels, the see-through wireframe walls make navigation pretty confusing, lacking impact from shooting enemies here), can't turn around while in P&C mode, the voice acting isn't quite accurate to the text in the audio logs so reading and listening gets confusing (ctrl+period to mute of all things) - there's a mod that fixes this though, small/busy text for the audio logs and the window is kinda small, click an icon to reload your gun... - can at least change this in the config, can't switch between sub menus while the game is paused, leaning is toggled rather than active while holding the button down and has to be deactivated with a separate "center" button (it's also kinda slow), can't simply place mines (have to throw them and they slide a bit after landing), slow scrolling on the map screen, sometimes sloppy hit detection when shooting enemies above or below you, can't edit a text marker (have to remove and retype it) and erasing text for save files is slow as you have to keep tapping backspace, can't aim straight upwards, sometimes uneven movement speed when on force field platforms and bridges)
Sometimes hard to make out interactive objects on walls - a lot of non-interactive objects are equally eye-catching
Some trial & error (the computer node numbers are only hinted at vaguely once on level 4 - need to write down the number that appears after destroying them in each room for a passcode lock later on, the enviro-suit requires a bit of energy to work, enemy appearing next to the teleporter on lvl 6, you'll only need one interface demodulator item, some energy recharge stations hurt you a bit when used, hidden deactivation switch for the robot conversion/restoration bay on lvl 2, have to touch a tile to make it show up on the auto-map which makes it look like there might be a path everywhere and makes it harder to spot cameras (many per level - the maps that come with the enhanced edition actually show their locations though and not all of them have them), wire puzzles - can skip these using a logic probe item if you can find one but there's a chance they won't succeed (the maps pdf that comes with enhanced ed shows the solution to these though and EE also comes with a guide for the harder circuit puzzles), grenades hit further than it looks like, have to close the door behind you after respawning at a bay/station in later levels or you might end up in an endless death loop from enemies spawning right next to you, some useless (and common) items (Beverage Container, Wrapper, Flasks and Beakers, Worker Helmet, Severed Head, Skull, Fire Extinguisher) - no recycler item here, some ambushes)
Uneven voice acting (a lot of people sound kind of bored despite the situation they're in, pretty much none of it is on par with Shodan) Various odd color choices plus heavily pixelated enemies and objects
Sometimes inconsistent AI (sometimes you can just stand and shoot an enemy from far away without a reaction while sometimes they'll start shooting you as soon as you're in sight, can trap various enemies near corners and be able to shoot them without them shooting you)
Can't fully see a drawn weapon even with the gui removed
Pointless view angle display in the gui
Some floors/levels are overly maze-like (1, 2, 7)
Sometimes hard to tell how close or in which direction an enemy is by its sounds
Some music tracks are annoying
Sometimes uneven difficulty (spikes: no restoration bay/conversion chamber on level 8 and the "outdoors" area has several fliers that are hard to spot before they shoot you, the radioactive tall room on the reactor level, you'll sometimes explore parts or most of a level before finding either the restoration bay or the item you were supposed to find early on such as the lantern on lvl 3, some later cyberspace segments; dips: Shodan and her cyberspace segment aren't particularly hard, the mutated cyborgs tend to hit walls with their shots (magpulse), lvl 5 mini-boss (second time it appears is also easy because of how big it is and the fact that you can hide behind a corner), certain enemies in levels 5-6, )
Some tedious parts (relay code search on lvl 3 - can find an audio log in the node room that tells you which one is the correct one but you'd still have to know which maintenance sector it was in)
No encounter or death speech from Shodan and no death animation
Healing items are used instantly in cyberspace (can't carry them with you for later use here)
Bugs:
-Some music tracks aren't played fully (Security) and some reset when moving between rooms (Cyberspace)
-Can't properly alt-tab out of the game (stays active behind your internet browser for example and in front of the lowbar in Windows)
-Sometimes after loading a game, guns will auto-fire when moving the cursor into the GUI (shoot to fix)
Notes:
-Music mod: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=10927.msg130259#msg130259
-Original game is from 1994
-SHODAN=Sentient Hyper-Optimised Data Access Network
-CD-Rom version differences (also from 1994): https://www.ttlg.com/ss1/faq/#7.9