System Shock 2 Demo Review

I didn\'t analyze the System Shock Demo as much as #1 (who should be writing for a game magazine). But I was blown away by it.

It\'s not really a 3d shooter. It\'s not a showcase for the latest technology like Unreal and Quake3 are. It\'s just a really good roleplaying game in a sci-fi setting with a little 3d shooter mixed in. I look forward to buying it.

I have enjoyed the demo and will probably purchase the game when it hits the shelves, but before I do, I have a few gripes about what I\'ve seen in so far. This is not a fps, but rather a role-playing game, so a certain amount of disbelief must be suspended to pull you in to the world and keep you there. I refer to the following as what I believe to be \'continuity breaks\':

1. When a hybrid is killed and his shotgun is taken from him, the model still shows him holding a shotgun in his hands.

2. There are windows that are made of unbreakable glass. Early in the game when an explosion sends a radar dish crashing into one of these windows, it cracks, creating a decompression situation. Yet, when two cases of explosives are positioned right next to an unbreakable window and detonated, nothing happens.

3. Hybrids standing directly below you in plain sight don\'t notice your presence or take any action whatsoever, even when you are shooting at them.

4. You can sustain physical damage if a lift lowers while you are standing underneath it, but you do not receive damage when an airlock door closes on you, or chunks of ventilation shaft debris falls on you.

5. Xerxes announces that use of firearms is in violation of ship\'s code such-and-such, yet there are abundant firearms aboard the ship. If the weapons were brought in from an outside source, why do the food replicators sell ammo?

6. Hacking can be done outside a room, through unbreakable glass.

The following is not a continuity break or a problem, merely a creative difference of opinion:

1. As your hacking skill improves, only your % chance to successfully hack improves. An example is if you hack the security system and try to shut off the alarms, it doesn\'t matter if you are skill 1 or max skill, the end result is still the same - either you deactivate the alarms or not. You do not get any other advantages such as having them deactivated for a longer period of time, or the option to shut them off altogether. I would think that a max level hack would have some other advantages, rather than merely success percent. It creates the situation where you would stop building that skill, save the game, hack, and check your results. If you fail, reload the game and try again. Another example is hacking a food vending machine. Not only do you not get any additional benefits of being a max level hacker ( such as further selections of merchandise or even lower prices), you just have to save the game and try to hack to defeat a failed hack attempt. If you fail, simply reload the game and try it again. This is a loophole. It poses the question of why would someone want to use training modules to advance in hack skills? Answer: they wouldn\'t. Unless a particular action requires a particular skill level, to be successful at hacking, you would use the save game feature to get around hacking failures.

I am not beating on this game just to be argumentative. After playing the demo 5 times and noticing a few details, this could easily become one of my favorites. Will these details pervent people from enjoying the game? Nope. They are details that I feel the developers should have caught, or will catch, before its release. For me, it\'s the difference of being a 4-star achievement or a 5-star winner.

Thanks!

-Lex