System Shock 2 was the precussor to Deus Ex in terms of the modern FPS-RPG inssurection. And if you have loved the latter, you will love this too.

In certain ways, it is as far removed from Deus Ex as it possibly can be. Whereas the world of Deus Ex is richly populated by a large number of NPC's within dense, real world locations - System Shock 2 envokes a true, powerful sense of isolation, for it places you in a military post on a massive, system-hopping spaceship where something terrible has happent, and your only form of human contact is in fact the audio logs of the dead crewmembers and the periodically recieved transmitions from the only other living entity on board that doesn't want to immediately destroy you.

However, this cool atmosphere takes some hits. The art is much plainer, and tends to be a little bad in parts. People complained about Deus Ex, but I thought that the game had rich-enough art to counterbalance the age of the technology. Not so with System Shock 2 (which uses Looking Glass' Dark Engine). The textures are flat and undetailed, but if you take this from a perspective that it is in fact heavily stylized (which it is, in a fashion) then it becomes less bothersome, but in the end it's pretty low res for 1999.

The game rules certainly don't make it easy on the player. Things like weapon degradation (thankfully it's possible to turn this off with the patch), and the scarcity of ammo and other resources, means you really think twice before you shoot a baddie and such. This adds to a tension as you progress through the game, but you might get frustrated after a while.

Another source of that frustration might be the environments. The game does have some 'colorful' parts, and they have tried hard to mix it up a bit (with respectable results), but basically it ends up suffering from the Half Life syndrome - the same damn place pretty much through the whole game, with a sudden change near the end that mirrors the way you were suddenly thrust into Xen. I liked Xen and the end of this, so I imagine most will find it disagreeable in the highest :).

What there is to like is all the rest. The voice acting is very good (though patchy as it tends to be in most PC games), the freak mutant monkeys carry chips, and there's lots of stuff to 'use' such as psionic powers and a nice, plentiful arsenal of weapons. There's also a plethora of nifty features - Hacking is more involved then it is in Deus Ex. Instead of just pressing a button you have a little connect the dots puzzle to deal with (if you've played Elite Force 2 by Ritual then you've met a corruption of the concept), and there is in fact a little gameboy like gadget that lets you play a bunch of games such as minesweeper, golf and so forth. It's all very nifty indeed.

But so far I have only talked about the peripheral aspects of the game. At the core of it is a well-developed combat system, (a nice 'weapon for every occasion' sort of feel). The stats stuff is a little strange. You can choose your branch of the military that you wish to serve under (The psionics division, the navy or the army) but in the end it makes no difference except that when you start the game some stats are more boosted then others. I suggest the OSA (psionics) because it makes things a little easier, and gives you ranged fighting capabilities right at the start of the game. Eventually you'll have to rock at all the abilities (hacking, weapons, psi) to rock the game itself.

Really, if you're a gaming enthusiast, then this is a very important game to have. It's the sequel to one of the coolest games ever, and a true cult hit. And finally, if you like your action with a bit of brain - then you'll easily get into this. It's been recently reprinted and being sold as a part of one of those 'value' lines of older games, so get your ass down to your local EB and pick up a copy!