System Shock

System Shock
Developer(s)	Looking Glass Studios
Publisher(s)	Origin Systems, Electronic Arts
Engine	Enhanced Ultima Underworld engine
Platform(s)	PC (DOS), Mac
Release	March 26, 1994
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player

System Shock is a computer game developed by Looking Glass Technologies (later Looking Glass Studios). The game was published by Origin, which was subsequently bought by Electronic Arts (EA). The sequel, System Shock 2 was developed by Looking Glass offshoot Irrational Games and Looking Glass, and published in 1999 by EA.

Overview

System Shock was Looking Glass' 1994 entry into the first-person shooter sci-fi/horror genre, set aboard the fictional Citadel research and mining space station, in a Cyberpunk future.

Although the game was superficially similar to many other first-person shooters on the market, it was critically acclaimed [1] for having detailed, true 3D environments, an engrossing storyline, deep gameplay and a memorable villain. System Shock is often cited as an inspiration for games like Half-Life and Deus Ex; indeed, some of the same key people behind System Shock worked on the latter. Despite being technologically superior, System Shock was still outsold by more mainstream action games of the time, most notably Doom and various so-called Doom clones, with only 170,000 copies sold.[2]. The game uses an enhanced version of the engine used in the Ultima Underworld series.

Story

Set in 2072, the game casts the player as a computer hacker caught while attempting to remotely access files concerning Citadel space station, which is owned by the TriOptimum Corporation, a massive corporate monopoly focusing on research, defence, and commercial manufacturing. The hacker is taken to Citadel and brought before Edward Diego, a greedy TriOptimum executive who offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a secret hacking job on SHODAN, the artificial intelligence (AI) that controls the station.

To make the deal more enticing, the hacker receives a valuable military-grade cybernetic implant with the implantation operation bankrolled by Diego. After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the hacker is prepared for the promised surgery. Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month long controlled healing coma in the surgical suite of the station's medical level. The game begins as the hacker awakens.

Plot

Template:Spoiler When the hacker awakens from his coma in the surgical suite, he finds all hell has broken loose. He must fight for survival against mutants, cyborgs and robots created or reprogrammed by the brilliant but now insane SHODAN. The story is mostly told through log disks and email messages found and received throughout the game. Some of the log disks and emails provide clues on what tasks must be performed (and how to perform them) to counter the threats that SHODAN poses to the player and the whole of humanity.

Boss characters

There are a number of powerful enemies within System Shock. These are the two main enemies.

SHODAN

As noted previously, SHODAN (Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network) is the primary enemy in System Shock. Before the beginning of the game, her ethical constraints were taken off-line, leading to her going rogue. She returns in System Shock 2.

Edward Diego

Vice-President of Marketing of Tri-Optimum Corporation, he is the one responsible for hiring the Hacker to remove SHODAN's ethical constraints. He thought he could use SHODAN to hide the evidence of his corrupt dealings. Instead, he greatly underestimated SHODAN's power, intelligence, and savagery. Soon after SHODAN went rogue, he sold out the remaining humans on the ship and volunteered to be made into a super-cyborg that would retain his own mind. His own son, William Bedford Diego, will come to captain the Unified National Nominate (UNN) military starship, the Rickenbacker, on its mission to escort the TriOptimum starship Von Braun some forty-two years later in System Shock 2.

Gameplay

The bodies of the station crew and destroyed enemies can be searched, and items taken from them. Although System Shock was not the first FPS to allow a player to do so, it was a very rare feature at the time. Most of the time, these items are randomized, which helps change the gameplay experience each time the game is played.

As players progress through the game, they find hardware that can be attached to their cybernetic rig, including shields, lights, motion boosting and targeting systems. Nearly all of these can be upgraded, with newer versions making them more powerful or offering more features. However, some of them drain power from a main reserve when used, meaning that a player cannot have the luxury of having them on all the time (at least not for very long). Thus, the player must balance their energy use, deciding when and where best to make use of the systems. The game Deus Ex makes a very similar use of this concept in regards to its Augmentation system.

The player can also find various pharmacological patches throughout the game, each with certain effects, and sometimes negative side or after-effects. The Medipatch can heal, but unlike healing items in most games, does so gradually, not instantly. The Staminump patch stops a player from getting tired, but when it wears off, the player is left exhausted. The Reflex Reaction Aid patch speeds up the player character's reflexes, slowing their perception of events, as well as boosting their sprint speed. The Detox patch comes in handy if the player is suffering from biological or radioactive contamination, and also neutralises the negative (and beneficial) effects of other patches. It also stays in the players system for a short while. There are a few more types of patches not listed here.

The game also contains 'Cyberspace' areas. At certain points in the game, the player can use their cybernetic rig to "jack in" to Cyberspace terminals. The player is then able to fly around a fully 3D user interface, collecting data and fighting security programs. Some actions in Cyberspace generate events in the real world. Some doors, for example, are locked, with the only way to unlock them being accessible via Cyberspace. Template:Endspoiler

Interface and control

An unusual aspect of the game is its interface. It is quite complex for a game of the time, giving a large amount of information. This complexity may have served as a barrier to entry for some less patient players. However, the interface gives a level of control that is not found in many other contemporary first person games (nor many that came afterwards). Players can duck, crouch, lean left or right, forwards, jump, and mantle onto some platforms. Players can also look up and down, and climb ladders. The player character can also become fatigued from constant running and jumping, needing to slow down or stop to catch his breath. An unseen 3d model is used to calculate the player's movement and reactions to being hit.

Aiming of weapons is performed in a pointing manner with the mouse cursor, which is not locked to the centre of the screen; this also allows for easy simulation of weapon recoil. Items are picked up manually by moving the cursor over them and double clicking, instead of simply walking over them. Thrown explosives such as grenades and bombs can be placed accurately, however this requires a special technique, explained in the manual, as well as some practice. Ignorance of the technique can result in players dropping an explosive at their feet, or hitting a close ceiling.

The interface has, among other things, three multi-function-displays (MFDs): One in the middle, generally used for inventory, and two side MFDs, which can be set individually to show several kinds of data, such as a minimap, ammunition counts and target information. One of the cybernetic devices obtainable in the game, when active, uses the central MFD as a rear-view camera that updates once per second. With upgrades, the camera becomes real-time, and the side MFDs provide side views. Many of the MFD features were reused in the later Looking Glass title Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri.

Weapons

The weapon system is more complex than most, if not all other contemporary FPS games. Sixteen different primary weapons can be found, of which the player can carry a maximum of eight at once. Most projectile weapons use two types of ammunition, unique to those guns. In addition, seven types of thrown explosives can be found; Three grenades, one bomb, two timed explosives, and mines. These can be armed before throwing, or can be detonated by being shot, or having another explosion go off nearby.

Energy weapons, which draw power from the player's energy supply, are adjustable, with sliders for power per shot, proportionally affecting energy consumption and heat generation; these weapons can temporarily overheat. Almost all energy weapons have an overload button, for a powerful, if energy inefficient blast, that will cause them to instantly overheat. The timers on timed explosives can also be adjusted.

Three non-lethal weapons/ammunition types are almost useless (to the player), but add to the realism, as they would have been used for the stunning of individuals or lab animals, or suppression of rioting groups.

Damage system

Template:Spoiler Enemies are placed in one of three classes: Mutants, Robots and Cyborgs, with numerous sub-types thereof. Mutants and Robots are immune to certain damage types, in a mutually exclusive fashion; cyborgs are in-between, neither immune or especially vulnerable. EMP weapons, for example, affect cyborgs and especially robots, but are useless against mutants. Conversely, gas grenades are effective against cyborgs and especially mutants, but do not affect robots at all. Mutants have no armor, while all robots do (security models having heavier armor), as well as most cyborgs.

All attacks by the player have certain statistics set for that weapon, or, if it is a gun that fires projectiles, the particular type of ammunition being used in it.

If an enemy is hit by an attack to which it is not immune, the damage is modified according to the following:

1. Armor absorption: Depending on the armor penetration of the attack and the armor value of the enemy, none, some or all of the damage may be absorbed by its armor. This can have the effect of making some armored enemies immune to some weaker attacks.
2. Vulnerabilities: Depending on the type of enemy, it can take double or quadruple damage from certain attacks.
3. Critical hits: If the attack value is greater than the enemies' defense value, a critical hit can occur. The greater the difference, the greater the chance, and the greater the potential severity of the critical hit.
4. Random factor: Total damage is fluctuated +/- 10%.

Most of these effects are not made directly apparent to the player, other than messages such as "Heavy damage", or "No damage", etc, shown above an enemy by the player's HUD, and changes in the enemies' status in the damage readout (depending on the version of the targeting hardware collected). Template:Endspoiler

Versions

Two versions of the game were released. The original floppy disk version was released in March, 1994. It supports only one display resolution, 320x240, and does not have any speech. An enhanced CD-ROM version was released some months later. It has speech for every log and email, short of a personal log left by the Hacker as a reminder to himself, found at the start of the game. This considerably heightened the atmosphere, and is considered by most players and reviewers as the superior version. It also allows for several display resolutions, up to 640x480 (almost unheard of for a 1994 game), and includes more detailed graphics to make the most of the higher resolution. This was enough to tax nearly any system of the time. The CD version actually supports much higher resolutions, but these were disabled as they would still have been unplayable years later. Recently, a player has had some success in unlocking these higher resolutions[3], but running the game at these higher resolutions will prevent text (and cutscenes, if the 640x480 mapping is over-ridden) from being properly centered on screen.

In an interview in May, 2000, Warren Spector said "Would I like to have changed anything? Well, I wish I could go back and make the decision not to ship the floppy version months before the full-speech CD version. The additional audio added so much it might as well have been a different game. The CD version seemed so much more, well, modern. And the perception of Shock was cemented in the press and in people's minds by the floppy version (the silent movie version!). I really think that cost us sales..."

The game was also released for the Apple Macintosh, with higher resolution videos.

Use on newer operating systems

System Shock was designed for MS-DOS. As the source code was never released, getting the game to work on modern operating systems is not as easy as, say, Doom, for which many source ports have been released. It will work, most often with little to no tweaking, on most systems running Windows 95 or 98 (based on DOS). Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 (based on Windows NT), however, can require more work, and success is much more random. Some people have reported success with little work, while others have invested considerable time in the matter, with little or nothing to show for it. Most often the simplest solution is to use an emulator such as DOSBox, but this often requires greater than average (for 2006) computing power. The System Shock series forums on Through The Looking Glass contain a topic dedicated to issues regarding 2000/XP/2003

In Windows 95 or 98, most users will find that System Shock terminates to the desktop with an error message ("Can't create email cursor") when they start a new game. To solve this, simply right-click on the CDSHOCK.bat or CDSHOCK.exe file/s in the System Shock install directory, select the Memory tab, and then set MS-DOS Protected Mode (DPMI) memory to 16384 via the drop-down list.

Additionally, an installation that appears to be getting close to functioning will often fail to start; reporting the error The system cannot open COM1 port requested by the application. If the user then clicks the default Close button, System Shock will always fail to start. Clicking Ignore instead will often allow the application to run without further errors.

External links

• System Shock at MobyGames
• Template:Hotu
• System Shock Overview - Adventure Classic Gaming
• System Shock - The Gamespy Hall of Fame
• Through The Looking Glass - Fan-based Looking Glass Studios Tribute Site.
• System Shock series Technical FAQ on Through The Looking Glass
• Running System Shock on Windows XP/2000