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So, System Shock 2....oh the horror!

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Hey guys, it is that time again. I'm playing through SS2 now, I'm somewhere near the end I guess, but I'd like to share my thoughts so far.

So...honestly, this game is almost unenjoyable. And very enjoyable at the same time. Enjoyable, because it has great atmosphere, a nice setup, Shodan obviously, lots of weapons, psi powers and other stuff to gather. I like the level design, and that blood pumping, yet so frightening techno music. Oh, and hearing Stephen "Garrett" Russel in a different role, but with the same voice was a very strange experience.

But it is almost entirely ruined by the constantly respawing enemies. SS2 is worst than any other modern popamole game in this regard. And if you think otherwise, then you don't know what you are talkig about. Seriously, they spawn in front of you from thin air, they spawn again and again behind you. And because the game is quite hard, you can get a lot of damage from enemies you don't even see, because in one moment they are nowhere to be seen, but suddenly they are hitting you from behind. Sometimes I was strafing during a gunfight, and I didn't notice that a spider or some robot spawned behind me, and killed me. I was near ragequit at that point.

The weapon degredation system is hit and miss. It was enfuriating in the beginning, because you couldn't fire 5 bullets without breaking your gun (literally). Thankfully you can wack the enemies to death with your melee weapons. Oh, melee hit detection is shit. And the repair skill is shit, because even if you upgrade it (alongside with the maintenance skill), you barely repair your stuff. Later in the game it wasn't a huge problem, because I found a lot of repair tools, which maxed out the weapons durability, so they didn't brake too much.

I will finish the game of course, and although I'm happy that I've played it, and was a good experience, it won't be on my best games list.

:flameshield up:
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
they spawn again and again

Maybe you should stop triggering alarms :troll:
I did, I played stealthily all the way. I almost never triggered alarms. I know that if I did, the spawning become even worse. But even with out it, it was terrible.

I think you should stick to reviewing Ducktales. :smug:
I will start tommorrow. :)

Add no_spawn to your user.cfg file if you can't deal with the respawning.

You wuss.
If I survived the game this long, I won't change it now.
 

evdk

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Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I did, I played stealthily all the way. I almost never triggered alarms. I know that if I did, the spawning become even worse. But even with out it, it was terrible.
It's part of the atmosphere, you are supposed to never feel safe.

Although, IIRC, the Body of the Many has no enemy respawn.
:troll:

SS2 is not an RPG
And here we go again.
 

Deuce Traveler

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
I'm playing through it right now, too, but haven't gotten too far. I'm currently going through a radiated area in order to try and find a way up to level 4, so I think I've already gone through two of the sections of the ship.

The character generation was quite fun, but I'm playing a tech-based character focused on cyber so I can hack into systems. I got a nasty surprise when I found out I can't use shotguns because I haven't put three points into the applicable weapon skill yet. I'm beginning to figure out that I can't win this game while focused on hacking alone, so I guess I'll start bumping up my skills in normal guns as soon as I find another upgrade station. Meanwhile I'm dependent upon a nearly broken pistol and a wrench. My pistols keep breaking down way too fast, so I agree with @J_C that the weapon degradation seems broken and unrealistic. I'm doing just fine with the wrench, however, as I usually creep behind the enemy and give a nice couple of shots to the ribs before they can react. Enemies in SS1 were harder by this point in the game, though graphically they are much improved here.

The chick trying to help me escape and the security program that keeps threatening you talk so much that I really don't have the sense of loneliness that I got out of the first game. There are times when I want them to shut the hell up.

The game doesn't have any choice and consequences thus far, but it does have skill checks, character creation and development, puzzles and incentives to explore so I consider it an RPG enough. I think it is an excellent game so far, has great music, and good atmosphere, but I don't know if I'll consider it in my list of favorite CRPGs just yet.
 

thesheeep

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Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
SS2 is not a pure RPG, but there certainly is enough character building in it to justify calling it an RPG/FPS/Horror game. I wouldn't count it as survival, because honestly, if you count SS2 as survival, you might as well call Duke Nukem 3D a survival game. Or any game in which you have to... stay alive not to lose.

Anyway, I found that the monster respawning is part of the great atmosphere, when it increases the challenge. That is especially at the beginning or when you are short on ammo.
Later in the game, when you steamroll anything anyway...
I really love how you can beat Shodan by giving a fuck about her and just hack consoles like you do all the time anyway. Also... "Nahh"
... it becomes boring, as it does not increase the challenge.

So... when is SS3 coming out?
 

Gurkog

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SS3 will be a 2 hour CGI movie, written by Ken Levine, about some poorly thought out premise wrapped in social shock value on a ship floating through Rapture space. You will have to rescue little girls while be accompanied by a naive, yet highly sexualized young woman who will provide aid to keep the game from becoming challenging to lonely and frustrating. It will be released at the end of the next console's life cycle.
 

octavius

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SS2 is one of the few FPS games I didn't complete, for the very reasons J_C mentioned. I can accept that areas I haven't visited for a while respawns, but not respawning just behind me back. Combined with the exeggarated weapon degradation it's just too rage inducing, and leads to rage quitting. And that was even after I had edited the config file to make it more bearable.
 
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Correct_Carlo

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I just finished playing this for the first time ever and was also severely underwhelmed. The general game design and premise are great, but the combat is just shit and, yeah, the monster respawns are tedious as hell (especially when you have to trek all over the ship to grab different items or search for numbers in paintings you missed and whatnot). I loved the thief games (which I completed on expert without walkthroughs), but I really, really, had to push myself to finish SS2. Thief's core gameplay holds up so well all these years later, but SS2's biggest problem is that combat's just not that fun, its repetitive, and really hasn't aged well at all. I wouldn't mind the respawning if this weren't the case, as it did add a certain tension to the game, but I just got really bored with it after a while. Especially in the last few levels which are, more or less, just straight up FPS.

Plus this is worth reiterating:

Oh, melee hit detection is shit.

Those fucking monkeys are impossible to hit. And not because they jump around or anything. They will be standing stock still and your wrench will just pass right through their heads with no damage. I'd have to swing like 3 or 4 times until the game would finally register it.
 
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felipepepe

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I get the complain about the end game, the game goes downhill after you enter the Body of the Many, that is common ground... but hating everything that comes before that? :eek:
 
Self-Ejected

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The game wouldn't really work without respawning, since it's the only way to constantly keep up the tension whatever you do. Maybe I'm just too bad a player, but in three playthroughs I never reached the point where the enemies felt so weak and predictable that they were no longer scary. Especially when they sneak up on you.
 

baturinsky

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Tension-inducing element in horror games is steadily depleting finite resources. And that is what respawning enemies do.
 

Elthosian

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The System Shock you've got to play is the first one :obviously:, IIRC it has enemy respawn too (not as annoying though, as the game doesn't have weapon degradation and gives you enough ammo if you bother to explore), but it makes up for that by having flawless level design from the beginning to the very end of the game, frankly I wouldn't have minded if they ditched all that RPG stuff from SS2 and instead focused on improving what made SS1 the masterpiece it is.
 

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