I really held out on playing this game for a long time. I always take it as a bad sign if something receives too much hype. I don't like overhyped things because there is no way in hell they can live up to my expectations. I know for a fact that there can be no perfect 10 games, or movies for that matter. The gameplay trailers I saw from the game before its release didn't help either. I'm thinking of the video where the player is fooling around a big daddy with a revolver. So in the end I managed to completely avoid playing this game until late 2009.
With the hype gone I thought I'll be able to delve into the game on my own terms. Unfortunately some bug prevented me from even starting the game at first, so instead of playing I ended up surfing the net and forums for a possible solution to my problem, fortunately I found one. But of course this immediately revived the bad aura of the game in my subconscious.
Sadly the start of the game didn't succeed in dispelling my revulsion towards it. It just didn't feel right somehow. Something didn't click on the first few levels, but later it does get better, and some atmosphere starts to materialize when you meet your first big daddy / little sister.
The biggest problem of the game is that it tries to mimic System Shock II. It uses exactly the same game mechanics, only with different names. But it falls short of it's predecessor in almost every aspect.
The gameplay, the, audio logs, the weapon characteristics, the research, all feels almost the same. Even the story twist is almost exactly the same as in System Shock II. The only difference is that the research and the hacking is greatly simplified, which is a shame. Since I liked both the way they were. And of course space is replaced by water. But apart from that it's a carbon copy, nothing else.
If I didn't know System Shock I'd probably be among the ecstatic praisers of the game, but luckily for me (and unfortunately for Irrational Games) I do know System Shock II, in fact it's one of my all-time favourite games.
+
- It's almost exactly like System Shock II
- Atmosphere
- Gameplay
- Cutscenes
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- It's almost exactly like System Shock II
- After a time it becomes repetitive
- To few types of enemies, basically you only get splicers and that's it. Big daddies are to few and feel more like bosses than regular enemies.
- You can carry a maximum of 500 credits. I have no idea why they put this limitation in the game, since you can spend 500 in a matter of seconds at a vending machine. And why have a five digit counter if it maxes out with 3 digits?
- It's short, I didn't measure the time it took to finish it, but it felt short.
- Hacking, sometimes it's impossible to solve puzzles even, ones designated as easy by the game. While at other times even the hardest ones are very easy.
- Hacking is simplified compared to SS2, if you fail a hack here, there are no irreversible retortions, you only loose a bit of health. (In SS2 the box exploded, permanently destroying it's contents)
I say it's a 6 out of 10. It could be a strong 7 or even 8 if I didn't know about SS2. But they can't sell a knock-off to me, after seeing the real deal.