I've had a theory that the invasive surgery/modification that was done on us while in cryosleep was specific in such a way that it allowed us to be exposed to The Many's influence without being compromised, it also explains why we had the memory problems when waking up at the beginning of the game and why we're able to witness the ghost events and The Many's exposition to us without really falling to their side because of how experimental it was. And it also gives a ingame reason why we are able to access psychic powers without being in the OSI by buying them with the Cyber-Modules.
I luckily still own a physical copy of this game. The voices and sound effects that some of the enemies make would set me on edge, especially those friggin' ninja cyborgs and the cyborg midwife: "I'll tear out your spine!", lol. I played with a surround audio setup, that made a huge difference for me in atmosphere. After trying all three character archetypes, I went with a Navy engineer, with some ranged combat and lesser psionic abilities. In regards to the psychic powers of The Many, I believe that every human you encounter or have read about, or listened to, has varying levels of resistance to the mental influence. It's likely that those with psionic abilities, or those with an exceptionally strong willpower are much more difficult for The Many to control. The vast majority of people that have been altered by The Many have been done so on the physical level, though some people willingly gave in to its calling. The Many modifies its victims via bodily parasitism, and even has the ability to affect machines. The monkeys are a different story; as biologically lower lifeforms, they seemed to have little or no resistance to the psychic influence, and were quickly taken over. The player character is not Bayliss, unless Bayliss likes to refer to himself in the third-person and gave himself memory loss, lol. I also doubt that the player is the reconstitution of the soldier who killed himself; revitalization units are in medical bays, and that's not where you begin.
I hate in-universe re-spawning explanations so much that when possible I don't use them, I just use save and load if that's available too. My weapon of choice in System Shock 2 was the automatic rifle which I focused on almost exclusively when I got it. It could be loaded with fragmentation rounds (extra damage to fleshy things), armor-piercing rounds (extra damage to robots) or just regular bullets (which I loaded when I didn't know what to expect around the corner and since they were the cheapest - besides enough of the cheap stuff could drop most anything anyway). Great video!
I always thought of this as survival-exploration with horror elements instead of an action game. The combat is really similar to the original Deus Ex in the regard that it's functional not really good. Same with the Thief series, fighting is not the main focus.
For my part i loved solo as it increases the horror aspect and i loved the weapons breaking as it added tension. I have "fond" memories of my weapon breaking at the worst possible moment and me cursing and running for my life.
I find SSII the superior game compared with HL In fact, i never was a fan of it, for me all it was back then.. was a mean to play CS 1.3. I also love the nah! First, the "hacker" saw so many horrible things that it dehumanized him, 2nd.. it's amazing to have an actually joke on such a tense game. Shodan and the Many are the focus of the game. Even the hacker, is half a cyborg.. the nah is the human factor on the game. I loved it, was unexpected and not bad at all. Corny?? Yea, but corny isn't always bad. I kind of feel bad from the Many. They aren't bad in my view. They are an abomination of a science experiment of a mad AI. They just exist, but we (the humans) need to fight it as it is a parasite who eat us. Idk, i simpatize with the many. Feel bad from them.
I hope it gets a remake. The graphics aren't top priority for a quality game but at this points the visuals are so lacking; it effects the immersion factor. I showed it to my friends (around 2007 when Unreal 3 engine games were coming out) and they laughed at the models...etc. There are a lot of games that are from mid or even early 2000s (Morrowind) with mods you can make them look decent. System Shock 2 when its came out was already looked a few years dated (looked like a game that came out in 96 rather than 99). With mods you can only get it to about 2004ish graphics. ~
The difference between dying/reloading and dying/respawning is that the latter is not necessarily a failure. If you have the respawn station active, you can, for example, use death as a form of teleportation (mark and recall style).
I actually liked the re-spawn in this game, in every level you need to find it first so its so nerve wrecking that you are looking for it every time you get to a level. And you loose nanytes every time you respawn
It's funny how, much the System Shock series was kicking against industry standards at the time. Even what Looking Glass themselves established. System Shock 1 was bucking against the standards inspired by Ultima: Underworld. Mark LeBlanc talks about the reason for there being no friendly NPC's, stating their frustration with doing friendly NPC's in the Underworld games. "Let's just have every character in the game be dead." I also like the way Shock 2 comments on Individualism. And I quote: "This is Xerxes. Can you not feel the glory of the flesh? Do you not yearn to be free of the tyranny of the individual?" - Xerxes. "Mistrust is the tyranny of the individual. Your own kind sees you as a threat. Why do you murder our unity? No matter... The line is drawn. You will cease to be. It is just a question of who will bring your end. Us... or you..." And yet, it was you, the player, who restored order.
There was a garden grove on Citadel Station. I do remember disliking the ending. From what I recall it was the cybernetics that made us immune to the many.
I absolutely hated the ending and and still do. just unimaginably bad. :/ I wouldn't mind an easteregg: "NAH!" moment but to make it default for me was a terrible idea. Look at Fallout 1, where if you had the Bloody mess perk (Spoilers warning?!). you kill a guy who doesn't allow you to return home. I loved that easteregg ending. I ultimately really liked System Shock 2: I still remember the day I bought both of this game at an Amsterdam airport (time was short my mom force me to choose one but I couldn't in the end I convinced her to allow me to but both) along with Homeworld (both are still in my top 10-15 games of all time)
I think The Many do feel pain. in the hour or so, they are screaming their heads off, seemingly in pain. "Kill Me!!!" and other guttural screams and roars. i think they are absolutely in pain constantly. i wanna say ive been frequenting your channel. i love your analysis of these classic Games especially FF and Trigger. you make my day at work pass much faster and i really love watching your videos. thank you for making these. Could i request Chrono Cross?
Oh I know, the audio horror of this game is legit. I find myself wondering how much of the original person is left in a Many consumed. So; The way we do things is people request games and people who support the show can put their donations or subscriptions towards a given game, which changes their priority and thus determines what we stream (and almost all streams thereby get a follow up stand-alone video). Chrono Cross is already on the List, but is not yet in the Queue. I'm pretty sure that, now with the remaster out, interest will be going up in that one.
I complete agree on that “nah” moment. A lot of people criticise the game for this, but I loved it for the reasons you mentioned. It just came so completely out of nowhere that it was hard not to love.
Amazing episode , ashamed to say I never finished it lol I was 13 and out if my depth sound design, scared the crap out of me Please do fallout new vegas sometime , my favourite game ever .
Just got to your channel, have you played Prey? It's like the true spiritual successor to SS2, not Bioshock, which is cool but I don't think it really does justice to that game. You'll also like how the "store" works in this game, it's a recycling machine that does exactly what you like in SS2. You can even use a recycling grenade to blow things up (including enemies) and reduce them to the biological resources you need to craft things at the station. Your point about the combat is precisely what I feel when playing Skyrim or Fallout as a melee character. It's so weird and lifeless with poor feedback that I can't feel attached to it.
I have played Prey (the original), though admittedly not in quite a long time. I remember enjoying the... for lack of a better word 'recycling' mechanic in that one.
@@Lorerunner oops, I think you're talking about the "real" original Prey right? I was talking about the 2017 "reboot" by Arkane Studios, my bad. Have you played this one? Thanks for the reply, man!
I've had a theory that the invasive surgery/modification that was done on us while in cryosleep was specific in such a way that it allowed us to be exposed to The Many's influence without being compromised, it also explains why we had the memory problems when waking up at the beginning of the game and why we're able to witness the ghost events and The Many's exposition to us without really falling to their side because of how experimental it was. And it also gives a ingame reason why we are able to access psychic powers without being in the OSI by buying them with the Cyber-Modules.
I luckily still own a physical copy of this game. The voices and sound effects that some of the enemies make would set me on edge, especially those friggin' ninja cyborgs and the cyborg midwife: "I'll tear out your spine!", lol. I played with a surround audio setup, that made a huge difference for me in atmosphere. After trying all three character archetypes, I went with a Navy engineer, with some ranged combat and lesser psionic abilities.
In regards to the psychic powers of The Many, I believe that every human you encounter or have read about, or listened to, has varying levels of resistance to the mental influence. It's likely that those with psionic abilities, or those with an exceptionally strong willpower are much more difficult for The Many to control. The vast majority of people that have been altered by The Many have been done so on the physical level, though some people willingly gave in to its calling. The Many modifies its victims via bodily parasitism, and even has the ability to affect machines. The monkeys are a different story; as biologically lower lifeforms, they seemed to have little or no resistance to the psychic influence, and were quickly taken over.
The player character is not Bayliss, unless Bayliss likes to refer to himself in the third-person and gave himself memory loss, lol. I also doubt that the player is the reconstitution of the soldier who killed himself; revitalization units are in medical bays, and that's not where you begin.
Just finished System Shock 2 today. This video has been great to reflect on my experience!
I hate in-universe re-spawning explanations so much that when possible I don't use them, I just use save and load if that's available too.
My weapon of choice in System Shock 2 was the automatic rifle which I focused on almost exclusively when I got it. It could be loaded with fragmentation rounds (extra damage to fleshy things), armor-piercing rounds (extra damage to robots) or just regular bullets (which I loaded when I didn't know what to expect around the corner and since they were the cheapest - besides enough of the cheap stuff could drop most anything anyway).
Great video!
I had no idea people could hate this concept.
I thought it was a great concept.
I always thought of this as survival-exploration with horror elements instead of an action game. The combat is really similar to the original Deus Ex in the regard that it's functional not really good. Same with the Thief series, fighting is not the main focus.
For my part i loved solo as it increases the horror aspect and i loved the weapons breaking as it added tension. I have "fond" memories of my weapon breaking at the worst possible moment and me cursing and running for my life.
I find SSII the superior game compared with HL
In fact, i never was a fan of it, for me all it was back then.. was a mean to play CS 1.3.
I also love the nah! First, the "hacker" saw so many horrible things that it dehumanized him, 2nd.. it's amazing to have an actually joke on such a tense game. Shodan and the Many are the focus of the game. Even the hacker, is half a cyborg.. the nah is the human factor on the game.
I loved it, was unexpected and not bad at all. Corny?? Yea, but corny isn't always bad.
I kind of feel bad from the Many. They aren't bad in my view. They are an abomination of a science experiment of a mad AI. They just exist, but we (the humans) need to fight it as it is a parasite who eat us. Idk, i simpatize with the many. Feel bad from them.
I hope it gets a remake. The graphics aren't top priority for a quality game but at this points the visuals are so lacking; it effects the immersion factor.
I showed it to my friends (around 2007 when Unreal 3 engine games were coming out) and they laughed at the models...etc.
There are a lot of games that are from mid or even early 2000s (Morrowind) with mods you can make them look decent.
System Shock 2 when its came out was already looked a few years dated (looked like a game that came out in 96 rather than 99). With mods you can only get it to about 2004ish graphics. ~
Shock 1 needs a remake more than 2 imo.
@@cartersauce1344 That's been in the works for quite a long time though.
The difference between dying/reloading and dying/respawning is that the latter is not necessarily a failure. If you have the respawn station active, you can, for example, use death as a form of teleportation (mark and recall style).
19:42 LOL, oh my that was perfect.
I actually liked the re-spawn in this game, in every level you need to find it first so its so nerve wrecking that you are looking for it every time you get to a level. And you loose nanytes every time you respawn
It's funny how, much the System Shock series was kicking against industry standards at the time. Even what Looking Glass themselves established. System Shock 1 was bucking against the standards inspired by Ultima: Underworld. Mark LeBlanc talks about the reason for there being no friendly NPC's, stating their frustration with doing friendly NPC's in the Underworld games. "Let's just have every character in the game be dead."
I also like the way Shock 2 comments on Individualism. And I quote: "This is Xerxes. Can you not feel the glory of the flesh? Do you not yearn to be free of the tyranny of the individual?" - Xerxes. "Mistrust is the tyranny of the individual. Your own kind sees you as a threat. Why do you murder our unity? No matter... The line is drawn. You will cease to be. It is just a question of who will bring your end. Us... or you..." And yet, it was you, the player, who restored order.
There was a garden grove on Citadel Station.
I do remember disliking the ending.
From what I recall it was the cybernetics that made us immune to the many.
You make very good review videos...for an insect.
I love system shock 2
I absolutely hated the ending and and still do. just unimaginably bad. :/
I wouldn't mind an easteregg: "NAH!" moment but to make it default for me was a terrible idea.
Look at Fallout 1, where if you had the Bloody mess perk (Spoilers warning?!). you kill a guy who doesn't allow you to return home. I loved that easteregg ending.
I ultimately really liked System Shock 2:
I still remember the day I bought both of this game at an Amsterdam airport (time was short my mom force me to choose one but I couldn't in the end I convinced her to allow me to but both) along with Homeworld (both are still in my top 10-15 games of all time)
I see new rumination i press Thumbs up. Especially when its about the predecessor to the Bioshock franchise
I think The Many do feel pain. in the hour or so, they are screaming their heads off, seemingly in pain. "Kill Me!!!" and other guttural screams and roars. i think they are absolutely in pain constantly.
i wanna say ive been frequenting your channel. i love your analysis of these classic Games especially FF and Trigger. you make my day at work pass much faster and i really love watching your videos. thank you for making these. Could i request Chrono Cross?
Oh I know, the audio horror of this game is legit. I find myself wondering how much of the original person is left in a Many consumed.
So; The way we do things is people request games and people who support the show can put their donations or subscriptions towards a given game, which changes their priority and thus determines what we stream (and almost all streams thereby get a follow up stand-alone video). Chrono Cross is already on the List, but is not yet in the Queue. I'm pretty sure that, now with the remaster out, interest will be going up in that one.
I complete agree on that “nah” moment. A lot of people criticise the game for this, but I loved it for the reasons you mentioned. It just came so completely out of nowhere that it was hard not to love.
Very interesting analysis as always!
someone else who loves the "Nah"?
delicious. finally, some good fucking taste
The Ui is amazing, the Nah moment sucks, what are you on. damn
one of my favorite games
Love this game, thanks for the video
Amazing episode , ashamed to say I never finished it lol I was 13 and out if my depth sound design, scared the crap out of me
Please do fallout new vegas sometime , my favourite game ever .
His ruminations are nominated by his patrons on Patreon.
Playing this with headphones is the shiit, just like thief 1 and 2
Nice facelift pic
Just got to your channel, have you played Prey? It's like the true spiritual successor to SS2, not Bioshock, which is cool but I don't think it really does justice to that game. You'll also like how the "store" works in this game, it's a recycling machine that does exactly what you like in SS2. You can even use a recycling grenade to blow things up (including enemies) and reduce them to the biological resources you need to craft things at the station.
Your point about the combat is precisely what I feel when playing Skyrim or Fallout as a melee character. It's so weird and lifeless with poor feedback that I can't feel attached to it.
I have played Prey (the original), though admittedly not in quite a long time. I remember enjoying the... for lack of a better word 'recycling' mechanic in that one.
@@Lorerunner oops, I think you're talking about the "real" original Prey right? I was talking about the 2017 "reboot" by Arkane Studios, my bad. Have you played this one?
Thanks for the reply, man!
Oh, hah! I was interested in the recent Prey (especially the ending) but I never got to play it sadly.
@@Lorerunner I would strongly recommend playing it, then, especially if you loved SS2.
You should try Gothic 1 and Gothic 2.
40:00 I thought it was the spider bite?
Do you know some the people who worked on this game later made Bioshock?
Garrett Roesler YOU DON’T SAY?????