Respawning enemies are great (and certainly blown out of proportion by whiners). Unparalleled atmosphere and sound design. Just beat this (for the first time!) on impossible difficulty. There are balance problems and the weapon modding system is super boring, but SS2's combat has more solid foundations for a first person shooter even if it's less ambitious in the firearms department. SS2's gun combat is rather more basic, but gets the job done with simulated projectiles for everything (even bullets), functional recoil, punchy sound effects tied to ammo type and firing mode, and hit sounds and health bars that clearly indicate the player's shot connecting. All of these have been meticulously addressed and overhauled in GMDX + vRSD. I mean the wonky recoil that can take a full second to reset, hitscan accuracy tied to max range so the sniper rifle is pinpoint accurate at untrained skill, fake bullet drop for hitscan but only when you would have hit your target so you can't adjust for it by aiming higher, projectile range affecting only the distance at which shots start to drop off rather than their speed, a bug that makes the laser mod do nothing on scoped weapons, restrictions on the scope state that prevent a transition while you're in a firing anim, incomplete effects and poor sound design, lack of player feedback for hit registration, or a whole host of balance issues related to weapon types, skills, and mods. I don't mean the accuracy system that requires you to stand still to stabilize your aim at low weapons skill, that's actually decent. SS2 lets you become overpowered with melee too, but it takes some investment.ĭeus Ex's ballistic simulation is more advanced than SS2's, but at the same time less robust due to some terrible implementation. To make things worse, Deus Ex hands the player a 100 damage laser sword (for reference, the crowbar does 6 and the sniper rifle does 25) halfway through the game, capable of oneshotting most enemies with no skill or aug investment and thus spitting in the face of melee builds. Attack animations are also randomized with slightly different timing for each so it's really just a spamfest once you're in range. Meanwhile, Deus Ex melee just projects a hitscan check at the player's crosshair at a specific frame in the attack animation to see if there's an enemy in range (which has nothing to do with the actual weapon model). Thief has some more player mechanics at work for melee (blocking, right-to-left swings if you aim to the right side of the enemy) but enemy attack motions are pretty bullshit and not meant to be fought fairly, especially not versus a crowd. If you miss, the timing can be extended by rotating your aim so that the tail end of the wrench swing collides with your target. In SS2 there's a more interesting dance to charging up a wrench strike, releasing it as you approach the enemy, and then backing away as soon as it connects. In the former, the player's attack swings are actually simulated to collide with enemy models for damage or indeed to be blocked by the enemy's melee weapon (this is obvious in Thief but works in System Shock 2, even monkeys can block wrench strikes if both attack at the same time). I don't have high hopes for System Shock 3, so where do I go from here? Is Prey 2017 a decent spiritual successor? From what I heard Bioshock games aren't.ĭark Engine melee is considerably more developed than in Deus Ex. It was acceptable - and an effective way to keep the tension high and make me suspiciously look around every corner. On Rickenbacker I think only the spiders respawned and in the bowels of the Many respawns only happened in the final location. I simply farmed the cash from respawning hybrids. Once they even saved my playthrough when I badly needed nanites for a quest-critical item. Respawns did not bother me so much, they were quite limited if you did not trigger the alarm. I murdered Shodan on my last medical kit and with a few last bullets of the assault rifle. Even without that aspect, managing limited resources was tough, sometimes desperate. Didn't bother with Psi, too few psi hypos to feel comfortable. There are no real builds in SS1, but in 2 I marched through the game dual-classed as soldier-hacker and I must say it was a very effective combination. I am even more impressed that they did it using the limited technology of the time. I can't really say I enjoyed all of it (backtracking and getting lost in those labyrinthian decks was tiresome), but I fully respect what the guys at Looking Glass strived to, and indeed achieved. Very atmospheric, claustrophobic, and intimidating experience. During the last 20 days, I've beaten Shodan not once, but twice, completing my virgin runs of System Shock 1 & 2.
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