Extremely Small A. Alces Sighting (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nano_moose) wrote2007-07-24 12:02 am
nano_moose) wrote2007-07-24 12:02 am
Entry tags:
"What is a thought, compared to the mind?"
My brother lent me System Shock 2. I began it in an effort to get the Potter out of my brain. It seems to have worked, through the proven method of installing System Shock there instead.
Some impressions:
Skdkjahsjhshhdhhhhslsjhhf. (By which I mean, good going on hitting just about every one of my deepest subconscious fears, guys! Remind me to send you a thank-you plague virus.)
This game makes you feel horribly vulnerable. Hoarding every single scrap of ammunition like it's going to disappear if you look away, treating your weapons as though they're made of glass and your cyber modules as if made of gold. It does, however, give a uniquely satisfying edge to ducking under a Hybrid's swing and burying a wrench in its mid-section.
That said, if I hadn't known precisely what The Many were from the beginning, and if I hadn't seen the entirely horrifying things they do to people, I think I would be compelled to join them. Any species that articulate gets kudos from me.
Just as Thief is set in a roughly medieval fantasy with robots and electric lights, System Shock seems to be a wholly sci-fi universe that happens to have psi-powers that act like spells. Cool.
I love the RPG elements. They're very well-implemented and don't feel tacked on or clunky at all - in fact they're kind of an improvement over some RPGs I've played. Basically, every now and then you receive cyborg modules that allow you to upgrade the rig you've had implanted. You can choose to improve your stats, weapons, tech or psi-powers (currently I'm investing in Stats: Strength and Tech: Hacking, so I can carry more stuff and hit things harder as well as fiddle around with locks). You can also get nanites, which serve as the currency and allow you to use replicators (which create useful items). A very neat little skill is the ability to research an object, which gives you bonuses and tells you lots of interesting information about the object's origin. It's all explained very neatly in-game and, I'm beginning to think, may have some story-significance. Thumbs up, Irrational and Looking Glass. You done good.
E-mail lady whose name I forgot, you're not very nice. D: I'm doing your every bidding here; would it kill you to say thanks once or twice?
The music is so funky! I didn't know Eric Brosius could be funky! It's very odd to be sprinting through air that thrums with radioactivity, trying to get to safety before my skin peels away, and also feel the urge to get down with my bad self.
Am I weird for thinking the actual living quarters in this game are very, um, homey? I mean, if it weren't for all the cannibalistic mutants and crazed robots and debris and stuff, the starship Von Braun seems like it would be a genuinely comfortable place to spend a long trip. Sometimes I catch myself wanting to hack the door shut and lie down in one of the bunks, peacefully watching the art on the wall change.
Wow, the writing is good. Just, uh, throwin' it out there. And the sheer volume of it is rather astonishing - I wasted a good half-hour just reading the descriptions of every single item in my inventory, from packets of chips to the warnings on my medicine hypos.
Stephen Russell is quite obviously one of the male voices in the choir of The Many; every now and then he lapses into his Garrett-voice. The effect is...interesting. (For 'interesting', please read 'incredibly disturbing'.)
I very recently had my first encounter with a cyborg midwife. I hate them. A lot. A lot. Ahem.
I also hate the Protocol Droids. Picture, if you will, C-3P0. Now picture C-3P0 programmed in such a way that if you go within two meters of him, he will first apologize, and then violently explode. Yeah. I found this one out the hard way.
Another thing I found out the hard way: "What the - did I just...? It couldn't have been. I mean, why would there be monkeys HOLY SLAG FRIGGING TWAT BUCKETS IT MIND-PUNCHED ME!!"
It's weird - every now and then I'll get massively fed up, quit the game and try to read for a while, but after a few moments I begin going over my current objectives, replaying particularly cool logs or 'meep'ing over an especially disturbing sequence. Then I will go to my computer, load it up and play for three solid hours before getting frustrated and quitting and the cycle will start again.
Some impressions:
Skdkjahsjhshhdhhhhslsjhhf. (By which I mean, good going on hitting just about every one of my deepest subconscious fears, guys! Remind me to send you a thank-you plague virus.)
This game makes you feel horribly vulnerable. Hoarding every single scrap of ammunition like it's going to disappear if you look away, treating your weapons as though they're made of glass and your cyber modules as if made of gold. It does, however, give a uniquely satisfying edge to ducking under a Hybrid's swing and burying a wrench in its mid-section.
That said, if I hadn't known precisely what The Many were from the beginning, and if I hadn't seen the entirely horrifying things they do to people, I think I would be compelled to join them. Any species that articulate gets kudos from me.
Just as Thief is set in a roughly medieval fantasy with robots and electric lights, System Shock seems to be a wholly sci-fi universe that happens to have psi-powers that act like spells. Cool.
I love the RPG elements. They're very well-implemented and don't feel tacked on or clunky at all - in fact they're kind of an improvement over some RPGs I've played. Basically, every now and then you receive cyborg modules that allow you to upgrade the rig you've had implanted. You can choose to improve your stats, weapons, tech or psi-powers (currently I'm investing in Stats: Strength and Tech: Hacking, so I can carry more stuff and hit things harder as well as fiddle around with locks). You can also get nanites, which serve as the currency and allow you to use replicators (which create useful items). A very neat little skill is the ability to research an object, which gives you bonuses and tells you lots of interesting information about the object's origin. It's all explained very neatly in-game and, I'm beginning to think, may have some story-significance. Thumbs up, Irrational and Looking Glass. You done good.
E-mail lady whose name I forgot, you're not very nice. D: I'm doing your every bidding here; would it kill you to say thanks once or twice?
The music is so funky! I didn't know Eric Brosius could be funky! It's very odd to be sprinting through air that thrums with radioactivity, trying to get to safety before my skin peels away, and also feel the urge to get down with my bad self.
Am I weird for thinking the actual living quarters in this game are very, um, homey? I mean, if it weren't for all the cannibalistic mutants and crazed robots and debris and stuff, the starship Von Braun seems like it would be a genuinely comfortable place to spend a long trip. Sometimes I catch myself wanting to hack the door shut and lie down in one of the bunks, peacefully watching the art on the wall change.
Wow, the writing is good. Just, uh, throwin' it out there. And the sheer volume of it is rather astonishing - I wasted a good half-hour just reading the descriptions of every single item in my inventory, from packets of chips to the warnings on my medicine hypos.
Stephen Russell is quite obviously one of the male voices in the choir of The Many; every now and then he lapses into his Garrett-voice. The effect is...interesting. (For 'interesting', please read 'incredibly disturbing'.)
I very recently had my first encounter with a cyborg midwife. I hate them. A lot. A lot. Ahem.
I also hate the Protocol Droids. Picture, if you will, C-3P0. Now picture C-3P0 programmed in such a way that if you go within two meters of him, he will first apologize, and then violently explode. Yeah. I found this one out the hard way.
Another thing I found out the hard way: "What the - did I just...? It couldn't have been. I mean, why would there be monkeys HOLY SLAG FRIGGING TWAT BUCKETS IT MIND-PUNCHED ME!!"
It's weird - every now and then I'll get massively fed up, quit the game and try to read for a while, but after a few moments I begin going over my current objectives, replaying particularly cool logs or 'meep'ing over an especially disturbing sequence. Then I will go to my computer, load it up and play for three solid hours before getting frustrated and quitting and the cycle will start again.
no subject
I ABSOLUTELY second the vulnerability feeling there. The first time I played through the game, I exited the starting room, climbed up the stairs, crept along the wall, hit the light switch and JUMPED THREE METERS IN THE AIR at the sound of the lights flickering on. It's, in my opinion, one of the few games genuinely scary out there.
no subject
no subject
She says...hello.
I replied asljgkjhahh!!!! and attempted to hide.
no subject
Are you afraid?
And what do you fear? The end of your pathetic existance?
(Couldn't resist, that scene was AWESOME.)
no subject
Now I'm encountering monkeys that blow me up and those goddamn irritating cyborg assassins. Diego's logs are getting more and more insane with every passing word. I wish Delacroix was helping me instead of 'Polito'. This game is so lonely.
no subject
no subject
BECAUSE IT SOUNDS REALLY COOL. But I am incapable of playing scary games myself, I guess.
Also, uh... Garrett singing. Um.
no subject
That's how you feel in System Shock all the time.
Oh! I've created a misunderstanding. See, um, okay - The Many, as a race, is like this big psychically-connected hive mind, closer to a hundred minds acting together than a lot of singular entities. Because of this, they tend to refer to themselves as a choir, talk about 'harmony' and 'silence the discord' (that is, attempt to rip you to shreds).
Anyway, every now and then they speak directly to you. The vocal effect is my favourite in the game, I think. It's three voices as one, sometimes out-pacing each other, sliding up and down the scale: a soft, gentle female voice (sounds a bit like Lauryl, actually); a deep, scary male voice; and a second, gravelly, male voice. Guess who the gravelly voice sounds exactly like?
It's bizarre, hearing Garrett tell me all about the splendour of the flesh.