System Shock

System Shock is a computer game developed by Looking Glass Technologies (later Looking Glass Studios). The game was published by Origin, which was subsequently bought by Electronic Arts (EA). more...

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The sequel, System Shock 2 was developed by Looking Glass offshoot Irrational Games and Looking Glass, and published in 1999 by EA.

Overview

System Shock was Looking Glass' 1994 entry into the first-person shooter sci-fi/horror genre, set aboard the fictional Citadel research and mining space station, in a Cyberpunk future.

Although the game was superficially similar to many other first-person shooters on the market, it was critically acclaimed for having detailed, true 3D environments, an engrossing storyline, deep gameplay and a memorable villain. System Shock is often cited as an inspiration for games like Half-Life and Deus Ex; indeed, some of the same key people behind System Shock worked on the latter. Despite being technologically superior, System Shock was still outsold by more mainstream action games of the time, most notably Doom and various so-called Doom clones, with only 170,000 copies sold.. The game uses an enhanced version of the engine used in the Ultima Underworld series.

Story

Set in 2072, the game casts the player as a computer hacker caught while attempting to remotely access files concerning Citadel space station, which is owned by the TriOptimum Corporation, a massive corporate monopoly focusing on research, defence, and commercial manufacturing. The hacker is taken to Citadel and brought before Edward Diego, a greedy TriOptimum executive who offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a secret hacking job on SHODAN, the artificial intelligence (AI) that controls the station.

To make the deal more enticing, the hacker receives a valuable military-grade cybernetic implant with the implantation operation bankrolled by Diego. After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the hacker is prepared for the promised surgery. Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month long controlled healing coma in the surgical suite of the station's medical level. The game begins as the hacker awakens.

Plot

When the hacker awakens from his coma in the surgical suite, he finds all hell has broken loose. He must fight for survival against mutants, cyborgs and robots created or reprogrammed by the brilliant but now insane SHODAN. The story is mostly told through log disks and email messages found and received throughout the game. As the hacker advances he finds evidence regarding what has happened, and receives contact from survivors who are eventually killed by SHODAN's forces. Some of the log disks and emails provide clues on what tasks must be performed — and how to perform them — to counter the threats that SHODAN poses to the player and the whole of humanity.

Read more at Wikipedia.org