System Shock 2 is bullshit. It has bad design, too little resources for the player to survive and a story that the player is discouraged to learn about. System Shock 2 is a masterpiece. It has some of the most revolutionary in a game I've ever seen, terrifying moments that feel like you're bearly getting by with what you have an atmosphere and monster design that's genuinely terrifying and makes the player want to learn more about the story and world. This game is so weird, so counterintuitive that I think it's THE BEST horror game ever made.

I didn't know this game was a horror game going in. I thought it would be more like the first Bioshock where there are horror elements and does have a lot of dark subject matter but doesn't try to scare the player with it. I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. When you're in that one section on the cargo bay and those robot things start running up to you and chasing you I was genuinely scared shitless, it then hit me that this game was a straight up horror game. This moment was topped by others like when I was being chased down by a few creatures and I turned to my left and there was a rumbler colliding right into me that came out of nowhere. That genuinely made me pause the game and go "yeah I think I had enough for tonight". Or the second last chapter of the game, that part is disgusting and gross and I fucking adore it. The horror in this game is so good, which is helped by the monster design. To the lifeless pounds of flesh of the rumbler to the soulless eyes of the midwife's nearly all the designs are unsettling and scared me shitless while playing. This is helped by the absolutely phenomenal environment design. Literally since the second I started my playthrough all the way to the end it felt like I was in the abandoned and eire halls of the Von Braun. It's genuinely the most immersed I've felt in a game, which is crazy because this game looks like an N64 game. I'm not one that thinks graphics can determine a games quality or are that important, but I did think before playing this game that realistic graphics are required to make a game immersive. I was wrong, and I'm so happy I was. I love that this game looks like an N64 game, it give is so much charm and actually helps with the horror. I personally don't like this wave of horror games with N64/PS1 graphics that's been going on as I think that just mixing nostalgia with horror isn't scary, but this game proved that you can just make a game that will scare you shitless via good enemy design and other clever game design elements that also looks like (well in this case more or less is) a N64/PS1 game 21 years before that whole craze went off, I just wish more game developers went back and played this game to understand that.

This immersion and horror is helped in part by the game design. There is no pausing in System Shock 2, everything your character does is in-game, and that's terrifying. You ALWAYS have your guard up whether that's to heal, research something or to listen to audio logs. Enemy spawning is often unpredictable. I remember I was in the engineering deck and out of nowhere a cyborg midwife spawned it and it genuinely made me jump, but on the other hand the enemy spawning can be unfair, sometimes the game just goes "you know what fuck you were spawning in 10 rumblers and if you don't like that you can suck my dick". Having the game spawn in hoards of enemies like this is scary but ultimately unfair and sometimes left me more disheartened than scared. Another thing that left me this way is with resources. Resources are scarce in System Shock 2, but too scarce. It's hard to find stuff to heal with and ammo and nanites is limited. I remember once I got bit by a spider and I had to run back two decks just so I could kill some hybrid so I could die to get revived without a toxin level because I had no detox patch. This lack of resources led to me cheating during the final 3 ish parts of the game by using the console, by the time I was done the phrase "summon_obj medical kit" was practically muscle memory lol.

Remember earlier I said that you had to listen to the audio logs in game and you could pause the game to listen to them? Well I think that's a MASSIVE flaw. Since this game is a survival horror game you have to keep alert at all times, so by having the audio logs only being listenable in game it does keep the immersion but at the cost of actually listening to them. Usually when I try to I get caught up either fighting off an enemy of there's some really loud thing going on that makes me have to read the thing instead of listen to it. Don't get me wrong, I love the story of this game, it's disturbing and disgusting and all that jazz, but I think the game trades off having a story that's easy to get into for immersive design, which is a shame because whenever I could actually listen to what's happening I felt more immersed in the story.

The music of this game is weird. It starts with this breakcore cyberpunk esque sound before halfway through the game they must've ran out of money or something and decided to stop making music. I guess it could be to help with the immersion but honestly why have music in the first place? The music that's in the game goes hard though.

The ending is a masterpiece. 'Nah" has to be the funniest line I've seen in a game, and the goofy ahh Photoshop edits they had on shodan made me loose my shit. Aged like a fine wine. Also the credits are adorable and should've played after the final cutscene instead of just booting you back to the main menu.

Overall, System Shock 2 is a masterpiece held back by some questionable design decisions. If this game got a remake like the first one that tweaked or changed some design elements I think people would rediscover it and say "Damn, this game is a masterpiece."