Beaten: Sep 18 2021
Time: 11ish Hours
Platform: Mac (via Crossover)
Well, it's the big bad classic, not the first immersive sim, but probably the game most responsible for the genre's continued success. I tried to play it years ago but found it too obtuse, but I finally got through it this time and... well surprise surprise it's pretty good. Not the amazing game I was hoping for, but a good exploration of what the first System Shock introduced, but couldn't completely follow through on.
If you've played any other immersive sim, you pretty much know what you're in for here. That's not a bad thing, most of that stuff got fully defined here for the first time. It's original here, though it's not at it's best. The security cameras definitely spot you, and send enemies after you, but the ai on the enemies isn't quiiiite responsive enough to make it actually feel like you need to be stealthy, or that it's even an option. Basically, destroy the cameras if you see them. Hacking them only disables them for 2 minutes, and the hacking minigame uh kinda sucks (as most hacking minigames do lol). You'll be hacking/repairing/modifying a looooot too, so you'll wanna boost those skills to make that minigame suck less. This is all pretty standard for these games, just a little less thought out here?
Broadly, if you play it like Bioshock you'll have a good time. It's not a stealth game like Thief or Dishonored, it's Bioshock, but scavenging and real difficulty. A bit too much imo, even on easy I needed to spawn in some ammunition to deal with one of the final bosses, and ended up using quicksaves constantly instead of the in game respawn system. It's a tough as nails game in that 90s way, where easy isn't actually easy as much as it's actually doable on your first try.
Anyways, the level design is pretty great. Occasionally something will pop up in somewhere you've been without telling you, or the game will be too dark to see anything, but besides that it's a set of levels where you'll be crossing back and forth as you get new instructions, and the map is just clear enough to be interesting to navigate. Traversal is fun, combat is fun, as you have to keep switching weapons or repairing them on the fly, and finding new items as you go is fun as hell, without becoming a looter shooter.
It's definitely pretty clunky and under/over-designed in places (why are upgrade stations split apart? what does that add to the experience? also that menu design is something) but once you get into it, it reaps boundless rewards. It's just barely smooth enough and fun as hell.
Time: 11ish Hours
Platform: Mac (via Crossover)
Well, it's the big bad classic, not the first immersive sim, but probably the game most responsible for the genre's continued success. I tried to play it years ago but found it too obtuse, but I finally got through it this time and... well surprise surprise it's pretty good. Not the amazing game I was hoping for, but a good exploration of what the first System Shock introduced, but couldn't completely follow through on.
If you've played any other immersive sim, you pretty much know what you're in for here. That's not a bad thing, most of that stuff got fully defined here for the first time. It's original here, though it's not at it's best. The security cameras definitely spot you, and send enemies after you, but the ai on the enemies isn't quiiiite responsive enough to make it actually feel like you need to be stealthy, or that it's even an option. Basically, destroy the cameras if you see them. Hacking them only disables them for 2 minutes, and the hacking minigame uh kinda sucks (as most hacking minigames do lol). You'll be hacking/repairing/modifying a looooot too, so you'll wanna boost those skills to make that minigame suck less. This is all pretty standard for these games, just a little less thought out here?
Broadly, if you play it like Bioshock you'll have a good time. It's not a stealth game like Thief or Dishonored, it's Bioshock, but scavenging and real difficulty. A bit too much imo, even on easy I needed to spawn in some ammunition to deal with one of the final bosses, and ended up using quicksaves constantly instead of the in game respawn system. It's a tough as nails game in that 90s way, where easy isn't actually easy as much as it's actually doable on your first try.
Anyways, the level design is pretty great. Occasionally something will pop up in somewhere you've been without telling you, or the game will be too dark to see anything, but besides that it's a set of levels where you'll be crossing back and forth as you get new instructions, and the map is just clear enough to be interesting to navigate. Traversal is fun, combat is fun, as you have to keep switching weapons or repairing them on the fly, and finding new items as you go is fun as hell, without becoming a looter shooter.
It's definitely pretty clunky and under/over-designed in places (why are upgrade stations split apart? what does that add to the experience? also that menu design is something) but once you get into it, it reaps boundless rewards. It's just barely smooth enough and fun as hell.