Game Changers - System Shock 2

Remembering the legendary immersive sim that would kickstart a new generation of narrative-focused and atmospheric first-person shooters

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GENERALLY SPEAKING, THERE are two kinds of ‘Game Changer’ in the videogame industry. There are those that are widely considered to be instant classics, their impact immediately reverberating across the landscape of game creation – the Ocarina Of Times and Super Mario 64s of this world. And then there are the rare few that are considered to be so ahead of their time that their true impact and influence can only be gauged with some amount of distance and reflection. System Shock 2 is unequivocally part of the latter camp.

System Shock 2 heralded a new dawn for the first-person shooter at a time where DOOM and its kin still reigned supreme – though many wouldn’t completely appreciate its contribution to the genre for another eight years, until the release of spiritual successor BioShock. Designed in partnership between Looking Glass Studios, the stalwarts of the immersive sim genre, and Irrational Games, a new studio formed by Looking Glass alumni Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey and Robert Fermier, the 1999 release would provide further proof that the shooter genre had more to offer than mere dopamine thrills. It quickly established that consistent thematic tone, evocative storytelling and a tempered pacing were just as important to the fledging genre as gun handling, weapon variety and a morally bankrupt outlook and approach to encouraging interactive violence.