It amazing to think that we're now talking about a game that's 16 years old. Shit man, talk about a blast from the past. Great game, I recommend checking out Thief, Dishonored, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Deus Ex and Ultima Undeworld if you end up liking it. My first playthrough I went standard weapons, maintenance, research, agility and hacking and I never had much difficulty, but its still nervewracking to play. By the way, repair is only used for fixing broken weapons while maintenance is the skill that lets you improve the quality of an item that isn't broken, that trips a lot of people up. Its not actually a tremendously difficult game though regardless, you can beat it with just the wrench. If you feel like the music is interfering with the atmosphere, turn it off I guess but I think its great.Īs for difficulty, the game will feel tense and hectic regardless of how difficult you set it due to quality sound design and limited ammo. The music is a point of contention, personally I think its great but a lot of people think the music in the early levels is too actiony, some of the later tracks are absolutely perfect for the atmosphere though. On Multiplayer, cybernetic module costs are 139% of Normal, rounding down. Enemies have a 75% chance of not even checking their loot tables upon death. Maximum HP is a paltry 7 + 3 x Endurance. On Impossible, cybernetic module costs are 179% of Normal, rounding down. Otherwise, the game checks the actual loot table (in which there's a 50% chance that it still won't drop anything).) If the check is successful, it drops nothing. (So, if an enemy has a 50% chance on their loot table of not dropping anything, first the game checks to see if the enemy checks the loot table (30%). In addition, enemies have a 30% chance of not even checking their loot tables upon death. On Hard, cybernetic module costs are 139% of Normal, rounding down. Furthermore, Replicator prices are 85% of Normal. On Easy, cybernetic module costs are 85% of Normal, rounding down. In addition, maximum HP is 30 + 5 x Endurance. On Normal, abilities cost according to this table: In addition, how your HP and PSI Points are calculated change, Replicator costs change, and how frequently enemies drop loot changes. The most apparent is the cost in cyber modules of various abilites. Seems like the atmosphere of the game might be at its best with no music.ĭepending on your difficulty, various things change. It seems like a very spooky game, then the super fast up-tempo techno music started playing. Would you recommend music on or off? I just got to the part where I encountered my first enemies. The mainstream AAA games they are making these days are, for the most part, challenge-less (excluding competitive multiplayer and Souls games). Do you think "hard" will be too difficult? I really appreciate a good challenge. So naturally I didn't choose the "impossible" difficulty for my first playthrough. But I've also read that the game is quite hard. I am quite experienced with these types of games. The Psi route isn't for me and while I enjoy hacking, I'd prefer to rely more on weaponry. For my character makeup I chose Marines, strength, maintenance, and cyber-affinity + energy weapons. I have the wrench, psi amp and energy pistol. I'm past the tutorial area but have not yet encountered my first enemy. I've already started the game on hard difficulty. Perhaps the difficulty settings are a recent addition? I don't know but I cannot find any information on which setting is best for a first time player. I did some Googling on System Shock 2 difficulty settings and it seems that nobody is really discussing the settings, but rather the overall difficulty itself. And by all accounts this is one of the best games not only of that era, but of all time.Īnywho. It's time to re-experience the golden age of gaming.
I've wanted to play it for years but always put it off because of how old it is and since I spent so much money on my PC I always felt compelled to play games that can harness the power of it.