System Shock 2's backstory is told through audio logs discovered throughout the ship, a storytelling trope that has inspired lots of modern games. But while the studio's later games are shinier, its first outing is both more complex and, ultimately, more terrifying.
Nothing builds fear and tension like isolation, with limited resources and no one to help you. Irrational Games' first game is where it developed the mechanics familiar to anyone who's played BioShock: build a world the player wants to explore, drop them in, and watch them uncover how that world fell apart. System Shock 2 is about fear and scarcity above all else. But it sees me, shoves its shotgun out and shouts, “Kill. Seizing my chance, I rush out, holding the mouse button down in order to prep my wrench swing.
My only chance is to bludgeon it with a wrench before its friends show up. I have no ammo, and I'm out of psi-hypos. there?” I hear it ask, dragging a shotgun along and searching for the intruder – me. I lean around the corner quickly to look, catching the back of its head as it turns the corner. I can hear it through the door, wandering around the hallway.
