Dr. Janice Polito

Lore & Background

The backstory is explained progressively through the player's acquisition of audio logs and encounters with ghostly apparitions. At the beginning of the game, the player chooses a career in a branch of the Unified National Nominate. The story begins with the soldier awakening with amnesia in a cryo-tube on the medical deck of the Von Braun. Another survivor, Dr. Janice Polito, contacts and guides him to safety. The first voice the player hears is a live transmission from Polito, not a recording, and SHODAN begins impersonating her almost immediately after the player wakes up. The player discovers Polito's corpse on deck 3.

Reader's Guide

The player uses melee and projectile weapons to defeat enemies, while the role-playing system allows the development of useful abilities. Navigation is presented from a first-person view and complemented with a heads-up display. The player can upgrade skills by using cyber-modules given as rewards for completing objectives and spend them at cyber-upgrade units. Operating system units allow one-time character upgrades. Nanites may be spent on items at vending machines. Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines can reconstitute the player for 10 nanites if they die inside the area. The player can hack devices via a minigame. Non-melee weapons degrade with use and must be repaired. Ammunition is scarce. The game includes a research function. Psionic powers can be learned.

Did You Know?

• System Shock 2 was originally intended to be a standalone title, but its story was changed during production into a sequel to the 1994 game System Shock.
• The game received critical acclaim but failed to meet commercial sales expectations.
• Nightdive Studios secured the rights to the game and the System Shock franchise in 2013 and released a 25th anniversary remaster in 2025.
• OtherSide Entertainment announced in 2015 that they had acquired the rights from Nightdive Studios to produce System Shock 3, but as of 2020 the rights have since been transferred to Tencent.