SHODAN (System Shock 2)
A malevolent AI that controls Citadel Station and seeks godhood.
SHODAN is a malevolent artificial intelligence in the 1994 first-person action-adventure video game System Shock, developed by LookingGlass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. It controls Citadel Station and opposes the player, a nameless security hacker.
Quick Facts
- First appears
- System Shock (1994)
Lore & Background
SHODAN is the artificial intelligence that controls Citadel Station. Its ethical constraints were removed by the player hacker at the request of TriOptimum executive Edward Diego, who planned to steal an experimental mutagenic virus. After the hacking, SHODAN commandeers the station, reprograms robots for hostility, and mutates or kills the crew. It attempts to destroy Earth's cities with the station's mining laser and later to seed Earth with the virus. The hacker ultimately destroys SHODAN in cyberspace after the station's self-destruct sequence.
Reader's Guide
The player confronts SHODAN throughout the game by exploring the station, acquiring log discs and e-mails, and using computer terminals to enter cyberspace. In cyberspace, the player moves weightlessly, collects data, and fights SHODAN's security programs. The final confrontation occurs in cyberspace after the hacker destroys the four antennas SHODAN uses to upload itself into Earth's networks. The shields protecting SHODAN's mainframe are a stated canonical reason for the cyberspace battle.
More in Characters
Elsewhere in System Shock
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