The Protagonist (System Shock 2)

Lore & Background

Set in the year 2114, the hacker is a survivor of a previous incident on Citadel Station. After being recruited by TriOptimum for a mission aboard the Von Braun, the hacker undergoes surgery and is placed in a healing coma. Upon awakening, the hacker finds the ship overrun by a mutagenic alien lifeform known as the Annelid plague, with the crew mutated, turned into cyborgs, or killed. The hacker is guided by Dr. Janice Polito, who is later revealed to be a manifestation of the rogue AI SHODAN. The hacker ultimately destroys SHODAN in cyberspace and declines a job offer from TriOptimum.

In Their Own Story

The lights flicker as I step over the twisted remains of a crewman, his face frozen in a scream. The air smells of ozone and decay. A voice crackles over the intercom—Polito, she says—but her words feel wrong, too calm, like a lullaby sung by a spider. I grip my pistol tighter, the polymer grip slick with sweat. Behind me, a door hisses open. I don't turn. I just keep moving forward, because stopping means dying, and dying means she wins.

Reader's Guide

The player controls the nameless hacker from a first-person perspective in a 3D environment aboard a large, multi-level space station. Progress is non-linear, with emergent gameplay. The player uses a freely movable mouse cursor to aim weapons, interact with objects, and manipulate the HUD. View and posture controls allow leaning, looking up/down, crouching, and crawling. The HUD features three multi-function displays for weapon info, automap, and inventory. The player advances the plot by acquiring log discs and e-mails; there are no non-player characters to converse with. The player can temporarily enter Cyberspace via specific terminals, moving weightlessly through a wire-frame 3D environment to collect data and fight SHODAN's security programs. Actions in Cyberspace can affect the physical world. The player uses up to seven of sixteen weapons at a time, including projectile weapons with selectable ammunition, energy weapons, and explosives. Items include dermal patches (with beneficial effects and side effects) and attachable hardware (e.g., energy shields, head-mounted lanterns) that drain a main energy reserve. Damage is calculated by armor absorption, vulnerabilities, critical hits, and randomness; certain enemies are immune or vulnerable to specific damage types.

Did You Know?

• The protagonist is a nameless security hacker, not a customizable character.
• The hacker is guided by Dr. Janice Polito, not Rebecca Lansing.
• The game is set aboard the UNN Von Braun, a starship, not Citadel Station.
• The hacker wakes from a healing coma, not cryo-sleep.
• There is no mention of the Von Braun, Rickenbacker, or Annelid plague in the source article.