System Shock 2
Ken Levine's 1999 survival-horror RPG sequel: a dead starship, a hive mind, and SHODAN on the other end of the line.
System Shock 2 is a 1999 action role-playing and survival horror game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Begun as a standalone title, it became a sequel to System Shock when Electronic Arts, which owned the franchise rights, signed on as publisher. It was released in August 1999 for Microsoft Windows to critical acclaim, but failed to meet sales expectations.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Irrational Games, Looking Glass Studios
- Publisher
- Electronic Arts
- Producer
- Josh Randall
- Designer
- Ken Levine
- Programmer
- Rob Fermier
- Artist
- Gareth Hinds
- Composer
- Eric Brosius
- Ramin Djawadi
- Josh Randall
- Engine
- Dark Engine
Facts from the source article.
Background
The game is set in 2114 aboard the starship Von Braun, humanity's first faster-than-light vessel, where the player, a soldier, tries to stem a genetic infection, the Many, that has devastated the crew. Play is first-person combat and exploration with role-playing systems: the player picks a career in the Marines, the Navy or the OSA, spends cyber-modules at upgrade units on skills such as hacking and psionic powers, buys supplies with nanites, revives at Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines, hacks devices through a node-grid minigame, keeps degrading weapons repaired and researches enemy organs.
The story unfolds through audio logs and ghostly apparitions. Critics later judged it highly influential and far ahead of its time, and Irrational's BioShock (2007) is its spiritual successor. After Looking Glass closed, Nightdive Studios secured the rights in 2013 and released an updated version, followed by a 25th anniversary remaster in 2025.
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Elsewhere in System Shock
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