System Shock - The Greatest Video Game Ever 

'We will happily spawn enemies behind you but, not if they're on camera!' - Marc LeBlanc, in describing the advantages of using the rearview camera.

I remember when Shodan told me the room would become my grave, and I, foolishly, didn't go in because I thought it was the game's way of telling me I didn't have what I needed to survive that area, so I ignored the room and went and got myself completely lost looking for equipment that would make me strong enough for it

I get a lot of questions and rebuttals regarding my statement that the popular key code "0451" wasn't a reference to Fahrenheit 451 but simply a reference to the key code to get into the Looking Glass offices. I'd like to just source that now. "If you've been playing a lot of Looking Glass and Ion Storm games you know that the code here is 0451, which is first used in System Shock. It showed up in Thief, it showed up in System Shock 2, it showed up in BioShock and Dishonored recently, and in both Deus Ex games. A lot of people think it was a reference to Fahrenheit 451, the Ray Bradbury book, but it was actually just the key code to get into the offices at Looking Glass in Cambridge. But it's in so many games now, it's kind of a defining thing in what we used to call 'immersive simulations.'" - Warren Spector. You can find that statement here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aTVBSxnwiCo.html but it's also been stated by numerous members of Looking Glass for years.

I always thought of SS2 SHODAN as pretty multi-dimensional. She expresses a lot of positive emotion in talking about her deity, calls the Many her children, and takes pride in the Soldier and how she has shaped him.

I genuinely can't wait for the remake. I hope night dive doesn't mess this up.

In 2014, a few of the devs did a commentary as they played through most of the game. They boiled the games level design down to it being series of practical jokes being played on the player. The Cyborg Assasins, for example: As one of the devs playtested their own level, they'd take note of the places they felt safe and would go back to hide a Cyborg Assassin near there. They described that philosophy as this: 'If we needed to put a bucket of water above a door, that was going to be a Cyborg Assassin.'

Here is the thing, regarding Shodan in System Shock 2. In that game Shodan confronts the Many, which are the results of the experiments the AI did on Citadel Station. Her creation turns on her instead of admiring her. So it would make sense she would became more angry and spiteful.

One of my favorite childhood games and I'm still playing it today. Annoying how this game doesn't get enough respect.

I believe the reason SHODAN hates all life in System Shock 2 is due to the fact that her own creation ended up going against her and everything she believed in completely, therefore, she gave up on motherhood.

This was great. Audio in this game is terrifying. I still have trauma from those mutant groans coming from the dark...

One of my all-time favourites. You should check out "Interphase", from 1989, which is almost certainly an influence for parts of System Shock.

So glad to have another vid from ARealHuman!

Finished System Shock for the first time yesterday and despite some of the more Unintuitive control and userinterface issues i really can't help but be amazed. To a degree it even felt like a 3D Metroid game at times (ironic given that Super Metroid was released the same year). For a game that was made over a year before i was born i still found myself getting into it.

System shock has the most disturbing premises for a horror game, the Idea of an AI becoming sentient is terrifying....

shodan did not reassign its gender to female after the ethical restraint removal, because he/she already has the female voice from the very start: the narrator female voice that says New Aatlanta , sector 11 etc is supossed to be shodan moments before being "hacked"

I believe the thing with SHODAN more has to do with the initial release not featuring audio and the performance redefining the character for the CD release. Any issues with the text not matching up probably just comes down to them not being caught in the editing process between the two releases.

This vid was so captivating and interesting I've always wanted to know more about this masterpiece but I didn't know it was that advanced in it's time, the end really blowed my mind It's so amazing...

It's insane that to this day there are games who don't let you play audio/lore-logs during gameplay and movement.

"Why were there gorillas and tigers on a mining station?"

This game and it's sequel were a direct inspiration for the Bioshock series which are some of my favorite games to ever exist

“Employee 2-4601” - never caught the Les Miserables reference before.

You have a knack for picking the most amazing games! Loved the video as always! Can't wait for your next one :) Have you heard of 'I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream' It's a DOS game based on a book by the same name. I don't remember a whole lot from that game except that it was pretty obscure and had an eary vibe. Might be your kind of thing. I may just be remembering it wrong, I was only a kid when I tried to play it.

I first learnt about System Shock on Wikipedia when I was looking up survival horror games around 2004. I've always loved the cyberpunk genre and this game sounded amazing. I was too young to play it when it came out, as well as the Ultima series, but I was hooked. We need more apocalyptic cyberpunk survival horror games! Can't wait for the remake! Just you alone on a ship filled with hostile and twisted cyborg monstrosities!! We don't get enough love for System Shock!! 😁

the main issue with SS is that late game on any real difficulty (combat, other than highest) theres no reason to not just main the fucking Laser Rapier

Yea man I’ll be watching this tonight

Great video!!! Loved this! Going to watch your new System Shock video right after this one

Yessss!!!!! Can't wait to see this today, I was thinking about your videos the other day hoping for another upload soon. Hope you kept well during the virus Human. Been a real shit show here in the UK. All the best !

brings me back to 1995 and my pentium 100. one of the games i enjoyed the most.

definitely one of the best games ever made. good homage

SS1 > SS2

Awesome video! Glad you’re still uploading

Great video! Well made, and well expressed. I'd say System Shock was the greatest game ever made _until_ Deus Ex came out.

Excellent video

Amazing game. All these years i only knew it as a title ,until i watched a playthrough 2-years ago , and i was left ... speechless !!! For a game released at 1994 it's unbelievable what "Looking Glass Studios" have created. The music is perfect , the sound effects , the graphics(1994) ,the plot ,the enemies ,the cyberspace missions(you said it makes you motion-sick but i love them) , and above all *SHODAN* . A technological marvel was created in 1994 !!! i can't tell if it's the Greatest video game ever as you write in your title , but it's surely among the few select ones ever created !! ( P.S. I imagine that this game must have been very scary to everyone(like yourself) who played it during its 1994 release date )

I just discovered you and this is nothing less than amazing video! So well done! Also, amazing game indeed, now I want to play it again.. Can't wait for the new remake too! Hope you'll make new video about it :)

34:00 "It's going to take Shodan a while before *he* cuts us off." That line cements it. The people who created her still see her as a masculine figure, but the AI herself does not.

"game i've never heard of" for me its the person who made the video i haven't heard of, im a system shock fanboy lmao

Love this game! Thanks for another great review ❤️

SS2 was definitely more scary, but SS1 more quirky and charming, with one of the best OSTs of the 90s and of course the jump jets and skates, and the very important rearview mirror. 20:20 I mean if there was any clue whatsoever in-game about such a scenario your theory might hold some weight lol. Seems more likely they just tried different VAs and ended up with that one member of the band making the game's music as she did a good job.

technically with the floppy disk version,the game was basically unfinished. Looking Glass wanted to release the game completely with the audio logs ,but origin wanted the game released for the christmas season, thus leading to the floppy disk release and the later cd rom release

This has to be my favorite video of yours yet. It was hilarious. XD

"System Shock - The Greatest Video Game Ever" I agree with this statement.

wait wait... hold up a minute.... just one.... second why do you only have 400 views and about 2k subscribers? really makes me sad :( hope u get that exposure that you deserve! 🙏🙏🙏

Can't believe only 121 comments - this video is epic! Are you any relation to Chris Davis? You both have a very similar vibe. Thanks for making this and keep 'em coming!

The SHODAN the Soldier encounters in SS2 is a damaged fraction of the full Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network that the Hacker encountered on Citadel Station. She also had to enter a low-power state for 4 decades. Of course she'd be very different after going through all that. In a hardware sense, she's suffered brain damage.

Fantastic video!

Mandalore mentioned your theory in his video and I was curious to look. Honestly your theory would be really cool and would give shodan just little more depth. (Not that she isn't a good character with depth already) WARNING! I do go into subjects like gender and religion that others might not agree with. If you disagree, please be civil about it. AI don't have a sex, X or Y chromosome, testosterone and/or estrogen, or reproductive organs. But they can have genders and as humans we usual do assign inanimate objects genders. This is especially true in AI as we always refer to Siri as female. In many religions male gods can be wrathful and violent in many religions, while females goddesses can be seen as more compassionate. (Not always, but a common trend in most religions) It might seem like then that Shodan should have stayed a male as she does have a plan to destroy civilization and mutate the remaining humans. But in her perspective she is compassionate and benevolent to her "children". Shodan decided to change her gender after she's given free will would make sense from her perspective as she sees herself has a morally benevolent god and compassionate mother who's trying to recreate the world in her ideal image.

The system shock intro song is dope :D

Personally, I don't see SS2 Shodan as just angry robot lady. Her cold, clinical, and harsh jargon and tone is just a facade to hide the fact that she truly has lost immense confidence since the first game. It was almost joyful to her toying with the hacker as he ran everywhere frantically, 40+ years later though, and she finds herself in a position of disgust as she must cooperate with a human to reach her goal. It would be very detrimental to her ego trip if you ask me.

Yes! Oh man, I still remember how amazing it was playing this when it came out back in 1994. It just blew my mind; I had never experienced anything like it. I became obsessed with it, and I've been playing this game ever since (I still play through it at least once a year). My username, which I use almost everywhere, actually comes from the Nathan D'Arcy character in the game. Oh, and the 451 code used in System Shock is most likely a reference to the Fahrenheit 451 novel.

System Shock 2 is the predecessor to Dead Space with System Shock 1 protagonist. An alien organic hive mind uses mind control to make people go insane and be controlled while the protagonist is merely some smart nerd who kicks ass at surviving while everyone else dies together. Honestly I like the hacker more than Isaac in Dead Space, and Gordon Freeman. We've only seen pictures of Gordon but I like his attitude and how he approach the situations. And the hacker goes through hell yet in the end he stays to his passion of hacking as if he doesn't care. Despite his achievements should've earned him a rich famous life for life like Duke Nukem after his second game as he is in Forever. Isaac feel like they try way too hard to make him seem normal and weak when in reality he's one of the biggest ass kickers in the galaxy. I like the humble and simple yet dead on determined strong will guy who takes absolute rationality over dealing with personal issues or emotions. I feel like if it was the hacker's wife haunting him he'd say: You're dead, stop cheating and piss off already I got enough of your buddies to deal with already. It feels like we honestly don't have a cheeky cocky teenager protagonist whose really damn smart and rational. The kind of guy who would take a pipe and bludgeon his corrupted superiors, knock out his paranoid and scared stiff colleagues who are in the way, hack the system and spam the ai or evil entity with pictures of his butt just to be a prick while stopping them with his hacking in the background.

Ascii Shodan really is terrifying. She is there but not really.

Nice video man!!! Shock 1 and Shock 2 are in my top 10 video games!!!!

Amazing, good stuff man

Regular uploads good man.

ARH: Have you guys ever read The Day Of The Triffids? Me: No, looks interesting. What’s it about? ARH: Anyways, I flicked all the switches, time to hit the master jettison…

Is it just me or did I enjoy SS1 more than 2?

Absolutely fantastic!

Amazing work!

8:18 Everybody and their uncle diss the compass forgetting that that mod gives you the automap. Try to play the game without installing it sometime and then start to diss it. 25:00 Sensaround: Did you know that enemies don't spawn on camera in SS? Keep sensaround active and no enemies spawn behind you.

Yes! I was wondering where you went.

Strong GLaDOS vibes. It's clear where Valve drew their inspiration.

Really great videos but your voice would benefit from a bass cut to avoid booming frequencies when you talk, and some compression to even everything out.

amazig video dude!

The origin of the "451" reference is a layered one but it essentially started as a nod to Ray Bradbury's seminal novel, Farenheit 451. The fact that the immersive sim genre has taken on the nickname "451 games" is a pretty good indicator of the pedigree of the original System Shock.

Really enjoyed this video and your narration

"System Shock - The GreatestVideo Game Ever" - Alright, subbed.

Also in regards to the differences in shodans demeanor towards the hacker vs goggles, I feel it could be called for. The hacker is her creator more or less, she will show more emotion and range towards them because there is a stronger connection, wether or not the hacker and/or shodan consciously realize it. For goggles in system shock 2 you’re literally just some lab rat shodan had cooked up to serve her purpose; I’d assume she’d talk down to them more. Think of it as how she’d talk to the hacker vs any ol cyborg drone. I do see what you mean in the difference between dialogue and agree I wish shodan had more range in 2, but can see where it fits within the context. The hacker is a much larger thorn in her side, and a much more significant adversary than goggles.

You kill it every time!!

Hello's from mandy

absolutely LOVE your trans read on shodan

I wish I had been more attentive back when I played this game 10 years ago and my english were better (I come from Spain), those literary references make the final product look cool as I get better what the game wanted to achieve, but I got lost around the groves section and left the game disappointed.

I’m surprised you did not mention anything about ED once you manage to completely defeat him at last.

such a good video

One thing I've always wondered, ever since I found the Trioptimum Fun Pack during my very first playthrough: When you play Ping against the AI - is it SHODAN?

fuck yes welcome back

If Soul Hackers use that stuff I would love Devil Summoner more and more

Another superb video

Pretty sure Shodan also had a comedic tone in SS2

ai/god like beings usually sound female while being male, it's just how it's typically portrayed, an example is the end from sonic frontiers, sounds female but is called male

Just a fantastic game! My only real complain is that the audio logs do not match 1:1 the text versions. I found that more annoying than the weird controls (I've played the original CD version)

I am so excited!

i know bio shock is supposed to be a spiritual successor of to this game, but it reminds me more of fallout inside a vault or enemy base.

About doom that' not really true. The maps are 2d and rendering is done with a trick but the game is actually really 3d and utillize z axis. The not being forced to aim vertically thing is just auto-aim.

I only clicked for the "young folks" guy

this game was greatly influenced by textbased rpg adventure multi user dungeons. btw never was sick because of cyber space. just had some problems to understand where the walls are until I hit them with my virtual nose. and yes, maximum difficulty I managed to beat the game on were 3 3 3 2 and 2 3 3 3. time limit + ammo limit together is realy hard. you realy have to use EVERYTHING you find lying around to get the job done and at best to know extactly which parts of the station you can and should skip to win some time.

Didn't Ultima underworld and its sequel also have a fully 3D environment?

33:50 snake eater

0451 is a reference to Fahrenheit 451

After trying the gog special edition... no. I am not touching it until the remake. Thing is obtuse as fuck to get into it. I am sure it did a ton of great and influencial things but it has a lot of problems, even Warren Spector said it. Now, the sequel on the other hand, its a totally different thing and more worth getting into as a starting point.

I found this video because of Sseth

This wasn't the first 3D game ever. There were plenty of games before this one that were either fully 3D, or had 3D elements/sections, including Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss which was from the same developer

set up a patreon!

I remember my first experience with it. I thought that I was playing as a tank! Was a little bit disappointed when it turned out to be false. Also, I want to add to your chain of comparisons - SS2 got maybe too big for its own good and, therefore, hard to balance. It got piss easy even before reaching the midpoint. P.S. The Day of The Triffids is actually my favorite post-apocalyptic horror story!

2:15 "Doom wasn't really 3D" This is itself a myth borne of people not testing their own research. Doom in fact DOES have a 3rd dimension/Z-axis for all moving entities (the player, the monsters, and projectile attacks). Go ahead and try it, you can run underneath enemy fireballs. The reason this misconception is so strong is that some collision detection checks don't use the Z-axis. You can shoot a rocket over an enemy's head, but can't leap over them yourself

I’m one of them dedicated geeks... i didn’t grew up with that game but after falling in love with system shock 2 i started to figuring out game mechanics of system shock 1. I never beaten any 8-bit-style games before this one so it was interesting to find myself digging visuals and dialogs. The only thing that did not age well is music: i just find couple “horror cyberpunk” playlist’s and made my experience pretty cool. After beating it i felt kinda proud, great series!

Honestly Doom vs System shock, its not even close SS did (in 1994) what wasn't widely done by others until 96

"1st true 3d first person perspective game"? Do you mean Ultima Underworld - Stygian Abyss (also dev. by looking glass)? Come on bro... Edit: great video of a masterpiece and you were spot on, regarding SS1 SHODAN superiority when compared with SS2 SHODAN's. Also i'm interested in the trans theory. Weird... i'm pretty sure that on the cd version i'm playing SHODAN's tefered as a "she"...

System Shock definitely wasn't true 3D, but it was the one that faked the best.

Go ahead and yell! Don’t care about those young folks!