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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/shelf_final.jpg" width="191" height="240" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 4<br>
                December 2, 1999<br>
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                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">The 

                  Top Shelf:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  System Shock 2</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  <a href="mailto:corto@panix.com">Austin Grossman</a></font></p>
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              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/s.jpg" width="22" height="39" align="left">ix 
                years ago I did the preliminary game design work on <b>System 
                Shock</b>, spending three or four months on it before I left Looking 
                Glass Technologies for graduate school. Naturally, when <b>System 
                Shock 2 </b>came out I was eager to see what it was all about. 
                It was like coming back home after many years. Mind you, a rusted-metal, 
                cyborg-infested, virus-ridden, insane-AI-controlled, derelict 
                drifting-in-space sort of home.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I had 
                had a brief glimpse of the work-in-progress in December '98, and 
                I had read the rave reviews on the web. I got hold of a copy and 
                booked some time on my roommate's computer. I was unemployed, 
                and kicking SHODAN's ass was my new occupation. I took the job 
                pro bono.</font></p>
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                    <p align="center"> <i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" color="#000253"><ignoreme>Woo... 
                      creepy (67k)</ignoreme></font></i></p>
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              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The game 
                makes a good first impression. I had a smooth installation on 
                the first try, even on my flat mate's mongrel system. The introductory 
                screens ooze production values. Character generation is quirky 
                but fun, an involved process that gives your guy a little prehistory, 
                harking back to the old Traveler system -- by joining one of three 
                government services you give yourself a boost in one of three 
                skill-areas -- physical combat, technology, or psionics -- and 
                your subsequent job assignments give you further skill and ability 
                bonuses.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>System 
                Shock 2</b> has a vast array of skills, and although your service 
                choice gives you a head start in one direction, you can gain ability 
                in any of them once the game starts. There's a kind of compromise 
                here between a skill-based and a class-based character system, 
                that left me feeling a bit lukewarm: it aroused in me an initial 
                hunger for character-differentiation that then went unsatisfied 
                when I realized how fluid the system was. I started out trying 
                to build a kind of hacker-technician character, but as soon as 
                I got into the game I panicked and started buying up combat skills 
                left and right, and by the end I felt sort of generic. Okay, arguably 
                I have only myself to blame.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">On the 
                other hand, the designers did succeed in creating a complex skill-system 
                in which the skills have a tangible effect on your abilities in 
                the world. There are so many numbers -- including both character 
                stats like strength and agility, and skill ratings -- it's no 
                mean feat to have made them all matter in the game.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The story 
                premise is terrific -- it's fully in the spirit of the original, 
                but creates a whole new chapter. I'll try not to say too much: 
                mankind's first faster-than-light voyage ends in disaster, as 
                the colony ship and its military escort become a battleground 
                between human scientists and sinister (and, may I say, disgusting) 
                other forces. (One can feel a whole future-history taking shape 
                here, a surprisingly complex dystopia dominated by corporate interests, 
                and it makes me wonder if anything further will ever be set there.) 
                As usual you're caught in the middle: you wake up with your memory 
                gone, equipped only with a state-of-the-art neural interface and 
                a stubborn will not to get be iced.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. This review is &copy; 1999 Austin Grossman. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  goldarn it.</font></i></p>
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