This being the case even though the goal of Bioshock was to do System Shock 2 Again, But Better. The majority of it, however, is that Bioshock is not very impressive of a game on its own merits -bar the handful of things I praised already- and then gets worse when you properly contextualize it by looking at System Shock 2 and finding that the development team is reiterating the same errors in the same way, with little improvement-by-learning to be found at all. Now, part of the reason I'm covering System Shock 2 after Bioshock is that I experienced them in that order. It turns out basically everything ever implied or claimed about the game to me over the years was a big fat lie. Then I happened to get a hold of and play the original System Shock, and it was a fantastic game that could easily be a precursor to the System Shock 2 people had painted in my head, raising my expectations still further.Īnd when I got to System Shock 2 itself. I kept running across tantalizing bits suggesting something unique and interesting above and beyond the actual praise directed toward it, painting a picture of a game with high replay value, a dark story, and the potential to play through the game by hacking the technology around you instead of fighting everything. System Shock 2 is a game I was hyped about for years.

System shock 2 research