It also had much better atmosphere.įirst, there was no feeling of enhancement supposedly conferred by your cybernetics - in SS1 you could plug so many different things into your brain giving you shielding, improved senses and extra information, improved locomotion, cyberspace access (although cyberspace sucked) and so on. Ignoring holes in the premise SS2 had better logical succession of events. Why, in both the mainstream press and even in more niche gaming circles, does SS2 completely overshadow its predecessor? I won't go on bashing SS2 - I still thought it was a great game the survival aspect, especially on the higher difficulties, was sublime, carefully managing your inventory and resources, coveting every maintenance tool and every bullet (the fact that there are people who use mods to turn off or reduce the impact of weapon degradation really boggles the mind, that was one of the best elements of the game) - but I can see why anyone would be disappointed after playing the original. Voice acting too.Įnough has already been said about how rushed the last levels were the end was rubbish. Though I liked the theme of flesh versus machine, overall SS1 had better writing. Also, there was that very questionable pseudo-cutscene upon discovering Polito's body, where Shodan spouts out the history of Citadel Station in typical rambling villain fashion without rhyme or reason. It would have been far more original and interesting to have her not betray you, but there we have it. but in SS2 very little seems to be happening other than that you're plodding along following Shodan's orders and fighting the Many, waiting for her inevitable betrayal. In SS1 there were various threats looming - the laser, the virus, the antenna etc. Unlike in SS1, their taunts rarely corresponded to anything you were doing on screen other than simply reaching certain points. Shodan, Xerxes and the Many were constant presences in the sense that they were speaking to you, but it wasn't merely good voice acting that made Shodan a great villain. From an atmosphere point of view it would have been far more effective to leave them from a gameplay point of view they were irrelevant. Even at the very end, when Shodan distorts reality, you have those improbable hand-holding logs from Delacroix(sp?) explaining to you what's happening and what you must do. At first I thought that the player was just being eased into things, but no - this goes on throughout the entire game. From the outset you have Polito/Shodan barking very clear objectives at you none of the alienation, ambiguity and subsequent discovery of SS1. Nitpicking perhaps, but my real complaint comes when the game properly starts. Yes, I'm sure that's how job applications will be handled in 2111. A minor complaint as it takes less than a minute if you just run through, but I thought it was amusing that instead of just picking your starting stats from a menu and getting on with it, your career paths are chosen in-game - all in the name of "immersion", but actually this runs counter to immersion and breaks the fourth wall: "once you've chosen a posting that suits you, walk down the corridor and into the corresponding shuttle". First of all, you have to go through a banal tutorial which for some reason isn't separated from the main game a la Thief or Deus Ex. There is constant interaction between her and the player which often has a very real effect in terms of gameplay: she taunts you, set traps for you, interrupts your e-mails, and sends cyborgs to hunt you down whenever you do something to annoy her.Ĭontrast this with SS2. She always has some plot or other in motion, giving you the illusion (or, if you're playing on Story difficulty 3, the very real threat) of immediacy and, when you foil one of her plans, she is always one step ahead. Shodan is a constant presence, and this is what makes her a great villain. You're left to puzzle out the minutiae of what you have to do by exploring, listening carefully to logs, and using your own wits at no point do you have anyone barking objectives at you. Lansing sends you a few e-mails detailing the current threat and your broad objectives, but every transmission after the first is interrupted by Shodan. In SS1 you wake up from your healing coma and are thrust into this nightmare scenario with barely any guidance. In SS2 you can already see some of the elements of decline which have become staples of the genre. I too was disappointed with SS2, albeit for different reasons, though admittedly I was hyped up beyond belief seeing that everyone raves about it whilst the first rarely gets a mention.
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