That’s no monumental feat today, but in the age of twitchy shooters like Quake and Unreal, an extra layer of role-playing was practically unheard of.Īnd it was such a creepy game, set in a desolate space station overrun by monsters, with only scattered audio logs telling the story of what went wrong. It gave you a choice of specializations - guns, hacking or psionics - and let you build upon those skills, which in turn changed the way you played the game. Although the original System Shock, released in 1994, paved the way for shooters with role-playing elements, System Shock 2 took it all a step further. It’s a topic that’s dear to my heart, as someone who experienced the game’s psychological thrills more than decade ago. Finally, a game that’s widely seen as one of the best will get its chance to stand the test of time. But until now, a mess of rights issues have prevented the game from ever coming back after its 1999 debut. At a time when games are routinely repackaged and re-sold, this might not seem special.

Starting Thursday, GOG.com, a website that specializes in selling old computer games optimized for modern PCs, will sell System Shock 2 for $10. Follow Effect, Dead Space, BioShock, Borderlands, Fallout 3 - if you’ve played any of these modern shooters, you’ve felt the influence of System Shock 2.

Is bioshock a sequel to system shock