The first thing I find on Level R is a log from a guy called Stevens who had the same idea as me about destroying the laser. His log even has a little map of where I need to go. I can’t honestly say this map helped me out much in the end but at least I know what I’m looking for.

Once again I run into the healing chamber almost straight away. This will make life a lot easier.

I also find one of the machines that fully restores myself. Unfortunately its behind a locked door.

I have to solve another of those annoying puzzles to open the door. Every time I rotate one of the +’s anything on a diagonal from it also rotates. If I’d thought about it before I started this would probably have been easy but instead I blunder straight in and end up spending 5 minutes trying to sort it out.

I get there in the end though and can now pop back here for the rest of this level whenever I need to.

The next place I stumble into is a really high radiation area where the stations reactor is. I die here in no time and need some sort of radiation suit which I haven’t found. There are a few flying robots guarding the place. I take some of these out before I pop my clogs.

I head off in a different direction and find a cyberspace node. There are some new enemies in here and a lot of software upgrades. I also release a blast door lock but I’ve no idea where that applies to.

The game I find this time is a mini version of Wing Commander which runs in game.

I find a likely looking spot for my isotope that I’ve been carrying around. Its even comes up as an isotope receptor when I put my mouse on it which is just as well as it takes me a bit of effort to figure out how to put the isotope in it.

Once done I pull the lever and I get a video email showing the shield going up around the station.

I’m still finding logs from Shodan. Her plan is becoming somewhat clearer. The virus she intends to send to earth is actually a mutagen which will somehow enable her to control earths population. She describes the cyborgs on the station as her avenging angels….

It takes a while but I find a route to the safety override for the laser. I key in the code and don’t realise that I need to pull the lever so I end up coming back again later to finish the job.

Its back up to Level 2 to fire the laser now. The moment I head in Shodan springs a trap on me. I heal and return to clear out the room.

I go and fire the laser and receive a video email showing it blowing up. Thats one threat gone at least. I get another email from Shodan straight after telling me that she will just use her virus instead which she has developed in some groves on the station. That sounds like the next job.

I head back for the elevator to go to level 3. I get another email from someone who claims to be still in the station but is under attack. I seriously doubt I’ll run into anyone friendly in this game so I don’t hold out much hope of a rendevous.

On level 3 I run into a CPU node straight away and take it out.

The enemies here are all these sort of invisible stingrays that flap along the floor firing purple rings at me. They are extremely tough to say the least.

I’m struggling with these stingrays so I head back to see if I can find anything useful on the levels I’ve already visited. Back on Level R I find a low gravity area full of mutants. There has to be something good in here.

I bounce up a couple of ledges using the low g and find a new flechette weapon. I do a bit more exploring and also discover some shield hardware which has to help.

Back to Level 3 again. Just down from the entrance I discover a laser rapier weapon. This thing is to all intents and purposes a lightsaber. It takes out those stingrays in 2 hits – my strategy from this point is to raise my shield then charge in whenever I see an enemy. This actually works pretty well.

I also discover a magnum. By this point I’ve got so many weapons I’m having to drop some to make room for the new ones.

There is a freight elevator here which will take me to levels 4 & 5. I carry on exploring for now but aside from a load of locked maintenance doors I don’t find anything much. These doors won’t open unless there is something to repair I gather.

There is another elevator which takes me to Level 6. I pop up to have a look around and this turns out to be the grove level. I’m a bit unsure if I should really attempt levels 4 & 5 first but unless I really struggle I figure I’ll stick with this for now.

The graphics for level 6 are quite different once again. I’m impressed with how unique each area feels, games like FEAR could learn a thing or two from that. The more I play of System Shock, the more I’m liking it actually. With new weapons and hardware, the complexity is increasing all the time giving me a lot of options on how to attempt to play the game. I’m looking forward to a good long session on this later today and will see if I can’t have this mutagen problem sorted out by later tonight.

I was finishing off Final Fantasy on Wednesday evening which is why there was no post yesterday. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the ending was a bit of a letdown, just a load of scrolling text which drags on forever saying the same thing in a different way over and over again. I’ve not been that impressed by the game itself. The NES version of this came out in 1987 which is a full 2 years after Ultima 4 and the gameplay just isn’t in the same league. I’d be more likely to compare it to Ultima 1 especially given the whole collect 4 gems and go back in time 2000 years to kill the bad guy plot.

I do like the idea of faithful remakes like this though and the 3D treatment given to FF3 & 4 on the DS is better still. If things had gone differently for Origin, I wonder if we’d be seeing new releases of all the early Ultimas. I suppose it could still happen but I won’t hold my breath.

With FF out of the way, my full attention went back to System Shock again last night finally allowing me to make some decent progress.

It was back to exploring Level 1. I found some force bridges which can be extended with switches and let me into a new area.

I find a log from Shodan which is lying around. Shodan appears to have gone insane and wants to become a god. To this end she has been working on a virus to send to Earth possibly as a backup plan in case the laser doesn’t kill off enough of us.

There is an area full of cyborgs in niches, borg style. Most of them don’t move so I just hack at them with my lead pipe to make sure they don’t come back to life later in the game.

Not far from here is the lift to get to the next level. I don’t attempt to use this yet. I’ll try to fully explore each level before I go onto the next one. Next to this is a switch to open a locked bulkhead which gives me a quick route back to the start of the level and the healing station.

I don’t realise it at the time but this is a cyborg production chamber. It used to be a chamber for reviving injured people though and by flipping the switch I can convert it back. I’m expecting this to heal me when I walk into it having done this but no such luck.

I carry on exploring and find this tough guy standing on a pedestal and hurling bolts at me. I get a few hits in but not enough…

Once dead, I wake up with half my health back in the medical chamber. So thats what it does. It’s more or less the same as the silver seed from Ultima Underworld. I suppose whats happening is that the cyborgs are dragging me back to be converted but instead they just allow me to heal. It doesn’t say much for Shodans intelligence that she can’t figure out to flip the switch back again after this happens a few times.

There doesn’t appear to be any penalty for dying as often as I like at this point. Its possible that a few cyborgs/robots might respawn but I’ve not noticed anything else. There are no experience points in this game so its like the system used in Bioforge where I can just run back to the same area again and again if I die.

I make it past the guy on the pedestal second time around and get into a significant looking room. Shodan warns me against going in so it must be important. This turns out to be a room full of CPU nodes. By blowing them all up I drop level security down to about 15%.

This allows me to use a previously blocked button and get into a new area. The new area is just a storage room with a new bit of hardware (biological systems monitor) and some ammo.

My map is starting to look about complete for this level but there are still a few doors I’ve not been through.

One of the logs I picked up mentioned an armoury and gave me a code for it. The weaponry in here is disappointing but I grab everything I can.

That about completes Level 1. I heal up back at the start and head for the elevator. There is a reception committee waiting for me down on Level 2.

I fight them all off then after a quick healing trip back to Level 1 return to explore. There are some new creatures down here including this zero G mutant.

I stumble into the switch for this levels healing chamber. The chamber itself isn’t in sight.

This dead tiger-gor mutant looks significant given the number of dead bodies near it. I’m glad to say I don’t find a live one while on this level.

I do find some security robots which are quite tough enough right now. These take a load of hits. My two best combat strategies for now appear to be leaning around corners and failing that trying to get far enough away that they don’t shoot me but I can shoot them. My weapon of choice is the sparq gun which draws its power directly from my energy. As long as I can walk back to recharge this gives me infinite ammo which is the primary reason I’m using it.

This level has a single teleport to take me to a new area. I expect I’ll see a lot more of these later on.

Level 2 appears is built with 4 sections going off a central hub area. One of the sections is dark and I gather I need to throw the circuit breaker which I find here next to a convenient energy recharger.

I go to explore the previously dark area. There is a high radiation area with some strange looking mutants behind a force door. I never do figure out how to get through here.

I’ve seen a few of these wire puzzles where I have to move the ends of wires around until I get them in the right places. I get some clues here as to whats correct from a meter that fills up the closer I get to the correct solution. Finishing this one here puts the laser override code up on the screen.

There is a new cyberspace node here. This is a much larger and tougher area that the original Level 1 equivalent. I have particular trouble with these guys above. I figure out in the end to drop a decoy first. I can even pick it back up again afterwards.

The 4 heads were guarding a new security access which I grab and head for the exit.

While I was in there I picked up another subgame – Road. Pong was more fun and I don’t waste much time on this.

In the middle of the map is the Laser Control area. I press the button and accidentally wipe out earth….

A reload later and I go back to exploring the south of the level. I find another set of CPU nodes. Blowing them up gets me attacked by a squad of cyborgs. I’ve been making liberal use of the healing chamber and need a respawn and a second chance to survive this one also.

I know I need to turn on the shield using an isotope. I find an area with this isotope. Its seriously radioactive in there but I run in and out quickly. I’ve heard a bit about a radiation suit in my logs but I’ve not seen any sign of it and this didn’t actually hurt all that much.

I hunt around for somewhere I can use my Level 4 access. I remember seeing a locked door earlier and get ENG access by searching behind it. I’ve not seen anywhere requiring I can use the ENG access yet. I would guess it might come in on the reactor level.

I think I’ve seen more or less everywhere on this level now and head for a new lift I discovered. This will take me to either the Reactor level or Level 3. I’d like to get this shield started so I head for the reactor level first. I’m greeted by a severed head and decide this is a good point to call it a night.

I’ve gotten much more into this game now I’ve had a decent couple of hours on it. The station is a dark and bleak place and the game generates a good atmosphere. Its let down a little by some poor acting although the voice for Shodan is excellent. The acting is still a cut above what we got in Strike Commander/Privateer at least.

I’ve gotten used to the controls now and I’m using the keyboard exclusively to move around except for in cyberspace where I revert to the mouse. This doesn’t allow the sort of reaction movement that I would need to play Quake but its just not needed here and this works well allowing me to aim and move simultaneously.

I really do like having the little automap at the bottom right hand corner – this is such a great way of being able to see where you have been easily without having to bring up the full map all the time. Why this hasn’t been adopted in more games I’ll never know.

There is a strange pace to the game – it plays a lot slower than a standard FPS and I spend quite a lot of time searching through cleared areas trying to find something new to do. With finding the respawning chamber early on, I’ve thrown caution to the wind on this second level and just charged straight into each new area – if I had to move carefully it would be slower still but it might add some tension.

I’m getting through rapidly now and apart from some DIY I’ve got to get done, I’ve not a lot on this weekend. I’ll be making a serious attempt to finish this up by the end of the week and move on to game #50.

I decided that I’d try taking Natreg’s advice and using the keyboard controls. They are pretty unwieldy to say the least. ZXCS work along the lines of ASDW in modern games with A & D turning. QWE make me lean around while RFV & TGB are used to change standing height and look up/down. Its a lot of keys to cope with and is not coming naturally so far. A modern FPS would achieve the same with ASDW for moving, QE for leaning, C for crouching and using the mouse to look around – less than half the keys.

The lack of mouse look is definitely reducing the immersion factor for me. The standard mouse look didn’t come in before Quake as it doesn’t make sense in a game that isn’t 100% 3D. It was difficult to get to grips with at the time as well if I remember right but after the amount of QuakeWorld and the like I played a few years back I got extremely adept at this and usualy blast through any FPS in no time. I may get used to the system used here but I don’t think I’ll ever really like it. It does allow me a bit more freedom of movement than mouse alone though.

Using the combination from my own log note, I let myself out of the lab. There is some sort of mutant/cyborg just outside. These aren’t any tougher than the security bots.

There is a panel outside with a simple puzzle. I have to spin the X’s into +’s to make a circuit.

Once joined the lights come on. As far as I can tell I could just flip the lot of them but I’m sure it will be more difficult later in the game.

There are upgrades lying around which I pick up. One of them gives me a rear view mirror of sorts. It only updates once every second or two – I’m guessing for performance reasons. This uses up energy and doesn’t seem all that useful to me so I just turn it off again. These sorts of upgrades have the potential to add a bit of depth to the game beyond a straight FPS. I don’t know how many of them I can expect.

I come across a door that is locked in cyberspace.

Along with a log setting the scene I find a cyberspace panel, right next door. I need to head into cyberspace (using this panel) to unlock the doors.

Cyberspace is an odd place. Cyberspace in the mid-90’s was always seen as a load of geometric shapes for some reason and this is no different. The cubes represent software as when I crash into them I get tools I can use in cyberspace like a shield + a pulsar (gun) to fight off security. I float around with a full 3 degrees of movement in the same manner as Descent.

I bump into everything that looks interesting then head out through a tube at the far end of the room. This sort of sucks me through into the next room although I need to steer to avoid the walls. This would be easier if all the walls were not represented just by lines in Akalabeth style.

The next room has security of a sort which I zap with my pulsar. It disipates as I shoot it.

I get sucked into another area, this time with a much tougher disembodied head providing the security. In here I get a pulsar upgrade + crashing into another shape unlocks the door. I exit again by heading through the gate shown above.

That finishes my first excursion into cyberspace and I’m not sure what to make of it. I think I prefer the regular sections of the game but it is definitely unusual. The previously locked door is now open.

I carry on exploring and run into a new enemy. These guys have guns and are a lot tougher than anything so far. I use my dartgun on this guy while leaning round the corner and can kill him off with impunity. I can aim the dartgun with the mouse – using the keys to move allows me to do this while moving and if I can get used to it should help later in the game.

I got some data pods out of cyberspace which I finally take a look at. Along with a few logs I got a pong game which I can play in the bottom left of the screen.

I leave Pong long enough to find D’Arcy’s lab. He isn’t around but I do find a log telling me how to deactivate the laser. I need to go to the science level and activate the shields, then using the laser should turn it on itself.

Further searching reveals where all the humans attempted to hold up but its a morgue now.

I’ve still not explored all of this first level although I only spent another hour or so on the game today. It feels as though I’m getting vaguely near seeing it all but I’m only guessing. There are just 10 levels in the game so they need to be a decent size.

I’m liking System Shock so far but the controls are not helping. Its very early days still but I can’t see me loving it as much as Ultima Underworld. The problem here is that I’d struggle to come up with many games that have attempted the same thing as Underworld but System Shock plays like a modern RPG/FPS and suffers by comparison. It is clearly going to be a deeper and more complex game than your average FPS but I’d be surprised if it can beat the likes of Deus Ex with which it shares a lot of similarites.

If I compare it to the likes of Half Life instead which didn’t come out until a few years after this, its going to come out with flying colours. The storyline and gameplay here is far richer but I never did see what the fuss was with Half-Life in the first place.

The truth is I really shouldn’t be judging this until I get a lot further in and I’m still being distracted by Final Fantasy. I’ve got 3 of the 4 crystals lit now and messed about a bit in one of the new dungeons on the PSP version. These new dungeons seem largely pointless so I may just crack on and try to finish the game which I’m guessing won’t take a lot longer as I’ve almost run out of places to explore.

I’m back from my holiday and raring to get on with System Shock. Before I start, I’ve noticed that Mobygames have added a couple of games to the Origin list (Longbow + its expansion pack). I’ve picked these up for a few quid each and sure enough they were developed by Origin although there is barely any mention of it in the packaging. The fact that you have to call Origin support if you have a problem is something of a giveaway, so I’ll be adding these to the list putting it up to a total of 62 games. I’m unsure whether Longbow 2 or any of the other Jane’s simulations should be on the list also but they are not down as Origin games for the moment so I’ll leave them unless I hear otherwise. Full blown simulations are definitely not my thing so I’m not going to go out of my way looking for them. I’m not 100% convinced they even count as Origin titles when they aren’t marketed as such either.

While I was on holiday I got started on the Final Fantasy remake on my PSP. While its somewhat mindless and repetitive, it is also strangely addictive so I might be a bit slow starting off on System Shock until I get it finished. Its the sort of game that you can watch a movie at the same time as playing it making it ideal over Xmas for a portable system like the PSP when I’m getting rid of hangovers. I don’t expect it will take that much longer to complete and I can give System Shock my full attention.

System Shock is often vaunted as one of or even the best game of all time yet I never got around to playing it much. I’ve wanted to give it another go for some time but hardware requirements were always a problem. I’m going to be playing the CD version of System Shock – this was released some time after the original and added full speech, enhanced cutscenes and best of all SVGA support. This is the first game on the list with SVGA support although its going to be more or less standard from here on out. There are a few resolution options but I’ll be using the maximum of 640×480. In the CVS version of Dosbox this runs extremely smoothly.

System Shock is another game from the Ultima Underworld team and uses an enhanced version of the same engine as those two games. This was the final outing for this engine – why it never got licensed out and used more often I’ll never know.

The introduction is the best in any Origin game to date. It’s dark, stylish, atmospheric and has a tale to tell rather than just being an excuse for some fancy graphics. In System Shock, I am a hacker who broke into the Trioptimum security system and got caught. To avoid prosecution, I take on a job from a guy called Edward Diego to hack into the Citadel space stations A.I. (Shodan) and am even rewarded with a neural interface for my trouble. As part of the job I remove the moral constraints from Shodan and it re-examines it priorities and draws new conclusions. I don’t get to find out what these are as I am stuck into stasis for 6 months on the station while recovering from having my neural interface fitted. Suffice to say it doesn’t sound good. The game starts with me waking up after my six month recovery onboard the station.

This sets the scene without actually telling me much about what is going on. No doubt it will all become clear during the game.

Before I start the game I can tailor it to suit myself by adjusting the various levels of difficulty – this system is detailed and its very unusual to be able to tailor a games difficulty in various areas like this. I’ve no idea what to expect at this stage so I’m just going to leave these all at normal.

On starting, I’m faced with a myriad of buttons and panels + a little inset saying what they all are.

The first thing I do is switch to SVGA mode.

I can then go to full screen and all the buttons move to the edge of the screen making the game still fully playable in this mode without having to switch backwards and forwards all the time. Transparent panels pop up as required, in the manner you might expect in a more modern game. It’s a bit less user friendly in full screen as I need to learn what the buttons do or try them all one at a time but its nothing that won’t become second nature by the time I’ve been playing for an hour or two.

Movement around the world is done in Underworld style with the mouse. This system works extremely well. I gather there are no characters to talk to in this game however so there is no conversation interface. This is one of the reasons why I never got around to playing this game at the time but I may not miss it too much.

The game starts with a bit of a tutorial section. I pick up a whole collection of objects on prompting including my first weapon – a crowbar.

Instead of conversations, there are a series of logs, e-mails and the like which I can collect as I travel around the station. I suppose this is similar to later games like Doom 3 although I’m hoping for a bit more depth here. I’m half expecting System Shock to end up being more FPS than RPG but I won’t mind that too much as long as the plot is up to scratch.

I get a message from Rebecca Lansing as soon as I pick up my data reader hardware. She is a counter-terrorist advisor to Trioptimum and I am the only person on the station she is able to contact. There has been some sort of incident with Shodan and the mining laser is charging to attack earth. She wants me to shut off the laser and then get to the bridge to turn off Shodan. Some guy called D’arcy may be able to help if I find his office on this level.

I find a log to myself made just before stasis with a keycode and details of where a few useful things may be found.

Graphically things look promising. The SVGA is a huge improvement for this sort of full 3D game – I wish they had re-released the Underworlds with the new engine. The music is also excellent and adjusts well to the pace of the game.

I open the door and face my first enemies – a couple of security bots. They die after after 2 or 3 hits so are not a serious problem. There doesn’t appear to be the aiming system used in Underworld. Its just a case of swinging with no power build up or the like. Its a typical FPS melee weapon.

There are security cameras on the walls. I can bash these to reduce the level security. I’m guessing that this stops the bots on the level from being able to find me. I only reduce security by 2% so there must be a lot of them around.

Thats all I had time for and I’ve barely got started. It all looks very promising and I’ve been hooked right from the start. It appears to play just like a modern FPS only with more world interaction.  I’m impressed and at first glance its the most polished product yet from Origin and really points the way towards the way games still look and play today.

I’ve got further than this into the game before now so there must be something that put me off at some point. I think it was either the overall difficulty/complexity making it inaccessible or specifically the cyberspace sections which I don’t honestly remember anything about apart from them being disorienting