System Shock 2 is one of the most significant works in Western video game history, not only for the standard it set in RPG mechanics but also for its thematic complexity and a story that seems simple only on the surface. Without giving away any spoilers, let us focus on three key aspects:

OPTIMISM

Cyberpunk works often feature futuristic but bleak settings. The first chapter of System Shock (1994) is no exception, opening with an oppressive atmosphere. System Shock 2, however, begins on a more optimistic note, set in a futuristic neighborhood with military recruiters, robot assistants, and a typical Asian restaurant adorned with neon Chinese characters. While the sky remains cloudy, sunlight is visible, symbolizing hope and optimism: humanity has discovered technology enabling faster-than-light travel thanks to the spaceship Von Braun, opening new horizons for the future in an Earth ravaged by environmental and social crises.

This optimism is also reflected in a new focus on individuality, where players are free to choose their path and shape the self they want to become. This concept is integrated into the gameplay through the RPG mechanics: players can decide which military branch to join, determining their character's "class," and then select missions over the next three years to shape their protagonist's stats. You can become a firearms expert, a psionic, a hacker, or even a scientist. This training serves as preparation for the main mission aboard the Von Braun, where a nightmare begins for the entire crew. For both the survivors and the player, however, it becomes a fight to protect the most precious thing we possess: our individuality.

INDIVIDUALISM

The Von Braun encounters an alien entity known as the Many, a collective consciousness composed of countless voices, entirely devoid of any concept of individualism. The Many aim to assimilate the entire crew, creating a nightmare rooted in body horror. Many of the enemies are crewmembers transformed into hybrids (humans fused with the annelids, the Many's race), disfigured by worm-like structures protruding from their heads. These enemies attack on sight but seem to retain a shred of awareness—it’s not uncommon to hear them whisper "I'm sorry" before striking.

Players who delve deeper can uncover additional information about these enemies. Not only through analyzing body parts left by their corpses (using the research skill), but also via logs left by scientists. This mechanic not only enhances the lore but allows players to deal more damage to enemies whose biology they've studied.

The Many’s goal—the loss of individual autonomy—is one of the game's most chilling elements, further amplified by haunting voice logs from those who voluntarily surrendered their freedom, describing the condition as a form of ecstasy. I am not exaggerating when I say some logs are profoundly unsettling, characterized by the delirious thoughts of their authors, whose voices shift as they describe a transformation that is both physical and mental.

I was particularly struck by a certain type of enemy that seems to symbolize control over the female body: a theme the game addresses in a visceral and unsettling way. Stripped of bodily and even reproductive autonomy, she is reduced to a caretaker. Metaphorically, the female body becomes an instrument for the collective's needs.

Despite this, the game emphasizes that complete isolation of the individual, often an indirect consequence of technological progress (as we are witnessing in our own era), is not a desirable state. To fight for freedom, unity is essential.

UNITY

From the beginning of the game, an intriguing narrative choice stands out: through windows, we see human NPCs, but we can never reach them. In the opening location, we observe station operators, then people eating in an Asian restaurant, and later other NPCs behind glass panes separating them from us. Even the protagonist, Googles (as they are nicknamed), spends the first months of the mission in cryosleep within a glass capsule aboard the Von Braun. While we don't know how many interactions they had before, it's clear that social connections are minimal, often limited to work-related interactions.

I can’t help but interpret this as a form of individual alienation. However, the game demonstrates that no one can survive entirely alone: if Googles had been entirely abandoned, they wouldn’t have been able to progress in the mission. Many crewmembers paved the way for the player, as revealed through numerous audio logs and useful items scattered throughout the ship. Heroic figures like Marie Delacroix (the inventor of the faster-than-light travel module) provide crucial resources and hints, without which the player would not have taken a single step forward.

This teamwork, where everyone contributes without being overshadowed by others and where each individual's merits shine distinctly, conveys a powerful message about the value of cooperation.

CONCLUSION

No written review can substitute for the direct experience this game offers. For this reason, I highly recommend trying it.

I also greatly appreciated the improvement in the soundtrack compared to the first chapter: while its predecessor featured overly technological tracks that clashed with the horror atmosphere (to the point where I played it with the music off, which surprisingly created an effective eerie silence), System Shock 2 employs unsettling music that perfectly complements the game's tone. The few "technological" tracks are rare and appropriately placed.

I do, however, have two criticisms:

The "ghost visions," scripted events where we witness the final moments of some characters in front of their corpses, are an interesting idea but rarely add anything significant to the plot, with one notable exception.
The final part of the game feels slightly rushed and, in some places, less believable, though this doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

I won’t dwell on a plot hole between the first and second chapters, as it seems to have been addressed in the remake of the first game. Ultimately, these flaws do not diminish the experience, which remains an important legacy whose influence is still felt today.

When we think of a cyberpunk work, we should distinguish between those with a cyberpunk setting and those that are truly cyberpunk because they implement the transhumanist idea of improving humanity through knowledge, specifically through technology. The work under examination here falls into the latter category.

If we specifically look in the field of video games, it would be interesting to understand what the first cyberpunk video game is, and I don't know if System Shock can be considered as such, but I can deduce it is one of the first.

The cyberpunk nature of this work is visible from the beginning through the game's HUD, which represents the neural interface implanted in our protagonist's brain, making his enhanced view of the surrounding world ours, allowing us to use modular technologies that can be collected during the game, such as the energy shield, which in turn forces us to manage the electric energy bar that flows through our body, necessary for the use of the aforementioned technologies, as well as for energy weapons, whose power we can even adjust to the advantage or detriment of electric consumption. Managing the technologies within our body is an original and aesthetically intriguing way to make the cyberpunk component a direct part of the game. The interface is also a standalone device, as among the functions it offers, we can listen to recordings left around by characters, and even play minimal games like Snake, which can be collected around cyberspace, the dimension we move in when hacking a Citadel computer.

We are partly machines in every respect; the technology in our hands is something that amplifies our possibilities and is more or less employed (at least within the game's narrative arc) for a positive end, even if we have no other choice. One of the two fundamental themes of the game is precisely the use of technology, the second being personal selfishness, whose consequences affect everyone.

System Shock tells these two themes using a silent narrative that includes some scripted events, the progression through the various floors of the Citadel, and especially the use of logs. It is indeed possible to collect recordings and read documents that allow us to delve into the events of the Citadel in the six months before our awakening from the coma. Sometimes by collecting recordings directly from a corpse, we can even deduce its identity based on the name read on the screen when playing the recording, adding further details to the surrounding environment. A pity about the presence of a mechanic that could have been better exploited for the narrative, namely the presence of the heads of corpses, which can be collected, and we can view the face in our interface, but only one head in the entire game will have a known face through the recordings. Missed opportunity, recognizing more characters among the heads would have helped avoid doubts about the identity of the corpses, enriching the narrative framework. In one case towards the end, it is worth noting that the presence of an object on a corpse was sufficient to reveal its identity, but some doubt remains.

As mentioned, this narrative tells two themes. Let's start with selfishness, remembering that this game is a spiritual predecessor of Bioshock. The entire game story begins with an act of selfishness that leads to the great massacre already happened in the Citadel before the start of the game. It's not just Diego who is guilty, because we, the protagonist, a hacker, also selfishly accepted Diego's proposal, even to save ourselves, understandable, not only to get the neural interface, but here there is an important detail that perhaps escapes. The hacker must have had access to Shodan's source code, or at least informed himself about how much power this AI had, and therefore knew its destructive potential. We are selfish and guilty, just like Diego. We remove Shodan's ethical constraints, and the catastrophe happens, and this is where everything directly connects to the second theme of the game.

It is not obvious to me to answer the game's question, whether technology is good or bad, or if the problem is just how it is used. The hacker indeed removes the ethical constraints on Shodan, a block inserted by humans, and it is the lack of this that leads her to have delusions of omnipotence, until seeing herself as a god and giving life to her "children," mutants and cyborgs created directly using the bodies of TriOptimum personnel. It almost seems that technology is intrinsically considered something dangerous, and only humans can limit its destructive potential by making wise use of it. If we think about it, this issue is quite current and connects to the fear we are facing today towards artificial intelligence, which, not coincidentally, is being regulated.

Curious is the fact that in this work, the big corporation, TriOptimum, is not the villain. Usually, in cyberpunk, there is always a big corporation acting as the antagonist.

Small personal detail. The soundtracks seemed to want to highlight precisely the use of technology that surrounds us in the game, as we will also have to interact with electrical panels by solving small puzzles, hacking computers, and even replacing relays. However, I chose to experiment and play the entire game without a soundtrack. The resulting silence heightened the horror component of the game, characterized by often dark areas where it is difficult to spot enemies, but above all by the constant presence of Shodan, who spies on us through cameras, and whose face appears on the screens around us, giving us the constant feeling of being watched. Every now and then, she will also make us jump out of our seats by sending sudden messages on the interface, displaying her face, even more disturbing, and her distorted voice, all in the same instant she sends her cyborgs against us, making them come out of the walls.

Many would say this is not how the game was intended to be played. However, in reality, the volume adjustment of the music is something allowed by the developers. Experimenting with these possibilities, in my opinion, is at the heart of the video game experience.

Moreover, the game itself offers a certain customization of the gaming experience in general.

Ps.Have your friends who say "Ethics hinders progress" play this game.